Five years of publishing

Jun 28, 2025

Writing since 2012 and publishing my first work in 2019, it has been a solid five nearly six enjoyable years since I hit that first ‘publish’ button. I’m taking a moment to recap the settings that inspired my historical fiction works.

Fascinated with females in history that broke the opinions and impressions I had of women in the past.
Based in the ancient cultures of the Caucasus and Central Asian steppes, I bring to life two distinct but thematically linked narratives shaped by the warrior ethos of early nomadic and highland societies.

Agata, the heroine of a duology set around 530 BCE, is a Bagrationi princess of ancient Iberia (modern-day Georgia), navigating palace intrigue, tribal alliances, and spiritual traditions in a rugged, fiercely independent kingdom caught between the great powers of the steppe and the empires beyond the mountains. Her story draws from the rich tapestry of early Georgian history and myth, where royal women often played crucial roles in diplomacy, ritual, and resistance.

In contrast, Rayl, featured in a full-length novel and a companion novella, lives in the vast Eurasian steppe between roughly 300–700 CE, a period marked by shifting tribal confederations, Turkic migrations, and the rise of warrior cultures from the Pontic-Caspian plains to the borders of China. Rayl is a Turkic steppe warrior forged by hardship and survival, descended from a culture where equine mastery, mobile warfare, and ritual honour shaped identity and power. Her world reflects the legacy of real steppe peoples like the Scythians, Sarmatians, and early Turkic nomads, whose women, like their men, rode to war, wielded bows and swords, and were buried with honour in graves that modern archaeology now confirms.

Inspired by historical sources and archaeological findings, including the discovery of over 300 female warrior graves across Scythian territory, my novels weave fact with fiction. From the Caucasus highlands to the windswept steppe, these books celebrate the resilience, complexity, and legacy of cultures where survival was an art and battle a way of life and women took their place along-side their men.

Agata: Princess of Iberia (Duology – c. 530 BCE)

Set in the rugged kingdom of ancient Iberia (modern Georgia), Agata’s story is steeped in early Caucasian highland culture. As a Bagrationi princess, she is a political pawn, a beacon of hope and rebellion, and a threat to the invading power that has overrun her country.

Rayl: A Steppe Warrior’s Tale (Novel + Novella – c. 300–700 CE)

Rayl’s saga unfolds across the vast Pontic–Caspian steppe, where tribal confederations rise and fall, and warriors are forged by hardship, danger and the raw requirements of survival. Based on cultures like the Scythians, Sarmatians, and early Turks, her world is one where men and women ride to war together, guided by ancestral spirits and sharpened by the harsh logic of the steppe.