About the author
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Karen Simpson Nikakis is an academic at Deakin University. A passionate reader and student of fantasy writing, she lives in Melton, Victoria with her husband and two children. The Whisper of Leaves is her first novel. |
K.S. (Karen Simpson) Nikakis grew up in Mansfield in north eastern Victoria.
She was previously a teacher and is now a lecturer in Business Communication at Deakin University. She has also completed a M.Ed in young adult literature (The Purpose of Dragons in Selected Children’s Literature in the Twentieth Century) and a Ph.D in fantasy fiction (The Use of Narrative in Order to Break the Masculine Domination of the Hero Quest).
Her interest in fantasy came from reading the Lord of the Rings when she was 19. She says that she “discovered and fell in love with Lord of the Rings, and developed my own mental fan fiction version where Eowyn and Aragorn went off on adventures together”. This finally gestated into The Kira Chronicles.
Karen’s interest in fantasy led to her to attending some introductory lectures on Carl Jung, and she says this was like a spark to dry fuel. After the lectures, she sat down and in a very short time (about 6 weeks) wrote the first draft of what is now book 2 of the Kira Chronicles.