Book BLURB: When legends come to life the world trembles from a single name.
Ronin. Once-heroes from a different age, they wield elemental powers… wind,
water, fire, stone, forest, sun, moon, flesh, and metal.
At the same time, a young man discovers his best friend with a sword in her stomach, and dark wings sprouting from her back. Guards rush onto the scene, accuse him of the act, and he is forced to flee. In a new world without his memories, Gray must find his way amid legends and darkness, as he wrestles with an elemental power inside himself.
A power all too similar to the infamous Ronin…
BIO:
Matthew Wolf is the author of the Ronin Saga. Or maybe he's a
Ronin. Either way, he's involved somehow. Aside from epic fantasy, he enjoys
woodcrafting, outdoors, a bit of a health nut (Kale is good!), and trains in
Kung Fu.
His childhood of traveling the world and studying Old English and Japanese influenced the schemes of the Saga, and the world of Daerval. He is a graduate from UCSB with a Literature degree with a specialization in Medieval Literature and Japanese.
His childhood of traveling the world and studying Old English and Japanese influenced the schemes of the Saga, and the world of Daerval. He is a graduate from UCSB with a Literature degree with a specialization in Medieval Literature and Japanese.
The Pick-me-ups of Life
Life’s confusing. Let’s just start with that, sound
good?
Call this what you will,
inspirational, ranting, musing, or even self-indulgent pontificating. But
the truth is I’m only here to tell you what I’ve learned and that is: purpose
is finding what matters to you and pushing through no matter the obstacles, but…
(and this is an important but) there is a beauty in the obstacles
you’ve knocked aside in order to climb to the top.
So, you might be asking (or at
least I am) what have I
achieved? Every month I sell roughly 600-800 kindle
books, which puts me in the top 100 epic fantasies on Amazon. I’ve gone
to over a dozen conference, schools, libraries, and conventions. And at
each one I’ve slapped my John Hancock on my book selling double, sometimes
triple what the person beside me does. Honestly, while I love spreading
the book and getting more engaged fans and of course friends, those accolades
mean only so much to me.
Well, let’s put aside the fact that
the true achievements are within each one of those accolades–meeting the
incredibly witty 13-year-old who fearlessly asserted the ability to pick apart
faults in even well-known author’s books like the last scraps on a rotisserie
chicken; or the young girl who called me on my cellphone to declare her love of
the book and it’s “intricate mesh of Japanese and medieval elements that will
rival Harry Potter!”; or simply the young but outspoken youth named Thomas who
(when asked about his favorite book) said unwaveringly: “Yours!”.
Now those are all great moments, but let’s put those aside
and focus on a deeper, if enmeshed issue. Also let’s not kid ourselves
that these accomplishments, while awesome, are admittedly a hefty stone’s throw
away from my ultimate vision of NY times bestseller lists (a VERY hefty stone).
But am I worried? Yes and
no–and that’s the ultimate point of this ‘rant’. Stay with me!
What have I learned? A lot and a
little. But that simple statement has taught me one thing: life is balance.
It’s the knowledge and lack there of, it’s the ups n’ downs (and the
sometimes sideways), but we always have to embrace and move on. It can
get confusing. Heck, it should be confusing.
Half the time I’m writing everything in the world makes sense and I know
my true purpose. There’s nowhere else I want to be in the world, and when
a scene works well, or a character shows a beautifully delicate or deliciously
dark side I chortle quietly to myself. Sometimes that balcony scene can
unfold, my pen flowing as if Shakespeare himself sat in my corner; but other
times, I wonder if my fingers type words just to make fun of me. Really,
Matt? That was supposed to be “funny”, eh? And you don’t even do
drugs, at least then you’d have an
excuse. But as mentioned before, ups and downs.
Balance.
Now, I’m marketing. I’m not a
businessman, what in the heck? Life is even more confusing. But
still, there’s balance to be found: some days I set up three signings at three
different Barnes and Noble’s, a signing at Mysterious Galaxy, send out all the
edits for a revision to book one, set up several more High School talks and…
*deep breath* … more. Other times, it feels like my most successful
achievement of the day was putting pants on. Still, balance.
So what’s the final verdict on this mess. Let’s spray this
issue with choices and I’ll let you pick: “You win some you lose some?”
”Life is confusing only because we’re trying to
have it make sense when it simply ‘is.’” How about the Japanese proverb 仕方が無い ’Shikata
ga nai’ which translate roughly to “it cannot be helped.”
Yeah sure, those are all great and
probably true, and hopefully some of those help you in your many different
stages of life–the transcendent balcony scenes, or when life just seems to be
making a joke out of your day. But to be frank, none of that is the point
I’m trying to make. What I’ve realized amid all this and the only small
trinket of wisdom I cautiously pin upon your breast is this: when you climb to
the top? Well, don’t forget those obstacles that you knocked over, for me
it’s those little signings or the books sold at every stage, for you it might
just be signing the lease on a new apartment, or taking a class you were afraid
to, or just the first step towards your bigger dream. It’s the doing
something that got you somewhere else… embrace them, love them, as much as you
can. Because if you don’t? None of it’s going to matter. Or
put another way, if you don’t enjoy the first step, how will you enjoy the
last? So yes, in a lame way this is an “enjoy the journey” speech (to
both me and you), but even more, it’s “most especially enjoy
the moments that make you smile, the moments that you worked hard and ‘did it’,
even if it’s small.”
Yeah, it’s not as tight and fancy.
Ah screw it, blame my fingers!
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