It's Starts with an Idea

Embarking on the Journey

Choosing to undertake this quest was not something I initially thought would overtake me as much as it has. Suffice to say I am pleasantly surprised by how much I've learned, created, and become open to during this entire process.

I would bid thee welcome, weary traveler and hope that your stay with us here is as rewarding to you as it has been for me.

Introduction

My name is J.D. Nighthammer. I am an aspiring author, world builder, creative soul, and character writer. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the worlds that I have created, the worlds that I will create, and the worlds that we may discover together.

I was born in Miami, FL, USA and was raised as an only child from the age of four after my parents separated. It was a very different time in those days. I spent many of my days at home alone while my parents worked. With no siblings or friends I had no other alternative than to experience life through the scope of a world builder. On my own I've created many stories about my heroes battling against evil villains, saving the world, and transforming into different people after their journey.

What am I Working on

In 2020 at the very start of the pandemic, I began to write the opening words to stories. For the first time in my entire life, I was recording the thoughts that occurred in my imagination. It was a rewarding experience. After a while, though, I decided that I needed to create a world for these stories to exist in. Being heavily inspired by the worlds of Guild Wars, Skyrim, and many others, I set to work drawing a map.

From there I discovered new races, languages, histories, and magick--yes that's magic with a 'k'. I found the struggle of the light versus the dark, the tenuous balance that their conflict strikes and the religion that the supernatural phenomena in the world created. Gods came forth in different traditions of different peoples. Heroes and legends arose from the chaos of nothing. Then, as I continued to work through this journey, I discovered a young man, reeling over the loss of his mother, seeking vengeance against the peoples from which her killer came from.

This story, which for the time building we will call Project 1 will be the basis for the upcoming updates on my journey to traditionally publishing. To set the stage, as of this post, I have completed my first draft and have begun the long and arduous process of editing. The first draft was quite the sizeable telling at over 177,000 words. Though well within the standard for much epic fantasy, its a big mother of a book for a debut. I am pleased to report that moving through my second draft, I have successfully cut down to 139,000 words of <120,000 target word count.

While I won't be giving updates in this post about the book, please ensure you subscribe to my newsletter and follow my socials to get notified of new blog posts where I will be introducing you to the world of Evelyn.

Publishing Journal

As I continue down this path, I will allow you to peer through the veil with me as I continue down on my quest to publish traditionally. I will also be giving my fellow aspiring authors tips and tricks that I learn along the way and help to demystify the process of publishing a book traditionally.

In addition, I will be sharing with you samples, free short stories, and many other things that will help introduce you to the world of Evelyn and others.

Most of all, I'd like to thank you for coming on this journey with me. Its going to be interesting and I will try to be as transparent as I possibly can with you. The quest to traditionally publish begins!