Martin Svolgart followed in his dad’s footsteps and became a smith, yet an injury left him with too much time on his hands while having to sit still. So, he turned to the never-ending stream of voices telling stories to see if something amusing and, more importantly, coherent could come from that. His first published books were under the pseudonym HP Caledon—a high-paced space opera series—through a small press in Canada. But a specific story haunted at the fringes of his mind. One that touched closely upon his past as the victim of bullying for not being able to tell coherent fantastic stories. It took a long time to process what the past can teach us, and his debut novel then had to have his real name, seeing as the book, A Game Called Payback, is dedicated to his high school bully.Martin Svolgart didn’t just learn to forgive by scrutinizing his past. He learned that there are many nuances to the human mind and behind every person’s actions. To be able to fully delve into that, he went back to college and studied psychology among other subjects. That put him on the path of what takes up an important part of his writing today: the broken minds, the flawed heroes, the ones at odds with society, and the ones who struggle. It’s his hope that the many nuances to be found through exploring life through characters can offer insight and thus empower readers who find themselves struggling. It’s human, after all. Either that, or he hopes to manage to portray characters deeply enough to teach those lucky enough to not have been touched by such misfortune to gain enough insight and understanding to show compassion. But one thing’s for sure. Action, sarcasm, dark humor, sometimes even a bit twisted, will always accompany the poking at what makes a human being so perfectly flawed.