Kendall Brooks

Kendall Brooks is an American author living in the Scottish West Highlands, where she spends an unreasonable amount of time changing out of wet socks and staring out at the western isles, wondering about the long-forgotten dramas that have unfolded on their shores. She got her start writing with the DAMN (Dramatists and Actors Meeting Now) Writers Collective in Seattle during the ‘90s, and several of her short ensemble sketches found their way onto the Seattle Fringe Festival stage, which was proof enough for her that sometimes being the weird girl can take you places. Fascinated by the rich, messy, and often bloody history of her adopted homeland, Kendall loves blending historical truth with the fictional people and places that emerge from the murky recesses of her imagination. Lately, she’s completely obsessed with the Viking Age, captivated by how a handful of daring souls, armed with little more than a soapstone, a bucket, and the audacity, managed to cross a notoriously inhospitable bit of water and take over large swaths of a country to reshape the landscape and culture in ways still felt today. Her current focus is on expanding the characters and stories that have taken root in her mind—bringing to life the struggles, triumphs, and deeply human moments of those who might have walked the turbulent landscapes of early medieval Britain and beyond. She hopes to build a series that not only entertains but also honors the spirit of the past, weaving fact and fiction into a world that modern readers can lose themselves in and even relate to. Kendall is also an accomplished musician and spent some wonderful years as a professional military musician for the U.S. Air Force, playing concerts and ceremonies, often in full dress uniform and occasionally in questionable weather. Once even in a tornado—no kidding. An actual tornado. The band really is always the last to leave. Turns out that's an actual thing. When she’s not writing, Kendall is a sucker for an IPA and a good zombie movie. If she could travel back in time, she’d love to pick the brain of Alfred the Great, ideally over a strong drink, with or without Viking interruption, but ideally with. Kendall gathers inspiration while running, walking in the hills, driving, and sitting on planes, and she sits on a lot of planes—so many, in fact, that she’s quite sure she’s worn a groove in the sky between Glasgow and the USA.