I get asked all the time...

So what's your book series about anyway...? Boy, that's a toughie! Have you ever had to boil down 1,000,000 words into 100 or so? Not the easiest thing in the world is it? In fact, if you've never been forced to do it, you have no idea how vitally important that skill is and how hard it is to accomplish in a meaningful way.

I'll share the blurb with you and then go into more detail. So here's the blurb:

"In the wake of the banned, and now infamous, Damon's Damnation spell, one immeasurably powerful outlaw mage tests the boundaries of corruption undone, of fate, and of a justice purpose-built for him. In his obsession to gain enough power to test these boundaries, he tests the boundaries of Creation itself, affecting the seeds of Humanity throughout the known Universe. The accumulation all this power begins and ends with a triad of pivotal relationships, and with his evolving understanding of his own soul. This is the story of his execution of his Master Plan to thwart the very fate he brought into existence with the making of A Throne of Souls."

In those 110 words, I've given you a lot of unique and/or relatively unique material—Damon's Damnation for one. Now, I'll grant you I haven't read every single book known to man, but I've read my fair share, and I've never read anything remotely close to a story that revolves around the ability to re-direct a soul from its fated destiny to one of the mage's choosing. I've never seen that kind of balance-of-power shift in a story before. Maybe I should clarify more, in my story souls are power and power, as well know, is useful... Thus, Damon is going to earn the wrong kind of attention from the most powerful forces known.

That naturally leads us into Damon's Master Plan... I'm not going to lay an anti-hero like Damon at your feet without thoroughly explaining what makes a character like that tick. I'll do that early in book 2 for you, but what's important for the reader to understand is that Damon HAS BEEN a monster a great deal of his life. We can argue and debate over the how, the why, and the intensity of this, but it's safe to say Damon is not, and has not been a nice man. He does, however, have many redeemable traits: forthrightness, honesty, transparency, hard work ethic, unconditional love, friendship, and loyalty. What I want the reader to consider and ponder is, what could Damon have been if not influenced by the events that made Damon Damon in the first place? There is the rightful argument to be made that Damon's being a monster led him into very dangerous circles early in his life that led him to seek out as much power as possible as early in life as possible, and that he could never have become the immeasurably powerful mage we see now without going the 'monster' path. That's a totally valid argument and one we should also consider. That kind of thinking is exactly what makes this anti-hero so intriguing. But back to the Master Plan for a moment, these are cards I'm going to hold close to my vest, and for good reason, but from the Fork of Consequences, you can see a great deal about the sides that are shaping up and who'll lead them. I'm pretty much broadcasting that information at several points in book 1 and book 2. If you think you can derive from that how the story ends, you're dead wrong. I'd liken it to knowing the head coaches of the teams facing one another in the Super Bowl. So what, does that tell you the outcome of the game or make it a less compelling event to watch? Hardly... The thing I love the most about this story is that it's not your typical 'good' vs. 'evil' that we've all seen, heard, and read a thousand times before. That alone makes this story unique, not counting uniqueness of Damon's Damnation and all its consequences, or the uniqueness of the Seeds of Humanity plot-threads. I could go on and on about the things in this story that are unique, or relatively unique to other things you've read previously, but you get the idea. There are going to be events that, on the surface, appear like 'good' vs. 'evil' but don't you believe it for a minute. That's not where this story is going.

That naturally leads us into what is this story really about...? I could have made the blurb read like this, "This is the story about Hate AND Hope, not Hate vs. Hope." And that would have been entirely accurate, however, it's not enough compelling information to read the story or click on 'buy.' Hate AND Hope are two sides of the same coin, and they must learn to co-exist. The equilibrium of power mandates it. The question is, what does that equilibrium look like at the end of the story vs. the beginning? Another central question is, which characters fall into the Hate group and which fall into the Hope group—and which neither. It's a fascinating and compelling story, rich and dripping with character development decades in the making. I hope you richly enjoy it with all my best hopes and wishes.

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