So here I am, sitting at my desk, late afternoon sun will soon be shining right in my eyes (no curtains or shades on the window I’m facing) and it’ll be hard to see my computer monitor, so I figured I’d better write something while I can still read what I’m typing. I’m at 68941 words of double-spaced, Times New Roman, font size 12, 206 Word pages worth of Blackfire 3, and I’m in the middle of a scene with Sliss and Ul’ll Uhas that has me stumped. It won’t last forever; in a day or two (or by the time I’m done with this little note) I’ll have an idea and away the story will go, back on the rails and hurtling toward the dynamite planted under the tracks somewhere down the line. Actually, the story isn’t stalled for a lack of ideas, I actually have lots of ideas, just don’t have any ideas I like and that work the way I want them to in order to wrap up the scene. 

I’ve never understood or experienced writer’s block as some describe it. Since I started writing I’ve always had something I wanted to say, a story that I wanted to write, so I’ve never lacked for material the way some claim to. I supposed I should be thankful for that. Maybe I have ideas because I write whatever comes to me and don’t confine myself to one genre or another. That could be a bad thing I suppose. An author whom I enjoy and who has written several very long series (only one of which I’ve read) wrote a blog post some time ago that I happened to run across, and his advice was not to genre hop. Stick to one variety, he argued. Jumping from post-apocalyptic action to fantasy to horror will confuse and alienate your audience. Maybe he’s right, maybe not, but I can’t do that. There are countless authors who only write in one genre, and whose work I very much enjoy, and that’s fine. Personally, I have too many ideas for too many different stories to restrict myself that way. 

(The sun has finally fallen to the point that its shining in the window at me. I’m having to tilt my head as I try to put a hanging plant between it and my eyes. When its lower I’ll use the trees outside to block it out, although it’s got a ways to go before I can do that; it’s still too far above their lofty tops. But it’s melting the snow – finally!) 

And now back to our gently interrupted discussion. Where exactly do stories come from? I can’t speak for others, but for me they just sort of appear. I got the idea for Enders & Associates from a damned wine bottle! Yep, that’s the gawl-darned truth. It was sitting on our kitchen counter; my in-laws had bought it when they’d come for a visit and had left it at our house. (Neither Marcy nor I are big drinkers, and when we do imbibe its usually not wine.) I was still working in the Arctic at the time, and in fact was just about to walk out the door to drive into Anchorage to get on a plane and head up there, and happened to glance at the bottle. I don’t remember the name of the vintner, but it had a picture of a man’s face on the label. He looked like someone from the early part of the twentieth century, such were his clothes, and I remember thinking that was a rather strange image to put on a wine bottle label. But the bigger, more consequential thought that came to me was the story for Enders. Well, not the entire story, but the salient parts of it. I’ve never had a story occur to me in its entirety. Generally, as in this instance, I’ll get a bit of inspiration which could be anything, then build the story around it. My short story Greta’s Got a Bat came about because the title occurred to me. That’s it. The title popped into my head one day, I created a blank Word document, named it with the title of the story, then wrote the thing. I’ve actually had several stories start out as nothing more than titles. A good title frequently proves to be extremely rare and elusive prey, so when I come across one I like, I always make sure to capture it in the form of a Word document. I just name the file whatever the title is, then it sits in a folder on my hard drive until I come up with a story to match it. Not long ago I wrote one called Stuck on Fairview Loop in precisely that manner. A guy I work with said that phrase one day, and I thought it was a great title for a story, so I stole it. Thanks Chris!!! Sorry, no royalties yet. But my larger point is that I had the title for months until a story came to me that matched it. 

