Author photo of M. H. Broderick, writer of the Covilhã's Secret Journal series.

About the Author

In the Covilhã’s Secret Journal series, M. H. Broderick draws on a private archive of over 2,000 antiquarian books and maps to reconstruct the real-world clandestine missions and high-stakes diplomacy of Portugal’s most forgotten royal envoy.

Unearthing the Secret Journal

I write as M. H. Broderick—because Michael Henry Broderick takes up a bit too much room—but off the book cover, I’m just Mike.

The inspiration for the Covilhã Secret Journal series struck in a dusty Viennese antiquarian bookshop: I stumbled across a rare 1947 chronicle of Portuguese seafarers and discovered an incredible, untold odyssey.

I saw 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 the celebrated Vasco da Gama ever set sail. Yet, because of a strict policy of secrecy at the Portuguese court, his achievements were buried as a mere footnote in our history books. I was compelled to set the record straight.

Archives, Research, and the Horn of Africa

Today, my writing is fueled by a private library centered on the history and culture of Portugal and Abyssinia. This archive allows me to build an immersive, historically accurate geopolitical backdrop—with the tension and narrative drive of a world on the edge of empire.

To ensure this peculiar and puzzling world feels real, my wife and I have traveled extensively through Iberia and embarked on a study tour of the old Abyssinia—in today’s Ethiopia—to gain some understanding of Pêro’s native soil and the cultures he encountered in the Highlands of the Horn of Africa.

Mike, M. H. Broderick, sitting in his private library pointing to open books on a coffee table.

From Technical Writer
to Historical Detective

I started off as an American Army brat. Schooled in Spain and California, I studied applied linguistics at the University of Mainz, and eventually became a technical writer, editor, and information developer.

That technical background is the engine behind this series. Over the last ten years, I’ve mapped out all seven books, adhering strictly to the historical timeline. Making use of what I’ve learned on the streets and in the classrooms, I do my best to craft dialogue that is historically authentic but highly accessible to today’s readers.

My workspace is filled with a growing archive of nearly 300 historical characters and a glossary of 1,300 fifteenth-century terms, which serve as the foundation for the world you see on the page.

Open books on a coffee table in Mike's library.

The Scriptorium

Today, I live a quiet life near Heidelberg with my dearly loved German wife and a strict succession of fierce German cats.

In fact, my wife—strongly supported by an ear-flattened, low-profile Kitzekatze—insisted that I include a fictional Maghrebi cat in the book. I took the hint: Felfel—Pepper—now plays a major role in Terra Barbaria. And there will be at least one feline accomplice in every novel—I promise.

All three of us enjoy perusing the old tomes. My wife loves the colorful plates of exotic costumes and I pore over the roteiros, the rutters of the Portuguese discoveries, while the Kitze keeps a wary eye on pictures of suspicious flora and fauna.


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 our cats 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, hard-won typing skills eventually hammered out the first draft of Terra Barbaria.

Look closely at the page in this early-1900s Remington Standard No. 10. It was the first model where you could actually see the words as they were typed—which means you can see them, too…

Vintage Remington 10 typewriter with the first page of the Terra Barbaria manuscript rolled into the carriage.

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.

Our cat, the Kitzekatze, sitting on the floor, keeping an eye out.


Securing the Scriptorium

One of the Kitze’s self-appointed tasks is to stand watch over the Scriptorium, keeping out marauding rodents—and checking on her porcelain double.

Our cat, the Kitzekatze, sitting on a window sill with her double, checking the periphery.

All these responsibilities inspired us to create Negreta, Little Black One in Catalan, for the second book in the series, Terra Occidens. Negreta is a 15th-century Catalan gat de bord, a ship’s cat—no vessel left port without one.

Surveying the Grounds

Scouting the terrain surrounding our library of weighty tomes is another of the Kitze’s daily duties.

Our cat, the Kitzekatze, sitting in a tree, looking for gremlins.

Want to read the rest of that first chapter on the typewriter?

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