My writing journey in a nutshell

Today, I decided to reminisce a bit about my writing journey. I’ve discussed it in my blog before, and there are some details in my various bios, but I don’t think I’ve ever provided a thorough explanation from beginning to end.

I currently write dark epic fantasy set in my world of Lucardia. I conceptualize my style as a blend of three of my favorite authors Frank Herbert (Dune), Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth), and Clive Barker (Hellraiser). I’ve completed three books of a six-book series called Absolution of the Morning Star, and I am currently working on the final chapters of Koen (currently at 121,215 words), a prequel to that series. But I didn’t start with dark fantasy, and although I’ve fallen in love with the genre, I am not well-read in it. My reading love tends to fall into horror and non-fiction, specifically history. I have read my fair share of other genres, but those are my sweet spots. My bookcase has mostly historical texts on imperial China, with a few fiction books thrown in for good measure.

I have dreamed of being an author since I was a boy and dabbled here and there with short stories. I got my best grades in my English classes in high school and received some encouragement for my writing skills in my scholarly work in college, but I didn’t try my hand at writing novels until 2005 after I moved to China.

The first book I wrote was a gritty paranormal thriller that blended the lore of The Nine Unknown Men by Talbot Mundy (1923) with a dash of Vril: The Power of the Coming Race by Edward Bulwerr-Lytton (1871). My antagonists were the Nazis, and my protagonist was a Harvard history professor caught in a worldwide struggle between good and evil (a little tropey, I know). The book starts with the Nazi expedition to Tibet (1938-1939), where the Nazis receive a powerful book from Tibet’s Regent, Reting Rinpoche, that unlocks the psychic power of Vril. The expedition was an actual event and a fascinating story on its own, though, one already told in Himmler’s Crusade by Chris Hale. At the time, Lhasa was a mysterious place, and the Nazi’s appeared there at an interesting transitional moment when Tibet had just found Tenzin Gyasto, the current Dalai Lama. In my tale, the regent is on the verge of losing his power and bestows upon the Nazis this treasured book to gain the support of Hitler in a coup. The text ultimately encourages the Nazi’s attempt to conquer the world. As fantastical as it sounds, much of the story has a semblance of truth, demonstrating that reality can be stranger than fiction. The novel attempted to blend the Divinci code (which was huge then) with Indiana Jones. Although it was a good idea and still has potential, it was my first novel and should never see the light of day. I’ve tried to rewrite it twice, but sometimes things aren’t worth saving.

My second book was what would become The Slaying of the Bull, a historical fiction with a touch of fantasy set during the first Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241. I wrote most of it a decade ago (I started in China and continued until I entered graduate school) and tried to get it traditionally published back when I was still very green as a writer. I returned to it during COVID when the pandemic gave me some more free time and rewrote much of the book. I love history and read more non-fiction than fiction. The Bull was my attempt at delving into that love. It was supposed to be a series called the Tocharian Gospels, but writing historical fiction is very draining in time and energy, and the readership is demanding. Ultimately, I think what they really want are history books and not fiction. They nitpick every detail and let you know if you take slightly more artistic license with the historical fact than they are comfortable with (I received a one-star rating because of that, which was very deflating). After the years of work and research I put into that book, I decided it was not my genre. I’ve written one hundred pages (27,952 words) of the sequel but decided to shelf it for now. I had big plans for the series, but ultimately, I did not write to my audience, and I don’t know if it can recover.

After the Bull’s first iteration, I started and gave up on several more books. I began a Sci-fi that took place on Saturn’s moon, Titan, a Zombie tale set in Alaska, and another historical fiction about the founding of the Ming Dynasty with an imperial eunuch as the protagonist. All got to a certain point and pittered out. I have a strong science background, but not strong enough to write believable science fiction, Zombies were being (and still are) done to death, and I ran into the same research bog with the historical fiction.

Then came the Island of Stone, my first self-published tale (the retooling of The Slaying of the Bull came soon after). Again, I wrote this book many years ago and tried to get it traditionally published as well. I came very close (I even told my family that I had finally “made it”…ugh), but it fell through, and I ran out of energy. I then did not write a word for about a decade as I focused on my life and career. Buying and remodeling a house was a big part of this pause. During COVID, I rewrote the book and threw it out into the world. I mean, why not? The tale falls into the paranormal horror genre with some urban fantasy. I planned a series for this arch as well and have written 78 pages of the sequel (20,648 words), but then I started writing a tale that came to me in a dream, and a short three months later, I had Dawn of the Lightbearer, book 1 of the Absolution of the Morning Star series.

Dawn of the Lightbearer was a transformational book for me, mainly because it all came at once, and I couldn’t write it fast enough. It began as a simple tale that was initially going to be a pirate story but morphed into a fantasy that blossomed into an epic. After not scratching the writing itch for so long, I guess it grew to a rash once I started playing with it again. Dawn of the Lightbearer remains the most profound writing moment of my life, a time when the story flowed unobstructed from my mind to the page. It was also during the historic isolation of COVID, which is forever burned into our shared conscience. The story continued with The Mourning Son and then Noonday in the North. My next project will be book four, Destiny of the Daystar. Dawn of the Lightbearer was also my first fantasy book. Growing up, I didn’t read much fantasy, but I enjoyed it, especially in film. In writing the genre, I discovered I could combine my love of medieval history (without the constraints of being 100% historically accurate) and blend it with occult and paranormal horror aspects. It was my ah-ha moment, so I ran with it and retooled my whole approach and image. I now consider myself a dark fantasy author.

Well, that is my writing journey in a nutshell. Like my life, it has been serpentine. I plan to stay in my Lucardian world until I tire of it. It is a rich and diverse world with a long history, so it may be a while. Besides the three books remaining in the Absolution of the Morning Star series, I have a list of 27 possible stories in that universe- maybe even a lifetime’s worth if some turn into a series. Am I making a mistake spending a career in that world? Who cares? There is no place I’d rather be.

Cheers!