Matthew Cesca's Blog, page 3

A Year Removed

One year ago today I did something I once would have never thought possible--I published the last book of my fantasy trilogy! Which means we get to celebrate a book birthday today for ,The Last Sorcerers! And no, releasing a book that centers around elemental magic on September 21st was not an elaborate ,Earth, Wind, & Fire reference, but sometimes you just have to shrug and lean into these things.

To be fair, until a few short years ago I'd never believed I'd have published a book at all. Now I have five of them out there in the world and in people's hands. And while writing any book should never be classified as "easy," it's fair to say that ,The Last Sorcerers was the hardest book for me to write so far of all the ones I've published. And really, there were a few reasons why.

Much of that difficulty had to do with the timing of when I was writing it. I was working on it in the middle of a global pandemic, which sapped a lot of my creative energy for long streaks of time (which I discuss in ,a previous blog). But there was also so much left to do after I finished ,Redemption & Ruin. I needed to tie things up in a way that made sense. In that, I think I did a pretty good job considering it was my first time writing a series of books.

The thing is, I never set out to write a trilogy in the first place. In my head, when I started writing ,The Forbidden Scrolls, it was going to be a single book. I figured it would be a bit longer than my first book, ,The Stairs in the Woods, but not excessively so. I'd already had Juliya, Frost, and the world of Teren'vei created in my head for years, so I wasn't expecting a lot of surprises.

But then I wrote chapter 21 of that first book. As I sat there staring at what I had just done, I knew I'd bitten off a much bigger project than I had anticipated. The story had expanded and exploded in a way I hadn't anticipated--but I knew right away that it was the way the story needed to go. So I decided to bite down harder, knowing in that moment that I was writing a trilogy whether I liked it or not.

The Last Sorcerers delivers on the promise I made to myself that day. It proved to me that I could write a series of books and not just stand-alones like my first novel. It also delivered on the promises I had made to my readers way back in chapter 21 of The Forbidden Scrolls; not everyone got a happy ending. I'm reminded by my girlfriend on a near daily basis that she's particularly upset about how things ended up for two of those characters. She can't say I didn't warn you all though.

Even though I write fantasy and sci-fi, it's important to me to keep a certain level of realism in my stories. Sure, a character may be able to throw fire, teleport from place to place, or even heal with a touch. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't feel like real characters, with real hopes and dreams. With real flaws. And most importantly, with real consequences. And when you're writing a story that ends in a gigantic battle between the allied forces of dwarves, elves, and humans against a literal army of the dead, not everyone is going to make it. To have all the heroes walk away unscathed would shatter the illusion of consequence. It would pull the curtain back and reveal the man pulling the strings, reminding you that it was just a story after all.

If I've done my job as an author well, I've created living, breathing characters that a reader can fall in love with--or grow to hate. They should share a character's joy, and when necessary, grieve their loss. Occasionally, they should even cheer a character's demise. I particularly hope I succeeded with regards to our villain, Frost. He is the perfect foil for Juliya in that as he loses humanity throughout the story, she grows and becomes a better person than the woman we met in ,The Forbidden Scrolls. It was important to me that Juliya discovered herself, and a family, along the way. I also wanted her to fit into the world in the aftermath of Frost's war. I believe I was able to accomplish that in a way that was fitting for her and give her a sense of closure.

As for myself, I don't know if I'll ever get a complete sense of closure from the world of Virandia. Teren'vei is just one small continent, far removed from the rest of the people of that particular world. There's so much more to discover there. I hope to share those adventures with you someday, just as soon as I figure out what they might be. The joy of being a discovery writer is that I tend to figure it all out as I go.

Juliya's story, on the other hand, has come to an end--as all stories must. Still, I'd like to believe she's still out there somewhere, running through the Brittlewood with the wind in her fire-red hair, fingers caressing the hilt of the dagger at her belt. A part of her will live on in me forever, as it has for all these years. I hope you've enjoyed the journey with her as much as I have.

