In 2009, amidst a challenging period in my life, I embarked on a journey to crafting this book. I had found solace and inspiration in the world I had created through pen-and-paper role-playing games. However, as I started writing I realised something, while I loved games, and fantasy, I wasn’t very well-read. 

This showed in the quality of my work and so I began to improve my craft. Along the way, my life transformed as old challenges passed, and new ones took their place.

I travelled the world as a game designer, living on four continents. My temperament settled, I got married, and had a son. All the while, I read, researched, wrote, worked on my storytelling skills in role-playing games, and any other narrative format I could.
My most notable change came when I discovered coaching and Positive Psychology. For three years, I dedicated myself to learning everything I could about it. What a wonderful gift, I thought, being able to help others perform at their best. 

Thanks to this twist, I found both my purpose and something else I wasn’t expecting. For most of my career, I loved creating new things. But now I spent most of my time enabling others to create things. 

I missed being a creator myself. On top of that, I was working very hard and getting drained. I needed to find balance.

When my publisher reached out, I wanted to do something related to my vision. I started researching leadership and imposter syndrome, but it didn’t sing to me.

My first love, fantasy, and the world of Ayrul, which I had been creating for more than a decade, began calling me back. I still remembered my amateurish first attempt, and I knew I could do better.

Now I’m certainly not saying I’m great now. I believe that the day you think that you begin to decline. 

I strive, and often fail, to think of myself as a forever beginner. Embracing the ever-beginner mindset allowed me to be hungry for more. To see failure as just another step in the journey and accept feedback as an extraordinary gift to devour. 

When I sat down to rewrite this story, I wanted two things. First, I wanted to craft a setting worth playing in. I prepared the maps, hoping that one day, players I didn’t know would walk in the streets of Anthir and brave the treacherous Wild Lands. Perhaps the Magpies’ Code might even live in their cities.

The second thing I wanted was for my work to serve my vision to create a world where every person feels valued, purposeful, and empowered. Lacing my story with concepts from Positive Psychology – maybe I can start a Positive Fantasy movement  – and offer readers a new way to learn about it. Renate and the idea of a Mindweaver, embodies much of this ambition. 

A seven-legged jumping spider made its home in my hallway while I was writing this book. My young son Liam and I named it Bob. Since my son was a fan of my writing, I decided Bob should be in the book. While Bob would later be renamed Snow as he took shape in the pages, this little bit of inspiration was also a defining factor in how my magic system evolved. 

Creating this book has been a long journey. Sometimes, it was draining, but most of the time it was life-affirming.