If Helen Kiln wanted a quiet, no-nonsense life she should never have become a psychic for the PSI division of the Sydney, Australia branch of the Secret Compass. Of late there were ghosts to sort out, vampires on the loose, a Gypsy warning to heed and a young man becoming a monster to befriend. With any luck she'd get in her morning cup of coffee and donuts!Frank Burkhard, the young man, and Petra Card, a female vampire, were expected in Worms (Voems), Germany where they were hopefully going to save the world. There was also a warlock out to save humanity by killing off a lot of people. In all of this Helen could envisage, through her powers, a dead man about to make a stand. Helen knew this for a certainty. It just wasn't clear to her who it was going to be. It, in fact, might not be a man at all but a woman. Rod Marsden was born in Sydney but did most of his growing up while on holidays in the northern NSW fishing village of Iluka where his mom, May, and dad, Chic (short for Charles), taught him how to fish. It was on these fishing trips he discovered through his mom, he actually did like to read and wanted, one day, to be a writer.Way back in the '70s, Rod visited the USA but never got to meet his heroes Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Leonard Nimoy, Jimmy Doohan, George Takei, and the lovely Nichelle Nichols. He also never got to meet his all time favorite members of the Marvel Comics bullpen Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Gene Colan.It can be said that USA artist Gene Colan's renderings of the sexy, slinky Black Widow made him wonder about becoming an artist.Rod was first attracted to vampires (femme fatales of course) by the British Hammer series of horror movies, which included Vampire Lovers and To Love a Vampire, and by certain early Universal films such as the original Bela Lugosi version of Dracula.Rod has a BA in Liberal Studies, a Graduate Diploma in Education and a Master of Arts in Professional Writing.Rod's short stories have been published in Australia (Small Suburban Crimes anthology), New Zealand (Australian Animals are Smarter than Jack 2 anthology), England (Voyage magazine), Russia (Fellow Traveler magazine) and the USA (Cats Do it Better than People anthology, Night to Dawn magazine, Detective Mystery Stories magazine). Then there is the more recent NTD book, Undead Reb Down Under Tales.He lives on the south coast of NSW, Australia.
