What started as a short story for the AD&D role players in Ohio has become a full blown trilogy. How did that happen? Little of the original short story survived but it was the inspiration.
The Origin of Gant and the Fall of the Western Kings
Gant first appeared in a short story published in The Company of Light fanzine titled “Subterranean Doom”. It was a simple tale of a warrior with a magic sword who went to fight a terrible beast in a cave and nearly died doing it. A remnant of that short story is in Fall of the Western Kings as Chapter 16. Feedback for that short story was pretty positive and that started me thinking of a much bigger tale that might involve that central character and I was on my way. As the story grew in my imagination, I realized that Gant had a history, a reason why he went to fight such a demonic creature. What was it? And where did he get the magic sword? They don’t exactly hand them out at the village market. That was only the beginning. Gant had other battles to fight, a prophecy to fulfill and other demons to overcome. The idea grew until it was a complete novel and then, oops, that novel spawned a second novel and a third. So now I have my Tolkienian triology.
If you want to see the original short story, here is a photo of it in its entirety.
