Hildred M. Billings is an author of the kind of epic fantasy that isn't happy until the world - or the universe - is in peril. Her love for character-driven stories has her focusing on big plots and big casts that bring out the best in each other.
Born and raised on the southern Oregon coast, Hildred's huge imagination came from being the only kid in the woods and a healthy helping of spec-fic media. While her biggest literary influences may be Anne McCaffrey, Phillip Pullman, and Jacqueline Carey, the real fuel behind her childhood imagination came from the greats of '90s video games: The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Chrono Trigger to name a few.
Currently, Hildred prefers living in the city where she can finally people watch 'til her heart's content. Her favorite city in the world is Tokyo, but she'll settle for Portland.
(And now that the third person is out of the way, check out more of my bio and the origins of CROSS// below!)
I launched my first novel in 2012 and have been a full-time author ever since. Under the names Hildred Billings and Cynthia Dane, I spent the first ten years of my author career writing romances of different pairings. From billionaire M/F to literary lesfic, I've been an Amazon top bestseller in both genres. Orange banners include being in the top 30 of the Amazon ebook store under the name Cynthia Dane, and at the top of the Lesbian Romance charts multiple times under both names. I have no plans to leave the romance genre, as it's still my other favorite kind of story to write.
I sharpened my writing teeth in the fantasy genre early in my life. After countless "bad" novels (that shall never be spoken of again) I hit my stride as a teenager writing epic fantasy when I wasn't learning HTML or playing video games. It was also during this time I began honing my character and romance skills, two things that would permeate all my work regardless of genre.
During my sophomore year of college, I had a dream that I was watching a TV show in which two reincarnated mercenaries attempted to save Earth from a sorcery-wielding madman. The dream stuck with me the next day, and before I knew it, I had begun putting together the plot and cast that would become CROSS//. Yes, that's right. It literally started with a dream. So cliche, right?
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