Alan MacRaffen is a lifelong New Englander. He was born under the name Alan Matthews in Worcester, Massachusetts and grew up in Mass and New Hampshire. He received a bachelor's degree in Illustration from the Art Institute of Boston, and spent a decade working at the Hillsboro-Deering High School in New Hampshire. He has worked in several other settings over the years, including a busy Faneuil Hall gift-shop and a local Maine toy store. He currently lives in Maine with his wife, artist Molly Brewer, and their cat Husker.Alan has a great interest in science fiction and fantasy, as well as paleontology, biology, mythology and folklore. He has been constructing imagined worlds, creatures, cultures and characters since earliest childhood.Carnival of Time is his first novel.