About the Author
The inspiration for the Covilhã’s Secret Journal series struck in a dusty Viennese bookshop, where a rare 1947 chronicle revealed a staggering historical injustice. Drawing on a private archive of over 2,000 antiquarian texts, retired technical writer M. H. Broderick reconstructs the real-world intelligence missions of Portugal’s greatest, most forgotten black-ops agent. He writes from his home near Heidelberg, strictly supervised by a fierce editorial cat.
Meet Mike
The inspiration for Covilhã’s Secret Journal—and the first novel in the series, Terra Barbaria—struck in a dusty Viennese antiquarian bookshop. I stumbled across a rare 1947 chronicle of Portuguese seafarers and discovered an incredible, untold odyssey.
I recognized immediately that Pêro da Covilhã played a pivotal role in the escalating 15th-century conflict between East and West, Islam and Christianity. He successfully scouted the route to India a full decade before Vasco da Gama ever set sail. Yet, because of a strict policy of secrecy at the Portuguese court, his achievements were buried, and he was relegated to a mere footnote in our history books. I was compelled to set the record straight.
I spent years tracking down every original account by Covilhã’s contemporaries and the subsequent literature based on them. Today, my writing is fueled by a private library of over 2,000 antiquarian books and maps centered on Portugal and Abyssinia. This archive allows me to build an immersive, historically accurate, geopolitical backdrop—with the grit and pacing of a modern espionage thriller.
From Technical Writer to
Historical Detective
I started off as an American Army brat born in Germany. After being schooled in Spain and California, I studied applied linguistics at the University of Mainz. Eventually, I wound up as a technical writer, editor, and information developer for major international corporations.
That technical background is exactly why I treat historical fiction with rigorous professionalism. Over the last ten years, I’ve written the majority of the seven-book Covilhã’s Secret Journal series, adhering strictly to the historical timeline, utilizing the authentic language of the era, and actively avoiding anachronisms. To keep this world authentic, I’ve even compiled a private dossier of nearly 300 characters, a glossary of 1,300 obsolete terms, and pronunciation guides—excerpts of which I include as appendices for curious readers.
To ensure the world feels real, my wife and I have traveled extensively through Portugal and embarked on a study tour of Ethiopia—formerly Abyssinia—to get a first-hand understanding of the cultures Pêro encountered in the Highlands of the Horn of Africa.
From Barstow
to Barbaria
I learned to type in junior-high in Barstow, California. I was the only guy in a class full of girls, pounding away on a machine that the Kitzekatze—my fierce editorial cat—could use as a staircase today. It took a few decades, a slight upgrade in hardware, and a whole lot of research, but those early tactical typing skills eventually hammered out the first draft of Terra Barbaria. Look closely at that first draft in my early-1900s Remington 10 and see for yourself…
Meet my Co-Author
Kitzekatze, my fierce feline co-author, always keeps an eye out for comma gremlins and anachronism rats trying to sneak into our novels.
Guarding Approaches
One of the Kitze’s self-appointed tasks is to guard the approaches to the Editorial War Room, to keep out fault-finding rodents—and to check on her decoy.
Recon of the Periphery
Covertly reconnoitering the terrain surrounding the Historical Library of Dusty Tomes is another of the Kitze’s duties.
All these responsibilities inspired us to create Negreta, ironically “Little Black One” in Catalan, for the second book in the Covilhã’s Secret Journal series, Terra Occidens. Negreta is a 15th-century maritime gat de bord, “a ship’s cat”—no vessel left port without one.