On a road trip across western Canada, a boy and his two older sisters listened as their mother read them The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Although he knew he loved the story, and as a teenager went on to fall even more in love with The Lord of the Rings, it wasn’t until the year he was turning 40 that Matthew David Brough felt the full force of these books. He sat down to write a story and out came Del Ryder and the Crystal Seed, the first book in a fast-paced fantasy adventure series for ages eight and up.

Matthew is a pastor who doesn’t like preachy books, but loves stories of hope. He lives in Winnipeg, Canada with his wife, Cheryl and daughter, Juliet.