Second in The Chronicles of Illúmaril series, author Gary Caplan's The Return of the Ancient Ones is a distinct tale that illustrates how one's fiercest enemy can become one's most aggressive ally.
Winner 2012 NABE Pinnacle Book Award in Fan
If you took every major epic fantasy that has ever been written and twisted them all into one fantastic tale of magic, sword play, and just plain old fantasy fun, you might get the first half of this 235,000 word monster of a read. The last half is a
Sometimes I wonder if my characters existed at one point in time or space.
Background
Information
I started writing when I was in elementary school, full blown stories. I used it as an escape from my boredom or the other realities I had to deal with at the time. Once I had started I found I couldn't stop. The characters began to assault me during my sleep or the quiet moments in school and if I didn't write about them I couldn't think. It was like having someone constantly whispering in my ear.
I dreamed about Cloud for the first time when I was in seventh grade. As usual I was in the body of the main character. I experienced the first part of her journey, the turning point, as if it was happening to me. I woke up breathless, feeling the pain she had been feeling, and knowing that I had to share her story, I had to find out how it ended.
It took me eight years to finish, edit, and publish her story, Cloud's Keeper. But I've quickly realized that her story isn't the end of THE story. The other characters she introduced me to have their own parts in the tale. I'm currently working on a prequel entitled Legacy of Stone, which I hope to finish and publish in 2009. At the moment I've slated three more stories for the series to make it a quintet. Its odd how these things grow I originally thought it would be a trilogy.
My inspirations in the field of writing have been Terry Brooks, J. R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, and more recently Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison. Though my work does not intimately reflect any of them my style has been built by reading their works.