The most difficult part of being an author isn’t writing a book. It’s answering the question, What is your book about? Because what you’re really asking me is, Why should I read your book? It was over the course of four months and 84,000 words that the first book of the Everflame series was born, and in just a tiny fraction of that time and space, I need to give an answer that sparks your interest.
The short answer is Everflame is a fantasy/adventure novel that takes place in the land of Ephanlarea. We follow the tale of a very young boy who is found in the woods by bears, and raised as a member of their kingdom. As he ages, he is faced with an evil that threatens to destroy his world, and he must quest to prevent that from happening. It is an epic tale of good versus evil, in a world of adventure and imagination.
The longer, yet more meaningful answer is that Everflame is about my character, my beliefs and myself. It is a parable of my own personal philosophy and my own journey, and at the story’s very core it is a promise. It is an oath to all who I love and who love me that the man I have become and the man I will always be, will do everything I can to be a strength they can rely on and a constant light amid the darkest of times. In other words, it is the very spirit of who I am that is the Everflame.
In the story, the Everflame is a literal flame that burns eternally atop Gray Mountain, the home of the bears who find the young boy abandoned in the forest. The flame is a symbol to the bears of enduring spirit. It resides as the core of their ethics and all they are. An excerpt from the book sees Whiteclaw, a bear, explain the meaning of the Everflame.
“The Everflame is a symbol. It has no power. It’s just a reminder of something we all have, our spirit. And it is to this spirit that we are accountable. Not to an all-powerful tyrant, not even to ancient creators, simply to ourselves. By making an oath to the Everflame, I am merely making an oath to all that I am. If I break that oath, it is I who suffer the greatest loss, and nothing can change that…We all have the ability to judge our own hearts, and we should all have the courage to do so.”
This becomes the central theme that the two most prominent characters in Everflame, Evercloud and Edgar Shein, must face. It would be too simplistic to label them as one good and the other evil. Instead each character is capable of both good and evil. They have to choose with every new moment which path to take, the path of good or the path of evil. It is these choices that ultimately define who they are. It is they who mold themselves, it is they who mold their relationships with those around them, and it is they who mold their world.
And so we return to the question I must answer, Why should you read Everflame? You should read Everflame because its central theme is about me, and in the very same way, it is also about you. Ask yourself, who and what do you live for? Who and what do you fight for? And in your personal battle, will you lose strength and fall into darkness? Or will you live with the Everflame in your heart and be a light and a foundation for those that you love?
As you think about your own answers, I’ll leave you with Whiteclaw’s words to those who faced the very same questions.
“Now you must remember what it is that we fight for… Remember your mothers, your fathers, your sisters, and your brothers. Remember all those who have loved you and remain close to your heart. For it is that love that has seen us through the darkness of this world. It is that love that has been a light. See that light. Feel its heat. Now become that light. For it is now we who must banish the darkness for those who have done the same for us.”