First off, I would like to extend a heartfelt apology, particularly to Jason, for going off the rails in July and taking it out on everyone else. The hiatus helped me recenter myself and gain some perspective. If I had to guess at what happened, it was a combination of the psychological effects of the lockdown exacerbated by mounting frustrations with the direction my life was going or lack thereof at the time. Where this ties into the subject heading is that I returned home to Lethbridge for some needed r-and-r and the pastor of my parents' church referred me to a publisher out of Victoria, British Columbia called Friesen Press. For a fee they would publish the book and offer services such as copyediting and distribution. It's not a cheap service, it's costing me $8,000 CDN but it's an acceptable price for seeing a longtime dream become reality.
As for the novel itself. There's another thread where I announced the project which had since gone through seven major revisions to its current form. The first book ended up being too big at almost 150,000 words thus I split it into two books while working on what is now Book Three. It's a sci-fi/fantasy novel inspired by both Tokusatsu from across the Pacific and American superheroes (though more the former as the Power Rangers/Super Sentai franchise) so it would appeal to the tastes of the members of this board.
- The Back Cover copy | +
- Riley “Brendan” Major is a middle-aged geek trapped in a dead-end retail job and feeling that his life is one colossal failure. Strange dreams of another life plague him, dreams of superheroes and monsters that become frighteningly real when a boy in red armour appears and accuses Riley of a betrayal from decades past, then kills him in revenge. Instead of dying, Riley wakes up in a timeless Neverland-like world where he is a child again, and people he had lost in the real world are alive once more.
There he discovers he is one of five people who were part of a group called the Knights of the Cosmic Grail. He is Brendan, Phoenix Knight of the Blazing Light. Dark forces beyond imagination have reappeared in that world, and he and the other knights must battle them. As he strives to adjust to life in a world that only existed in his childhood daydreams, he and his compatriots must find a way to work together. If they cannot protect this world that the boy in red exiled them to, the world they were forced to leave behind will also suffer.
You could say the genesis of the idea happened when
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers first aired on YTV when I was starting fourth grade back in 1993. I used to spend vast amounts of time daydreaming adventures of my friends and myself as superheroes in a similar vein and even role-played those adventures out on occasion. Given how abominable 2020 has been and I have no optimism for the coming year I just felt that I needed to recreate that youthful hope I once have by writing some escapist fiction that Hollywood seems to be incapable of doing now.
If all goes well,
Book One: The Phoenix Rises should launch Summer 2021. I just sent some revisions to the the editor and I'm trying to figure what I want for a cover. Wish me luck, guys. This is something that makes me feel like my life has some momentum again.