We're Everywhere!

The last five years have been a long, strange trip. I never set out to become an author, it just sort of happened along the way as I was discovering myself. It turns out I quite enjoy it, and I think I'm pretty good at it though.

Even still, I still get that flutter of excitement when I start a new project. And you'd better believe I still get those butterflies in my stomach every time I release a new book.

But today was a milestone I'll not soon forget.

You see, as of today, the eBook versions of all my novels are available wide!

That means we're not just on Amazon anymore. We're also available in places like Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Kobo, and others! Along with those online retailers, my eBooks will also be available on library apps like Libby!

I'm sure it goes without saying that I'm looking forward to getting my books into the hands of more readers. And while this may just be the digital versions of them for now, the plan is to get the print books into other retailers beyond Amazon as well.

The goal is to one day see my books in stores. Unfortunately, I don't have a timeline for that particular dream to come true just yet. Things do tend to change quickly though, and I'll let you know as soon as they do.

In the meantime, if you've been waiting to get a hold of one (or all) of my books digitally, but they haven't been available on your chosen platform, it looks like the time has come! Enjoy!

Jumping into the Competition

That's right folks! My latest novel, ,The Miranda Project, was one of 300 self-published that was accepted into this year's ,Self-Published Science Fiction Contest. that in of itself is a great honor, as there are a ton of great books by other self published authors in the field as well. I'm felling pretty lucky to have been chosen!

For those of you not in the know, the ,SPSFC is in it's second year, is run by best-selling sci-fi author ,Hugh Howey. It's modeled after the ,Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off set up by the likewise highly acclaimed ,Mark Lawrence, currently in it's eighth year.

The formats for both competitions are the same. 300 books, 10 teams of judges, 7 finalists, and 1 winner. The entire contest takes a year to get through because let's face it, that's a lot of books. It's even more than my current physical TBR pile, which I expect will take me the rest of my own natural life to read.

There will be multiple rounds to the contest, and frankly I'll be ecstatic if I just make it out of the first one. There are a lot of very good looking books in the competition. I'm going in with low expectations and hoping for the best. If the worst case scenario is that more eyes see my book, it's a win for me no matter what.

As for the judges, I've been teamed with a group calling themselves ",Space Leftovers." There are a number of interesting books in my group, including one by ,Halo Scot that I already have in my aforementioned TBR. Seems I'm going to need to move it further up my list to see what I'm going up against. There's a few other books in there that struck my fancy as well, which means the pile is likely to grow even larger--until it consumes me (or at least an entire bookshelf).

So check out all the great books in this year's ,SPSFC, including ,The Miranda Project. And as soon as I hear any results I'll be sure to pass them on to you.

Going Back Through the Gate

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry I posted ,a few days ago, I have a new "Remastered" edition of my first novel ,The Stairs in the Woods on the way. In that earlier blog I didn't know for sure if we were gonna make that August 14th goal date in order to have the rerelease coincide with the book's anniversary.

But I come to you today bearing good news! The eBook version of the new re-edited and re-formatted Stairs in the Woods is now available for preorder. You can do so ,here.

In the meantime, I'm offering a soft launch of the hardback and paperback versions. They will be both be available as soon as Amazon approves them--so likely in a matter of hours! I expect that with printing and shipping times, they won't arrive too much sooner than the eBooks will. But I didn't want to leave two different versions of the book available for order. I figured that would simply create more confusion. This way, I can build up a little excitement for the book's fourth anniversary in just a couple short weeks.

And yes, I did say hardbacks. I'm thrilled to be able to finally offer all of my books both types of physical copies for those of you that prefer one over the other. I hope to someday be able to offer all of my works in audiobook as well, but that's a discussion for a different time.

When compared to the previous copies of the book, the new edition is definitely the better of the two versions. The editing is more professionally done than when I first put out this book four years ago, as is the formatting. I've learned a lot in the last four years, and I've also had more people in my orbit that have made me a better writer.

