The Scribe
E. L. Sjoblom is a retired engineer, former soldier, lifelong craftsman, and Viking‑obsessed storyteller who took the long road to becoming an author. He writes sagas where myth brushes against reality, and where the quiet choices of everyday life forge the shape of a legacy.
His fascination with the Viking Age began when he was seven, staring at a family‑name book his grandmother ordered and hearing his father say, “Your ancestors were Viking pirates.” It was 1975, and the idea lodged itself so deeply that it never left. Over the years that spark grew into a lifelong interest in history, archaeology, and the human truths buried beneath old soil and older stories.
Erick didn’t set out to be an engineer, he wanted to be like Jacques Cousteau, exploring the ocean and discovering the world firsthand, swimming with sharks. But life has a way of rerouting dreams. After being told he wasn’t “smart enough” for college, he worked construction, joined the military, and spent twelve years in active and reserve service. Those years taught him about warriors, not the Hollywood kind, but the real ones: the downtime, the training, the brotherhood, the boredom, the fear, the humor you only use in limited company, and the way men carry each other through the quiet moments between chaos.
A back injury ended his military path, leaving him without a map forward. So, he made a new one. He went to college, proved every doubter wrong, and earned a master’s degree in engineering, in a field he was told he’d never succeed in. He worked decades in the profession, even though engineering was never the dream. But it taught him structure, patience, problem‑solving, and the stubbornness required to build worlds that feel real.
Outside of work, Erick lived and still lives a dozen creative lives: musician, photographer, woodworker, martial artist, HEMA student, historical cooking enthusiast (If one loves to eat then one must love to cook), and perpetual learner. Each craft continues to teach him something different, patience, discipline, curiosity, humility, and never being afraid of turning around to see a different perspective on life. All of them helped him discover who he could be, not just who he was told he was.
Writing was always there. Poetry in his teens. Songs. RPG adventures. A post‑apocalyptic manuscript called Soloman. Dreams that turned into stories. Stories that turned into worlds. Worlds that turned into sagas.
His debut novel, The Ninefold Reckoning, launches The Ninefold Chronicles, a Viking‑era trilogy exploring honor, consequence, survival, and the fragile threads that bind a community together. Erick writes about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, because real heroism isn’t found in capes or glory. It’s found in the quiet choices we make when no one is watching. It’s found in the way a father tries to live up to being his son’s hero. It’s found in the way people endure hardship and still choose to stand.
More than anything, Erick wants readers to feel something. In a world that numbs us with noise and speed, he hopes his stories give people a moment of humanity, a spark, a pulse, a reminder that art still reaches places technology can’t.
He lives in Indiana with his family, a growing collection of tools, and far too many notebooks filled with future sagas. He still dreams of the ocean sometimes, still thinks about archaeology often, and still believes that legacy is built not by fame, but by the stories we leave behind.
