One of my earliest memories of any kind of fantasy are the Lord of the Ring movies. As a young kid growing up in the 2000’s, they were all but inescapable. I specifically remember watching them late at night with my grandmother when I’d stay at the farm with her and my grandpa.

From there, it snowballed with videogames, books, and artwork all courtesy of my older brother. Another strong contender in my fantasy love is “Dungeons and Dragons : Heroes” For the Xbox. (The original Xbox.) I loved the atmosphere of the game. Getting to play as classic heroes as you battle through different environments and dungeons, with a new boss at the end of each one.

The Elder Scrolls Franchise surely left their mark, along with World of Warcraft, and dungeons and dragons 3.5e. This took a back seat through my teenage years, with the exception of Skyrim. But one day, in the barracks at Fort Hood, TX, me and some fellow soldiers got a D&D game going, and my love for fantasy reignited, and grew to a forest fire.

The idea of being in a world with magic, gods, and monsters was so alluring. Making stories of the human condition while using fantastical elements spoke to me. To think of how humans would react to intelligent species outside our own. How gods would change the world if they could physically intervene. And the sense of exploration you get when the lands in front of you are a blank canvas, waiting to be painted with adventure.

I write fantasy simply because I love it. And in the strangest way, I’ve always felt like it loved me back.

-Raymond