So what the hell is the point of all this rambling, you might be asking? There isn’t one, other than this: I was reading a bit of BF1 the other day, trying to make sure I didn’t contradict something in the plot with a bit I was working on in BF3. In a work of this scale, with this many characters and plot lines, it’s easy to forget little details. “Did so-and-so tell whoseywhatsit about his/her magic powers?” Shit like that. I have five separate Word documents of notes for BF  - characters, places, miscellaneous, plot lines, the shortest of which is five pages, and I still forget things. Sorry, digressed again. Like I said, I was reading through BF1 and realized that my prose was just not very good. Granted it was my first book, my first time writing a piece of fiction really since high school, and I’ve read much worse prose in my life, but if I was writing it now, it would be… hopefully better. Look, I know I’m not Dickens, Hugo or Tolstoy, nor will I ever be, and that’s ok. I write how I write. If you like it  - great! If not – there isn’t much I can do about it, (I love the sun but it’s getting tremendously difficult to see, not to mention warm.)  so I won’t let it bother me. But I will keep writing, even if it’s only to produce some random thoughts like these. The answer to the question asked at the beginning of the paragraph is this: I want to be a better writer. In order to be one I need to write. So I’m writing this since I don’t have an idea that I like for any of the stories I’m working on. It’s in the action, the doing, that one realizes progress and improvement. 
​
Epilogue: Writing this the day after everything preceding this passage. Thankfully the sun isn’t in my eyes yet. I got past that little blockage in BF3 I mentioned yesterday. Knew I would, it’s always just a matter of when. And here is the really cool thing to me: Getting past it involved creating an entirely new character, a new area of a city I’m fleshing out, and an entirely new plot thread that led to a few new insights into another very enigmatic character who has befuddled me a bit. It only took 500 words, which I wrote in about a half hour, but I spent probably an hour in the imagining. This shit is so much fun! I’ve written before about how I do not plan or outline anything beforehand. I sit down at my computer, put my hands on the keyboard, and write. So I didn’t have any idea what was going to happen in that scene until I imagined and wrote it. I’m discovering this story as I go along, just like anyone reading it will. That, to me, is the truly magical part of all this. What the hell is my demented brain going to spit out next?!
 
Mark Sowers
April 3, 2022
Wasilla Alaska

I’m a news junkie, read at least a little bit of it every day. That’s right – I read my news. I learned a long time ago that if you want to truly be informed, turn off the network news on tv (doesn’t matter if it’s one of the big three or something on cable) and go read. Think about it. How much information can you really pack into a twenty or thirty second clip? Not too much. No, I much prefer to read when it comes to my news. 

Growing up we subscribed to our local newspaper, and from the age of probably 12 or 13, I read it. Back then I had no political or social opinions to speak of, and most of my attention wound up focused on the sports section, the comics, or Dear Abby. But once in a while an article would grab my attention about something that happened in the world or in my state or city, and I’d read it. Analyzing the writing of others was not something I was particularly adept at back then, and it wasn’t until later in adulthood, primarily after I went to my first college, that I began to notice how the news could be framed to promote or denigrate something. I don’t remember, nor do I want to revisit, any of those articles I read as a kid to try and determine if the media was as biased then as it is now. It probably was, in general, but just wasn’t as blatantly open about it. Or maybe they were. Regardless of one’s opinions on society, current events and politics, there is a media platform catering to you and your beliefs. That didn’t exist when I was a kid. There were newspapers, and the three big tv networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS. And you had to get up from the couch, walk to the tv, and turn a knob to change the station. After doing that you might even have to adjust the rabbit ears or the antenna in order to get the static off the screen. How inconvenient! It was the dark ages, the 1970’s and early 80’s. Disco alone should prove that point. 

So what the hell am I getting at with all this? Today’s news, that’s what I’m really writing about, and more specifically, what can we believe? Allow me to explain.

This morning, as is my wont, I got up, took my multivitamins and made a pot of French Press. Then I sat down at my desk and opened my Kindle Fire, which is what I use to read the news while I drink my coffee and wake up. There are a few websites I visit each day for local, national and international news, and today was no different. I usually check them in a specific order, and when I got to the last one, an aggregator, I ran across an article about the French presidential elections. There were several bullet points in the article, and one of them was in regard to a tweet supposedly sent out by the BBC, which claimed to quote the current president, Emmanuel Macron on the issue of immigration. Except that the BBC denied creating the tweet, and the Macron people claim he never said the words that the tweet attributed to him. Further, in a sidebar on that website was a headline and a link to an article about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The ad showed a young girl’s face in close up, and she exhibited obvious injuries in the form of some swelling and numerous superficial cuts. The headline said, and this is an actual quote: “The bombing survivor accused of being fake”. 
I didn’t read that article, I have no idea what the truth is on either matter, and that’s my larger point. What the hell is the truth, is real anymore? What happened to, in the words of Dragnet, “just the facts ma’am”? Most media outlets claim to present only facts but read closely – you’ll often find language intended to persuade the reader to adopt a particular position on a given issue. And its everywhere. No matter what side of the political spectrum you’ve built your house on, it’s there. Sometimes it’s so overt as to be nearly nauseating, other times it’s so subtle only someone who is really looking for it will find it. But it's easy to spot once you know what to look for.

