About Ned Marcus

My name’s Ned Marcus and I write fantasy and science fiction—novels and short stories. Recently, I've started writing nonfiction based on the themes and topics of my fiction. Originally, I’m from the north of England, but I’ve spent half my life in different parts of Europe and Asia.

On a trip to Tallinn. Walking around the medieval city wall has the feeling of being inside an epic fantasy.

I’ve taught EFL around the world and have written articles and textbooks on ELT. At university, I studied psychology, which I still have an interest in.

I enjoy writing science fantasy, contemporary fantasy, planetary romance, character-focussed science fiction, and nonfiction. My writing is often close to the natural world, and often involves communication with plants and animals. I started writing fantasy because I wanted fantasy worlds that I couldn’t find anywhere else, but then I realised that fantasy allows me to explore almost any possibility.

The experience of living and travelling in various parts of Europe and Asia has influenced me and my writing. Living in different countries means being exposed to different ways of thinking and living. The languages I’ve learnt (and forgotten) have also altered my perspective on the world. For those interested, I speak Mandarin Chinese and am relearning Spanish.

My fight scenes (including magical ones) have been influenced by kung fu: ba gua zhang and mizong in particular. Although I’ve been exposed to other styles too. Interesting styles with interesting creative applications in magic.

Me and Darth in Taipei

Themes & Topics

My writing explores these themes & topics:

• Intuition
  
• Consciousness
  
• Truth
  
• Tarot—a good way to develop intuition
• Our relationship with animals and nature—this forms a large part of the Blue Prometheus books
• Psychology
• History—I recently wrote an historical fantasy set in 7th century Northumbria
• Religion—I'm one of a growing group of non-religious people that's beginning to see the damage that comes without it (so far one short story from a Christian POV) 
• Rebirth

Both the Blue Prometheus and Orange Storm series (and many of my short stories) include spiritual themes: life, death and rebirth, and our connection with something greater. 

Animal welfare is important to me—I’ve rescued animals from difficult situations and sometimes adopted them. The relationship between animals and humans reappears in my stories, as does the natural environment.

But the stories themselves are also adventures on distant worlds. You can listen to me talking more about the themes of my work in this interview.

For the first time, I've written about one of my secrets. You can read about it here!

More About Ned Marcus

I'm currently planning a new fantasy novel.

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