A. J. (Tony) Smith is a British fantasy author known for his The Long War series of dark fantasy novels and the Form and Void trilogy. The first book in the Long War series, The Black Guard, was published in 2013. At the moment, he has had seven fantasy books published.
A.J. Smith was born in Birmingham. He has been writing stories set in the lands of The Long War since he was at university. Defining the world and adding detail became an excellent distraction from his degree (which was in psychology, philosophy, and sociology) and has remained equally distracting ever since. Interestingly, the maps came first, and then the world and its characters began to take shape in writing.
Since graduating, A.J. Smith has been working with troubled children in a high school in Luton and has had various articles related to counseling and youth work published.
Fantasy fiction has always been his own version of therapy and a place where he can make up what happens next rather than waiting for the real world to decide.
"I have a simple goal. I don’t want to be rich, famous, or even especially happy. I just want to be able to write. I love creating and populating fantasy worlds. It’s the only thing I ever wanted to do. The Lands of the Long War, the Kingdom of the Four Claws, the City, and a few others no one knows about. Landscapes, maps, monsters, I’ll try my best to pull back the curtain a little and show you a bit of my mind (the nice bit, not the scary bit)," says the author.
A.J. Smith is starting a new fantasy series and has opened a book fundraiser on Patreon.
Photo credit: Twitter @Smith23AJ
