Hey there!

Thanks for dropping by on the inaugural post of my Author Blog. I'm sure you're itching to hear all about my author story and how I got to be where I am, but I think that's content better suited for future posts. For my first post though, how about a seldom-seen view into the inspiration for my flagship novel series: The Tomes of Pirudus (TOP).

I'm sure normal authors (as you will come to understand, I'm anything but normal) have a more traditional creative process when they're drafting up novel ideas and it may be the case where I eventually end up following that path, but it certainly is not the case for TOP.

So you might ask me then: What do you mean by that? Well, you're in luck because you're about to find out. Grab a beverage and take a seat while I spin you a yarn.

There was a time of my youth where my miscreant friends and I would gather at one of my besties houses and play rag-tag games of "capture the relic" and "deathmatch" in the yard. Mind you, these games were played with literal sticks and small tree branches which saw us smacking the ever-loving heck out of each other until we were all too sore to continue. Now I see that mortified look in your eye and I already know what you're going to say. I'm sure it sounds something like this:

But...why? Why would you partake in something so archaic and barbaric? Surely the potential for injury outweighed any sort of fun or friendship.

You have to keep in mind that we were a group of pre-teens at that particular juncture, and each of us grew up with various levels of RPG and fantasy content inspiring our respective childhoods. This barbaric behavior we developed in a suburban neighborhood, we realized, was actually derivative of something none of us knew even existed: LARP.

For those of you not in the know, LARP (Live Action Role-Play) is an often-ridiculed activity enjoyed by both RPG nerds and fantasy aficionados alike. Typically done in a team-based setting, participants don armor, weapons, and often times entirely separate personas to do battle amongst one another. These weapons are traditionally built specifically for LARPing and are usually made of stylized high-density foam.

So now that we've covered what LARP is, we can get back to the story. As we grew older, my friends and I quickly realized that LARP was far more fun (and safe) when we created our own weapons and armor out of foam-based templates and an exorbitant amount of duct-tape. Many a fond memory involve staving off a lawnmower-riding, axe-wielding maniac hell-bent on capturing a relic stuffed inside of a treehouse. The older we grew, the more formalized the games became. We eventually drafted an official codex of rules, formalized our characters, and detailed our respective backstories.

As you may guess, this is where we connect the dots between the relation of my childhood ridiculousness and my flagship TOP series. My backstory revolved around my character, Gol Senz, and his exploits within his home country of Pirudus. I detailed out the major players within the territory and established my motivations for involving myself in our "war games". The more I wrote for my character, the more I questioned the validity of investing actual time into fleshing out an actual book series.

I had always wanted to write and publish something. Over the years, I've drafted and abandoned countless works simply because I got distracted and didn't have the heart to resume them and fully dedicate to their stories. That changed when I started on Trials of the Serpent God, thanks to the dedication I put into my characters backstory.

So the next time you think about what could possibly inspire such a novel, I hope you can take comfort in knowing what brought this story to life!