Author Blog

Oakbrook Tales

October 1, 2023

Greetings! Apologies for not keeping up on the blog since...whoa...January 2022?!?! Okay, so, I have been very busy writing, editing, and finally completing my latest work The Legends of Evergreen, Sophie and Jill. This story was very hard to get all the way through and took me the longest amount of time to write a novel, nearly three years! But with some determination to see it through, unwavering patience, and a promise to myself and the characters, Sophie and Jill, to fulfill a dream of mine to have their story told in the Legends of Evergreen canon, I have finally finished it and the book is now available for purchase through Lulu.com. Click on the book's cover on the homepage for more information. The book is available in ebook, hardback, and paperback forms for your reading pleasure. The story takes place before the Legends of Evergreen story. Like The Frog King story, I do not like to think of these books as prequels to the Legends of Evergreen, rather they are their own stories that eventually link to it. My goal with these stories is for anyone to pick any one of them up and begin reading and enjoying them without having to read the stories in a particular order. With that said, I am currently writing a third story based off of the Legends of Evergreen which takes place around a year after the story. So far it is going very well, in fact much better than expected. I will provide more details in a later blog post about it once I get further into writing the first draft.

Again, thank you for visiting and your continued support.

January 14, 2022

Wishing you all a belated Happy New Year. I think that one of my New Year's resolutions will be to add more blog posts on this website. Obviously, there has been quite a gap between my last post and this one...good lord. Anyway, as far as my current writings are going, it has been slow going, however, I feel very confident that all will be great reads. I am working on three stories at the moment, the first is The Legends of Evergreen Sophie and Jill, the second is called The Legends of Evergreen Extirpation, and the third story is quite different from the novels I have been writing. Last year I decided to try my hand at creating what's called in Japan a 'light novel'. 150,000 words with a few illustrations peppered in as well. I am very excited to finally complete it and have it available to the public in the next few months! I have also decided to attend this year's Willamette Writer's Conference to pitch my light novel to literary agents. The title of the book is From Across the Stars, and it is a teenage romance with a twist of science fiction. It is unlike anything I have written, but I am very pleased with the outcome of it so far. The story is completed and I am now just finishing the illustrations to add to the book. I am hoping to launch From Across the Stars this summer. Rough drafts are still being hammered out for The Legends of Evergreen Sophie and Jill, as well as Extirpation. I think it may be close to Christmas when Sophie and Jill will be available, however, I don't want to place a timetable on it yet. Extirpation will certainly be well into next year before it's finally completed and be made available to the public.

For now, thank you for the support, and stay tuned for more updates!

April 20, 2021

It's FINALLY here! The Legends of Evergreen, The Frog King is now available for purchase on lulu.com! Hardback, paperback, and ebook formats are available for your reading pleasure.

April 10, 2021

Hello! I am happy to announce that The Legends of Evergreen: The Frog King is now complete! I have made the finishing touches on all versions of the book (hardback, paperback, ebook) and will have each version available by the end of the month! They will be available through lulu.com until I can have them available for purchase through all major retail bookstores in the near future. I have posted the cover art on the homepage. Another update will be posted in the coming weeks once the book is available for purchase. Thank you so much for your continued support!

July 18, 2020

Today I finished completing the first draft of my latest work The Legends of Evergreen, The Frog King! I am thrilled to finally have a completed draft to edit and work with. It's truly exciting to now be able to begin the editing process on this story that has been one of the most difficult stories I have written. I still can't put my finger on why it has been so difficult to write this story compared to when I was writing my other stories, but I think it might have to do with a number of factors. First, I have a full-time job where my working hours are far different than they were when I was writing past stories. Second, for the last year or so I have been pulled in many directions from working on home projects, to being out of town, to simply needing some downtime to just stare at a wall. All in all, I'm actually glad I really took my time with this story just because I was able to put into it all the ideas I originally had for it. I believe it will soon be a great addition to what will soon be a collection of Legend of Evergreen books.

Also, I'm excited to announce that I'm beginning to formulate ideas and the plot for my upcoming project that I will begin writing this fall. The current working-title for this story is The Legends of Evergreen, the Maids of Lacamas. It is the story based off of two characters from the original Legends of Evergreen book named Sophie and Jill, two sisters from the Lake kingdom of Lacamas. I'm really looking forward to begin writing this story, while also editing and working on The Frog King. I'm hoping to have a finished Frog King book by end of next year, but if I gain more time in the coming months it may be completed much sooner. Time will tell.

