Karen Azinger

Karen L. Azinger has always loved fantasy fiction, and always hoped that someday she could give back to the genre a little of the joy that reading has always given her. Twelve years ago on a hike in the Columbia River Gorge she realized she had enough original ideas to finally write an epic fantasy. She started writing and never stopped. The Steel Queen, her first book, born from that hike in the gorge, became the start of The Silk & Steel Saga (SASS). Silk & Steel was originally intended to be a trilogy but the story was so epic, she ended up writing a sweeping seven book saga. The saga is now finished! The Steel Queen, The Flame Priest, The Skeleton King, The Poison Priestess, The Knight Marshal, The Prince Deceiver, and The Battle Immortal are all published as e-books and print books and getting great reviews.

Reviewers compare her books to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and to George Martin's Game of Thrones. Along the way, she also published a collection of short stories, The Assassin's Tear, including two stories set in the Silk & Steel world. Before writing, Karen spent over twenty years as an international business strategist, eventually becoming a vice-president for one of the world's largest natural resource companies. She worked on developing the first gem-quality diamond mine in Canada's arctic, on coal seam gas power projects in Australia, and on petroleum projects around the world. Having lived in Australia for eight years she considers the Land Down Under to be her second home. She also lived in Canada and spent a lot of time in the Canadian arctic. These days she lives with her husband in Portland Oregon, in a house perched on the edge of the forest.