Mystical Force 1 year anniversary:
It seems hard to believe but it’s already been one full year since I first published Mystical Force, yet here were are; one year later with two volumes out and the third on its way. Speaking of volume three, I feel I should mention that Mystical Force isn’t a trilogy but an ongoing series. Both my father and my Godmother told me that they were looking forward to reading volume three and by extension “the complete trilogy”. I don’t know where they got the idea that my series was a trilogy (maybe it’s because trilogies seem to be the default number in media: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars just to name two high profile examples) but let me again state, that I have many more stories to tell in the world of Mystical Force. To condense it all into a trilogy would mean that since I started writing volume one around October of 2019, the first book wouldn’t be finished for probably several more years (not to mention having a huge gap to wait between books). Either that or I would have to cut out so much material that the story would be full of plot holes. So just to reiterate, Mystical Force is not a trilogy, it’s an ongoing series that will have many more volumes to come. I just felt it necessary to get that out there.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the people who helped to make this possible. First I’d like to thank all the dedicated staff at Tellwell for making this all possible. Without Tellwell there would be no Mystical Force, or at the very least it would still just be a bunch of files sitting in my computer. Specifically, I’d like to thank Jennifer Chapin for setting everything up and getting the ball rolling. Next I’d like to thank my project managers: Alison Strumberger, who took care of everything in getting volume 1 published; and Eden Brillo, my current project manager who took over when Alison went on maternity leave. Many thanks as well to my editor Tereza who crossed all the ‘T’s and dotted the ‘I’s (as well as the lower case ‘J’s). Thanks as well to Katie Hennessey for her help in marketing my books. As an author I get so involved in the creative aspects of writing it’s easy to forget about the marketing aspect. I’d also like to thank Sheng-Mei for all the beautiful illustrations that adorn the covers of my books. Everyone I’ve shown them to all agree that the cover artwork looks phenomenal. And of course, my heartfelt thanks to the rest of the dedicated staff at Tellwell for their help in getting Mystical Force from a rough manuscript to the finished product. For that you have my eternal gratitude.
Next I’d like to thank my family and friends for their love and support throughout this project. Specifically, I’d like to thank my father who instilled a love of science fiction and fantasy in me. He grew up reading various books from many notable authors, from Theodore Sturgeon, to Isaac Asimov, to J.R.R. Tolkien, to Timothy Zhan, just to name a few. He also used to watch many classic sci-fi series, from Star Trek to Doctor Who and many more. I’d also like to thank my brother who gave me the idea to go with Tellwell and their self assisted publishing. Additionally, I’d like to thank my aunt Marion. She was the one who told me my current job (working in a warehouse) wouldn’t allow me to support myself, thus I needed to find a better paying job; which is what motivated me to finally take Mystical Force and turn it from an idea in my head to a book series. Ironically, she’s a devout Pentecostal and if she read my books, she’d probably dismiss them as “blasphemy”. However I would argue that if God didn’t want me to write Mystical Force, the idea for this series would have never come to me.
And last (but certainly not least) I’d like to thank all of you out there who bought copies of my books. I sincerely hope you all enjoyed reading my books as much as I enjoyed writing them. Rest assured, there are plenty more stories to tell in the world of Mystical Force. Peace and love to you all and don’t forget to keep an eye out for Mystical Force Volume 3: The Kolri and the Koldar. It should be out later in the fall.
Namaste,
Craig Weidhuner