As a child, I had no interest in reading until I came across a copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. I was enchanted. By the time I'd finished the other books making up The Chronicles of Narnia, I was hooked on reading. I went on to read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In homage to these authors of epic fantasy, I began writing my first fantasy novel, Passage to the Underworld, at the age of ten. I finished the first draft by age 17.

Retsamdros is a prequel to Passage to the Underworld. It is the story of a courageous young man who inadvertently gets swept up in a revolution against the corrupt government of the city-state of Harafet. It is a thriller set in a fantasy setting, a tale of intrigue and deception, valor and swordplay. I began writing it in 1990, while I was a senior in college. I finished the first draft ten years later, when I unexpectedly found myself with a year’s paid vacation from teaching. (My memoir, Teaching Amidst the Neon Palm Trees, tells the peculiar tale of how all this occurred.)

I set Retsamdros aside for several years as I completed Teaching Amidst the Neon Palm Trees,  Democratic Efficiency, and Confessions of a Recovering Realist. All three were published in 2004. Right now I’m working on a murder mystery inspired by my experiences on a ship circumnavigating the world. But I plan to resume work on Retsamdros sometime in 2005 and, hopefully, to get it published in 2006.

In the meantime, please enjoy some excerpts from this forthcoming novel.

Excerpts

  The Apple
  The Blessings of Jazeel
  The Cost of Doing Business