User:Hennyboo13/Sandbox

Childhood and early works (1949-1968)
Henry Blake was born on February 1, 1949 in Brooklyn, NY. From primary school, Blake had taken up an interest in reading both fiction and nonfiction, especially with historical themes. Blake was fascinated by history, especially ancient civilizations as well as Medieval Europe, interests which would become major influences for his novels. In addition to reading, Blake enjoyed movies and television shows, and has cited Walt Disney's films as an influence as well.

Blake's first incursions into writing began as early as 1960, when he began writing sports fiction, though later switched to literary fiction. In high school, Blake published short stories in his school's newspaper. In 1967, during his freshman year at Hartwick College, Blake published a few of his poems and short stories in a portfolio under the name of "H.B. Henderson", the first known use of his pen name.

The Adventuress Series (1968-1974)
Blake had been working on a fantasy epic as early as 1963, but left it largely abandoned when he made the shift to literary fiction. He would sporadically revisit fantasy throughout high school, but he kept his main focus on his short stories. In college, however, after submitting his portfolio, H.B. Henderson began serious work on his Adventuress stories. Set in the land of Cervidae, the stories revolved around the adventures of huntress Lucinda Mossbow as she embarked on a quest to avenge the death of her father, who had been killed by the dark prince Samwell. Henderson began publishing the first set of Adventuress stories in 1968, which soon became a favorite among Hartwick students.

By 1970, Henderson had completed the story for Adventuress and was ready to pitch his story to a publishing company. After both Scholastic and Doubleday had passed on the story, Henderson finally had Simon & Schuster agree to publish Adventuress. Because of the length of the original story, Simon & Schuster cut it into three books