When I was in elementary school, I used to write stories in notebooks as a way to entertain myself and let my mind wander into different worlds. These stories were without a doubt, by professional standards, not best-sellers. But the passion was there. When I was writing about dinosaurs chasing children through jungles, spiders that like to eat people's brains, or how a town might survive a zombie apocalypse, I wasn't thinking about how well it was written, I was thinking about how incredible it was that the written word could transport me so far away from my own body that I could easily forget who and where I was, even if only for an instant.

My writing urges came and went, and sometimes many years went by without me writing anything at all, but sporadically the feeling would come back and I'd pick up a pen again. I wrote dozens of stories before I finally decided to take it seriously. On a cold, rainy day back in February 2015, I was scouring blogs and author websites trying desperately to find the type of fantasy book I wanted to read, but after hours of searching, I came up empty-handed. The kind of book I wanted to read just didn't seem to exist, not exactly. So I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to read that book, I would have to write it myself. So that's what I did. I began working on a fantasy series which was going to be called Manie's Ridge, then it changed to Shawn McCully and the Crystal at Manie's Ridge, eventually shortened to The Crystal Keepers. And here I am, seven years later, after dozens of rewrites, hundreds-of-thousands of words left on the cutting room floor, a draft for a sequel, and an outline for a series that will span across four tightly, woven adventures, I bring to you, reader,
The Crystal Keepers.

I hope you'll join me, Shawn, and Manie on this adventure!