Nice to meet you...

My journey into writing goes way back--back before I graduated high school in a small town in northwestern Oregon in 2004. I don't remember exactly when my passion for creating began, but as it blossomed somewhere around middle-school, it started in the form of writing. While I liked to draw early on, I never really had a knack for it. But words were something else entirely. I found I had a way with them, and so they became my tool for creating the worlds I dreamt of in my mind.

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Over the years, I started several stories, and even made some decent progress on a couple. I also wrote dozens of other ideas and short stories, but I never really did anything with them. They mostly just stayed in my mind, or in notebooks, and with the rise of personal computers (yes, I'm that old), they eventually migrated to the digital. However, even with all these ideas and started projects, I never had the resolve to finish or do anything of consequence with them. Because, along with the rise of computers, so too did I take an interest in gaming.

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I've always been a sucker for a good story. When I was younger, that meant I read a lot of science-fiction and fantasy. As the rise of PC gaming came about, I found myself entranced by games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Legacy of Kain series, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, and so on. These RPGs (role-playing games) were some of my favorites, because they all shared one thing in common--story. And not just story, but they brought to life fantastical worlds like the ones I had imagined in my head.

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The problem was, while I immensely enjoyed experiencing the worlds others had built, it made me complacent in creating my own. I still had ideas, and I developed more over the years, but still, I had nothing to show for it.

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Fast forward to 2022. We were mostly through the pandemic, and unlike many others, I'd yet to develop a new hobby or passion like so many others did. I continued to do things the way I always had. But then came along John.

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John was a good friend I'd met several years prior. He went through some things in his life, and ended up finding his true passion along the way. That passion was coaching--life coaching to be specific.

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When John reached out to me, it sparked something that had been there for years. I knew I'd wasted my life on a lot of things that weren't productive, and I knew I was shying away from my creative gifts. As John and I discussed all of these things, it quickly became apparent that I needed to revisit my writing. And along with that, as a goal (because setting goals is important), I was going to write a book; like actually, really WRITE A BOOK!

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I started around March of 2023, and I wrote. One word at a time, one paragraph at a time, until slowly the words became pages and the pages became chapters and finally, in March of 2024, all of that became the first draft of 'Embers of Awakening' - the first book in the series I'm calling 'Through Blood & Fire'. The story actually started a couple years prior as a prompt-based contest on Vocal. When the time came to pick what I was going to write, that idea stood out to me the most. And I'm so very glad I stuck with it, because I think I've started something really special.

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I don't know where things will go from here. Writing a book and getting people to buy it, much less enjoy it and give you decent ratings, are entirely different things. But I have faith because I know that I'm doing what I was meant to do, and even if most of the world never sees what I create, I will be happy knowing I am finally following the passion inside me.

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If you find yourself inspired by what I've shared, I'd truly love to have you join me on this journey. Because, like me, I'm willing to bet that at least some of you are still searching for the passion and determination to do what it is you were meant to do. And if I can in any way help you with that, along with bringing you some wildly entertaining worlds to immerse yourself in, then I, at least, will find the joy I hope you and everyone else finds as well.

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Thanks for taking the time to read about who I am and what it is I'm doing here. It is greatly appreciated, and I sincerely hope you reach out and introduce yourself in the near future!

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To the worlds we all wish were real...

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Yours truly,​

Andrew Stevens