About the Authors

Tracy R. Chowdhury

In 1975 I was born in the small town of Tunkhannock Pennsylvnia. I was the oldest of five siblings, all of whom are boys. I spent much of my childhood in imaginary play, always fascinated by the possibility of magic and intrigued by dragons, fairies, unicorns and other mystical things.

As I got a little older and learned how to read and write, I began to write my own little stories. Mostly they were about love and friendship, the characters in a fantasy-world setting. As I continued to grow up, they became more complex, and the scenarios had more depth. But I never really became serious about writing a novel until I was in my later teens.

In 1998 I graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a degree in Zoology. Later in the same year I got married to my husband, Abdul Gaffar. It was then that I entered an AD&D campaign with a friend of mine by the name of Ted Mark Crim. I began to write down the details of his campaign, and thus how I began to write my first novel.

Currently I have four children, one girl and three boys. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio with my family and I am in the midst of writing the sequel to the first book of the Shadow Over Shandahar duology. The release date is planned to be by July 2007. After that, I hope on starting work on my second duology, a manuscript originating from another AD&D campaign.

Ted Mark Crim

I was born the oldest of three children in Cincinnati Ohio. As a young boy, I always remembered being rather active and adventurous, but it wasn’t until I was about thirteen that I became introduced to Dungeons and Dragons. I was in the seventh grade, it was my first campaign, and it fascinated me. Very quickly it became a hobby, and for several more years I played in various campaigns with a group of my friends.

As I got older I realized that I had a knack for handling animals. For a while I worked at the Cincinnati Zoo, but after a while decided to broaden my horizons. In 1998, while working for a veterinary clinic, I met a girl by the name of Tracy Chowdhury. It wasn’t long before we became friends and quickly realized that we had a lot in common. She liked to play Dungeons and Dragons as well, and I asked the group if she could join in our campaign.

Unfortunately, It was soon after Tracy’s arrival that our campaign came to an end. I decided to start my own campaign, the first one that I was to be the DM (dungeon master). Tracy joined right away, as well as a few of her friends and a few more of mine. The campaign was an instant success, and Tracy began to write down the details of the adventure as they happened in role-play.

Currently Tracy and I have a book published . . . Shadow Over Shandahar – Child of Prophecy. It is the first in a duology based on my original campaign. We are in the midst of finishing the second installment. I have aspirations for the world of Shandahar, and would like to see it in a role-playing format one day. I would also like to see the novels made into an anime feature film.