It’s difficult for me to believe The Curse of the Sundered Wings is real. In some ways, I began writing this novel decades ago. I was drawing pictures of Titanic in my school books years before James Cameron graced our screens with Jack and Rose. I consumed hours of footage narrated by Bob Ballard just to glimpse the grainy silhouette of history’s most famous ship. My parents, supportive of my boyhood interest, humored me and bought me a fleet of picture books and VHS documentaries, but it was never enough.

I was hooked. I’ve never stopped being hooked.

At some point, my interest in Titanic spread to her sister ships, Olympic and Britannic, and from there to the rest of the White Star liners, the Cunarders, the fabulous German liners, and even the various warships employed by nations in the Great War. Something about the age of steam captures my imagination. It’s a foreign world, as fantastic and dangerous as any to be found in the pages of fantasy. As both a historian and an author of fiction, it’s hard not to be inspired by it. I wanted to find a way to merge a pair of my passions—fantasy fiction and steamships—and this story was the culmination of that effort.

The setting may be historical, but the characters in The Curse of the Sundered Wings are entirely fictional. I debated using the names and likenesses of historical figures, like Captain Herbert Haddock, but ultimately decided against it. I wanted this story to stand as a pure work of fiction, complete with fictional heroes and heroines, unbound from the associations and comparisons that the use of real people would inevitably invite. James Kelly, the protagonist, bears the names of two of my own immigrant ancestors, James Hill and Timothy Kelly, but he is not a historical figure. Nor are Emily, Oliver, Alex, Mr. Harlowe, or Mr. Clarke. Feel free to enjoy them as they are, not as they might (or should) have been.

I hope you enjoy reading The Curse of the Sundered Wings as much as I enjoyed writing it for you!