Ragged and weary from their previous ordeals, Braxton and his motley crew of elves, dwarves, and humans, set off into the Wilderkind Forest in search of the Sapphire of Souls. The problem is, the last time anyone saw the powerful gem was over a hundr
In 2000, Todd Cheney set out to write a complete fantasy series. Now, almost five years later, his goal is accomplished. The Soulstone will bring to conclusion the story began in The Seventh Circle.
Buried for a thousand years under the sea,
My dark fantasy novel, Wytchfire (Book One of the Dragonkin Trilogy) was just published by Red Adept Publishing. The sequel, The Knight of the Crane, is finished, currently in the final line-editing/formatting stage. The third, The War of the Lotus, is about half-written.
As far as poetry goes, my third book, Damnatio Memoriae (lit. "damned memory"), won the Brick Road Poetry Book Contest. My
Background
Information
I wrote fantasy/sci-fi as a kid (who didn't?) then gradually shifted to contemporary poetry in college. I fell in love with the immediacy, range, and believe it or not, the humor of contemporary poetry. I had my early successes in that field but still dabbled in fantasy on the side. Over the years, working mostly in the summers (I teach during the school year), I completed my first two fantasy novels.
As far as influences go, I'm pretty eclectic (probably making me the 50,000th person here to say that). Authors who impacted me, in no particular order: Walt Whitman, George R. R. Martin, Margaret Weiss, Tracy Hickman, Anne Sexton, William Carlos Williams, Li Po, Tony Hoagland, George Bilgere, Billy Collins, Sharon Olds, Dorianne Laux, Rodney Jones, Allison Joseph, Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, Richard Knaak, Terry Brooks, Yusef Komunyakaa, Tobias Wolff, e.e. cummings, Issa, Basho, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, Wallace Stevens, Beverly Cleary (c'mon, "Henry and the Paper Route"?!), and many more.
Accomplishments
In addition to the poetry prizes I mentioned earlier, I've also published five poetry chapbooks: Pure Elysium (winner of the Palettes and Quills Chapbook Contest), The Clay-Shaper's Husband (winner of the Codhill Press Chapbook Award), Real Courage (winner of the Terminus Magazine and Jeanne Duval Editions Poetry Chapbook Prize), The Right Madness of Beggars (winner of the Uccelli Press 3rd Annual Chapbook Competition), and Cardboard Urn (winner of the Copperdome Chapbook Contest).
I've also won the Marjorie J. Wilson Best Poem Contest, the Laureate Prize for Poetry, the James Wright Poetry Award, and the Annie Finch Prize for Poetry. My work has appeared in Ploughshares, North American Review, Arts & Letters, River Styx, Quick Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, and other journals.
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