Despite all of this, I still read the news, except now I question everything. The media, instead of persuading me, has turned me into a skeptic. We can’t believe our own eyes anymore. Even images or video we once deemed unimpeachable can be manipulated or outright created with today’s technology in the form of deep fakes. 
​
When I was in college at the University of Alaska, Southeast, one of my profs in a historiography class I took assigned us an essay to read. It’s by a man named Theodore Clarke Smith and is titled That Noble Dream. The argument Smith made in the essay is essentially that every historian should be as near to completely objective in their writing as possible. In other words abandon your prejudices and predilections, and go where the evidence of your research takes you, regardless of the outcome or how it upsets your ideology's apple cart. That’s a lesson today’s media could well stand to internalize. As for me, I’m going to go read the sports page. 
 
Mark Sowers
April 24, 2022
Wasilla Alaska

​I’ve had entirely enough of career politicians. It would be a simple thing to segue from that statement into a discussion of term limits, which I heartily support at both the state and national levels, but that’s not the purpose of this missive. Instead, I want to explain why I’m voting for Bob Lyons in the upcoming special election for the Congressional seat left vacant when Don Young passed away. Now if he wasn’t an example of a career politician, then I guess I don’t know what one looks like. 

There are currently forty-eight (!) individuals vying for Young’s former seat, and I only recognized a few of their names when my mail-in ballot arrived. (Mail-in balloting needs to be eradicated nationwide, by the way.) I glanced through the list of names and immediately discarded all Democrats. I’m currently reading The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn and am nearly finished with the second of its three volumes. If you haven’t read it, you should. And if you believe Marxism, Socialism and Communism are the way to Utopia, then you really should read it. Since the current Democrat party is so enamored with these incestuous, destructive and murderous ideologies, and since I’m so diametrically opposed to them, then, mirabile dictu, I simply can’t vote for anyone affiliated with the donkey party.

So who does that leave? Why independents (on the ballot they're marked as "Undeclared" and "Nonpartisan") and Republicans, of course. I haven’t voted for a Democrat in any election since the Clinton administration. (Back then I was largely undecided in my political opinions and voted based on criteria I’d rather not reveal; I’m slightly ashamed of my one-time ignorance and less-than-logically-sound former voting methodology.) Information on all forty-eight candidates was not provided with the ballot. Which is as it should be. If one is going to cast a ballot in an election in the United States of America, then it is incumbent upon that individual to educate themselves concerning the candidates and issues. And that’s exactly what I set out to do. 

The State of Alaska’s Division of Elections features a Candidate page where one can find contact information for each person running for office. It also displays a link to a website, should a candidate choose to create one for their campaign. This is where I started my research. Many candidates did not have a website listed, and I simply skipped over those. Everyone has a website these days, even me. If you’re going to run for the lone seat in the US House of Representatives from the state of Alaska, and you can’t be bothered to create a website describing yourself and where you stand on the issues, then I can’t be bothered to vote for you. And sorry, but I’d rather not devote any more of my time and energy to Facebook or Twitter, for reasons those who agree with me politically will, I’m sure, understand. So if you’re a candidate with a presence on either of those platforms but who doesn’t have a website, I’m probably not going to find you. Nor will I go looking for you on either of them.

I spent probably an hour looking at websites of candidates whose party affiliations were not Democrats, and eventually whittled it down to three. Instead of making a decision right then, I went to bed and looked at those three candidates again the following day, then made my decision. The person I will be voting for is Robert “Bob” Lyons. Now let me tell you why.