Thank you for reading and keep checking back for more updates as my Legends of Evergreen series continues to grow. Don't forget to check out the homepage for a free link to read my fanfiction book based off of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride, as well as a link to access the first eight chapters of The Legends of Evergreen.

February 8, 2020

Well, looks like I didn't write my special blog-post on Halloween. I was just looking through my old posts and realized just how much time has past since my last announcement. In short, a lot has been going on lately in my life. I've began to draw comics and have created storylines for them as well. Also, I have been very busy writing my next book: The Legends of Evergreen, The Frog King. I have also gained a new hobby which I've really grown to love--Woodworking. So, aside from my day job, my writing, and my woodworking projects, it has been much more difficult to find time to update my website and post new blogs. However, I am determined to keep updating on how my writing projects are going. With that said, The Frog King story is going well. Again, this has to be the toughest story I've ever written. People ask me why it's been so tough and the only way I can explain it is that there is quite a bit of depth involved with my main character; that he learns and develops in a much more rapid pace than other characters I have written in the past. It has been challenging, but very satisfying at the same time. I'm looking forward to getting the first draft completed hopefully by the end if this summer.

As for future writer's conferences, I am still determining if I'm going to attend any this year. It seems like what most agents and those in the entertainment and publishing industries are looking for right now are main protagonists who are either women or minorities. Although I do have secondary characters who are women, and even kingdoms with various cultures, they are not the main focal point of The Hero's Tale, The Legends of Evergreen, and The Legends of Evergreen: The Frog King. Nor do I have women protagonists or minorities in my picture storybooks. As proud and as confident as I am that my picture storybooks and fantasy books can absolutely appeal to all ages and a vast target audience, including both boys and girls, men and women who enjoy fantasy and action literature, I'm sadden to hear time and again that white male protagonists, as well as kingdoms inspired by western European countries during the Middle Ages, seem to not be wanted at this time. I disagree over this suggestion.

I believe it doesn't matter what color of skin characters in a story have, or what class, creed, or culture they represent. What matters is a page-turning story that is relatable, that deals with ideas and topics that everyone has to wrestle with in their lives, and that is simply enjoyable and fun to experience. For me, this does not include identity politics, feminism, and social justice as these have been used time and again in recent stories, comic books, and movies. I have absolutely no problem with storytellers and authors using these topics in their own stories, I just simply do not use them in my own work. With that said, I'm going to keep writing my stories the way I want to and hopefully in the near future gain some traction with them in the publishing business. I believe in my stories that much.

Until next time, thank you for your support and keep checking back for more updates. Follow me on Twitter: @oakbrooktales.

October 26, 2019

Just wanted to give a quick update; my fan-fiction story titled The Haunted Mansion is now available for free to read! Just click on the link on the homepage and enjoy a spooky story this Halloween! Also, began work again on The Legend of Evergreen, The Frog King. So far it is going well. I'm nearing about the half-way point of the story and hope to have a completed first draft by the end of the holidays. As for this coming week, I am looking forward to Halloween as I do every year and will be enjoying some quality writing time that night as I hand out candy to princesses, super heroes, monsters and ghosts knocking at my front door. I am planning to do a special blog-post on Halloween as well so until then, thank you for your support!

