Separated from Yourselves

Spell Weaver #6

by Bill Hiatt

Betrayed by a trusted ally and cut off from any magical assistance, Taliesin Weaver’s friends face their greatest challenge yet: can they defeat evil forces of unimaginable power without Tal to lead them? Some of them have been captured already. Others have been magically warped into enemies. The only hope of those who remain may be to join forces with Dark Me, Tal’s evil alter ego. Considering his track record, that’s not much of a choice—but if they don’t join him, they may be dooming Olympus, Annwn, and even Earth.

Nor is that their only dilemma. Tal’s friends find him—but so altered he can’t help them. In fact, he desperately needs their help. However, finding a way to save him may mean losing the time they need to save everyone else. They might be able to save both Tal and the world, but only if they trust a stranger with powerful magic—and a hidden agenda.

In a universe in which nothing is what it seems, will making a deal with the shadow assassins save Tal’s friends or damn them?

428 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2016

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.

Reviews

[rolando cruz · Rating 5 out of 5]

what happened to Umbra?

First of, I would highly recommend this book because it gives different perspectives amongst the characters involve. In fact I recommend to read all the Weaver series to give you a better understanding and background of the story. But this book in particular, because it introduced a lot of different characters, the author forgot to include the first character introduced in the prologue at the end. It has a happy ending and the author tried to tie the loose ends except for one character, Umbra. WHAT HAPPENED TO UMBRA?

[Michael Sterling · Rating 3 out of 5]

#DidNotFinish

I think I was able to accomplish halfway, but the run-on writing style that made the last book difficult to get through was even worse (every thought between each and every breath during each and every fight...) in this issue.
I enjoy supporting writers in their struggles to support themselves, but I think I made a mistake purchasing all the books in this series at once; I'll not be reading the rest.

[Joseph L L · Rating 4 out of 5]

More mythological beings than you can shake a stick at

Bill Hiatt has crafted a world in which every mythology bad been represented. Sometimes all well that the suspense keeps you in the edge of your seat.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book as much as all the others and can't wait for the next in the series. Please let there be a next one.

[Johnie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining read

I enjoyed reading this book very much and would recommend it highly to anyone that like various supernatural beings with lots of action

[Greg Felt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incarnation thriller

The story of reincarnated people having the same souls and the ensuing battles with evil forces was quite riveting. Reall_,y great reading!

[Beverly Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of suspense

Wow this was a long one. Enjoyed most of it but am getting a little tired of battles. Will finish the series but my interest is waning.

[Siyka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fast paced and intricately woven, a lot of mythology of different origins.
Epic battles and good mysterious ways of changing the plot.