My first completed novel – currently unpublished – took me several years to write. This was the novel that got me motivated to venture beyond non-fiction magazine articles. The positive feedback I got from beta readers was a rush! What started as a duology ended as an epic five-book series.
Synopsis of book one
My novel, Earth Heart, has intelligent dragons like Eragon, alternate Earths like The Golden Compass, and magic like Harry Potter.
It’s a middle-grade story – present-day – that begins with a boy chased into a cave by neighborhood bullies. Ryan’s refuge is a nexus of alternate dimensions, where he discovers that a problem – like getting beat up – is insignificant. Earth Heart is also about Tourmaline, an intelligent dragon linked with Ryan and Orion, Ryan’s doppelganger from a world called Thear.
Ryan’s adventure begins with visions of other worlds, an egg and dragon. His fears are countered by his “inner nature geek.” Even when Ryan’s eyes turn metallic blue and match Tourmaline’s, and his senses sharpen as the dragon grows: he thinks it’s cool. But in the back of his mind, he wonders why it’s happening.
Orion appears from thin air and reveals that Ryan and Tourmaline are prophesized ‘saviors’ of his world. The two teens and their worlds may look alike but are not. Thear has sorcerers, Majik and strange technology. Familiar faces have different names, dead and living parents are switched.
A sorcerer guides them to a school dedicated to winning a battle with their foe at the end of The Year of Good and Evil. Their lessons are strange and dangerous – flying dragon-back, learning spells, and strategies to fight their counterparts, representing evil. They wonder how they can survive lessons and sorcerers with hidden agendas, much less enemies who were born with Majik skills.
Earth Heart’s backstory and resources
I will add content including how I came to write a 600,000+ word novel and some educational resources for teachers and readers from a website I developed a few years ago.