fantasticademy complete!

"Rise of the Redeemed" Now Available!!

When the quest for truth means the end of humanity…

After hordes of zombified souls invade Lumintasia, intrepid 12-year-old reporter Leaky McCreaky seeks the scoop of the Millennium—a confrontation with Kalijin, the fallen angel orchestrating the destruction. While his ragtag friends embark on a desperate mission to thwart Kalijin’s plans once and for all, Leaky hunts for secrets, knowing he is a witness to history and not the headliner. But in the ultimate battle for the literal souls of humanity, is hiding in the shadows a luxury the idealistic journalist can afford? Or will Leaky sacrifice his lifelong dream—and himself—to become a hero in the story he only wished to expose?

Uncover the truth in this thrilling and poignant final chapter to the Fantasticademy series!

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The day has come! After five books and approximately eight years, my labor of love is finally complete. Today I uploaded the paperback version of "Rise of the Redeemed," the final entry in the Fantasticademy series. Quite bittersweet, I must say, but I'm excited to move on to other projects. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me along the way. For those who are curious, I'd like to share the Author's Notes from the book, which best explains the experience. Enjoy!
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AUTHOR'S NOTE, RISE OF THE REDEEMED:

Many grown-ups have children. Sometimes these descendants are literal children like babies, other times, artistic creations like books.
This series is such a child.

Growing up alongside my own Dearthling kiddos, the Fantasticademy novels also enjoyed their father’s love and attention, sometimes inducing deep existential anxieties and prematurely gray hair. At the beginning, my goal was to have the first story, Beyond the Shadow Wall, published and shelved in my oldest daughter’s elementary school library by the time she graduated sixth grade. I made it by three days. This final entry, Rise of the Redeemed, will be released in 2025, her senior year of high school. The major milestones of childhood, with a fantasy series to accompany it–how appropriate is that?!

But every dawn must also have a dusk. While my children and the stumbling discoveries I made about parenthood were the inspiration for beginning this whole endeavor, I accept the bittersweet reality that life will soon close the chapter on their adolescence. So, too, will this series move on from its father’s tutelage. But even if the magic dims, if these stories become a distant memory among the fifty bajillion others published every year, they might one day be rediscovered by my children’s children in an elementary school library or a dusty box of grandpa’s old manuscripts. Fun-tastico! The dream begins anew!

So that’s nighty-night for this series. Whether its world expands in later years or whenever remains to be seen, but for now, I hope you have enjoyed reading these books as I much as I had fun writing them. The fact that you are perusing these words now means more to this humble writer than anything in the world. Fog People, we are not.

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Well, guess that does it. Weird. For more fun background stuff, you can check out the "Fun-tastico Fan Club" section of the website, which I've now made available without a password. Next on my agenda is a full-length play. We'll see how it goes.

Dream on!

DJ