Princess Anatopsis Solomon wants to be a knight-errant. But hermother, chairwoman of Amalgamated Witchcraft Corporation, plans for her immortal daughter to take over the family business. The Queen has even hired a new tutor: a demigod named Mr. Pound. But Mr. Pound’s plans go far beyond completing Ana’s education. He is searching for the mysterious and powerful Os Divinitas. And if he finds it, nothing will survive. A shocking and powerful gift will catapult the Princess into an unlikely quest through the rich worlds of Anatopsis, inhabited by magic immortals, a rebel army, and the last dog in the Universe.
Since most of my published work has been for an adult literary audience, you may be wondering what I'm doing writing fantasy novels for kids. Well, children's books--especially fantasy--are my first love. Ask any bookstore owner in my area: they'll tell you I spend most of my time and money in the Children's/Young Adult section. And my all-time favorite books are still the ones that come with Newberry Medals, swords, dogs, magicians or ships on the covers.
ANATOPSIS is the first novel I ever wrote. I started it more than 20 years ago, and my goal, at the time, was just to see if I could finish it. The first version was 600 pages long and, by any measure of literature, unpublishable. So, while I was recovering from my disappointment and trying to rewrite the book, I took the opportunity to do what every struggling writer does: work at a lot of different jobs so that I could list them on the back flap of my books some day.
Here is the list, for those of you who are curious: store clerk, teacher, children's magazine editor, production manager at a sailing magazine, secretary, telecommunications programmer, web consultant, Director of Information Systems for an on-line music company, and most recently, Java developer. Oh, and for a few years, I was also guitarist and vocalist for the Beatles tribute band, HELP!
Now I'm writing pretty much full-time. I live in a nice house with my wonderful, supportive, and extremely patient wife (who also, by the way, is a published author and a fantastic writer) and my 2 children, who are equally wonderful but not quite as patient. I like to tell my kids a lot of stories, and they seem to enjoy them. But when I pick up my guitar, they leave the room, because, as my daughter once said, "Daddy's singing doesn't taste good."