The story, however, remains unchanged. I didn't want to lose the voice of the book, nor did I want to make any sort of plot changes. The biggest difference in the writing will be the occasional word choice, a significant lack of unnessacary commas, and an all around prettier looking book on the inside to match the cover on the outside.

And honestly, this was due. I've always been proud of this book. But it's my first novel, and thus by default, my weakest. We all improve over time; it's just the natural evolution of who we are as we embrace whatever it is we throw ourselves into. And I wanted this book to feel like it belonged on the same shelf as my newer work, while still remaining as a time capsule of the writer I used to be.

All told, I'm extremely proud of this re-release and am looking forward to getting my hands on my own copy, as well as some for stock for signed copies and such. I'm also looking forward to an adventure to a few of the local little libraries to drop off my old stock for a few lucky readers. I did the same thing when the new editions of ,The Forbidden Scrolls and ,Redemption & Ruin came out alongside the conclusion of the trilogy, ,The Last Sorcerers. So if you happen to live in the local Phoenix, Arizona area, keep those eyes peeled.

In the meantime, if you think a portal fantasy with an epic quest and romance subplot sounds like it might be up your alley, you can preorder the eBook of the revised version of ,The Stairs in the Woods now! And keep an eye out for those paperbacks and hardbacks to drop any time now.

A Return to Somalie

If you follow me on social media, there's a chance you've seen an uptick of ads for my first book, ,The Stairs in the Woods. Truthfully it wasn't hard to notice as I'd barely posted new graphics for it in a couple of years. I'd been focused on getting the rest of my ,Forbidden Scrolls Trilogy out, as well as book one of ,The Miranda Project. It's fair to say, I've had my hands full with all of that.

And yet, I always wanted to revisit my first book. Stairs has always held a special place in my heart as it's the story that started me down the road to becoming an author. I also wrote it during a very difficult part of my life where I was feeling particularly vulnerable. I think parts me really seep off the page in this book, as it really is a story about personal growth written at a time when I was discovering who I really was.

Well fair reader, now is the time. ,The Stairs in the Woods is getting a facelift with new formatting and a fresh copy edit by my editor Vanessa Redmon to help bring it up to the standard of my more recent work. The story remains unchanged, it's simply a cleaner, more professional version of the original tale.

This also means that there will be a hardback edition on the way! Stairs was the only book of mine that didn't have that option and I'm excited to finally bring that to you for those of you who want it. The goal is to have everything ready in time for August 14th.

Why that date in particular? Well that just so happens to be the 5th Anniversary of it's original release. It seemed like a perfect time to revisit this tale, as the traditional fifth anniversary gift is wood. What better way to celebrate Kaitlynn's journey than to return to the magical forests of Somalie?

Not to mention that for those of you that haven't delved into this tale yet, the new edition will be the perfect time to do so--not that there isn't ever a good time to dive into a portal fantasy like this one.

,The Stairs in the Woods is the story of a woman, Kaitlynn Jenson, who has come back to her small hometown in Connecticut to tend to her father, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. In my own life, I've lost multiple family members to this particularly insidious disease, as pancreatic cancer often can't be detected until it's already too late. It's fair to say that this aspect of the tale alone makes this a very personal story for me

With the death of her father early in the story, Kaitlynn is as low as she can get emotionally as she attempts to deal with her grief. Once she discovers the portal into Somalie and begins to grow into the person she was always supposed to be, she finds the strength to do things she never considered herself capable of. She becomes the hero of her own story for the first time in her life, while finding love along the way.

I believe stories like this are important, and not just for the Young Adult reader. Some of us tend to discover a little later in life who we want to be when we grow up. For instance, I discovered I wanted to be an author as I was writing this book at age forty. That's why the main character is in her mid-thirties--no one is too old to discover themselves.

