Andrew Shvarts ’03 has published his first book! “Royal Bastards,” for teens and young adults, is the story of a castle lord’s disenfranchised “natural” children who are drawn into castle intrigue. Only they can warn the king in time to prevent civil war.

Shvarts has been writing for young adult (YA) audiences for about a decade in his role as a writer/designer at Pixelberry Studios. “I’ve been exploring branching out into fiction for a while,” he said. “Royal Bastards is actually the third YA novel I’ve written and shopped around.

“The genesis for it was actually a combination of two ideas I’d had for a while: a young adult ‘Game of Thrones,’ and a story about teens on the run from their criminal parents. I realized that these two ideas actually combined really well, and the book wrote itself from there!”

Royal Bastards is the first of a planned trilogy, Shvarts said, noting he is three-quarters done with the second book.

Royal Bastards is scheduled to be released in June, but you can pre-order at https://www.amazon.com/Royal-Bastards-Andrew-Shvarts/dp/14847676

Best of luck to you, Andrew!