August 7, 2019

Last weekend, I attended the Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, OR filled with optimism and excitement. It was the conference's 50th anniversary, a milestone year for the Willamette Writers group. I was prepared and focused, wearing my best business casual attire and carrying my soft leather portfolio that held my notes for the stories I was to pitch. Three different manuscripts I was going to pitch this year to six different literary and film agents, and I was going to pitch to all of them in a span of two and a half hours. Whew! After pitching to an agent, I would return back out into the pitching-pool waiting area, stand around for less than ten minutes, then walk right back into the lion's den ready to give my next pitch. That was how the entire morning went, like a blur. Yet I did feel that for the most part I did ok. The first three literary agents requested to see my work and showed some real interest (I've had some agents in the past tell me they'd see my work, but I believe it was just to end the pitch early knowing full-well they had zero interest in my story). This year, I did feel that their requests were legitimate. Indeed, the second and third agents were not only kind enough to hear my ramble at times about The Legends of Evergreen, but asked questions to make the pitch more interesting and thus they wanted me to send my work to them. Great! The first agent I pitched to probably asked the most questions about a short story I recently wrote and decided last minute to pitch. She helped me realize that with its word count, it's not in fact a picture storybook as I had previously thought, but what she called a chapter book. "Chapter book?" I said to her confused. Later, when I returned home and told my wife about what the agent had said, she showed me a Winnie the Pooh book that, in fact, was broken into sections. Then it dawned on me. Not a chapter book as in a full novel containing chapters, rather a picture storybook with 'breaks' in it, or sections, etc. I realized that the word 'chapter' doesn't necessarily have to mean what I had always perceived the word in the past. Rather the word could mean in this instance what I would refer to as a story-break. Looking over the fifteen-page single-spaced story, I can now see how it could have these 'story-breaks' or 'chapters'. Perhaps two of them in all in order to not overload the young reader with too much in one sitting.

At any rate, the agent I pitched the short story to seemed a little reluctant at first to request my story to consider representing. However at the end of the pitch, she did request that I query her about it and I am happy to do so.

This year, I only attended the Willamette Writer's Conference on Friday. Typically I attend Saturday and Sunday, but due to financial constraints and a lack of interest in the writing classes offered over the weekend, I stuck to just pitching my work at the conference. Although I wish they would have had classes in the afternoon when I was there that I would have been interested in. No big deal though, I came, I pitched, I received request to send my work to potential literary agents, and I felt very satisfied in the end. As for the last three pitches I had with film agents, I came to realize that since my manuscript of The Haunted Mansion, based off of the ride at Disneyland, is owned and copyrighted by Disney, I knew there would be no way of getting someone to take on my project without the blessing of Disney Co. So I just asked them questions over how I could possibly get it into the hands of the right people in Hollywood to produce and have it written as a screenplay. Well, that's where I found out things get complicated. I was told that Disney does not like taking ideas or stories outside of their own writers and producers they hire specifically to create stories like mine. What a shame. I real feel I have a great story based off of the Haunted Mansion that could become an outstanding movie. But since I'm not a part of Disney's inner-circle of writers/producers, I'm afraid my idea was dead on arrival. Although, one agent said that since my story sounded very intriguing, why not simply make it my own and not have it be based off of a Disney product or concept? He has a point. Why not simply change the names and the hatbox-ghost antagonist character and make it my own haunted mansion story? I'm willing to give it a shot and have it ready for next year's conference.

So, after all of that, I find myself waiting on responses from the literary agents I sent my work to. Already one has declined to represent me and my work saying he looked over The Legends of Evergreen and found it was a story he couldn't help me with. Personal preference from what the rejection letter sounded like, which I'm fine with. I'd rather find an agent with the right attitude and excitement about the story as I have for it. As for the second lit. agent, I'm still waiting for her response. I'm currently working on my query for the first lit. agent I pitched to regarding the short story. Hopefully I will have it sent to her by the end of the week.

That's all for now, thanks for sticking through to the end of this particularly long blog post! I will give another update in the near future about current stories I'm working on, as well as a sneak preview into my writing this fall beginning October 1st. Thank you for your continued support, and don't forget to send your questions and comments to me by clicking on the Contact tab.

June 23, 2019

I made the decision earlier this year that I would be attending the Willamette Writer's Conference in Portland, OR. It was only when I registered to attend that I realized it was the conference's 50th anniversary. From what I have seen on their website, it should prove to be a great time with plenty of opportunities to pitch my stories. This year I will be pitching three of my works to six agents; one is looking for fantasy-based picture storybooks for children, three are agents who specialize in film and tv, and two represent adult fantasy fiction. A much better and diverse group of agents than last year, I must say. You were lucky to find any agent last year who represented high-fantasy fiction authors. Frankly, I didn't find anyone who did. The majority of them, if not all of the agents present last year, were in search of women's lit, biographies, and non-fiction. Ridiculous! This year, I am looking forward to attending but I still need to prepare how I will pitch my work to each agent.

