Destiny or Madness?

Spell Weaver Additions #1

by Bill Hiatt

Alex is on the verge of getting what he always wanted: a chance to escape from his dull life and enter the world of Greek mythology. Unfortunately, he also discovers the truth of the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it!”

Tasked by Ares, the god of war, with killing one of his fellow students, Alex questions his own sanity. That’s just the beginning of Alex’s problems, though. Now trapped in a struggle between supernatural forces he can’t begin to understand and forced to use a weapon that is really using him, Alex’s only escape may be to find the love that has eluded him his whole life.

“Destiny or Madness?” is a paraquel to Hidden among Yourselves, the third volume in the Spell Weaver series. “Destiny” has something for every fantasy lover. Don’t have time for a long fantasy but crave a quick dose? “Destiny” will take an average reader about half an hour to an hour to finish. Want a sample of the Spell Weaver series? “Destiny” will give a good idea of the feel of the series, and from there you can plunge straight into Hidden or start from Living with Your Past Selves, the first book, if you want to follow the story from the beginning. Already a fan of the Spell Weaver series? “Destiny” lets you see the world from Alex’s perspective and answers some questions about how he got himself into the lives of Taliesin Weaver and his friends in the first place.

Can Alex successfully fight the chaos, both around him and within him? Scroll up to buy a copy and find out!

45 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2015

About the author

Bill Hiatt has been teaching English at Beverly Hills High School since 1981--long enough for some of his current students to be children of his former students. (It's a good thing that doesn't make him feel old--much!) Bill also sponsored the high school's literary magazine from 1992 until June of 2012, which gave him the opportunity to work with a number of young aspiring writers.

Although teaching has been and remains Bill's first love, he has also been drawn to creative writing of various sorts. From high school on, he wrote short stories, a little poetry, and an earlier novel, finished in 1982. By that point, the increasing demands of teaching kept him from pursuing writing as actively as he would have liked, but his impulse to write continued to poke him from somewhere in the back of his mind. A few years ago a particular group of students inspired him to create grammar tests in the form of short stories, with the students themselves as characters. In some cases he got so caught up in the writing that he stayed up all night to finish the material. His students enjoyed the stories so much that they actually looked forward to grammar tests--and they scored higher on the semester grammar final than any of his previous classes! Their response to his writing made Bill wonder if there was a way to find time to write and still be the kind of teacher he wanted to be.

Another force pulling Bill in the direction of writing has been (ironically) teaching, particularly his consistent advice to students to get outside their comfort zones and follow their dreams--advice he realized was somewhat hypocritical if he wasn't following it himself. After all, teaching, though certainly his most important dream, is well inside his comfort zone by now. Publishing, on the other hand, is a different kind of exposure, more scary in some ways and definitely outside his comfort zone. Authors, regardless of the genre in which they write, reveal much about themselves every time they publish; their work is a part of them, and maybe not a part that they have shared with other people before. Also, authors have to be willing to face rejection; regardless of the nature or quality of a book, not everyone is going to like it. Despite the risks involved, Bill eventually realized he needed to follow his own advice if he really wanted his students to follow it. After that, he squeezed in a little time to write each day, and eventually he finished another novel. He hopes his readers will enjoy reading his work as much as he enjoys creating it, and he hopes that his example may encourage more of his students to push themselves a little to get what they really want out of life.