The History of my Novel, Part I

We have gone through many topics on my blog. Most of these blogs dealt with medieval life and weapons.


Now I am going to describe some of my upcoming novel, and the process I have gone through to get it published. This will be provided through several posts, so I hope you will continue to read each one.

My first attempt at written was a zombie novel. I thought it was a good concept for a zombie book; basically, it is a story from a zombie’s point of view. I had trouble getting it published, and still have not had any luck.

With my zombie novel sitting on my hard drive and nowhere to go, I had two choices; quit writing, or get another topic.

I thought about the first option for a while, but then realized many authors had sent many manuscripts to publishers and agents without any response, and that, in reality, it would take only one publisher to accept my novel to get it out.

Since I chose the 2nd option, I needed a new topic and create a story. I remember sitting down and watching one of the Harry Potter movies and said to myself, “Self, there are no knights in these stories.”

Ideas began popping into my head; how can I describe a Page learning how to become a knight? We are all familiar with Ivanhoe and other medieval setting stories; but I needed a twist to this story. Then something came inside my head, what if the medieval period never ended, what if it was set in today’s world. I also wanted it to be different from George Romero’s Knightriders , where a person thinks he is King Author set in today’s world (excellent movie by the way, knights jousting on motorcycles, rent it).

I came up with a concept. A power in an evil book was released upon the world during the middle ages. Monsters and other creatures of myth began bringing havoc upon the earth. If humankind was constantly facing evil, then perhaps the renaissance never happened. What if the world was stuck in the same technological place as it was 1,000 years ago.

I had the concept of my novel, now to consider the plot. I decided to write a story based on The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I truly believe most stories follow some of the format described in this book. I created a hero, a young man who is unaware his parents were members of a legendary order of knights. These knights were created for one purpose; to destroy the evil in the world. My novel also includes a mentor, love interest and an antagonist. When I put these characters together my story was formed.

Being an amateur historian, I then researched what it was like living in medieval times. In this research, I discovered minor details about the technology that was used by everyday people. I incorporated these details in my novel to give it a more realistic feel than other fantasy novels.

It was also in my research that I discovered long forgotten customs and rituals that were performed during that time. These were added to my novel for a sense of realism.

NEWS FLASH: I was just notified my novel will be released on July 30th. I will post the press release via here when it becomes available.

So now you know how I came up and wrote my book. The next time I shall describe the journey to find a publisher.