“Believe it or not, the notions of free will and destiny are not mutually exclusive.Predestination is the universal framework of limits (based on natural physical laws) placed upon us.Free will is our infinite ability to make choices within that framework.Because the universal scale is so great—and most of it constitutes an undiscovered frontier—our choices are only limited by our knowledge, our abilities, and our imagination.To put it simply, the world is such a huge playground sandbox that we will never run out of sand or reach the faraway safety fence of destiny.So go out there and play!”

Armenian-Russian American writer, artist, and publisher

Vera Nazarian is an Armenian-Russian American writer, artist, and publisher of Norilana Books. She writes fantasy, science fiction, and other forms of wonder fiction, including mythpunk, and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She is the author of ten novels, among them Dreams of the Compass Rose, a collage novel made up of linked stories, Lords of Rainbow, an epic fantasy set in a world without color, the Cobweb Bride trilogy, and The Atlantis Grail books. Her work moves across imaginative forms and layered structures, often drawing on myth and speculative worlds.