I haven’t been posting much lately, and for that I apologize. I’ve been hard at work on the rough draft for my family-friendly fantasy tale, Spellbound Sword. It’s the story of a young boy named Travis who is adopted by a magic-using outlaw named Kane Verdelea. Together they go on a quest to steal a sword with ties to Travis’s family history. In doing so, they uncover a conspiracy within the Kingdom’s monarchy that has existed for decades and seeks to throw the entire country into chaos. Travis and Kane team up with a blade-wielding vagrant, a mysterious man-beast, and a mechanically minded Princess to stop the conspirators from unleashing their plot. Only the power of the sword can save the Kingdom, but unlocking its full potential is more difficult than Travis and his friends could ever imagine.
If you’re interested in reading the story, I’ll be posting it chapter by chapter every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on my wattpad page. If you’re interested in reading my last novel-length piece, a dark sci-fi tale for mature audiences called Scavengers (inspired heavily by the film Alien and the book The Shining). I apologize if this jump between genres and audiences might seem confusing, but I’m trying to stretch myself as a writer and discover where my voice and style best fit, even as they continue to grow.
When I was ten years old (the same age as Travis, my story’s protagonist) I entered a writing competition wherein we were given a prompt and had to make up a story on the spot. The story I wrote ended up winning an award, and it was the starting point for Spellbound Sword. My mother always encouraged me to revisit this story as it was one that captivated her when I wrote it. She has always been a fan of the Harry Potter series as well. I thought it might be time for me to try to write something that anyone could potentially enjoy, rather than forcing myself into a dark spooky niche.
So here we have Spellbound Sword, the first book in what I would like to be a series about Travis’s many adventures. If the series should continue or not is all up to you and whether or not you enjoy the tale. Like Scavengers, the draft you’ll find on wattpad is unedited and unrevised. If there are mistakes or inconsistencies (and I am sure there are some) they will hopefully be corrected in the next draft. I’ve been told to take a break between writing and editing so as to come back fresh, but I wanted to share with you what I had so far as a way of gauging your interest. Thus far, some people have really taken to the story, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Their encouragement means the world to me.
That being said, if you have comments, critiques, concerns, thoughts or questions about this or any of my writing feel free to contact me on twitter (at) shorester or leave a comment or message on my wattpad profile. If you have my email address you can reach me there as well, though I don’t like to give it out too freely for fear of a messy inbox. Any words of advice or criticism you might have, even ones about small typos or inconsistencies, will be of great use in the next edit, so I can and will use them all. No comment is too small.
Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoy my stories.
Matt Shore 