My name’s Chad Smith, I am 27 years old, and I was born with a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy.  As such, thanks in no small part to my mom, I developed a huge love for books, specifically fantasy, after she read the first Harry Potter book to me while I was in the hospital, again, for a fresh bout of pneumonia and almost complete respiratory failure for the second time if memory serves.  For a little bit every time she read however, it gave me something else to focus on, something to take my mind off of my condition, and eventually, one day, it clicked and I started seeking out my own adventures in worlds and places unlike the one we lived in.  Worlds of magic and dragons and the hero prevailing at the end of some great journey full of hardship, yet hope.  Hope that their struggles would one day end and they’d be able to live a contented life if not a happy one.

Which leads to where this idea came from.  While my initial love for all things fantasy and more than a few science fiction stories came about as my mother reading to me while I was fighting for my life in the hospital for the umpteenth time, the idea for this story actually came about from two different places.  The first ironically enough came from Geek and Sundry, when they ran an episode starring one of the voice actors from Critical Role, Liam O’Brian, as the Dungeon Master of his own little one-shot.  The basic idea for his story was that some crazy, magical phenomena started to throw our world into utter chaos, unleashing monsters and magic into our every day lives.  Surprisingly, his fellow voice actors/nerds made it to the end of his little dungeon run, but it was the idea that somehow, someway, magic found a way back to our otherwise mundane existence that got the creative juices flowing.

The second source for this idea came about when I stumbled across a picture of a Marvel character in full Dungeons and Dragons regalia.  It was an artist rendering of Nick Fury of Marvel comic and Cinematic Universe fame, in full dark black leathers, a couple of wicked looking swords looped through his belt, and one glowing eye with the other covered by his traditional black eyepatch.  To use his words, he looked like one badass motherfucker.  And while I make it no secret that I’m a fan of the MCU as well as the DC universe, something about the image of seeing this guy in full fantasy garb with arcane energy crackling underneath his skin, and having just watched Liam’s One-Shot a little while ago, inspired my muse to go into overdrive.  As such, the idea that somehow, four people sitting around for, in at least one person’s case, their first game of Dungeons and Dragons together, get pulled into the world they had envisioned, just wouldn’t go away.  Like the sailors who were doomed to crash into razor sharp rocks after hearing the sirens’ song, I had to get this going.  I had to give this idea a chance.

So, how can you help an aspiring author such as myself?  The same way you’d help any author out there.  While this is still a pretty rough draft, any support you can give such as spreading this on your social media accounts, as well as pre-ordering copies, would be the most helpful.  Not only would you be giving myself and my two very close friends a chance to tell the story we’ve come up with together, but you’d be helping to make our respective dreams a reality.  But in the meantime, sit back, and let us take you on a journey you will hopefully never forget.