I also want to stress that though ,The Stairs in the Woods does have a traditional "coming of age" vibe, even if Kaitlynn is come to age a bit later than most, this is absolutely not a YA title. There is sexual content between consensual adults to be found within these pages, and thus Stairs is perhaps not appropriate for your younger reader despite this overall theme.

Aside from the book getting a facelift, I've also given the ad graphics for it a facelift as well. You can also see that the book's ,splash page on my website has gotten the same visual upgrade. I'm really thrilled with this new look--I feel like it better represents the magic of this story than the old graphics did.

I truly am excited to be able to bring this new edition of The Stairs in the Woods to you all soon. As I said earlier, I'm aiming for August 14th, but nothing is set in stone yet. Watch this space on my blog for more updates as we get closer to this return journey to Somalie. Trust me, I'll let you all know as soon as I know.

We're Making Some Changes Around Here

Though I'm originally a New England boy who currently resides in the most unforgiving reaches of the American Southwest, once upon a time I lived in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I went to college there, left for two years, and then came back. All told, I spent a decade in the Keystone State. As such, I can tell you with authority that the state bird is without a doubt an orange traffic cone. When you enter the state, the sign at the border says "Welcome to Pennsylvania: State Under Construction." It's just a rule of life there.

The same can be said of this very website. I've been known to tinker with it rather consistently, especially as means of procrastination from the writing I know I should be doing. But it's been a long time since I've given it a major facelift--or it had been until this past weekend.

On Sunday my girlfriend asked me to help her design the ,website for her editing business (And yes, I highly recommend her as a copy editor). I helped her put together a template, and then she took over the rest of the design process. Personally I think it came out looking great. But of course working on her website got the wheels spinning on how to improve my own site. And thus we spent most of Sunday sitting next to each other with our laptops open working on our sites together.

In the end, I have to say that this site looks a lot cleaner and modern than it did before. The truth is, I'm a writer, not a graphic designer. Everything I've done with this website has been self taught through trial and error. But with every tweak, I get it looking a little bit more like the website I had originally imagined in my head.

Some of the biggest changes have come on the product pages for my books. They now have backgrounds that fit each title instead of the generic black. I've also given the review ads at the bottom of the ,The Forbidden Scrolls Trilogy and ,The Stairs in the Woods pages a makeover. I think the new ads are a significant improvement over the old ones--especially for Stairs, though the map background for the Scrolls one is pretty sweet too. You can check them all out by clicking the images below:

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That being said, even the black pages (such as this one) have texture now. I had never really been happy with the old look. I'm glad to say that as subtle as that change is, I think it makes a big difference in the professional quality of the site. Though if I have to claim a favorite page, it is the Error 404 page, because you have to have a sense of humor about things when they go wrong.

I'm also a lot happier with the homepage. It's significantly less cluttered than it used to. Keeping a gallery of the ads I'd done on the front page wasn't helping the look of things, no matter how much I might have l liked to show them off. Besides, you probably clicked on one of them to get to the website anyway, so it was a bit of repetitive overkill. And as a writer one of the things we have to learn to edit out is unnecessary repetition. Besides, now it's easier to find the link to ,sign up for my newsletter.

All in all, I'm happy with the results and I hope you are too. At the very least, I should be able to stop tinkering with it for a while and get back to writing one of the two books I'm currently working on.That's right, I'm working on two titles right now. My priority is getting the sequel to ,The Miranda Project ready for you all, but I've got a new dark fantasy novel in the pipeline as well. With luck, I should be able to work on both of them a little more over the rest of the summer now that this pet project is off my plate and I have no excuses ... you know, aside from my day job, my kid, the other responsibilities in my life that I need to put first.

In the meantime, hang in there. It's been a rough year for all of us so far. Here's hoping we have a lot more to look forward to in the second half of 2022.

