New Zealand's Philippa Ballantine has always loved the fantasy genre, fostered by an early introduction to Lord of the Rings as a bedtime story. She has been writing her own novels since the age of thirteen and melds her love of history and fantasy together in her work. Her first novel Weaver's Web was e-published, where as her second Chasing the Bard, in which Shakespeare finds himself in his own midsummer nightmare was published in 2005.