Born in Tehran to an Iranian father and a German mother, I grew up in Germany, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand, among other places. My wife is Irish, and we live with our three daughters in the Netherlands.
It is okay to call me a cosmopolitan, although, in fact, I do prefer mojitos.
I have a masters in Political Science, which has proven to be of absolutely no use whatsoever, but my postgraduate MBA from University College Dublin has opened a couple of career doors.
I work in the IT industry, but please don’t ask me for technical support, because I have no clue how computers work. Don’t tell my boss!
Writing has been a passion of mine for many years, starting when I was maybe nine or ten. I would staple paper together, and draw pictures and write stories with a worn-down pencil, pretending my little pamphlet was a proper book. At school, I seemed to have a knack for languages and I would usually get good grades when it came to writing essays.
When I was eighteen, living in Wellington, NZ, I read The Lord of the Rings on three consecutive dark and stormy nights and was hooked on a genre where anything seemed possible. It also convinced me that I should give writing a go, but it was not until much later in life that I felt my output was good enough that I would also want to read it.
If I had spare time, I’d probably have a hobby. I like the idea of making cheese.
Besides writing, I do like cooking, travel, and rugby. My ideal job, other than being a full time novelist, would therefore be as a restaurant critic in far-flung rugby stadia around the world.