Remembering Dawn Hosmer

As writers, we have an infinite number of words within us. All we know is that someday the ticking clock runs out long before the words do. It's the nature of all things, great and small, that they must inevitably end. As travelers upon this mortal plane, all we can do is hope to add our voices to the chorus of history. As authors, we put those words in print for all to see long after we're gone.

It's the same with any kind of artist. Each stroke of brush or pen is a chance to reach into the heart of an audience. Each clash of hammer upon chisel or bow upon string builds upon the ghosts of our own influences while shaping a voice that is uniquely our own. It is by sharing this voice that we create intimacy with those we share our art with. It's the window into our own soul.

The world lost a phenomenal voice today.

,Dawn Hosmer was a wonderful person and one of the most talented writers I’ve had the pleasure to have known since I began my writing journey. I've read two of her books, and I’m not ashamed to admit that ,The End of Echoes brought me to tears. It's a story that's inspired by real events in her life, as well as her career as a social worker.

I included my Amazon review of it below:

I vividly remember the moment her book broke me--a scene where a mother finds her son in a drug induced stupor, the result of long-unresolved grief. As a parent, it was far too real a thing to think of my own son like that. As an author, I knew that a reader telling me I made them feel something is the greatest compliment they can give. I sent her a direct message on Twitter: "Page 334. That's when you broke me." She laughed, and we commiserated for a while as we're both known for being fairly hard on the characters in our stories.

By pure happenstance, Dawn and I shared three release dates on our books. In fact, each of the books in my trilogy corresponded with the release of one of her books: ,The End of Echoes, ,Somewhere in Between, and ,Pieces & Parts. Because of that I got to know her a bit. We jokingly called each other our "book release buddies." We facetiously said we should tie all of our future releases together rather than break the tradition. We even did a TikTok live together last September on the last of our shared book release dates.

That was only a little over a month before her cancer diagnosis.

Dawn was a champion for other small indie authors like myself. She has a number of videos on ,TikTok with advice for other writers. ,Twitter is currently flooded with stories from authors all over the community sharing how she touched them, acted like a mentor, or was just a much needed friend.

She also devoured indie books as a way of supporting her fellow authors. This includes one of mine, even though fantasy isn't one of her preferred genres. I take the fact that she enjoyed it as the highest compliment, because her own writing is a high standard to live up to. It was captivating, and her voice will be sorely missed in the community.

Cancer is a thief and a killer. It steals time, of which we are already so limited. It steals the potential futures we can't even comprehend waiting ahead of us. It steals hope. It steals life. It steals words. I've lost multiple family members to cancer, and I've seen its horrors first hand. I'm grateful that the time between Dawn stopping treatment and passing was mercifully short. While cancer stole time, release took the burden of pain away from Dawn.

Unfortunately, death passes the pain along to those whom are closest to her. Her family and friends are grieving, and will be for some time. Additionally, the costs of healthcare in this country are astronomical, so they are not just struggling emotionally, but financially as well. If you feel inclined to help Dawn’s family in this difficult time, you may do so ,here. You may also buy her books by clicking on the picture below so that her voice lives on in you.

Welcome to the Dystopia

If you've followed me on any form of social media for a while, it's fair to say I'm not shy about my opinions. I've often kept my professional author website and blog clear of these opinions because they're not hard to find. And if you've read my books, it's not hard to see the allegory for racism, fascism, and other unacceptable isms represented by the villains within. But today I feel compelled to use this platform to say a few things that have been boiling over in my mind for a very long time. And to say them plainly and clearly, without the more palatable cloak of fiction covering them.

I believe January 6th, 2021 was an insurrection aimed at overthrowing our government. The evidence has been there from the beginning that this was an attempted coup by the sitting President of the United States, unwilling to accept the will of the people. I believe Donald Trump was one of the most corrupt people to hold public office in the history of this country. None of this is based on a left or right leaning view. Had he run as a Democrat I would say exactly the same thing. He's always been a conman throughout his life as a businessman, and sadly a lot of people have fallen for the con based around a politics of hate, division, and blame. And I believe he's still a threat to our form of democracy, as are his cronies that still hold power in our government.