He’s like me – a political outsider. I have no friends in politics, no connections, no influence. And that is the kind of person I want representing me. I’ve had my fill of the establishment, of career politicians who know nothing more than the ways of the swamp, be it in Washington D.C. or Juneau. These people have been in office for years, in some cases decades, and has anything gotten better under their stewardship? Bob Lyons, according to his website, operated trucks and equipment. So have I. His father was in the service. So was mine. He built his cabin, where he still lives, by hand. I can’t do that, but I admire those who can. Our opinions on issues are also very similar. But what I really liked about him were the pictures of he and his family that he posted on his website. He’s not afraid to show himself having fun, smiling on an amusement park ride, or making a funny face and giving a thumbs up in front of a Trump sticker pasted on some vehicle. That’s the kind of representative I want – one who has opinions that align with mine on the issues, which Bob’s appear to do, but who also doesn’t take him or herself too seriously. Too many politicians are more concerned with the optics of things, how they are going to appear to the public. ‘Oh no! My tie is crooked and has a spot on it! What will my polls look like in the morning?!’  Bob seems to be more interested in showing the voting public who he is instead of who he thinks they want him to be, and I respect that. 

I’ve never met Bob Lyons, had no idea the man even existed until a couple days ago. It’s also possible that my conjectures about him are completely wrong. But I don’t think they are. At least, my gut tells me they aren’t. I really did look at several candidates' websites, and there were a few whom I could have voted for and been content, but I went with my gut as I always do. So when it comes time to cast my ballot for the person to replace Don Young, I’ll be casting mine for Bob Lyons. 
 
Mark Sowers
May 10, 2022
Wasilla AK

I pondered long and hard whether or not to write this book, and once it was done, whether or not to release it. The modern cancel culture is something that more and more of us are concerned with, and while I've never been particularly vocal in my opinions outside of my family and friends, I ultimately decided to publish this book because I don't like the direction in which the country is headed. In other words I decided to make my own contribution to the fight. When someone exercises their right to free speech and criticizes some segment of society or political movement and their personal information is publicized by someone who disagrees with them, that's a problem. Or when a public figure who has taken a stand on an issue is accosted in a restaurant by a group of chanting and screaming morons, that too is a problem. The silencing of dissent, no matter what side of an issue you are on, is one of the most insidious dangers our nation faces. No one should be silenced for voicing an opinion - ever. If someone's words offend you, debate them, challenge them, or quit fucking listening. Walk away. Change the channel. Read a different blog or news website. But stop with your cancelling.

Bryce Ingman doesn’t know anything different. His entire life has been spent under the steel-shod boot of oppression. In this, the Federated Territories of North America, freedom and self-determination are forgotten notions from a dusty past. But there are those who still remember. Follow along as Bryce discovers what it means to be free, how absurd and self-aggrandizing tyrannical governments actually are, and how much politicians and the institutions they create deserve to be ridiculed. At turns poignant, tragic, sarcastic, parodical, and philosophical, Society’s House of Intractable Tension is cautionary tale of what has been and what could yet be if certain elements in society aren’t opposed by those who believe in true freedom.

