About the Author
Robyn Prokop is a fresh new voice in Fantasy and Young Adult Fiction.
She lives on a life-style block in Nelson, New Zealand.
If she’s not writing, she’s probably chasing down escapee sheep, digging in the veggie garden, planting flowers for bees, or cooking home-grown food to share with family, friends and neighbours.
In her past lives, Robyn has worked in insurance and merchant banking; run her own contract cleaning company; managed bars and restaurants; renovated broken-down old houses; been school principal; and taught English, Classics, Media and History.
Apart from New Zealand, where she returned home with her family in 2005, Robyn has lived and worked in Sydney, the United Kingdom, Brisbane, Singapore and Melbourne.
She married her husband, Keith, way back in 1986, and they’ve enjoyed many adventures together – including parenthood. Robyn shares her passion for stories, and fantasy in particular, with her three wonderful daughters – who are her biggest fans and greatest support.
Her writing is inspired by a love of literature, history and music, and is informed by her experience teaching adolescents, as well as postgraduate study at the University of Queensland.
Robyn’s debut fantasy novel is Taelstone, the first book in the Stones of the Azuri series.
‘Once Upon a Time’
When I was a little girl, those were the most magical words in the world – words that unlocked entire worlds of magic and imagination.
I escaped into books every chance I could: high in the branches of trees, on the way home from school, in my secret hiding place on the roof, or with dim torches underneath the blankets. Even then, when I wasn’t busy devouring every book I could find, from fairytales to Sci Fi, I dreamed that one day, I too would create magic – that one day I would weave wonderful stories of my own.
Nevertheless, for many years, my love of words and literature took me on a different path – to University: an Arts degree, Honours in English Literature, study towards a Masters and PhD and then a Bachelor of Education.
My career as a teacher of English saw me spending much of my time and energy inspiring others to write, and helping them craft their stories. However, my own dreams of writing never went away, and one day I found myself with a small but eager audience – three wide-eyed daughters.
There is no doubt that my children’s increasingly creative demands for impromptu bedtime stories, along with the discipline of recalling the precise narrative details of ‘that one you told last week about the frog,’ helped me find my own voice as a storyteller. And of course, as my daughters grew older we progressed to longer stories, too, sharing the tales of so many wonderful authors, but nobody was as big a hit as JRR Tolkien.
Then at last, when the last page of the Lord of the Rings had been turned, we came face to face with an awful realisation – the hobbits’ adventure was over and there were no more words to read.
At that moment I found myself agreeing to the most audacious demand of all: I would write my daughters a fantasy trilogy.
I think they expected it to be ready the following week — I’m afraid it has taken rather longer. But, here I am at last, at the edge of my dream, and preparing to launch my first fantasy novel into the world.
The experience is terrifying and exciting all at the same time – which is, after all, just as dreams should be.