Which brings us to today's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs Wade, and with it, the guaranteed right to privacy upon which so many of the landmark court decisions have been based. For instance, I believe we each have the right to love whomever we wish to love. We have the right to marry the people we love, regardless of gender or racial background. And we each have the right to decide what we can or should do with our own bodies.

With the fall of Roe vs Wade, the last right on that list is gone. Without the right to privacy, the others are all also in doubt. Justice Thomas has already made it clear in his concurring opinion today that gay marriage and contraception rights are next. This coming from a man whose wife was a vocal advocate of Donald Trump trying to overturn the election. And while Clarence Thomas has been on the Supreme Court for decades now, three of his contemporaries were chosen by a President with no regard for our Constitution or our Democracy. And it's not a stretch to say that each of them perjured themselves during their confirmation hearings when they all said under oath that Roe was settled law and that they would respect prescient. And if we learned nothing else in the 90's, it's that perjury is a valid reason to impeach a sitting president. I'm fairly certain the same standard applies when it comes to jurists on the highest court in the land (and no, I'm not talking about ,the basketball court on the 5th floor of the Supreme Court building).

Today's Supreme Court ruling isn't surprising. We've known it was coming for a while now. And even with the shadow of this decision looming over us, our elected officials have done nothing to stop it. In fact, numerous states have already been preparing for this decision by making abortion illegal again with no provisions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother being taken into account. Missouri didn't even wait for the ink on the decision to dry today, passing their own ban just minutes after the ruling was published. If a womb goes septic, an abortion is required to save the live of the woman. If a fertilized egg get stuck in the fallopian tubes, the only option is an abortion. And if a woman has been raped or otherwise abused, demanding her to carry a pregnancy to term is demanding her to relive her trauma every day.

Never mind the fact that it's just not anyone else's business what she does with her body. Or it shouldn't be. They can't even harvest your organs from your body after you die to save other lives unless you are a registered donor. They require your consent, even after your death. But now in the United States of America, your zip code will determine whether or not a woman will have more bodily autonomy rights than a corpse.

Meanwhile, Republicans will claim that they believe in a right to life. Yet they refused to act in anyway for the last twenty years to stop school shootings. They believe in the death penalty. The consistently vote to cut funding for food stamps, head start, and other daycare programs. They even voted against $28 Million for the current shortage of baby formula. The sick irony of that last item is summed up perfectly in this tweet I saw today:

On any given day in the United States, there are over 400,000 kids in the foster system. It's fair to say we have an epidemic of kids without homes as it is. And each one of these kids is thrown out of the system at the age of eighteen. Without a support system, many of them will end up on the streets. And this is what our overburdened system looks like in a world where women can legally and safely get an abortion. If this was really about saving the lives of children, we would do more for these kids who are already breathing. But we don't. Not nearly enough.

Additionally, the United States has a much higher infant mortality rate than many other developed nations. You can see data from as recently as ,2019 here. Bringing more unwanted children into the world won't help those statistics.

When I was writing my most recent novel ,The Miranda Project, I knew it was going to have a dystopian bent to it. The Centralized World Government in the story is quite clearly an allegory for fascism. But I set it nearly two hundred and fifty years into the future. Yet it's sad to say that every day that passes, we get closer and closer to living in an actual dystopia.

That's not to say that we don't have any recourse. We can vote in overwhelming numbers to put people in power who can change this. People can't sit out our elections any longer. If you are eligible to vote and don't believe in the future this extreme wing of our country wants to take us in, you have to act. You have to vote.

