Hey guys, it’s good to be back!  After such a long break, I’m going to to start off again slow.  So instead of another part of the story, I thought a few facts and stuff might be fun!  Before I begin, I just want to say that all of my readers are completely and totally awesome, and I love that you guys keep coming back to read my posts and my stories, and it means a WHOLE LOT to me!  I’d really love to hear from you in the comments!

Okay, with that said, let’s start off with how The Card Dealer came to be…

So I had finally decided to start posting some stories here on my blog…I just didn’t know what to post.  I knew I didn’t want to post anything from the books I was writing, though I might do that sometime in the future.  I wanted to write something with a fantasy genre, because that’s really my passion in the writing world, besides Sci-Fi.  I am actually writing a fantasy book, but it doesn’t have anything like elves, and trolls, and mermaids, etc.  So I really wanted to write something like that.

I came up with the story of a young witch in training, and I went from there.  I thought up the characters, I planned out the story, and I wrote a crude outline.  All in one week, and then my sister started on the main cover art (shout out to Spider-Man Lover (my sister)!) .  I was super, super nervous.  Like, my hands were shaking as I posted the first part.  I was so worried about what people were going to think about my writing!  I haven’t gotten much feedback, but I did get kind words, and that helped me to keep going.  I can’t wait until all the mysteries start unfolding…

Oh, and little fun fact; while it took me a day or two to get everyone’s names, it took me TWO WEEKS to get the name Jadeshaven for the town.  Some serious brainstorming went down.

Want to know some facts about The Card Dealer?

Adrian and Claudia, along with any other wizards/witches, have Mirus blood, which means that they are able to control magic.  Usually academies like the one Adrian attended aren’t full, because not very many people have that blood.  How can you tell if you have that special blood, you might ask?  Well, it’s as simple as accidentally cutting yourself.  A wizard/witch’s blood has a purple tint to it.

By far, one of my favorite characters to write is Leon Woods.  He’s goofy, beyond his years, and he’s about as polite as a rock.  As you might recall from the story, he nearly met his untimely end after his village caught on fire when he was six years old.  Luckily, he’s a strange kid, and he managed to save himself by draining the life force, or essence, out of a tree.  He can also drain the essence out of a person too, which actually allows him to go without doing it again a lot longer, but he tries not to do that.  Without essence, Leon would die.  No one really knows how he was able to do this, and it may remain a mystery forever…

Lex Lockehart took the longest to develop.  She’s fun though, being a Time Traveler and all.  Most of the Time Travelers all disappeared.  They either chose to stay where ever they traveled to, or they died out.  Lex is the only Time Traveler in Jadeshaven.  Adrian would never admit it, but the only reason he started dating her was because she could travel through time, and she could take anyone with her.  Of course, he later realized that he truly liked Lex.  Lex has never been to the past (she has no desire to see that yet), but she has been to the future multiple times.  You can tell that from the phone she had in Part 2!  She has only taken Adrian to the future twice, because traveling is an energy zapper, and taking more than one person is tiring.

Claudia was the first character I came up with, and I knew I wanted her to be my main character.  Her parents realized she had Mirus blood after a few injuries (she was a wild child).  They immediately went on a hunt for the best teachers.  Adrian wasn’t their first pick, but he was the cheapest.  They were thankful that he turned out to be a good teacher.  Claudia didn’t like him at first, but she now sees him as one of her best friends.

Adrian came from a rich family, but stayed in a boarding school for most of his life.  In fact, it was his professor that decided it was best to send him to a school for wizards.  He hasn’t seen his parents since he was twelve.  In the academy, he found his talent for fortune telling, and he started his own shop where people could come for his advice or to see a glimpse of their future. He not only took interest in magic, but in anatomy and psychology as well.  If he hadn’t become a wizard, he would have been a doctor.

Another little fun fact is that I included a cameo in Part 3, except only my writer BFF would know.  Remember the part where Adrian plays cards with the two humans and the Wolf-Man?  The Wolf-Man, Fenrir, came from a fun little role play my friend and I were doing, and is one of my favorite characters that I’ve created.  I thought it appropriate for him to come into this story for a little bit of gambling 😉

That’s all the extra content I have for today, but you can expect more in the future!  You can expect a new part with brand new artwork coming soon!  Thank you so much for reading, and, as I said in the comments, I really want to hear from you!  Have any projects that your working on?  Let me know about them!  Oh, and tell me if you have any theories about what might happen in The Card Dealer, because it would be interesting to see what people are thinking!

The Card Dealer: Part 5 will release on October 19,