I have a number of people to thank for helping me become a novelist. The list starts with my wife, Jo and our daughter, Brooke. Both were always ready to read a manuscript and offer corrections and suggestions; and, most of all their support.

I would liken becoming a novelist to someone walking through a mine field, with their fingers in their ears. Vern Sanders, Mike Koontz, and Gene Rutland have been with me since the first day. Their support was instrumental to my success, as I found my way as a writer.

In August of 2005, I began a year long process of emergency surgery, follow up surgery, and then more surgery. I began with a ruptured colon, but ended with a healthy outlook and body, plus a new friend, Dr. Ron Myatich, who by the way saved my life. It is strange how coming to the edge of losing everything can refocus your goals on what you want to do with the time you have left. Writing was not a new past time for me, with over seventy magazine articles to my credit. But I made up my mind to tackle something larger; to write a novel when I got back on my feet. So, the wheels were already turning and I filled a notebook full of ideas about the world of Rythmar, during my recovery. 

I began writing Keepers of Royal Blood in 2006. I finished in 2008 and realized the story I had to tell was much larger than just one book. At this point, I also made an important decision. My writing heroes were Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin. I gobbled up everything they had in print, and adventure fantasy just did not get any better. Unfortunately, they had one bad trait in common. They never finished telling their story. Avid readers like myself, were left waiting for years for the next book. The decision I reached, was simply this. When my last book in the narrative was finished, then I would make the entire series available to the reading world, and not before. I did not realize this would reach six books, in two trilogies’, and take fourteen years, but that is what it took. 

When I finished Royal Blood, Dawn, and Thistle, I knew I had not finished telling the story I had inside. But, it was time to give Reyn, Kyrlara, and the others a break. A segway of five hundred plus years, seemed like a good break to develop a new set of characters. I also wanted to develop the medallions much further than the first triology, so that the face of the medallion actually changed to reflect the bearer’s skill set.

Good editors are a double-edged sword, as well as a blessing. I’ve been fortunate to have two great ones. Dr. Gene Rutland, and my classmate from the Citadel, Colonel Jim Cardo. It is a tribute to them both that they can dissect my manuscripts and we have remained close friends all these years. It is all just part of the process and I have actually learned the proper use of the word “only”. If only I could remember. Just kidding, If I could only remember.

My artist, Jennifer Soth, from Seattle Washington, gets all the credit for the book covers, illustrations, and detail maps of the World of Rythmar. I’m just amazed at how she can take a simple narrative from me, or a crude map I’ve scratched out on the back of an envelope, and produce something that looks so much like the way I see it in my mind, that it is scary. What a talent. 

I was blessed as a young adult to fall in love with archery. I was doubly blessed to live at a time in the Carolina’s where I could put this passion to good use on white-tailed deer and feral hogs. In the early eighties, archery split in two directions. Ultra-high tech went one direction and traditional archery went the other. I tried compound bows, but they just did not hold any interest for me. However, a traditional recurve or long bow was like holding a piece of enchanted wood. In no time at all I was making my own arrows out of Douglas Fir and fletching them with wild turkey feathers. The whole thing was magic. Tom and Owen Jeffery of Jeffery Archery had a lasting impact on my life and ultimately on my writing. 

People like Charlie Bales, Bob Vannerson, Doug Walters, and Curt Elliott pushed me to develop the skill set I have today. Never did it dawn on me that I would use some of these skills in my writing.

The other undertaking I have found besides writing, and archery, where you can always learn more is fly fishing. Side-bar, fly fishing and fly tying are synonymous with me and inseparable. Now, I did not gravitate to fly fishing. My father started me when I was five years old. I picked up fly tying about twenty five years ago thanks to Curt Elliott. I’ve known some exceptional fly fishermen, and just like exceptional hunters and exceptional writers, they all have one trait in common. That is, they have a passion to learn more about their craft. And, this passion never stops. Not only are they immersed in their pursuits, they are a student of it. They strive to know the names of everything. If it is the trees around them, the names of all the insects in the trout streams, or the latest in word hyphenation. They never stop working to become better at what they do.

I’m quite sure this trait blends well in all the professional occupations such as law and medicine among many, if not most others. And I am likewise sure that what separates the exceptional from the middle of the road is this internal hunger to always get better, to always learn more.

My wife’s nephew James Cutrell contributed to the original design of the Medallion of Vanatee. And, he also contributed to several of the quotes from the Book of Counted Evils. James has a level of talent that is difficult to measure. I hope he can one day get the story he has inside down on paper. He may be the one person I have met that has a more vivid imagination than I do.

Lastly, I would like to thank my readers. You invest your time and resources in the story I have to tell. Without a faithful following, an author is nothing. So, I thank you for believing in me from the bottom of my heart. I promise in return to always give you the very best I am capable of giving. 

I will close with a quote from Norman Vincent Peale which has been my guiding light in this long endeavor. 

Throw your heart over the fence, and the rest will follow.