Catherine Thrush

Award winning author and scriptwriter, Catherine Thrush has always been creative. She wrote her first children’s fantasy novel, Quest of the Faes the summer after high school graduation. It was published by a regional publishing company while she attended college in the Midwest. As a studio art major, she illustrated Quest of the Faes as well, and did her first speaking engagements at the age of 19.

Armed with a degree in art, and determined not to become a starving artist, she moved to California, where she set up her own business as a glass artist, creating stained glass windows and fused art jewelry and designs.

Catherine also took up fencing, where she met Maestro DeCesare, and first found inspiration for Lady Blade, the story of the daughter of an Italian fencing maestro who is thrown into the world of pirates. And she learned firsthand that men have strong reactions to a woman who’s good with a blade.

Feeling that every experience is grist for the writer’s mill, she learned all kinds of exciting skills, belly dancing, rock climbing, scuba diving, horseback riding, archery. She can not only dance with a sword balanced on her head but deftly stab someone with it afterwards.

Catherine first wrote Lady Blade in script form. It did well in contests and earned her an agent, (who has since retired) and was optioned twice. But Catherine wasn’t done with the story. She spent years turning it into a novel, Lady Blade, which was also a contest winner. Still not done with her main character, Francesca DiCesare, she wrote the prequel, The Maestro’s Daughter. And now she’s also created an RPG game that you play as Francesca and her pirate captain, Will Massey.

Did I mention the Dungeons and Dragons?

Catherine and her husband Tom are both long-term players and fans of D&D. So much so, that together they launched Urban Realms, an RPG publishing company. Catherine invented Date Night Dungeons, game modules for couples to play together where they can fall in love all over again. The response to their romance modules has been amazing. And Catherine and Tom are hoping that the Lady Blade Series, along with the new game module, Jaguar Jungle, based on Lady Blade, will exceed that enthusiasm.