The Keeper of the Key

Periodically, I offer one of my Portals Series for free for a few days via Amazon Kindle in the hopes that perhaps one person or more will leave a review. This weekend, you can get the first book, The Keeper of the Key, free on Amazon Kindle.

Until Halloween is over, it’s completely free! The Keeper of the Key IS also available in paperback format, but that is not free this weekend.

Keep reading for some of the backstory of this novel.

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Backstory on this Novel

This story started out as a dream I had way back in about 2005 about me being chased by wolves in a forested area and falling into a ravine. I started writing out the details of the dream, which became the first part of the book. It wasn’t until 2007 when I started really writing the novel and fleshing out all of the details, but I kept putting the story aside because others told me my writing was a waste of my time. With the encouragement of my husband, I finished writing it in 2009 and tried to go with an agent, but ended up getting scammed instead. (Hence the reason why I self published it and the rest of my novels.) I finally did the leg work to release it as a e-book in 2012, but didn’t release it as a paperback until years later.

Since often, I get asked this question: “Where did you get all of the names?”… Here goes:

I borrowed heavily from mythology for the names in this work. The name Manda is a play on the Greek tale of Manto, daughter of Tiresias (which was then the inspiration for Tiresan / Terry McKerlie).

Rhianna comes from the Welsh tale of Rhiannon. One myth I remembered reading long ago (and have lost) is that she was associated with dogs, from which came the wolf pack. And of course, the four sons of Lasco all have names that are associated with Greek dogs or wolves.

Syrius is of course Sirius, the dog star. Lycan is the Greek word for wolf. It was also a play on the Greek tale of Lycaon, who was turned into a wolf. Arion is from the constellation Orion, to whom the dog star belongs per some of the ancient texts. Kyrbus was derived from the three headed dog Cerberus, who guards the Greek underworld.

Athemia is a take on Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, whereas Phoebe means shining one in Greek (and also the grandmother of Apollo and a name of the Greek goddess Artemis). Most of the sage names in all of my stories derive from either Greek and Roman seers and oracles, or children of Apollo. Most of the magisters’ names were also pulled from Greek mythology, centering around children of Poseidon or Zeus or people associated with them.

Erynnion (Uh-Ren-EE-un) was a made up name. One day, I was goofing around with some Scrabble tiles (no joke) and came up with that word. I was thinking one day it would be a cool name for a character, so I used it in my story.

Some of the other characters in the story were named in honor of friends of mine. I often do that. Of course, I change the names a bit, so that they are not easily recognizable. But they are there.

Originally, I was not expecting this to be the first in a series. It was going to be over and done and I was moving on to other endeavours. But my stories have a way of weaving themselves together…. and since I had a similar dream backstory with the next novel in the series, Last of His Kind, I knew I had something that needed to be connected.

So there you have it.

If you have a Kindle, consider downloading and reading the book. If you liked it, please think of leaving a review too!

Stay magical! Write your own story!

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And as always, #writeyourownstory