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by John Goode


  “We asked Koran about Pullus, if he was at peace in the afterlife,” Kor jumped in.

  Kane nodded. “And?”

  Ater took a deep breath. “Koran said Pullus wasn’t with Him in the afterlife. In fact, no souls are. When The Tree was moved, all connections with the higher planes were broken. All the souls that died had nowhere to go, so they’ve been just waiting, in a null space.”

  “Wait, what?” Kane asked, trying to wrap his mind around what Ater had said.

  “The souls, they are still here. Well, not here, but they haven’t moved on yet, and since it’s been so long there is a backlog of them,” Kor explained, his words quickening with emotion.

  “Dear Logos,” Ferra exclaimed under her breath.

  “So they aren’t dead?” Ruber asked hesitantly.

  “No, they are dead, but they haven’t moved on. We asked Koran, and he said we could find Pullus’s soul….” Kor paused.

  “If we can find Pullus’s soul, Koran will make a new body for him as a reward for freeing the higher realms.”

  No one spoke.

  “He’ll bring him back to life!” Ater said, something akin to joy entering his voice for the first time since his mate had died.

  “But we have to move quickly,” Kor added. “Before the souls can get sorted out.”

  “If a god makes that promise, you cannot turn your back to it.” Ferra added.

  I looked over at Kane, and I instantly knew what he wanted to do, which meant what I was going to do.

  There were arguments in my mind, but I knew Kane was right. This was more important than my mother at the moment.

  “Very well,” I said after a few seconds. “How do we find his soul?”

  The Stuff After the Book….

  WHAT A long and winding road it has been.

  A lot has happened since I started Arcadia, and looking back it kind of boggles my mind. When I started, Harmony Ink had just been formed, and the field of LGBT books for young adults was a new idea. Here we are years later, and it seems silly it took so long for us to get here. When I started these books, the thought of same-sex couples getting married seemed a long, long ways off. But here, in the present, it is now the law of the land.

  A lot can happen over the course of a series.

  Personally my life has changed too. When I started Arcadia it was my first full-length book. Up until then the Foster High books had been novellas, and the thought of writing a whole book was terrifying. Now I can’t figure out how I ever wrote something with so few words. Since the first Arcadia book, I have moved to a new place, made new friends through my writing, and have long since stopped being scared when I sit down in front of a blank page.

  Well, blank monitor, but you get it.

  The one thing that hasn’t changed much in that time is the story. I don’t want to come off all George Lucas, but from the first word I wrote in Distant Rumblings, I had the ending you just read in mind. Some of the details changed as I wrote, but the overall plot, of Kane eventually sharing the power with the world was always the goal. Maybe it’s because I am the son of a hippie or just another liberal homosexual, but I feel very strongly in the sharing of power with those who have none. My idea of America is that no one gets left behind. My American dream is not striking it rich and living high on the hog but of everyone’s life getting better. Maybe not everyone becoming a millionaire but of everyone being able to eat when they are hungry, see a doctor when sick, and never having to worry about a place to live.

  This is the world I dream of, and now it is the world you’ve read about.

  In Foster High, Kyle tells us that if we want to be a better person, then we need to be one. And here Kane tells us if you want to help everyone, then help them. Some say it is preachy, some say it is unrealistic, but you just read four books featuring a talking ruby, so let’s not get into unrealistic, shall we?

  But the true point of these books, the real reason is simple.

  I loved fantasy books growing up. I mean I loved them. I read the Dragonlance series like it was a drug and consumed most of the Forgotten Realms books like they were bacon cheeseburgers. I read hundreds if not thousands of books, and though I loved the magic and imagination, I was always a little sad at the end.

  I was sad because I never saw myself in them.

  Brave, handsome, muscular warriors who had fallen for the fair maiden sure; but where was the handsome prince who was trying to rescue the other prince? Where were the elven lovers who had been together for centuries? Where were the two princesses who didn’t need a man to complete their lives?

  I never found them, and that upset me.

  So I wanted to make that world, a world where it happened and where it wasn’t the point of the book. I don’t see this as a gay fantasy book. I see it as a fantasy that features two gay protagonists. I mean, does anyone call Harry Potter straight fantasy? No, it’s just fantasy, and if you were going to bring up sexuality, someone, I am sure, would point out, it is a fantasy book with a heterosexual hero.

  So for those of you who have followed the series from the start, thank you. Thank you for dreaming with me. For those who have left reviews, given feedback, this is our world and I can’t wait to explore it with you.

  This, this is just the beginning.

  Sitting under Randy in Athens,

  John Goode

  More from John Goode & J.G. Morgan

  Lords of Arcadia: Book One

  Kane Vess may be gay, but he is also extraordinarily ordinary—a crushing weight in Athens, Iowa, where a person’s worth is measured by his uniqueness. But when he meets the school’s newest student, Kane’s ordinariness seems to evaporate. He is desperate to get to know the mysterious stranger… and that leads him into danger.

