ABOUT
I have been writing since fourth grade, when I wrote my first twelve page short story.
It was about a princess, and the Knight who would save her.
After that, I wrote two more books by the time I was a sophomore in High School - a 90 page short story titled "The Fall of Utopia" and a 350 page novel
titled simply "Magick". I didn't have the courage then to try and get them published, so it is only notable because it spoke of the stories that were
within me, of the world's waiting to be released. I grew up reading JRR Tolkein, David Eddings, Usula K Leguin, and Tracy Hickman.
On and on, I devoured every book I could find, and in the space between I wrote,
a midwife to usher in new stories and worlds, born from old. In addition to that, I drew prolifically, wrote angst-ridden poetry
and dreamed incessantly of heroes and the worlds they were born to save.
And then my father passed away.
I had long since struggled in the womb of the public education system. My artistic side made me quirky, which made me few friends.
After my father passed, with no other outlet for my pain, I found my stories growing darker, giving me little peace,
and so I found myself picking up music for relief and escape. It would be a pivotal moment in my life, where I would find a new means of speaking
to the world about what it was I saw behind the searching lens of childhood, and the slow burn of wisdom learned in the crucible of life.
I would go on to form a band, tour and release two albums under the name
Point of Contact. Our second album Human was well received, and garnered positive reviews, ultimately leading
us to the cusp of signing with a management agency to go on tour professionally. But fate had a different plan: In 2009 the band disbanded.
I would drift for a time, but I would finally find myself back on the path my feet had found in my youth, working to finish a novel I had started during
my time with Point of Contact. It was an emotionally deep novel with a complex plot, challenging and thought provoking, growing me as a writer to find more
than the tropes of a genre, but the core of its characters. And in 2016, after first and second drafts, editing and revisions, I would complete
my first manuscript, The Gatekeeper.
I work as a software engineer and web designer in my "off-time", while raising two boys. I continue to write music and perform, and I am currently working on a project
called Advent Theory, and will soon be releasing my solo album titled "Icarus". But my passion for writing remains,
driving me to keep searching for heroes; to keep searching for world's in need of saving.
I am currently looking for representation for The Gatekeeper, Volume 1, and working on its sequel and conclusion, and hope to have the first book published
by the end of 2017, with the second book shortly to follow.
NEWS
08.11.17 : The Hunt Begins
I have officially begun the process of looking for an agent to publish my book, The Gatekeeper Volume 1. If you or anyone you know is an agent who is interested in helping me get this book published, please contact me!
08.01.17 : The Shattered Circle
The work continues on The Gatekeeper Volume 2. I have completed the short story "The Shattered Circle", which will open up the world of the ancient Sa-vet civilization, and reveal the seeds of its downfall. Within the second novel, this will give context to events, and deepen your understanding of the unfolding events.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
- THE GATEKEEPER VOLUME 2* (In Progress)
- THE STONES OF ORON*
- PILGRIMS OF A SHADOWLAND
- THE FIRES OF ORON*
- THE CHIP*
- (UN)BOUND
- THE DARK RIFT
CURRENT PROJECTS Follow @davidTheCloud
In the sequel to Volume 1, the story of Gabriel and Orden continues. As Tolerath slips further and further toward chaos, the two men will be faced with even greater choices - ones which could cost them everything.
“And so it shall be, now and forthwith to perpetuity, that all those born with the Mark of the Sa’vet are to be put to death. Any who resist this edict, and seek to harbor the cursed ones, shall also be condemned.”
-The Edict of the Endless Horizons
The world of Erna is a memory of ruin.
Once the home of sprawling Sa’vet civilizations, their wars and conflicts have left it scarred and broken, their history and people all but forgotten –
lost in a cataclysmic event that destroyed their civilization overnight, and nearly consumed the world. Humans now rule, without the benefit of the ancient power the
Sa’vet people wielded, but they have not forgotten what the ancients did to their world. For the Sa’vet legacy persists, and in rare circumstances human women give birth to those who
bear the mark of the Sa’vet – eyes flecked with gold, and the ability to manipulate the unseen force known as Aurium Fearing that power, and apocalypse that it might bring about,
the Tolerathi Empire established the Edict of the Endless Horizon, demanding death for those so marked, and all those who seek to help them.
But desperation is the enemy of wisdom.
Hundreds of years have passed and the Tolerathi Empire is no more - divided by a terrible civil war that left it fractured and broken. To the south, Solarra and the Middle Kingdoms.
To the north, separated by mountains and wild, uninhabitable forests, the Alarran people. Exiled and left to survive against the twisted creations of the ancient, long dead Sa’vet
civilizations, the Alarrans have never forgotten their birthright, and are willing to go to any length to regain what they believe is rightfully theirs – and in doing so plunge all of Tolerath into war.
For Gabriel and Orden, a Sa’vet and Human, this will mean choices that they could never have been prepared to make, and sacrifices they could never have been prepared
to give. Each bears the scars of mankind’s hatred; one, marked and outcast by the color of his eyes and the blood in his veins, filled with his own rage for a life lived in fear;
the other, steeped in sorrow and pain, with all that he believes left fractured and broken like his soul. And yet each of them must confront their demons, and each other,
to become unwilling allies in order to warn Solarra before war engulfs all of Tolerath.
But something dark and terrible has come awake beneath the Alarran streets, and for Orden and Gabriel, war is just the beginning.
CURRENT PROJECTS Follow @adventtheory
I have been playing music for over twenty years. From 2002 to 2009, I toured with a Progressive Hard Rock band called Point of Contact. Since then, I have played and led the music team at New Hope Community Church, while working on my upcoming concept album, Icarus under the Project Title Advent Theory.
I am currently working on all components of the album, playing Lead, Acoustic, Drums, Bass and any other production elements. I write all my lyrics and melodies, with a focus on the song as a whole, and what it needs over any instrumentation.
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