When I began writing The Blackfire Chronicles, I made a vow to myself to try my damnedest to create a world that was as original as I could make it. There are so many fantasy stories these days, most of which I haven’t read. The big ones for me are The Wheel of Time and The Sword of Truth. I love them both! My thanks and admiration to the late and lamented Robert Jordan, and to the still-writing Terry Goodkind, with a special thank you to Brandon Sanderson for finishing TWOT. He did a masterful job! 
Stories are by nature derivative; there will always be similarities between new stories and old stories. Basic themes will repeat themselves, characters will have similar or identical traits or personalities. Writing something that is comparable to something else is an inescapable fact. Its going to happen, and as a writers and creators, we just have to accept it. Of course each one of us has his or her own identity, as it were. That’s what makes a reader either like or dislike a writer’s work. I’m speaking really broadly here, and these statements could be applied to almost any artform – music, painting, cooking, etc.
I’ll never criticize anyone who takes the time to sit down and write a novel or short story. The simple act of writing, whether it gets published or not, is difficult. Anyone who writes (or creates things in general) has my respect. 
Now that the introduction is out of the way, here’s what I really wanted to say. I will never use a real name in a fantasy story. In fact every name, every creature description, and a host of other things were completely fabricated by me specifically for the BFC. I tried very hard to make this story as original and unlike any other fantasy story as I possibly could. But as I said before, I’ll never criticize anyone for creating something. What they create and how they do it is completely up to them. I’m speaking here strictly of my own notions about writing, and specifically about the BFC. 
Here’s the paragraph where someone out there will surely decide that I’m arrogant. I hope that isn’t the case, because I don’t think of myself as arrogant, but I do have definite ideas about my story and the things I created for it. That said, here goes: There are no dragons, elves, orcs, wizards or any other race/creature/monster/thing in this story that was created by someone else. All those things have been done by others far better than I ever could. If you are a fantasy writer and you want to put a dragon in your story – do it to it! If you’ve got a good idea and can work a dragon(s) into it in a way that’s engaging and new, then have at it! I totally support that! What I don’t support is not even trying to come up with something original and just using someone else's creation because it sold books in the past, is recognizable, or you had a picture/poster of it on your wall as a kid. I picked up one fantasy book recently, and within the first three pages I read about dragons, dwarves and elves. I put it down less than twenty pages in. The writing was fine; the author seemed to have a solid voice, but it was so derivative I just couldn't read it. I refuse to use the creations of others in my story. Even the names of creatures, people, places and things are completely my invention. Obviously I wasn’t going to come up with a new name for something like a castle or a river. Although I did strongly consider doing just that for a minute. But in the interest of clarity, I used words for common things that any reader should/would recognize. 
And that brings me to the reader portion of this confession. If you don’t like my stories because of these unfamiliar things – I get it, truly. People like things that are comfortable, known. Its easier to form an image of something in your mind if you’ve already seen it in movies or on tv, or read about it in another book(s). There is a lot to be said for familiarity. For the BFC, I sometimes wish I’d kept track of how many minutes I sat at my desk, staring at my computer screen, while I imagined and discarded ideas for a new character name or the appearance of a new creature. That shit is hard! I mean try it yourself – imagine a creature that looks nothing like some creature you’ve seen somewhere else. Or at least try to make it as unique as possible so as to differentiate it from that creature in the horror movie you watched on Netflix the other night. Does it have tentacles? Five hundred eyes? Is it enormous? Small? Is there more than one row of teeth? No teeth? Is it green, brown, black, red, purple, polka dot? Hard to do isn’t it, to come up with something that you can’t think of and say, “Oh, that thing was in that one movie”. Of course the creatures I created for the BFC will bear some resemblance to something else. I couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t have features that already existed on some other creature. What I did do is try to arrange and combine those features in a new way. Or at least a way that was new to me. And the names are complete fabrications. Most of them are based on nothing other than combinations of letters that I put together in my head. 
And that brings me to the ‘other authors’ part. As I said toward the beginning, I haven’t read most of the fantasy series out there. In total I’ve probably only read ten or twelve fantasy series in my life. So to all the other authors who’ve written a fantasy story, or any other story for that matter, if I’ve duplicated a name in the BFC that you’ve already used – I am truly sorry. Every item in my story that required a name got one that I came up with myself. If one of mine is the same as one of yours – it was completely unintentional. 
Cheers!
 
Mark Sowers
Wasilla, AK
5/31/20
 
 

After I purchased and read Mark’s book, The Blackfire Chronicles, Volume 1 I was so eager to leave a review on Amazon.  I wrote my heart out.  I carefully examined my obvious bias and tried to write from the heart and with truth and honesty and to be as objective as humanly possible.  Needless to say—I had no idea my review would be rejected due to my relationship with the author. 

So, I figured I would just write it here since I cannot for Amazon, but also share some of my obvious bias and a perspective that is not often seen from just any reader.

