Rod Gillies

Rod's latest publication is a steampunk cocktail book - recipes and methods to create dozens of delicious cocktails at home, all accompanied by steampunk art.

He is also the creator of Extraordinary Investigations - a series of "puzzle novels" - interactive conspiracy thrillers where the reader plays the part of the detective. The intricate plots unfold through the cracking of codes and ciphers, and the solving of puzzles cleverly concealed within evidence files of documents, photos, and maps.

The son of a naval engineer, Rod was a "steampunk" before he knew there was such a thing. He published his first novel Red Mercury in 2012 - an old-fashioned adventure story with a dash of steampunk sci-fi. Pleasantly surprised by its reception, he produced two follow-ups, Neptune Rising and Titan's Fire. The three novels were later collected as The Empire of Steam Trilogy.

In the real world, Rod Gillies lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. He works in marketing for a whisky company. Away from work, he's also a semi-professional LEGO builder. He has built original models for many of Dorling Kindersley's LEGO books and he was invited by LEGO to display his creations in the Masterpiece Gallery at LEGO House in Denmark.