I’ve finally published the fourth volume of my “epic fantasy trilogy” about the land of Paxia, which is now available in either Kindle or paperback editions.

 Wait. The fourth of a trilogy? Huh?

 Actually the saga was originally intended to be a single volume, but as sometimes happens I once again found myself realizing halfway through the initial story that there was considerably more to explore than I’d anticipated before I started.

 In the case of this latest series, “The Chronicles of Paxia”, I originally wanted to explore writing what is considered the “sword and sorcery” fantasy genre, as embodied in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. But I quickly ran up against a problem. I find it really difficult to utilize undefined elements, such as magic, without rooting them in some kind of fixed, finite system.

 For example, before I wrote the magic based detective series of “Johnny Sundown” stories I had to lay out exactly how magic functioned, how it was possible and how it evolved so that I didn’t create a universe in which some undefined magic spell could be used to undo any kind of perilous situation, as is usually the case in most fairy tales or magic stories when the author writes themselves into a corner. So I used the bare bones of how magic is used in role playing games (“learn” a spell through some acquisition or ceremony, then “hang” it for instant use when necessary and require replenishment of energy afterwards) and defined the details.

 I think that’s one of the things that made the Harry Potter universe so popular. Set in an actual school for magic that alone implies a fixed (and teachable) system with built in limitations and restrictions. It completely removes the implication that “magic can and will eventually fix anything because we don’t know if it has any limitations at all.”

 And as soon as you begin trying to “real world” magic you already know you’ve removed a substantial element of the pure “fantasy” from that universe.

 Combine that with the fact that I didn’t want to have to deal with non-human intelligent species (orcs, trolls, dwarfs, elves, etc.) and that pretty much guts whatever is left of the “fantasy” aspect of that universe.

 But there are other elements to fantasy than just alien species and hocus pocus. I happen to believe the very epic structure and the ambiance of the world go a long way toward defining what we think of as “fantasy” stories. So it is possible to take something like “Lord of the Rings” and replace the dwarves, elves, orcs, etc. with other races or cultures of humans and tell the exact same story. And you can even use Isaac Asimov’s (the scifi author) definition that “sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic” to bring what the inhabitants of that universe view as magic down to earth as well.

 So that’s what I did.

 For the “conflict” idea I drew from Mark Twain’s concept of “A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court”, in which a late 19th century blacksmith from Connecticut gets “zapped” back to 12th century England and, using his advanced technology (an almanac that notes historic eclipses, a couple of wooden matches, etc.) presents himself as a great wizard and thus gains great power over the ‘primitives’.

 In my case I reached into history and folded in a number of actual major world events as the basis for what was at first supposed to be a personal challenge to produce a “fantasy” story that actually contained nothing particularly fantastic.

 But having outlined the starting “history” of that world and the setting in which it would take place and beginning through the story I realized it would actually take multiple volumes to bring it around to answering the initial “conflict” that kicks off the tale to begin with (the invasion of the slaughtering inhuman hoard).

 So that eventually led to three massive (i.e. around 800 page) volumes which enclose that initial saga.

 But then I thought to myself, “you know… you haven’t done a steampunk story either. Hmmm.”

 And having set up a perfectly functional fantasy universe in which to base it, all I had to do was flash forward about a century (considering the level of technology the original trilogy’s universe would have grown into by then) and voila!

 The result is this new one:

 “A World Reborn: A Paxian Chronicle”.

 I hope you find it entertaining.