One of the purposes I envision for this website is to be a source of information about my books. I’ve been a storyteller going all the way back to Richie Rich times, and I’ve been growing more serious about my writing for a good many years now. The language arts are just something I do. My folks kept me supplied with books of all difficulty levels since as far back as I can remember. If it interested me, they got it. Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s analysis of shipwrecks might have been a bit over my head at age 5, but I took it in. Exposure to it made impressions on my young mutant brain.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2007. The need to write is growing, the need to create has reached the limits of my little hidey-hole, and I’m still crippled by a major obstacle. I don’t know if my ideas are any good, if I have the skill or the talent to present them, if I can even get them out there for people to accept or reject. The specter of the gatekeepers is just too intimidating for little ol’ me.

Something happens. Several personal pieces of my life come together right about the time I’m doing research into the publishing business. Reading the testimonials and essays of authors, agents, editors, publishers and commentators, I realize I’m blocked by something that doesn’t matter. I have no chance at all of success! Whatever I plan to do, it’s governed by complete luck. Talent, skill, money, connections, promotion – it’s all completely random and out of my control.

So I give up. I don’t care anymore, and all of a sudden I’m free, I’m liberated. I see what I am going to do. I’m going to write books until I don’t. I’m going to do it my way and experience what happens. And it happens. I write a book in three months, and I start studying ways to improve my writing. I format, edit and revise. I start looking at ways to get it out there to people. I’ve never been this serious about something in my entire life. I have a purpose.

This is where I stand today. The book is 290 pages. I’m about 34% through the first revision. The revisions are hard work, but worth it. When I complete them, I have someone I trust lined up to give me honest feedback and suggestions. Assuming the person says it’s good to go with no major changes, I’ll have to do a polish. I’m pushing to have everything done before this year ends (the holiday season would be personally meaningful and appropriate). It’s hard for me to not talk about it with people, because I’m so excited about what I’m doing. I’m impatient to start the next book, and the next, and the next.

But what you really want is a teaser, right?

Young Rordan the rustic wants to be a sage and help his brother advance. Kea the drifter wants to murder Rordan and make it look like an accident. At Regol Coros Academy, magic is leaking into ordinary life. If Rordan doesn’t uncover Kea’s secret, he must serve evil or die! But can either of them pay the price of magic’s discovery?