My first novel, Art the Wanderer is a humorous, coming-of-age story set in the fantasy world of Merth. Though it is aimed at young adults and adults, it is still approachable enough for children and contains no overt sex and only mild language. Released in October of 2017, it currently boasts all 5-star reviews.
Art is a rather bland nineteen year old best described as 'mostly brown.' He leaves his home village of Burk to find a girlfriend and his adventures take him across the continent and through no fault of his own, becomes renowned as a great Hero.
Art is purposely an inversion of the 'chosen hero' archetype, wherein the 'chosen one' must fight/defeat the 'evil.' Heroes such as Paul Atreides, Neo, Anakin Skywalker, and Harry Potter all fall into this trope (though with all due respect to J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter has something of an inversion to this). There is nothing inherently wrong with this archetype, but I have always chaffed somewhat against it. With Art, I wanted to create a hero who goes out into the world of his own free will and does good because he's a good person. He is not in any way stronger, faster, or smarter than anyone else and succeeds because he does the right thing, even if its not the most expedient thing to do. The core message is that anyone can be the hero, regardless of who they are.
The cover was drawn and painted by Leigh Kellogg. His website can be found HERE.
Now available as an e-book on Amazon HERE.