BOOKS THAT HAD A STRONG INFLUENCE ON ME AND MY WRITING

You know, I just got to take a minute and give it to these people: J.K. Rowling, J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Paolini and Dan Brown. In particular, 'Harry Potter' for making me fall in love with reading and magic, 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' for making me love adventure and epic battles, 'Eragon' specifically for introducing me to all-things dragon, and 'The Davinci Code' for its mystery brain teasers.

VICTORIA CARNAHAN BOOK

I just finished adding the last edits to the Victoria Carnahan and the Red Cloaks novelette I've been writing.

For some reason, I'm really thrilled about it! Probably because it's only my second written work. Once again, 'VC and the Reds' is going to be published on Kindle and several other e-book readers as soon as I get my ISBNS, along with Peter Simmons and the Sovereign. I already have a fantastic cover for Peter Simmons and the Sovereign, which was drawn up for me, from scratch, by Igor Lukyanov - who is a very talented artist. Google him if you don't believe me. So, I guess the time is right to get me a Victoria Carnahan 'jacket illustration'...

WHAT GOT ME WRITING

I started my writing at the age of fifteen, after having read Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Alchemist.

Prior to taking up the pen, so to speak, I used to love drawing. As a child, I would always produce battlefield scenes and 'crayon' storylike illustrations of wizards and witches dancing around cauldrons with their broomsticks, whilst nocturnal beasts lurked in the background and owls hooted at croaking crows and ravens.

So I guess you could say I was born a storyteller.

Full of hopes, I began working on what I belived would go on to become the world's best fantasy story, but my first attempt at writing a book was discontinued after 90 pages. The reason being, I learned, from an external source, that my book had way too many similarities with another fantasy book which was already in print.

Upset, but not beaten, I decided to come up with a new plot, which took a while. Soon enough, I was typing again, occasionally on a typewriter, but more often on a PC. About a year later I had Eldar Cornavian sitting on my desktop and collecting digital dust. So I decided to send it to several publishers. I believe I got three rejections and one 'yes' from a publishing house which offered two options, one of which was they cover all the costs and take eighty percent (I belive) of the book's royalties, and the other we go in fifty-fifty. I chose the latter.

However, the publishing process almost immediately became a farrago of God knows what, and I, what with being an adventure-seeking teenager at the time, gave up on the idea and started doing too much socialising and not enough writing.

But years elapsed and the teenage spirit petered out as I hit the twenties, and after watching Christopher Nolan's Inception, I, for some unknown reason, felt compelled to write again. So I rewrote Eldar Cornavian, spiced it up, if you will, and named it Alex Cornavian. Much to my disappointment, the Alex project had to be terminated. My new storyline obstinately refused to fuse together with the old one.

So, I guess this takes us to Peter Simmons, the book which took me about two years to plot and write. In fact, I've done so much plotting that the whole Peters Simmons 'saga' will be anywhere from five to eight installments long.

And her I am now, a twenty-three-year-old writer waiting for his ISBNS, looking forward to unleashing his child into the world to see how it does.

HELLO EVERYONE

So, here I am, writing my first post on Blogger.  The reasons being (a) I hope to interact with people who share my interests, and (b) I'd like to generate excitement about what I enjoy doing most, which is writing and creating worlds.

I'm currently in the tedious process of awaiting my ISBNS, and as soon as I receive them I plan to publish my first book, a fantasy novel titled Peter Simmons and the Sovereign, which is the first installment in the Peter Simmons series, on Kindle, as well as on several other 'e-book readers'.

Of course as soon as I upload Peter Simmons and the Sovereign to the necessary sites, I'll post links for it.

Let's see, what else can I say? I'm currently working on a novelette called Victoria Carnahan, which is the shortest written work I've ever produced. Unfortunately, I haven't yet given it to anyone to read and rate. However, Peter Simmons has been read by a number of people, all whom supposedly loved it. Which is very nice to hear.

Now, I'd like to conclude this post by talking about my main source of inspiration and motivation, for one needs both in order to keep trudging through life. Kindness, is what does it for me, as well as love. And here are both at their very best in this wonderful youtube video.

Anyhow, I guess that's all for now, folks.