If you’ve read my bio, you’ll remember a small bit about a story written (and illustrated) in sharpie. This is just a tiny insight into the first “story” that I ever “wrote,” (my mom did the actual writing - I don’t think I was writing legibly at this point yet) and where I went from there.
In terms of the content of this sharpie-story, picture in your head if Sherlock Holmes were in Ghostbusters… Yes. You read that correctly. Sherlock Holmes investigates spooky old houses and uses blasters on ghosts with Inspector Lestrade and a team of detectives behind him. Not a bad concept now, is it? I’ll have to credit the idea - and love for Sherlock Holmes - to the first, incredibly niche, cartoon that I ever remember liking because it suited my very early and developing personal tastes, “Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century.”
I can feel right now that, in some of you, I awoke an ancient memory that is swimming its way to the forefront of your consciousness like some eldritch horror awakening from the deep… and others of you just typed the series name into google because it sounds like an impossibly ridiculous show that I just made up. I assure you that it exists, though I haven’t seen it in years and may never watch it again because I want to preserve my childhood memory of it.
Anyway, that TV show inspired my initial love of sci-fi, and a trip to the Cleveland Museum of Art to see their renaissance display - filled with arms and armor of the 14th and 15th centuries - fueled my adoration for medieval history and, by a roundabout extension, (mostly my inspired imagination while constantly playing with a plastic sword on one of those springy-horse-riding…things (the kind that’s probably in your grandparents basement)) medieval fantasy. The series that I read at a young age which really solidified my love for fantasy was the Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini. I read it many, many times, and I credit it as chief of the list of inspirations for me writing fantasy stories and creating fantasy worlds in my youth. Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood also makes that list.
Fast forwarding a little bit, I was blessed to be homeschooled up until 8th grade (8th grade me wanted to play football) which afforded me the opportunity to do a lot (A LOT) of reading and imagining. I have fond memories of roaming forests and farms with old friends and creating a fantasy world in which we were the heroes and we used sticks for swords. In hindsight, given the opportunity again, I probably would have stuck with being homeschooled all the way through to college. 8th grade through Junior year were particularly dark times in my life from a school/social perspective, with a very small handful of friendships, extracurriculars (highly recommend Civil Air Patrol for those interested in that kind of thing), sports, and some wonderful teachers - including a pair of really great English teachers (shoutout Mrs. Kleinhenz and Mrs. Grether!) - making it better.
Senior year I changed high schools which greatly improved my life. I got into drama (shoutout Mr. L!) and had another awesome English teacher (Mrs. Monaco! (I had so many great teachers at Chardon High School that it’s impossible to name them all)) which helped propel me into a wonderful time studying at THE Ohio State University (Go Bucks!).
Anyway, 8th grade was when I started writing in earnest. It was mostly poetry, which Mrs. Kleinhenz guided me in the writing of, and to this day I continue to enjoy it. One day I may even make a blog post featuring some of my earliest writing - completely unedited, just to display the growth I’ve gone through. From then through most of college, poetry and plays were more my forte. Winter of my senior year at OSU I wrote a chapter of a book - a single chapter of a steampunk novel that I have all planned out and that I may write eventually. I enjoyed writing that one chapter so much that I felt inspired to write a whole book. Classes, rowing, and graduation delayed that endeavor somewhat, but during the early part of the summer after graduation I was working with my dad on cleaning up a home he was selling and an idea struck me.
A few months later I had a military sci-fi book, and a circadian rhythm that was mostly nocturnal. Just ask my parents. With both of them being teachers, they enjoyed seeing me before they left for school in the morning… When I was up because I hadn’t gone to bed yet.
My reasons for that schedule were two-fold: One, no one bothers you from 1-6am, and two, I’ve never been a morning person anyway. I do much better work at night - always have, likely always will. That said, when I was churning out over half a chapter a night it got to the point where I often wouldn’t actually go to bed until about 11am… that was a problem. Now I try to cap it at about 4-5am on the nights when I can write without any particular commitment doing its best sword of Damocles impression and looming over me in the morning.
That first book taught me a lot about HOW to write a novel (look out for that series of blog posts!) and about the institution that is the modern publishing industry - which I’ve learned really doesn’t like straight, white, ardently Christian men much at all. On a very related note - I will personally send a signed copy of TQaTS and a handwritten letter of appreciation to the first 3 young men under the age of 18 who read my book and ask for one. So few boys read nowadays and any encouragement and motivation I can offer in that regard is well worth it to me. I wrote this book with the 15-16 year old me in mind, and I believe that age is particularly important to push young men to read, adventure, and figure out how to be a man. To quote from Braveheart, “First, learn to use this. Then, I'll teach you to use this.” (https://youtu.be/U9Z-oW93Yew)
With a slightly improved sleep schedule, I set about writing my second book - a markedly dystopian (it would have been more dystopian if I knew exactly how quickly things would get bad during 2020) sci-fi novel in a cyberpunk setting that is all at once semi-futurable (I got my History degree in Futurism!) and an exploration of how humanity would adapt to and morph around the broad implementation of affordable bio-technology. If you want to know more about that possible future I envisioned you’ll have to get the book. Don’t worry, “MASTERKEY” is coming soon!
Masterkey taught me how to better build a world and construct lore. It taught me about scenery and setting and mood, and how to present them in ways that are vivid and unique. Both of those books prepared me for the third…
The Quill and The Spear
At the end of February 2020, after a gap year at home, I moved out on my own to a little studio apartment in downtown Columbus, Ohio. In hindsight, that was terrible timing, and a colossal mistake. TQaTS was written mostly over the first several months of 2020 – it gave me something to invest my time in while my world ground to a halt. Hundreds if not thousands of hours went into it – writing it, researching for it, editing it (so much editing… I’ve accepted that it will never be perfect), and more. It is the book that got me through a very difficult time of my life, including but not limited to isolation, an inability to do the work I loved, grad school, riots, tear gas being blown into my apartment (that was a hoot and a very interesting summer to live downtown), a hundred dark nights and bright sunrises, and more things that I can’t even remember.
I’ve since moved out of the city (and will never live in a city again. I’ve always been a country guy and I will continue to be a country guy), gotten a full-time position as a school Literacy Specialist, graduated with my Masters, and have been really blessed to get my life on some solid rails. From late 2020 through all of that, I rekindled my faith in Christ thanks in no small part to my parent’s direction and Faith Life Church in New Albany, Ohio. Ultimately, the praise for this book and every other one that I write should not go to me, but to God, for He is who gave me the talent and passion to write.
And there you have it. The story of my life of writing from as early as I can remember to the present. I truly hope that your reading of any of my books inspires you to do something great – writing or otherwise – and that you live out your adventures with as much abandon and trust in the LORD that you can muster.
God bless you!
B.G. Harvey
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