Words Of Wisdom For New Authors From The Artist

As a young teen, I loved comic books. I started creating my own comic book characters and stories. I even drew a little. I wanted to be the next Stan Lee or Jack Kirby but my artistic skills didn’t pan out. I went the writing route instead. I joined the US Navy as a Navy Journalist, but I wrote mostly news releases, feature articles, and press releases. It was during that time that I started developing my writing skills and developed my story into the Forever Avalon series. I can also say my time playing Dungeons and Dragons helped me with world building, character creation, and developing a story. All of that was part of the game so it helped me in my writing.

I am a full-time writer, both personally and professionally. I work as a writer-editor with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. My job is to try to make the complex writings of government rules and regulations more readable and clearer for everyday people. At night, I work on everything for my novels, from social media posts, marketing, and writing whatever work in progress I have.

Don’t give up on your dream. I work on my craft every day, and I hope to make my mark as a writer, but the fact is, I’m doing what I love. It’s not easy, costs a lot of money (I spend more than I make on royalties) but I don’t want to stop. I love being a storyteller. When people read my books and love my story, it means I’m doing it right. That makes it all worth it to me. I would love the fame and fortune, but just being a storyteller is enough right now. Writers are the keepers of the myths and legends and our stories will carry one for generations.

The Author’s Works

The Last Magus: A Clockwork Heart

Cover art by Anna-Lena Spies. Animation by Morgan Wright.

Can a single act of kindness forge a new destiny? Marcus Gideon, left for dead at a crossroads with no memories of his past, was saved by a clockwork heart in his chest. Rescued by a Magus, the legendary warrior-wizards of Attlain, Gideon looks to his future as an apprentice, looking to redeem the legacy of the Magus and his master while searching for his past.

The Author’s Thoughts

I grew up as a child of the nuclear age, living through the Cold War, wondering how the world would end. You had so many post-apocalyptic movies and books in the 60’s through the 80’s, so much so that it overwhelms the mind. I wondered what would happen if the world ended by magic? That’s where this story came from. I imagined magic returning to the world, in such a force, that cities and countries would fall, people and animals would change form, and the world would start anew. But I also didn’t want a pure fantasy world, so I thought about my new favorite genre . . . steampunk. What if I combined magic and machines and built a world around that. It may look and act like a “Tolkien-esque” world, but it is one of magic and machine where the two mingle and merge into one.

It’s had to be original in things today. No matter what you write, there will always be comparisons to other authors within your genre. The best thing is find a niche you can carve out of that genre and call it your own. I try to do that with worlds, characters, relationships, even some of magic systems I create. It will help me in identifying what are my stories.

Forever Avalon

Cover art by Dennis Saputra. Animation by Morgan Wright.

Imagine an island of eternal magic where the descendants of King Arthur rule over a land of elves, dwarves, and dragons. For more than 3000 years, Avalon has existed outside of time and space, only assessible through the Bermuda Triangle. Now, a modern family find themselves stranded on the enchanted isle, caught in a plot to seize the throne of New Camelot. Can they return to the outside world or are they destined to remain on Avalon?

The Author’s Thoughts

The Forever Avalon series takes a “what happened next” approach after the death of King Arthur. Arthur’s death was seen as the end of magic in our world, so I explained how that happened through Merlin and the power of Excalibur. All magic was removed from our world and brought to the island of Avalon, hidden behind a barrier. Plus, bringing in myths like the Bermuda Triangle and the disappearance of ships and aviators (finding their way through the barrier to Avalon) adds to the mystery. All of this experienced through the eyes of a modern family makes my story unique. 

My story is about family. The story developed from my deployments in the US Navy, being separated from my family. I played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons as a young adult so I would dream about being with my family on a fantasy island. That dream changed as my family grew until my last deployment in 2001 when I decided to start writing it down and developed it into the story of Forever Avalon. After I finished writing it down, I stopped having the dream. It was fate, meant to be.

The Dark Tides

Book 2 of the FOREVER AVALON Series

The prophecy has come to pass as Morgana le Fay returns to Avalon. Possessing the daughter of the Gil-Gamesh, the sorceress unleashes the power of the Dark Tides to end the reign of Pendragon. The Gil-Gamesh, knight eternal of Avalon, must choose between saving his daughter or his king to stop Morgana's evil machinations.

The Author’s Thoughts

My goal is to be a storyteller and to carry on the myths and legends of old. That is why I picked the Arthurian legends as a basis for my Forever Avalon series. These were the first stories of monsters and magic, where all our stories began. I researched countless myths from England, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Germany and Russia. In The Dark Tides, I delved into African mythology for the residents of Togo, an island just off Avalon where a former slave ship landed. This allowed me to bring their unique mythology into this island of magic. I want to show that all of our myths and stories each have something similar in them. It shows how more alike we are than different. 

I love the villains in this story—Morgana le Fay, Lady Heather, and Captain John Avery—as they each have their own reason for what they do, whether its power, revenge, or greed. These are normal tropes for villains, but its their disdain for human life that makes them who they are. That’s the kind of evil people think only exists in books, and yet you see it every time you turn on the news. I want to destroy that evil with my stories.

The Outlander War

Book 3 of the FOREVER AVALON Series

In the heart of a naval exercise, Avalon suddenly reappeared in the Atlantic Ocean. The only thing protecting Avalon is their magical barrier, but it's slowly fading away. As modern military forces converge on the enchanted island, an ancient evil stirs to claim the throne of New Camelot. All that stands between Avalon and total destruction is the Gil-Gamesh, knight eternal and champion of Avalon.

The Author’s Thoughts

I always loved the idea of magic existing in our world and how the world would respond. That’s part of the premise for The Outlander War. What would happen if a magical island, inaccessible by modern technology, suddenly appeared in the Atlantic Ocean? What would the world governments do? How would they react? I used my 30+ years of experience in the U.S. Navy (active duty and as a civilian) to weave this story together. I tried very hard not to get political, as I do in all my writings, because in my opinion, people on the right and the left are fans of fantasy and science fiction. I don’t want to alienate anyone who might be interested in my book so I didn’t take any particular political slant.

The hardest part of writing this story was actually mixing together modern warfare with medieval magic. How would an elf archer take down an attack helicopter? Could a dragon sink a navy warship? These are the questions needed to be answered in this conflict. 

The other aspect of this was the villains. I wanted to use Mordred as a carryover from The Dark Tides, going from his mother, Morgana le Fay, to the immortal son. The other villain, Abdel ben Faust, was based on a character I played in Dungeons and Dragons in my youth. He was a badass swordsman who thought himself better than anyone else and believed that only the strong survive. This was a great basis for Faust and it also brought part of me into the story.