Why Porenza?

The soul of Stoneheart was born in a town called Porec, on the Istrian penisula of Croatia. Here, my wife spent her summers as a child. Here we raised our boys, and here is where the seed of a story began.

I’m usually inspired by an idea, or a scene which grows. With Stoneheart, it was a place which became Porenza: the red-tiled roofs of the city, the rocky coastline, the evergreen pines, and the salt-twisted oak whose leaves gleam white with limestone dust, gnarled and yet serene beside the crystal adriatic.

As a younger man I studied Ancient history, and even before marriage I found myself lost in the Decumanus of Split, studying the architecture, the layout of a city fortified against eastern invasion, a seat of power for a declining Roman Empire, a mix of religions new and old.

Stoneheart grew in Croatia, and there’s more to tell: from the food, to the villa where my Father-in-law introduced me to the strongest alcohol known to man, to ‘the table of wisdom’ where the first words of the story were written. I’ll tell those stories in time!