Tarl Telford

I knew at twelve years old that I wanted to write books. I loved the Forgotten Realms fantasy novels. It was a big world full of possibility. I crafted my own stories to take place in that world. As time went on, my ideas shifted, and I wanted to make movies, comic books, and write screenplays. Adult life brought responsibilities, but I kept dreaming, and I kept writing in my free time.
Then I got a job as a technical writer. That is when things really changed for me. Writing for a living wasn’t just a dream anymore. The process of technical writing requires taking information created by others and putting it into a format that is understandable and clear to the target audience.
The discipline and understanding required for successful technical writing helped me to distill the stories I had created and craft a story out of them. Once I had a good story, I wrote the book. I enjoy the process of writing, designing, and formatting, which makes all-in-one solutions like CreateSpace (for print on demand services) and Smashwords a good fit for me.

I grew up reading Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Louis L’Amour, Piers Anthony, Alan Dean Foster, Anne McCaffrey, Madeleine L’Engle, and so many more. All of those authors were quite prolific, so there were plenty of books to read. As I got older, I got into the Star Wars Expanded Universe books. Those showed me that there were many more stories that could be built into a story universe. All of these stories helped me to get to the point where I could expand Oz into a greater world.