Hello!

Hi, I’m Debbie Atherton—a lifelong lover of epic adventures and the kind of fantasy worlds you can fall into and never want to leave. My gateway into magic began with The Chronicles of Narnia, and before long I’d marched straight into The Lord of the Rings at an age when most kids were still reading about friendly farm animals. Once I discovered quests, creatures, and unlikely heroes, there was no going back.

 

I wrote my first story at age 5 - about a kid adventuring in a jungle, fighting a tiger and escaping. My Mum was proud of it. My very first publication happened when I was ten, in the children’s section of a national Sunday paper—a moment that convinced me I might actually be able to do this writing thing someday. However, life got in the way. It wasn’t until I was recovering from a stroke only a few years ago, that I finally sat down and began creating the world that had been living in my head for years. That world became The Shardbearer Cycle, my debut fantasy trilogy filled with ancient shards, stubborn heroes, cursed ruins, and just the right amount of danger and heart.

 

When I’m not plotting quests or wrangling unruly characters, you’ll usually find me curled up on the couch with my furry companions: Ruby the ever-faithful Moodle, and Icarus the slightly psychotic Burmese cat, who is convinced he’s the true author of this series. And he's vicious so I'm not going to argue with him.

 

Thank you for stopping by and stepping into my world. If you’d like updates on new releases, sign up to my newsletter to receive release information.