Jason Tesar - The Awakened: Book One

Published by 4shadow Publishing

Copyright 2008-2010 by Jason Tesar

Books One through Three are available in a single print edition at most online retailers. For more information, visit http://www.jasontesar.com

Scripture quotations taken from the Authorized King James Version, Public Domain, 1611

Quotations taken from the Book of Enoch, Not in Copyright, Translation by R H Charles, 1917

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Carly, my love

You are my light and laughter

Without you this book wouldnt exist

Foreword

By the Author

I began writing The Awakened in the winter of 1998. The company I worked for at the time closed down every year between Christmas and New Years and I suddenly found myself without responsibility for a period of time. For years Id been toying with a storyline in my mindinventing characters and visualizing scenesbut had yet to venture beyond the confines of my imagination. As my body moved through the motions of a physically laborious job, my mind wandered, unengaged and unchallenged by my work. The characters became real to me as I spent countless hours experiencing their lives, living their passions and struggles. In the back of mind, I always thought that someday Id write it all down.

And then someday happened. As the snow fell outside, I sat in front of a computer with a cup of steaming coffee and began typing the first scene that I had already witnessed a thousand times in my head. Every last movement and word of the characters, every detail of their environment I could see as if they were right in front of me. But I struggled, coming quickly to the realization that writing is much more difficult than imagining. There is no explanation in imagining. The scenes just play out and make sense because you are both the author and audience. But writing is altogether different. Writing means commitment. Writing means exposing yourself through words that someone else may read. And for an introvert like me, that was a scary concept. Still, I pushed through and after several days I had a very short stack of papers to show for my effort. It was more than I had ever written for a school assignment and it gave me a measure of satisfaction at getting something out of my head and down onto paper.

New Years Day came and went and the pace of life sped up once more. Until one night, maybe a year and a half later, my wife asked, What ever happened with that story you started writing? We began talking and our conversation didnt stop for several hours. I told her about my characters, where they had come from and what they were going to face. I explained the geography of the Empire, the main plot and subplots. I even told her about the prequel to my story and that one day I wanted to write that as well. When I finished, she was almost speechless. I say almost because she did say something very important, something that changed the trajectory of my thoughts and actions.

You have to write your storylike right now! You cant just keep it in your head! When youre eighty years old and sitting in a rocking chair on our front porch, do you want to be the person who always thought about writing a book? Or do you want to be the person who did it?

Hearing those words and seeing her excitement was like pouring gasoline on a fire. That was it. I was going to do it; I was going to write my story. From that night on, I committed to myself that I would write at least one night a week. Though a seemingly insignificant amount of effort, it was a major turning point for me. Writing was slow-going at first, but over time I saw improvement. I was gradually becoming able to express my thoughts without struggle. I no longer spent hours agonizing over a few sentences, but could write a couple pages in an evening.

This continued for years until, by an interesting coincidence, I finished my story roughly a week before my first child was born. As the sleepless nights began, I put my writing on the shelf and didnt return to it until a year later. Thats when I realized that my story was far from complete. Though I had a few hundred pages, I realized it needed some resolution, and the characters and scenes Id planned as sequels would need to be pulled in to accomplish it. This was daunting at first, as I realized that I wouldnt be satisfied until I got the whole storyline down on paper. But as I started on part two, I quickly settled back into the routine of writing and found myself looking forward to it. It was like reading a good book, only much better because it was the book that Id wanted to read but couldnt find at any bookstore. All week I would plan out the scenes and work through the dialogue in my head, so that when I sat down to write I was able to write five pages on a good night.

Two years and a few hundred pages later, I reached a stopping point once again as my second child was being born. And like before, I took a break for about a year. But when the time came for me to start on part three, my passion and commitment were already growing at an exponential rate. Now I reserved two nights a week for writing. And when that wasnt enough, I started getting up early on weekends to squeeze in a few hours before anyone in my house was awake. It didnt take long before this behavior began to spill over into the weekdays also, as I looked for every available moment to continue my story. It was addicting. To make up something out of thin air and then watch it come to life. I finished writing part three of The Awakened in the fall of 2007. What had previously taken me years to complete with the first two parts, I accomplished in six short months. It was a major accomplishment for me and I found I could breathe a little easier having released the story and characters from the prison of my imagination.