As of last weekend, I am taking a break from writing the first draft of The Legends of Evergreen, The Frog King, until early this fall. This break will allow me to focus on preparing for the conference coming up as well as work on other projects I have going on, including a comic series that is going better than I had expected. At this time, I am nearly half-way in completing the first draft of the Legends of Evergreen, the Frog King and it continues to be one of the toughest stories I have ever written. Still, it has been fun to write and a challenge I am willing to tackle to see the story completed.

In the next few weeks, I am also going to try and update the website. I want oakbrooktales.com to have easier access to linking customers to my books for purchase, as well as to have examples of my works posted on the website. I am hoping to have that completed by the end of the month. Thank you for your support and stay tuned for more updates!

March 20, 2019

I thought I would post a quick update on what's been going on lately. I'm still hard at work writing the first draft of the latest installment of The Legends of Evergreen series. It is going very well, but I must admit that this story is one of the toughest I've ever written. Mainly because there is a complexity about the main character I was not expecting when I began to write the story back in October. This character, the Frog King, is taking me on a journey I was not anticipating as to how he became who he is in The Legends of Evergreen, which again is available now. There is a new kingdom I didn't think existed in the world I described when I wrote The Legends of Evergreen, not to mention a deep connection between this certain kingdom and that of Evergreen's old enemy, the kingdom of Caipolton. There are also interesting connections that I discovered while channeling this world, which involve characters that I never would have imagined while writing and finishing The Legends of Evergreen nearly two years ago. As fun as this process has been so far, it again has been without a doubt the most challenging project I have ever experienced. It's almost hard to keep up with what comes to my mind concerning dialogue between characters, the sudden surprise of unlikely connections between characters, and the sharp turns this story seems to take in every chapter I write. It feels more and more like I am interpreting scenes from something I am seeing through my mind's eye, much like it felt while writing The Legends of Evergreen, but much more intense and fast pace. It may all sound crazy, but it is certainly how it seems and feels to me each time I sit down to write more of this story. I am hoping to have it completed early next year, if not sooner. It would be great if I could have a finished book by the end of the year, but we shall see. More updates and news to come, so please keep checking back. Thank you again for reading and for your continued support!

December 15, 2018

Just wanted to wish you Happy Holidays and thank you for your continued support! As of right now, my current projects are going very well and I'm looking forward to next year's writers conferences where I hope to meet some more literary agents. I'm still working on The Frog King story, which again is a story based off of a character from The Legends of Evergreen. It has been going well, however I have taken a brief break from writing to focus on another story I have been working on for the past two holiday seasons so far. Yep, I have only been working on the story during the months of November and December. Seems to be when I am inspired to write it, so I have been simply 'going with it' and that has definitely paid off with the material I have come up with. I'll be back to writing The Frog King in a few weeks.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! More updates coming soon, and don't forget to check out all my books on the homepage. Use the linking-icon on the bottom right-hand corner after clicking on a cover to learn more about each title. You can purchase all of my stories at Lulu.com, and The Hero's Tale is also available through Amazon.com.

October 31, 2018

WOW. I didn't realize just how long it had been since my last blog post! An entire year! Well, much has happened since my last post. I attended this years Willamette Writers Conference and pitched The Legends of Evergreen to three potential literary agents. Two of them loved my pitch, were interested in the story, thought the idea of the story was great, yet told me that they were not interested in taking on such a 'high fantasy' story. I stated to both of them that I had read in their bios on the Willamette Writers Conference web-page that they were interested in fantasy fiction. Apparently there had been a mix-up, both replied that the associates of Willamette Writers had got their interests of genres wrong, that in fact one of the agents had said that she didn't take on fantasy novels at all while the other agent told me that she only worked with authors who did 'some' types of fantasy fiction. Ultimately, I did get satisfaction from both of their critiques of my pitch and of their interest of the book, that both of them would have possibly have asked for sample chapters to read over if they took on such fiction. It made me feel that much more confident in my work and the possibility of a future encounter with the right agent who could represent me. As for the third literary agent I had pitched to, he was not so impressed with my pitch or my story. He didn't like how long the story was, nor did he think my target audience (young adult, though I believe I misspoke and should have told him it was for a fantasy fiction audience). He seemed annoyed to have even been at the conference, let alone having to hear pitches from writers all weekend. I was no less a part of the growing number of victims of his negative attitude, his unwillingness to consider even the possibility of hearing more about the story I was pitching. We never discussed the plot, the characters, the turn of events in the story, nothing. He did inform me though about where the market is going, especially with young adult novels and what expectations there are for them. That, at least, was helpful to learn.

