My name is Andrew Sweetapple. Really, it is. I’m a fledgling writer who has been writing creatively in my spare time, on-and-off for about ten years now. I’m going to be graduating college towards the end of the month and I couldn’t be more excited. On top of that I actually managed to write a book, somehow I’m not sure. Pretty sure it was fueled by caffeine and self-loathing. "Burdens: Realms of the Protector #1" is my first serious novel project. I started it in late February and went a bit mad balancing my final semester of college, writing the story, job hunting, reading, playing video games and attempts at getting in shape.

My goal with the project was simple: to write an original dark fantasy novel that could be developed into a series. I made some choices out of the gate: no other races, just humans. I think it helped make the book easier to take for people who don’t like learning about six different races with different ways of speaking, cultures all being thrown into the first six chapters. Wanted to avoid the Tolkein-eque explaining of everything. One of my other goals was to make the lead a woman. Honestly I can’t say I’ve seen many dark fantasy games, books, movies that have had a woman as the lead character. I wanted to shake it up a bit with Hilda Burkhard, the protagonist of "Burdens". My other rule for the main character was "no special snowflake". She doesn’t have super powers, she doesn’t have this preordained destiny for greatness. She’s the daughter of a knight who went on to become a knight in her own right and worked her ass off to get there. No special treatment for Hilda, she had to slog through the mud to get where she is now.

I encourage you to give "Burdens" a read. I put up the draft of the first chapter up on the site. I would love any and all feedback on my writing, what you think of the story, both positive and negative. Everything helps with developing this story further and making it as great as it could be. Thank you for your time in reading this and hope you have a wonderful day.