Does that mean occasionally holding your nose and voting for someone who doesn't share all of your ideals? Yes. But considering my Congressman is Andy Biggs, who is actively under investigation by the January 6th Select Committee for his role in the insurrection at the capital, there is no candidate running against him from the opposing political party that I will not vote for. These people need to be held accountable, and it starts with us throwing them out of office. And if they were involved in the attempted coup, they need to end up in prison.

The march of history is ever forward. Occasionally it takes a step backwards, but it corrects itself. It realigns itself to the values of the next generation. Humanity has survived dark times before, we'll survive this. But we won't survive it by hiding our heads in the sand and accepting it. Acceptance is off the table. Not when it comes to basic human rights like bodily autonomy.Edit:The banner that I made for this blog is now available on items in my ,merch shop. Every penny of profit from those sales will go directly to ,Planned Parenthood. Women deserve access to full and proper health care in this country, and abortion is health care. And we all have to do more than just scream into the void that is the internet right now. So this is me, doing something.

Here's a few of the items it will be available on:

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Two Years of Ruin

They say middle acts are the hardest ones to write. It's also one of the most important parts of the story as it's where the majority of the story takes place. And if we're being honest, it's easy to be excited about your inciting incident, and equally so about your climax. But how do you keep the momentum going in the center? And while each novel comes with its own challenges, writing the second book of a trilogy is certainly a unique challenge in its own right. It is the quintessential middle act, from the first word to the last.

So how did I put together a middle act I would argue is possibly the best book in my ,Forbidden Scrolls Trilogy? Well, I dug into another story I loved in order to create the best middle act I possibly could. And this particular tale is arguably the best middle act in all of film:

The Empire Strikes Back.

Now, with all due respect to The Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes Back is easily my favorite second act in cinema. It's also my favorite Star Wars film, and not just because it's the first movie I remember seeing in the theater as a kid. It's a story where the bad guys win, yet it still ends on a hopeful note despite all that's gone wrong along the way.

Hope is the underpinning of all things Star Wars. However, when ,Redemption & Ruin ends, it certainly doesn't feel like there's a lot of hope left on the horizon. Frost has a growing army of undead, multiple elemental scrolls in his possession, and Juliya is left devastated with a heart in turmoil. So it's fair to say that there's not a direct comparison between how Empire and Ruin play out.

But what I wanted to emulate from Empire was its tone. Specifically the idea of it being a race against time--Luke's race against the future he's foreseen in order to save his friends vs Juliya and her companions' race to find the scrolls to save their world. It's the race that gives the story its tension and keeps the audience engaged.

This concept of a race keeps the pace of the story relatively high despite ,Redemption & Ruin having the the highest word count of any of my books so far. It doesn't feel longer than the other books in the trilogy even though it actually is. I think that is one of the book's many strengths.

It's also a book that enacts a high emotional toll on the reader. There are some characters we've spent a good amount of time with up to this point whose journey ends in this book. Some of those endings come rather unexpectedly, though all of those deaths are done in service to the growth of other characters. It's not lost on this author that the necessity of those deaths doesn't make them any less shocking or bittersweet.

Originally, ,Redemptions & Ruin was just supposed to be the working title for the novel. It was my mission statement going into the writing process of what I wanted this book to be about. There are two redemption arcs being tackled within the story. And things end poorly for both characters involved. Redemption doesn't always come with a clean slate--sometimes you have to pay for your sins. Other times someone you care about has to pay the piper for you. Because of that, I found it fitting and kept ,Redemption & Ruin as the final title. It simply felt right.

Middle acts continue to be difficult to write. I can attest to this as I'm currently working on book two of ,The Miranda Project. I'm well aware of the fact I left Alex and company with a lot of work still to do at the end of the first book, and I'm hoping to put out another compelling second act for you all to devour. In the meantime, make sure you wish ,Redemption & Ruin a happy birthday today. And if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for?

When Fantasy and Reality Collide

It true that every story comes from somewhere. It has an inspiration, conscious or not. It could be a dream, or something that's happened to the teller. It could be anecdotal or literal. It could be a commentary on the world itself. And it's fair to say that the overall message of a story may elude even it's author until the tale is told to near completion.