As for current and future projects I am working on, I have just completed a novel based on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. It's a fictional period-piece based in the mid-1800s and I hope to pitch it to an agent who works with members of the Disney Corp. at the next conference. I have already done two rounds of editing on this story and will do another round in the coming weeks. As of right now, I do not plan to make it available to the public due to possible copyright issues. I am also currently writing a new fantasy fiction novel that is part of line of stories based around The Legends of Evergreen. The book centers around the character Sebastian, The Frog King, and his rise to becoming the leader of the Amphibious Knights of the Marshland Forest in the kingdom of Evergreen. It has been both exciting and difficult writing this story, more difficult than any other story I have written, yet it is coming along very well. I believe it will make a great addition to the line of books associated with The Legends of Evergreen. The book is titled The Legends of Evergreen, The Frog King. The great thing about these future books is that there will not be any set order to them. A reader can simply pick one of the books up and read it without missing any information from the other books. Unlike most book series that must be read in a certain order, I wanted to create a set of stories that does not require such a rigorous way to read a series. Not only do I believe that the stories have the potential to be successful with readers, but also in the way they can be casually read with no order required. Also, I am continuing a story I had started to write two years ago around Christmas and have since only continued to write the story during the holidays. This year is no different. For some odd reason, I have been more inspired to write this story during the holiday season and no other time. It's crazy, but it seems to be working because I am writing some really great material during this particular time of year for this story. I look forward to returning to working on it after Thanksgiving as I have the last two years. I still am wrestling with a title, but for now I am not concerned about it. In time, I am confident a title for the story will come at the right moment.

That is all for now. I know it was a lot but hey, it's been an entire year! Happy Halloween, and I promise my next blog will come sooner than in a year's time!

October 31, 2017

The Legends of Evergreen is now available for purchase through Lulu.com in hardback, paperback and ebook formats! The book will be available for purchase through Barnesandnoble.com, Amazon.com, and other major online book retailers in the near future.

Happy Halloween!

October 11, 2017

Finished! I have completed a finished book in both hard and paperback of The Legends of Evergreen! I am awaiting a proof-copy of each to ensure that everything in the book and on the covers looks good. I am still on track to have the book launched on the 31st (it will also be available in ebook form through lulu.com). A few weeks afterwards, The Legends of Evergreen will be available through Barnes and Noble.com, Amazon.com, and other major online book retailers. This is an exciting moment for me, as well as one of relief. I have been working on this project for over three years now, not including the nearly decade of time thinking and writing up notes about the story. It was a fantastic journey to experience, and I hope you enjoy the story too. More posts coming soon as we get near the launch date, so stay tuned!

August 30, 2017

The editing process for my latest work, The Legends of Evergreen, is complete! I am now ready to put the manuscript into book-form, along with adding some conceptual sketches of some of my favorite characters, and a map to help guide the reader through the story. I am very excited to finally have the story ready to share with others! Though its targeted audience is 12-15 year olds, again I strongly feel this story can be considered an 'All Ages' book. I will be launching the book here on Oakbrooktales.com on October 31, 2017, Halloween night! It will be available through Lulu.com in hardback and paperback forms, as well as ebook too. I should be able to have it available through Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com in the weeks after, before the holidays. This manuscript has been a very long journey, nearly three years on and off-again writing it, and nearly 20 years in the making! I will have a synopsis of the book up on the website in the coming weeks before the launch, as well as some of the conceptual art I have planned to add to the book. I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I have enjoyed creating/writing it! Thank you for your support and keep checking back for more updates in the coming weeks!

June 19, 2017

Hello all, I wanted to make a quick announcement that I will not be attending this years Willamette Writers Conference. I was unable to find any literary agents to pitch my stories to that could possibly be a good fit for the work I do. It seems to me like each year the list of agents and editors at this particular conference dwindles down. There are fewer agents that come to this conference that are looking for fantasy fiction/YA/Children's story/picture books. That being said, this has given me the opportunity to not feel as rushed to get my current work done in order to pitch this year in August. Instead, I have the opportunity to really take my time, re-read and edit my stories, add the sketches I wanted to for 'A Chivalrous Knight', which I have now decided to title 'The Legends of Evergreen'.

