16-year-old Cohthel, a human, should have visited Father’s grave sooner because now it’s missing.
Paragon Forgotten is the first book in a planned epic coming-of-age fantasy series that begins when Cohthel’s mother makes excuses for the absent grave, which Cohthel accepts, but his best friend, Thaen, won’t. Thaen convinces Cohthel his father must still be alive, and Cohthel runs away from school, family, and friends to find the truth. He needs the truth because Mother won’t remarry and without a father’s guidance Cohthel fears he’ll never choose an apprenticeship, will live with Mother the rest of his life, won’t fully grasp manhood, and all his friends will succeed in life and leave him behind.
While away, Cohthel hears corrupting rumors that humans are breaking alliances to force the other eight races to worship humans as gods. Cohthel returns home not only having found the truth about his once-thought-dead father, but that he now must choose: join the humans’ war for godhood and erase his culture, identity, and humanity or oppose the war and be forced to kill the only thing he’s ever wanted: a father.
Where I got the inspiration to write this book is irrelevant because the event that triggered the book’s birth has no semblance to the book’s content. I also wrote the 4 book series (all written and complete) out of order ( 2,3,1,4), and because I’ve been writing and re-writing this series for 18 years, my original ideas have morphed to keep up with my own evolving life. However, even though I don’t have a notable, inspiring event to report, Paragon Forgotten was influenced largely by the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, my intended audience who enjoys the same.
Paragon Forgotten has a heartbeat. Perhaps all fantasy authors claim so, but I would wait to see the proof because when I say “heartbeat” I don’t mean snazzy characters, larger-than-life plot twists, or the heavily researched world-building fantasy authors sell their souls for.
“Heartbeat” is the theme.
Fantasy is my favorite genre to read, and I’ve read enough to know that fantasy authors want your focus directed on this magic system, that unique creature, or the move-by-move sword-fighting scene they’ve acted out during LARP. What appears to be largely missing in the fantasy genre is the “reason” for writing down even the first word. The reason, the pulse sliding undercurrent to the characters, plot, and world-building. Without this reason, this pulse, this heartbeat, all fantasy is a copy-paste from each other because magic systems are not unique, fantastical creatures come out of the same mold, and I skim move-by-move sword fighting scenes because I know the hero will win and I will DNF a book for predictability.
Paragon Forgotten isn’t about Cohthel discovering if his father is alive, or his subsequent choices and the impact his choice will make on the rest of the series (the series is 5 books, not 4. I split the 1st book in half.) Paragon Forgotten is about the villain who isn’t even mentioned in the blurb. It’s the villain’s story because through his internal conflict -- and the reason I use varying races (dragons, elves, dwarves, ecthore, seadwellers, falkons, gryphons, pegasi) -- he begins to understand that the race of humans are superior to the other eight races not because of their divine birthright, but because the humans have been mandated by their divine birthright to serve the other races, much like a servant would serve a king, or exactly like Jesus -- a king -- served his fellow mankind.
If you could say one thing to the entire world, what would it be?
I have that opportunity to say one thing to our world, and I spend 4 more books after Paragon Forgotten to say it: love and serve your fellow mankind.
Paragon Forgotten has been nominated for Best Novel for 2022 on writing.com.
I'm an active duty U.S. Army soldier and have used my traveling across the entire world visiting a myriad of cultures, economics, religions, and society to add variety to my prose. I love playing in the dirt (camping, hiking, mountain biking), and making my own homemade, natural (and edible!) beauty products: shampoo, conditioner, body scrub, and lotion. I also run barefoot (and fixed my hip and knee pain because of it. Take off your shoes! They ruin your feet!)
Thank you, readers, for encouraging me to say my one thing to the world.
