Dan Lutts

Dan Lutts’ Maine roots go back to the 1600s, and many of his relatives—beginning with his great great grandfather, John Lutts—worked at the Portsmouth Shipyard. However, just before World War II his father left Kittery to work at a shipyard in Quincy, MA.

Lutts was born in Quincy and began addictively reading Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman comic books at an early age, much to his mother’s distress. In high school and college, he wrote science fiction stories. He even sent some to science fiction magazines and received encouragement from an editor at Astounding Science Fiction.

Lutts graduated from the University of Chicago with an MA in Roman History. He taught history and archaeology at Quincy High School for ten years. During that time he wrote his first novel, The Vatican List (unpublished), and was mentored by writer Pamela Painter. After leaving teaching, Lutts worked for several computer companies as a technical writer and editor, taught technical writing at the college level, and worked as a freelance writer. 

Lutts loves to read and has varied tastes, especially Young Adult, and decided to try his hand at writing it. Charm Wars, Lutts’ first published novel, is the result. Charm Wars' themes are friendship, ambition, trust, and betrayal. The story takes place in the fantasy world of Caldon, a matriarchal society in which “the men receive the honors, but the women rule.” Commoner Rill Larkin will do whatever it takes to become a mage while noblesse Alyse Dejune wants nothing to do with magic even though she has the potential to become an extremely powerful archmage. Their lives, and those of the ones they love, change forever when Rill and Alyse pursue their goals.

Charm Wars is a five-book series. Book 2, A Light in the Window, will be released in mid to late 2022 and Book 3, Revenge of the Estatis, will be released in late 2022 or early 2023.

Lutts lives in rural Maine with his wife, Lisa, and their three rescue animals: two cats and a dog. When he’s not working, writing or reading, you can find Lutts shooting medieval arrows with his longbow.