Greeting all!

THE PROVING, book one of the Tome of Pasaron, is reborn. The last few months the original manuscript went under the knife for extensive and invasive surgery. A select few critique partners and early readers are now taking a look at the unedited product to tell me if it works… or if I failed to save the patient. We will soon see! This represents the 9th re-write of this book over the course of the last seven years. Whew!

Here’s what has NOT changed:

• The big picture plot. THE PROVING is still the story of a group of teens from dramatically different backgrounds thrust into situations where they first need to survive then soon need to thrive in order to save their world. The summary here on the website hasn’t changed one iota, in other words.
• The main characters. Kir’Ana Touran, the crown princess of the Touran Protectorates, and Annix Mastoro, an apprentice crime fighter who dreams of becoming a knight, still lead the tale.
• The mysteries. There are many things that aren’t what they seem in THE PROVING, and that has not changed. Some are obvious, others are revealed by book’s end. Many won’t be appreciated until I publish the fourth or fifth books in the series and beyond. I tried to capture a count recently; more than half of the important scenes in THE PROVING have secrets hidden within them. Why? Because that’s what I love within *my* favorite fantasy stories.

But much has changed, starting with how the action is presented:

• THE PROVING is now told in first person, multi-point-of-view. We now see the action from within Kir’Ana and Annix’ minds, then as the story progresses a few other first person POV’s are mixed end. This is a new skill for me; my goal is to bring the reader closer to the characters in both thought and emotion.
• The supporting characters. A bunch are gone, both good guys and bad. The good guys, aka the Elect of the Silver Phoenix, are Kir’Ana, Annix, Jerine, Kosin, Mai, Bres, and Varix. If you’re new to the story, you may be thinking that a team of seven is in now way a small team. Truth. But there were even more good guys before this change. The bad guys are fewer as well; now its only Julian and his two brothers Arinol and Tomas.
• New and Deleted Scenes. Several original scenes are now gone in order to make room for exciting new action. There is new content in nearly every chapter.

To celebrate, I posted the new chapter 1 on THE PROVING page. Feel free to offer feedback! Your suggestions and comments can only help during the editing process.

Thanks!

~Kevin