I gave Mark a computer for Christmas a few years ago.  As with everything in our married life, we tend to support each other 1000% once one of us decides to do something.  I couldn’t afford the best, but I got the best I could get.  I was so excited.  I found him a desk and surprised him with that.  My son and I met a lady in the Fred Meyer parking on a extremely frigid and blustery night.  We set it up for him and were even more excited to see him sitting at it.

This book has been rolling around Mark’s head for years.  The first time he told me about it I was intrigued.  I will say the first thing that attracted me to Mark was his mind.  Sure he was a long-haired handsome man who played the drums, but it was his command of written language that snared me. 
My best friend is responsible for us finding one another.  I recall the very moment I read to him Mark’s reply to me.  I was floored.  I told Phillip—“He has brains! My God it’s all grammatically correct! AND he uses big words, all spelled correctly in the RIGHT places!”  I tend to write like I speak, and Mark—he is encyclopedic in his vocabulary but his ability to write right---was stellar.  I had seen too many “I will write you tomarrow” emails or “Wear are you going to go later?” and here was this guy.  Needless to say, we fell for each other.

Mark’s passion for writing is so apparent. I loved being a tiny part discussing some scenes, mostly affirming him, but sometimes being a tiny spark of inspiration and then he was off.  Writing like a man possessed.  The tale he is weaving is done with intention, with care and meticulous notes.  I am impressed with his ability to create a world from the synapses in his brain, each thing carefully woven into another and some of it I swear flows like a manna from heaven through his fingers and the keyboard clicks quietly and furiously.  Mark has often said when he is in the groove it flows from his mind and is almost like watching a movie unfold.  I know though, that it is his talent and creativity unleashed.  And I am proud of him. 

The process of writing a book is not always easy.  It has bumps and hurdles.  Editing and more editing, nurturing and cajoling.  I liken it very much to one giving birth to a child.  It is a mind child.  A baby that you have gestated, carefully brought into this world and wrapped in a cover.  As a first-time author finding the cover art is as hard as a new mother trying to clothe her baby for the first cold outing.  Is it good enough?  Is this or that right?  And then---it is time.  For the baby to be exposed to the world.  We both watch the sales, the reviews and I get a tremendous warm feeling seeing the smile on his face with a good review. 

Unsurprisingly - he has had some awesome reviews!  I know that if you give his book, The Blackfire Chronicles, Volume 1 a chance you will no doubt be captivated, enthralled in a world entirely of his creation, and like I was---want to know what happens next.  You find yourself rooting for his protagonist.  He doesn’t sugar coat the world, part of it ---even in his made up world, is ugly.  Yet it allows one to appreciate the small things, the good things, the just things.  As I was reading this book, chapter by chapter all I could think was—wouldn’t this be an awesome Netflix series?  I said to my self---geez I know I think he's a great writer (yes I am kind of biased, I married him), but when another person read his book and left a review and wrote the very thing I had been thinking it was a total affirmation that he’s as good as I think he is!  I believe in my husband’s talent.  It is a gift that not everyone has.  I invite you to join us on this journey.  I hope you become a dear reader.  I hope you follow him all along in his career as an author, book to book, with anticipation for the next book, and the next just as I do. I think you'll find yourself cheering with me.  

Please read all self-published books to the very end, as authors only get paid full royalty if you do.  I have realized that I purchased some books, and only read a few pages and gave up.  I will admit with Mark’s book I couldn’t just not read it.  I had to scroll to the end.  So now for every author I truly enjoy I read it to the end and leave my number of stars and a review.  I just can’t bear to pay full price for a book and end up giving some of the authors cut to the publishing company, regardless of whether I liked it or not. 

The time and investment is so huge for most authors that I believe each one deserves the full royalty regardless of how much I read, and sometimes it's just a matter of timing.  Why should they wait until I have time to scroll through to the end?  But I get it, but having understood how royalties are paid I am much more inclined now to get to the review page on all books I read. And maybe now you are too.

So yes.  I am biased.  But it has made me a more thoughtful reader of other books.  I care about the authors that I enjoy reading and want them to succeed.  Share the good books you love with others who could use a break from the insane world.  Our imaginations are something that can be a balm when everything is crazy and I think The Blackfire Chronicles, Volume 1 will have you cheering for Revan and pulling for him and maybe, just maybe believing that there is magic in the world.   