As for the rest of the summer, my trusted friend has finished reading and editing The Legends of Evergreen and I will now go over it again. I still plan to do some hiking this summer and BBQ as well as many other fun things outside. This fall, I plan to complete a short-story series I've started this summer called 'Kritter Kingdom', which involves a number of different tales about a group of animals living in a kingdom's countryside. Following this fall, I plan to pick up where I left off last winter and work on another fantasy fiction story I've titled 'The Winter Wizard'. More on the specifics on that story and Kritter Kingdom in the months to come.

In regards to future conferences, I plan to look into other opportunities in other cities. I'm hoping I can find new conferences to attend with more choices of literary agents to pitch my work to. That's all for now, thank you all for your support!

April 26, 2017

Just wanted to post an update that my first round of editing 'A Chivalrous Knight' has been completed today! Very excited to have my trusted friend take a look at it and have another set of eyes on the manuscript. I'm hoping I can re-read and edit the story another couple of times before attending the Willamette Writer's Conference later this summer. So far I am very pleased with how the story sounds, feels, and reads. It will be nice though to get my friend's perspective and thoughts on it. I am, however, considering giving the manuscript a different title. Right now, I'm aiming for a fall/winter launch date for the book to be available for anyone interested in wanting a copy. Should have a date for that soon. To me, the story could be definitely be considered for an 'All Ages' audience, but its targeted for young adults. Thank you for your continued support!

March 7, 2017

Hello, everyone! I am excited to announce that I will be attending this year's Willamette Writers Conference in Portland, OR! I will be taking with me to the conference both The Hero's Tale and my latest story, A Chivalrous Knight (working title), and plan to pitch the books to potential literary agents. Since my last blog, I have finished writing the first draft of A Chivalrous Knight. I'm currently conducting my first round of editing the story and it is going well. It's not the most exciting part of the process to me, but it is essential that it be polished and at its very best. I will say that it's nice to be able to change up dialogue or scenarios to make them sound more interesting to the reader. Hopefully I will have the first round of editing done in the next few weeks, then pass it on to a trusted friend of mine to look over it as well. Finally, another two or three rounds of editing the entire story and I will be ready for the conference!

As for future projects, I have come up with a new idea for a line of children's story books and have already begun a new novel that I will pick back up again in the fall. For right now, I have to focus on getting this manuscript polished and ready for the conference. I still have sketches of characters and maps I want to create and add to the book as well. I already have a couple of rough character sketches drawn up and hope to have more started later this spring. Once again, thank you for the support!

November 30, 2016

Just wanted to give a quick update on my progress with my current work, A Chivalrous Knight. So far it is going very well, in fact better than I could have ever expected. I am close to finishing its first draft and am very excited to go back to the beginning of the manuscript and do some editing. I have also decided recently to begin work on another story while wrapping up the first draft. No title as of yet, but I have some big plans for the story itself. I have gained a significant amount of inspiration from various classic rock songs from such artists as Ozzy Osbourne and his earlier work with Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Ronnie James Dio and his earlier work with Rainbow, and many others from the mid to late 70's and 80's. I have also gained additional inspiration for this next story from Nintendo games I used to play as a kid such as Wizards and Warriors and Legend of Zelda, both from their storylines, gameplay and soundtracks. All of this, combined with other acquired inspirations, should make for an interesting story.

As of right now, I am also planning on attending next year's Willamette Writer's Conference in Portland, OR, bringing with me A Chivalrous Knight to pitch to potential literary agents. At the same time, I am still considering bringing with me The Hero's Tale as well if there is an agent(s) that are looking for that type of story. I am hoping that with both stories I may have a better chance at finding an agent willing to work and represent me.

That is all for now, thank you for reading and for your support. More updates coming soon!

October 5, 2016

October has arrived, fall is here! My favorite time of year is upon us, and with that my writing continues. So far, I have wrote some very powerful and emotional material for the current story I have been working on for nearly two years now. Where 'The Hero's Tale' had small parts of emotion scattered and woven into its action/adventure theme, this story really dives much deeper into actions, consequences, reactions and emotions. I have also finally come up with a working title I am pleased with thus far: A Chivalrous Knight. The story takes an in-depth look at what chivalry really is and what sacrifices must be made to uphold such a demanding ideal. Never in my writings have I ever felt such powerful waves of different emotions, and I truly believe it shows greatly throughout this story without being too overwhelming for the reader.

