About…
Michael Somerville is a home-grown storyteller who loves building new worlds and telling fireside tales that rhyme with our own - fantastic but familiar.
Meet Michael Somerville
Halfway home, Michael Somerville never expected to be an author. He never saw himself as a storyteller. Although he always loved maps, fantastic creatures, and the worlds of Tolkien and Lewis, he never expected to imagine a world of his own.
After ten years as a Systems Engineer and Project Manager, Michael’s daughters started asking him to tell them stories. He did. And then, he didn’t stop.
Michael has been working on the stories that have become the Tales of the Broken Realm ever since his oldest daughter was old enough to ask him to tell her a story.
Wanting to give his girls stories that would warm their hearts and build their understanding of the world, the Broken Realm was born.
Unapologetically telling fairy stories and fireside tales, Michael is an amateur in every sense of the word. By day, he still pays the bills by leading teams and managing projects.
By night, he tells stories. Since he has been building worlds and drawing maps ever since he was eight years old, his wife and three lovely daughters despair of him ever stopping.
His dog doesn’t seem to care, as long as he sticks close to home in the Shenandoah Valley and is around to open doors for her.
Michael Somerville’s Writing Journey
1980s - Discovered the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, the Wizard of Earthsea, and the Knights of the Round Table
1990s - Discovered the Lord of the Rings, classic sci-fi, PERN, and many, many more. Began drawing maps, imagining worlds, and keeping journals
2000s - Attended college, hired by Lockheed Martin, marriage, and two baby girls - journaling the journey throughout
2010s - Career growth, created the Tapestry Primer homeschool curriculum, began imagining the Broken Realm
2015-2017 - Imagined a city controlled by a Game and began writing the book that would eventually become The Red Queen’s Last Mask
2016-2018 - Followed a redeemed criminal across an ocean and back while drafting the story of Blackjack’s adventure - The Outcast’s Errand
2019-2021 - Explored the hidden depths beneath the city of Masq and drafted - The Lost King’s Secret
2022-2023 - Imagined the School of Fools and the schemes that threaten the peace of Peria and drafted - The Storm and the Stones
2024-2025 - Concluded the drafts of the first five-book arc, bringing the story of the Heartstone Conflict to a close in The Torrent of Fire
2026 - Began preparing for self-publication, revising and finalizing The Red Queen’s Last Mask