Its a unique business, writing, in that you can start writing a novel with just a character and a situation and it'll morph as the tale grows. Lord knows that's happened enough times with my books. Maybe its a side effect of me being a pantser, or discovery writer as opposed to a plotter or a planner. But every one of my books has a message buried in the text that I may not have even been considering at the time I put my fingers to the keys.

My first book, ,The Stairs in the Woods, I started writing while I was going through a divorce. And while my divorce was amicable, I had a lot to process. Divorce plays a large part in the story, specifically with Kaitlynn's parents and how it affected her life leading up to the story. Her father's cancer diagnosis is also something I've dealt with in my family. For me, those themes were pretty easy to see, because the were personal.

When I started writing ,The Forbidden Scrolls I was working within the framework of a character, a villain, and a situation that had been rattling around in my head for roughly fifteen years. I knew certain things about these characters going in, but as the book unfolded it became clear that I was also telling a tale about racism. Juliya is a half-elf from a city that takes all the people like her and throws her into the slums. Frost is a necromancer born from the human family that rules that city. And when you think about it, its not exactly a leap to see how dehumanizing one group of people makes it easier to dehumanize everyone.

When you consider everything that was going on in the world when I was writing these three books, with the BLM movement, the Muslim ban, and the ongoing battles for LGBTQ+ rights, the parallels are there, intentional or not. These are things that I have been vocal about my opinions on because to me they are not issues that should be simply waved away as "political differences." Political differences should be about how we spend the tax money, not over human rights. These are about who we value in this country.

At it's core, my latest release, ,The Miranda Project is a story about a fascist future. At the time I was writing it, having Moscow as the home of the Centralized World Government made sense. When the war in Ukraine started I considered delaying the book's release. after a lot of thought, I decided to go ahead with the April 5th release date--but I've kept all the marketing I've devoid of mentions of anything that could appear to be taking advantage of a truly horrible situation. Its also made it very hard to get started on the second book in the series. I don't want to look like I'm trying to capitalize on a crisis.

Which brings me to my current work in progress. I decided to start working on a new fantasy story while ,The Miranda Project was with my editor. The last thing I wanted was to have started book 2 and then have to scrap it all if I'd needed major rewrites. I did the same thing by starting ,The Miranda Project between ,Redemption & Ruin and ,The Last Sorcerers.

This new story is about a young woman who is a reluctant servant of a dark entity. This entity can literally puppet her through her own shadow, taking control of her and making her do his bidding. At it's core it was supposed to be a story about being forced to choose between doing the evil yourself in order to maintain some semblance or illusion of control, or do you fight it and end up committing the act anyway because this creature can control you.

I had started writing the story a few months ago, and I'm now twenty-two-thousand words into it. With the leak of the likely overturning of Roe v Wade last week, this is yet another story that hits a little too close to the mark as it does focus on a woman's lack of bodily autonomy. The problem is that I really like where the story is going if I can force myself to sit down and write it in the middle of this current firestorm.

As someone who often writes from a place of darkness, there's always the chance of diving too deep down the rabbit hole. It what caused the delay in the release of ,The Last Sorcerers. Once again, the fantasy was a little too close to the reality of the moment. Once again I don't want to look like I'm trying to capitalize on a crisis. But at the same time, analogous as they may be, art, music, writing--much of it has always been political in nature and this is a way I can raise my voice.

Maybe someday I'll write something lighter. That would be nice, right? And maybe even all the characters will live happily ever after. But as someone who sits at a position of privilege as a white male in America, I feel it's important to keep writing these types of stories. By keeping the tales analogous, I am hopefully not silencing any of the voices that need to be heard. I'll leave it up to them to write the stories in a more direct manner. But we all should raise our voices when we see injustice. And hopefully you all can enjoy the ride along the way.