Blog Archives
Two Worldviews
Runebound follows a noble girl born under a fiery omen and pulled between Christian courtly duty and the older Slavic powers her family has tried to bury. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration came from my fascination with the borderlands of medieval Northern and Eastern Europe, where Christianity, older pagan traditions, and dynastic politics all overlapped in uneasy ways. I was especially drawn to the tension between public duty and private belief, the difficult choices my characters had to make to survive, the power dynamics within the Empire, and the idea of having the courage to move against the current. The fiery omen was my way of giving that conflict a mythic edge from the start: a sign that Milena’s arrival is going to shake things up, and that her life is tied to both danger and destiny. The appearance of the Elder Futhark rune Berkana was also meaningful, since it connects to Mecklenburg’s older Germanic past before the Slavic expansion, and adds another layer of historical and symbolic resonance.
The tension between Christianity and older belief systems is central. What interested you most about that conflict?
It was the emotional pressure that comes from living between two worldviews, the sacrifices one must make, and the power dynamics that emerge in that kind of setting. Faith shapes family expectations, political alliances, daily rituals, and even how people understand fate, but a person can still feel the pull of their heritage and ancestral beliefs. That clash creates not only conflict, but an opportunity for transformation.
Milena’s journey is emotional, spiritual, and physical. How did you balance her agency with the sense that something larger is guiding her?
I wanted Milena to feel like she is making real choices as a young woman trying to find her true calling, even while something larger is guiding her. She is able to discern who she is from who others want her to be and withstand peer pressure. My goal was to make her agency matter in a world ruled by duty and obligation. Her courage, her doubts, and her decisions are what make the story more human to me, because so much of life is exactly that balance between personal choice and the forces beyond our control.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
The next book, Wayfare, is already in the works, and it pushes Milena into an even more uncertain and dangerous stage of her journey. The choices she made in Runebound have consequences, and she has to face not only outside threats but also the deeper cost of becoming who she is meant to be. She will find and bond with the next rune, which will further sharpen her awareness and bring new abilities, and several interesting characters will be introduced. I am anticipating a June 2027 release. As for the future of the series, I am only gradually shown glimpses of it as the story unfolds.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Born into a Christian court that has abandoned the old gods in favor of the Church and promised to a Saxon noble to secure her father’s rule, she is expected to submit without question, even as the remnants of the pagan North still breathe beneath the surface.
Haunted by prophetic dreams and guided by intuition, Milena receives a rune long destined to find her. Its ancient power awakens something within her that does not belong to the world she knows.
When Norse traders arrive to barter with her father, she is introduced to another way of being and encounters a young warrior who becomes a threat to everything her father has built on buried grief, shame, and regret.
To choose her own path means betraying her family, her faith, and the fragile order that holds her world together.
And once she begins, there will be no turning back.
Runebound is a richly grounded historical fantasy with a thread of romantic tension, set in the twelfth century, where the old gods endure in the shadow of the rising Cross. It’s a tale of love, destiny, forbidden belief, and awakening power for readers drawn to mythic, folkloric stories in the tradition of The Bear and the Nightingale and Uprooted.
