About me

My name is Maria Engstrand. I am an engineer, a patent attorney, a constant reader, a coffee addict, and since a few years back I am also a writer. I have a Master of Science in Engineering Physics acquired in 1996 and a Bachelor in Creative Writing acquired in 2018. This only proves that you should be careful when starting with something you think is a harmless hobby. I have written a bit more about me and about what it was like to quite unexpectedly become writer when you were supposed to be a happy engineer in my portrait, written as a presentation of myself as a debutant writer.

Apart from one year in Switzerland and another year in Stockholm, I have spent my entire life in the southwest of Sweden, although not at the coast. No, it is in the inland, in a landscape with deep forests and silent lakes that I feel at home, and this is also the setting of my first book “Code: Orestes”. It is an eventful adventure for children, turning around a coded mystery. Although taking place in present time in a realistic suburban area right outside the city, the story spans between mystic and science, present and past, city and forest.

My first book “Code: Orestes” (Kod: Orestes) issued in May 2018 in Sweden, and in February 2020 in Germany. It will issue later in 2020 in Russia.

The sequel “Code: Elektra” (Kod: Elektra) issued in 2019 in Sweden, and will issue in August 2020 in Germany. I am currently working with a third book in the Code series.

In addition, “Hollow Lake” (Hålsjön) being a suspension YA novel issued in Sweden in 2019. (And yes, is set at a lake. Surrounded by a forest.)

Primarily, I wish that my readers shall have fun and simply enjoy reading my books like you enjoy eating a big bag of candy or running as fast as you can. But I also hope that the readers shall find something to think about. I would like to inspire to seeing the world as the fascinating place it really is. I think that fascinated, curious people will not only be happier people but also better fit to build the future.

I share my life with my husband, our two children, Mojje the budgie, and Sam the rescue dog.