Dorian, a naive but resourceful young man, who lives in enchanted Retslu, sets out to gain the hand of the beautiful Princess Jennifer by winning King Woden's tournament. Mordrake the Sorcerer, however, places an enchantment on Dorian that causes him to always go the wrong way. As he tries to reach the site of the tourney, he has more narrow escapes than Pauline and meets a host of strange, eccentric characters. Some of them are Gorblud, the friendly vampire; Tiger Lily, the beautiful werecat and Wortisha, the seductive wicked witch. But finding and winning the tournament is only the beginning of Dorian's odyssey. In Part 2, the ten finalists (which include Dorian and Mordrake, of course) must search for the Fountain of Youth. As the ten seek this elusive goal, each in his own way, they have mad adventures in distant and exotic lands: Barbaria, home of Hortilla the Hungol; the Roaming Empire; Nowhere, where you can see the end of the world; and Shangri-La, where no one ever ages.
I call myself Papa Joe. I've loved science fiction and fantasy from the time I learned to read. My hobbies, besides writing, are traveling, adventure game playing and do-it-yourself projects. Before I retired, I was a technical writer at a major computer manufacturer. Several short stories of mine have been published in E-zines. Two series of paranormal suspense novels of mine, called The Morgaine Chronicles and Raven Lenore, Psychic Investigator, have been published by Renaissance E Books. These novels may be purchased from Renaissance's Page Turner Editions site, at Fictionwise E-Books, at Amazon.com (Kindle edition) and other online book sellers.
Renaissance has also published collections of my short stories, The Sands of Time, Mordrake's Apprentice, and Love Among the Stars, five SF novels, Dinner With Dracula, For Love of Kumiko, Pawns of Tomorrow, Star Tower and The Bagod and a dark paranormal fantasy called The Laws of Magic. In the humorous fantasy vane, Renaissance had also published White Queen, Black Knight; Search for Prince Knight Black, Once in a Blue Moon and The Curse of Chaos.
I was born and raised in a working class neighborhood in Chicago. I believe my love of reading stems from my parents and grandparents, who were all avid readers. As a child, one of my favorite things was hanging out at the library or browsing in flea markets for books I could afford. One day my parents took me to see a most wondrous movie, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It made me a believer. From that time on, I read every Oz book I could get my hands on. I also loved comic books, especially the ones in the SF genre, Planet Comics, Superman, Captain Marvel, etc. I also liked mathematics and science, especially astronomy.
When I was twelve or so, I discovered the pulp magazines. They had garish covers and were printed on blotting paper, but the insides were marvelous. Even the letter columns were interesting. In these magazines, and the slicks and paperbacks that followed a few years later, I learned to love such writers as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Robert Silverberg and so many others. About that time I decided I wanted to write in the genre, but never got started until many years later.
I was drafted into the army near the end of the Korean War and was sent to Germany, where I worked as a microwave repairman. Also, I married a girl who went to the same high school as I did, who I met at a party after I graduated. We've been married over fifty years now. We have four wonderful girls, ten grandchildren (who are now adults ) and one spunky
great-granddaughter.
For most of my working life, I was a technical writer for a major computer firm. I learned many things there about computers, about writing and about people and corporations. I lived the Dilbert cartoon. Because of my work, my wife and I moved to a small town in upstate New York where the manufacturing plant was located. We still live there, although the company has since closed the plant.
In 1993, I retired. That's when my fiction writing career really started. First I sold a few short stories to E-zines. (I use "sold" loosely. I seldom received a paycheck.) Then I sold a novel to a POD publisher and another to an E-book publisher. The pay is meager, but I enjoy writing so much that I'd probably do it even if they paid nothing (which is the standard with most E-zines).