​Marcy Sowers

​​I discovered fantasy stories when I was very young. It was probably in third or fourth grade when someone at school introduced me to The Lord of the Rings. My mom bought the books for me (including The Hobbit) and I read them in a state of wonder. Even still have those old paperbacks somewhere. They were far above my ability to comprehend, and I admit that I’ve not read them since, but it was too late – that totally invented world had me enthralled. It was also around that time that I discovered Dungeons & Dragons, probably from Kevin, who I think is the person who first turned me on to LOTR. But it could have been anyone; there were a bunch of kids at my school back then who were reading it. At any rate, D&D had me under its spell (didn’t realize I’d written that pun until editing this; I’ll leave it in, cheesy as it is), and my little group of friends and I played it vigorously. I will admit, for those of you who know anything about D&D, that we most definitely did not play strictly by the rules, but followed them in a very general manner that was completely malleable and capricious. What can I say – we were kids! And if you’ve ever tried to actually read the Dungeon Master’s Guide, you’ll know that it probably can’t hold the interest of the average ten year old for more than about seven seconds.

This was the early 1980’s, and we had Showtime at my house. That was back when you actually had to get up out of your chair and turn a knob on a little box in order to change the station. The first remote I ever saw was part of a VHS machine my dad brought home from one of his overseas military jaunts. It was a massive top-loading affair, and the remote was actually attached to the machine by a cord! But I digress. Showtime (and maybe HBO), back then, played movies like Excalibur, Hawk The Slayer, Conan the Barbarian (the original with Arnold, of course), and Dragonslayer. These films, in addition to D&D, and to a lesser degree LOTR, planted within me a love and fascination for fantasy stories, which still exists today.

I’ve always been a reader, losing myself in books for hours on end. (I just finished chapter 24 of The Count of Monte Cristo before writing this missive.) The dedication to my mother in Blackfire Volume 1 is true – she did read to me a lot when I was little, before I could read for myself. I credit that more than anything with instilling in me my love of stories. Maybe there is some genetic mutation in my DNA that causes me to love stories as much as I do, who knows. The fact remains – I have always, and always will - love stories.
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As I aged I discovered other authors and genres. I read Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers right after it was released, and have read lots more of his stuff. He’s amazing! Dean Koontz is another favorite whom I’ve been reading for a long time. Sometime in early adulthood I discovered non-fiction, and that’s where I discovered my love of history. I’d always enjoyed documentaries, particularly about World War II, and I’ve consequently read several books on that conflict. So when I started college, at age thirty, I took almost all of my electives in either History or English Lit. I was going to major in Computer Science, but realized early on just how inept I am at math. Pre-Calculus almost killed me! My mind just doesn’t work that way. There was a break of several years between the time I finished my Associates degree, and before I went back to get my Bachelor’s, and when I finally did, I ended up majoring in History.

​The idea for the Blackfire, as it is now written, did not come to me early in life. I’d wanted to write a fantasy series for many years, even sat down a couple times and typed some garbage that I threw away. But the notion, the desire to write something akin to all the great fantasy series I’d read was always there. I’ve got to name a few authors who were instrumental in either kindling that desire or helping to keep the idea going: Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson, Robert Jordan, and David Eddings. Thank you to all of them!

We are offering a tiny bit of Mark Sowers The Blackfire Chronicles, Volume I © in image format.  If your interest is piqued, please read it on Amazon.  It is available in Kindle edition and Kindle Unlimited.  Please leave a review on Amazon and Facebook.  

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A birth one might call beautiful. This is the first of many in a series that will captivate and enthrall.  Learn for yourself the mysteries and adventures of Revan and his friend as they toil away for much of their young lives to unearth a behemoth monolithic structure.  Will you join Revan on the journey? 

​We sure hope that you will!  Please leave a review as you get to the end of the book, every bit of encouragement, insight and commentary help authors make their works exactly what the readers want! Released today in Kindle Edition and available for Kindle Unlimited on Amazon.com!  The paperback edition will be released soon.