“Writing fantasy for young people struck me like lightning and continues to sustain a driving, unexplainable passion in me.”
It was a stimulating time when ideas and images flooded my waking hours to help fill the pages of a young boy’s journey to find himself. It seems once the main characters stepped in place, the settings and surroundings followed filling in the blank spaces, supporting the narrative. Oddly enough, the idea of the huge tree came first and then a trip to Southern England where the tree revealed itself to me.
Fifteen-year-old, Ivan Kimble, with all his doubts and loneliness, looms prominent on the first page. His lack of courage submits him to be bullied at school, but he wouldn’t fight back because of the indoctrination from his parents who cautioned Ivan to stay silent and not make a fuss. When he entered the mysterious West Forest to search for his older brother, Ivan’s burning quest drove him to put his childish fears away and try to locate Peter, his only living relative. Zephyrus, the great Kingwood Oak, imbued with a spirit of long ago, becomes like the loving and guiding father he’d lost a few years previous in a train accident. The tree’s mission is to help Ivan find himself and the truth.