LET ISLENA DORAUX’S EPIC JOURNEY BEGIN…
The hinge of destiny is waiting to turn upon your actions. Forget your old world and your old life. They are as inaccessible to you as if you had been sealed in your grave. Until you heed the call to which you were destined nothing can ever be as it was. You must forget all of the affectations of this world and go willingly into the waters of this new one. There, you must find your true self and only at the culmination of this journey of self-discovery will you have any hope of regaining that which has been taken from you.”
Tarot woman, Dominique Normandy to Islena Doraux.
With these cold and intractable words of advice, Islena Doraux begins her Journey through the Land of Shades…and I begin a new and exciting phase of my writing career. The love of fantasy is deeply inculcated in my nature…a passion stirred to life by the tales of Arthur and his knights of the round table and fostered by genre masters such as Steven Erikson and George RR Martin. Writing in the fantasy genre is a liberating and euphoric undertaking and it is in this state of mind, I begin the next phase of my creative life. Just as Elizabeth Simpson and Cynara Saravic defined me as a horror author, so too will Islena Doraux will come to define the nature of my passion for this beautiful genre. The Journey series will be separated into two distinct, but related cycles. Islena’s epic tale of tribulation, woe and perseverance will span three…possibly four volumes. The concluding two volumes of the Journey series will recount events that occur some seven years after Islena’s world-spanning quest has reached its end.
Clearly, I will be busy.
For now, the focus of the series and its terrible burden of destiny fall squarely upon the capable shoulders of the enigmatic Islena Doraux. This tale pays oblique homage to the Arthurian legend and the influence Arthur’s deeds exerted upon my fantasy sensibilities. I can promise that…should those who share my love for this genre elected to accompany Islena…they will traverse the emotional landscape, plumbing the depth of despair and horror and rising to the euphoric heights that come with personal redemption and enduring virtue, along the way.
This site has undergone an overhaul to reflect the new creative direction I’ve taken. The Antiquated Lands (the world in which Islena’s grim odyssey will unfold) are a complex and mysterious place, fraught with menace and rich with back story. The new site will allow me greater latitude in providing a measure of insight into the elements that are only hinted at in the actual novels. Through other tabs, visitors can view the topographical map and read the primers that I’ve written to provide readers with further detail on the culture and mythos that forge the world the forged the Antiquated Lands to be what they were circa Islena’s coming. Both the Map and the Primer are living documents and as the story unfolds, they two will continue to evolve…adding depth to the tapestry.
It’s taken twenty years from the first pen stroke, but finally Islena’s tale is ready to be told…so dim the lights and let the Journey begin.
