Alyssa Brugman

Alyssa Brugman is an Australian author whose fiction ranges from family stories to equestrian adventures and fantasy. Born near Lake Macquarie, she studied marketing at the University of Newcastle and worked in teaching and public relations before becoming a full-time writer. The Equen Queen marked her first venture into fantasy and appeared through Ford Street Publishing in 2008. It is the second book in the Quest of the Lost City sequence within the larger Quentaris world, a shared setting edited by Paul Collins and Michael Pryor. The story follows Tab Vidler as another airborne city approaches Quentaris with apparently generous traders, unusual creatures called equens, and hidden intentions. Tab must investigate after losing the special abilities on which she once relied. Brugman’s experience writing horse-centred fiction gives the imagined creatures a distinctive place in the adventure, while the shared-world structure connects her plot to other Quentaris authors. The Equen Queen combines her interest in resourceful young protagonists with a fantasy tradition of travelling cities, uncertain alliances, and discovered courage.