There have been moments in the last few weeks writing the last couple of chapters where I had to step back from the story, feeling overwhelmed, almost to the point of feeling sick and wanting to throw-up, with either feeling a strong anger flow through me, or times feeling chronically sad and alone. Never have I felt more connected, more in-tune with characters I have created and have grown/evolved throughout a story than those of A Chivalrous Knight. To be completely honest, I do not feel it was by choice that I have poured so much emotion and feelings into these characters. As many of you may know, I really go into writing a story a bit blindly. I do not use storyboards, I don't really plan out a story on paper before writing it. This is due in part because I feel like I would definitely be missing out on great and exciting ideas that come to me on the spot while writing, and if I already have the story made up I would loose those precious gems that really make the story shine bright. In my mind, I come up with a main plotline with a few main characters and then sit down and write what comes to me. I knew with this story I wanted a trio of action, adventure, and romance, think of The Princess Bride meets Lord of the Rings. But the beating heart of this story is the true ideology of what chivalry is. The characters I had flowing through my pen onto paper for this story had some difficult themes to express and talk about for the reading audience to examine. As odd as it may sound, there really has been an exchange and sharing of tough experiences and very raw emotions between me and the characters I have met and continue to write about in A Chivalrous Knight. I look forward to finishing the first draft in the next few months. It has, and continues to be, an amazing journey with these characters in familiar lands that they live and fight for.

I hope everyone is having a great fall so far. I will continue to post any updates that may come throughout my current writings, thank you for your support!

Any questions, comments? Please visit the Contact page and I will respond as soon as I can.

UPDATE: The Hero's Tale is now available through Lulu's globalREACH distribution service lists with online retailers worldwide such as Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and the entire Ingram distribution network! Click on The Hero's Tale book cover on the homepage to find a link to amazon.com for both hardcover and paperback versions!

August 30, 2016

Well, Summer is beginning to come to a close for another year. I am very satisfied and happy with the amount of time I was able to spend outdoors this season compared to last year. I was able to fit in some great day-hikes as well as a memorable three-day camping trip in the Sisters, OR area with my dad and brother. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to do at least two more hiking trips and after that it is back to my writings. I'm looking forward to wrapping up the first draft of my current project and hopefully begin a new story I have been compiling ideas for in my head for the last few months. I still do not have a title for my current work, however that should change this Fall and I will announce it once I have finalized it. As for not being able to attend this year's writer's conference in Portland, OR, I feel like it was a blessing in disguise. Sure I am prepared to pitch my story to the right agent, yet from the roster that I looked over for this year's conference I wasn't really that impressed with the selection of literary agents to choose from. Nobody seemed to jump off the page like they had last year; a year I came so close to striking a deal with one particular agent. An agent who loved The Hero's Tale yet for whatever reason did not know how to market it against similar published stories. I have faith though that with the right agent, The Hero's Tale has great potential to become a success in the market. In the meantime, I will continue to write my other stories and await next year's conference with encouragement and hope.

As I continue to get back into my writing next month, I plan to write even more blogs regarding my progress and any other updates or announcements that may follow. Thank you for visiting this site, and for those who have been so encouraging and helpful through this process of working on becoming a published author, I offer my sincere thanks and deep gratitude to you all. As important as it has been for me to receive helpful and needed critiques on my work, your encouragement and belief in me has truly helped me in continuing on throughout this rough process.

August 2, 2016

Welcome to the new and improved Oakbrook Tales website! I am very excited to announce that the website is not the only change that has been made recently. The Hero's Tale will soon be available for purchase through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and many other major book retailers online! Also coming soon, the ebook version which can be purchased through these retailers!

This year, I will not be attending the Willamette Writer's Conference in Portland, OR. Due to time constraints, I am unfortunately unable to attend. However, I will be that much prepared for next year to pitch The Hero's Tale to potential literary agents. As of now, I am enjoying my summer outdoors through hiking and camping, just enjoying the outdoors as much as possible and at times being off the grid, which is bliss to me. I look forward to getting back to my writing in the fall though. I have so many ideas for the final chapters of the current story I'm working on, as well as a brand new story that I am now developing. Thank you for visiting this site and treading my blogs, as well as the continued support I get daily. I will post another blog soon with more updates.