The Ancient Eight
A Coming of Age Romantic Fantasy
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Jim Church, a high school nobody, has but one desire, to find the extraordinary girl of his imaginings. Instead, he is haunted by dreams and voices telling him there is a great evil plaguing Earth. His visions hint of supernatural powers, six companions, and a soul mate from beyond time.
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​An angry shadow of the halls, Jim is terrified of girls, convinced he is going insane and believes supernatural powers are for comic book heroes. When he collides with a pretty majorette with a painful past, everything changes. The encounter has a profound effect on them and the entire Earth.
Novel Up DATE 11-12-2
The novel was edited several months ago by Michael Garrett. Mike was Stephen King's first editor and did an incredible job on my book. In his twenty-seven-page critique, he gently pointed out what the novel lacked and what needed to be done. Mike's advice was priceless and has put me on a quest to "get it right." However, for that to happen will require a significant rewrite. That means another year, at least, before the novel is ready for publication. At the moment, I have finished Mike's edit and am in the process of doing a final double-read-through.
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Looking for beta readers
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I am also looking for beta readers to critique the novel. If you are interested, please e-mail me at contact@glennchoate.com. Please include your e-mail, name, gender, and age.
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Once I receive that information, I will send you the first fifteen pages with a critique form. After you have read and critiqued the fifteen pages, you can elect to beta-read the complete novel.
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The Ancient Eight is a New Adult coming-of-age romantic fantasy of approximately 80700 words.
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Thanks
Glenn
BIO
My journey in writing – How I came to write ‘The Ancient Eight.’
​In my previous life, I was a Course Developer, writing technical courses for AT&T technicians. Although most of my classes came back with rave reviews, those reviews were for the technical aspects of the sessions. The English and grammar, that was another story. It was apparent; I was not a writer. More than once, I berated myself for not paying more attention to all my English teachers.
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​Retiring from AT&T, I was sure my writing days were behind me. However, something inside kept nagging at me to write. One day my mind drifted back to my early childhood. Filling my mind came memories of my brother and me lying in our beds at night, telling stories to each other. I remembered my stories became a whole series of “The Man in the Woods” tales. I may not be a writer, but evidently, I was a storyteller. ​
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I joined an adult education creative writing class. The members of our class write memoirs, short stories, poems, and parts of novels. The stories and talent of all my classmates amazed me. To keep up, I bought several books on writing and read them all. ​
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While in class, I started writing a novel based on my experiences in Vietnam. The story was tales of the lighter side of the Vietnam war. I titled it ‘The Other Side of Nam.’ Near the end of the novel, I ran smack into the dreaded writer’s block. There was no way around it. Then, a friend of mine suggested I shelve the book for a bit and write something else. He said I needed to think outside the box and suggested I write a romantic piece!
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​The most romantic thing I had ever done was to till up a plot for my wife’s flower garden. This type of writing was way out of my comfort zone. He pointed out that is why I needed to do it. Well, the writer’s block wasn’t going away, so I decided, what the hell. Surprisingly, the short romantic story I wrote got better reviews in class and from others who read it, than anything I had written before. Now, years later, that short story has given birth to ‘The Ancient Eight,’ my first Young Adult novel.
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I hope you drop in often as I post some of the things I discovered while writing and publishing my novel. I certainly welcome your comments, thoughts, and ideas.
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P.S. I will be writing some short stories taken from “The Other Side of Nam” and posting them here as well as elsewhere.