MARK HOWARD

I’m thrilled you’re here, about to go on this crusade with me. It’s been a long pilgrimage already, writing this book. It started as a few short scenes I typed out during my freshman year of college when I probably should have been studying. Looking back on it, the first draft wasn’t exactly what I would call good now. I spent the rest of my undergraduate years chasing girls, playing video games, and wondering why my grades weren’t better. 

I had this story in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to change it in the second draft, so I kept putting it off. In 2014, I earned my bachelor’s degree, and I decided to start writing again in earnest. There were only two problems. I now had a wife and a small baby to provide for, and I also decided to pursue a master’s degree at this time. This, and the fact that I scrapped most of the ideas from the first draft, outside of a couple of characters and the setting, meant that the next draft took another five years to complete. I believe the work before you is much more mature, thanks to my experiences in the interim. My master’s degree provided me with a much greater depth of historical and literary knowledge to draw inspiration from, and my time as a husband and father working through graduate school broadened my personal experiences enough to give my characters the depth they deserved.