  Hawk is an exile from his homeland, an otherworldly traveler with impossible abilities and a changeling bodyguard. He’s generally disappointed in Earth, which seems common except for Kane. But while Hawk and Kane explore their mutual interest, the forces that made Hawk an exile are busy tracking him down. Kane’s newfound feelings pull him into Hawk’s shadowy fantasy world, where he learns he needs to grow up fast. Kane’s life may now be extraordinary, but if he isn’t careful it could cost him everyone he holds dear—including Hawk.

  Sequel to Distant Rumblings

  Lords of Arcadia: Book Two

  Kane Vess thought his life in rural Iowa was mind-numbingly boring. Then Hawk, a prince from another world, appeared and turned Kane’s life upside-down. At first Kane welcomed the adventure and the chance to be with Hawk—but then a shapeshifter named Puck kidnapped Hawk and dragged him back home.

  Now Kane is caught up in another planet’s magical civil war, searching for the boy he loves in a place he knows nothing about. With the help of a gem elemental, an ice barbarian, and a clockwork woman, Kane has to find Hawk and stop Puck before he can destroy the nine realms.

  Sequel to Eye of the Storm

  Lords of Arcadia: Book Three

  Kane used to be a normal boy with normal worries. Now he fights alongside his boyfriend, Hawk, and an unlikely group of allies as they attempt to reclaim Hawk’s throne and save the Nine Realms. With time running out, Hawk decides to raise an army against the evil shapeshifter, Puck, and his army of The Dark. The adventurers split up in search of a force that will join their cause and help restore order to the Nine Realms.

  New allies aren’t as easy to find as they hoped. Kane, Hawk, and their friends face unforeseen danger as centuries-old grudges threaten their quest. Nothing is what they thought it was, and Kane and Hawk must find the truth in time to defend against Puck’s encroaching army. But the truth about who their true foe is will change everything.

  Readers love the Lords of Arcadia series by John Goode & J.G. Morgan

  Distant Rumblings

  “…the spark that leaps between the two boys from the outset is undeniable, and it was a pleasure to watch it grow.”

  —Rainbow Book Reviews

  “
You have to read this novel. It is new, refreshing, funny and fun.”

  —MM Good Book Reviews

  Eye of the Storm

  “Goode’s mastery of the written word is in full force here; his power to turn simple phrases into descriptive goldmines is unprecedented.”

  —Joyfully Jay

  “It is a love story that triumphs in the face of the improbable and discounts the probability of the impossible.”

  —The Novel Approach

  The Unseen Tempest

  “I was so happy with where things went in this, and I am looking forward to finding out what will happen next for these characters in the future.”

  —Greedy Bug Reviews

  JOHN GOODE is a member of the class of ’88 from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, specializing in incantations and spoken spells. At the age of fourteen, he proudly represented District 13 in the 65th Panem games, where he was disqualified for crying uncontrollably before the competition began. After that he moved to Forks, Washington, where against all odds he dated the hot, incredibly approachable werewolf instead of the stuck-up jerk of a vampire, but was crushed when he found out the werewolf was actually gayer than he was. After that he turned down the mandatory operation everyone must receive at sixteen to become pretty, citing that everyone pretty was just too stupid to live, before moving away for greener pastures. After falling down an oddly large rabbit hole, he became huge when his love for cakes combined with his inability to resist the commands of sparsely worded notes, and was finally kicked out when he began playing solitaire with the Red Queen’s 4th armored division. By eighteen he had found the land in the back of his wardrobe, but decided that thinly veiled religious allegories were not the neighbors he desired. When last seen, he had become obsessed with growing a pair of wings after discovering Fang’s blog and hasn’t been seen since.

  Or he is this guy who lives in this place and writes stuff he hopes you read.

  Twitter: @fosterhigh

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/TalesFromFosterHigh

  “I’m a figment of my own imagination.” J.G. MORGAN

  Morgan cites a lifetime of voracious, eclectic reading, much of it nonfiction, decades of listening quietly to and roaming the world outside his door, and nearly nine years of reading, commenting on, and doing beta for some of the vast sea of writing others have created about a specific television series as some of the inspiration behind his first foray into writing for publication.

  Other inspirations? The author’s only response was a chuckle, an arched eyebrow and a reference to forests and trees.

  J.G. Morgan lives quietly in a garden level studio apartment near Lake Ontario in the Northeast US. Both grown children, a son and a daughter and her family, live near the author.

  By John Goode

  The Boy Behind the Red Door

  First Time for Everything

  Going the Distance

  LORDS OF ARCADIA

  Distant Ramblings

  Eye of the Storm

  With J.G. Morgan: The Unseen Tempest

  With J.G. Morgan: Stormfront

  TALES OF FOSTER HIGH

  Tales from Foster High

  To Wish for Impossible Things

  End of the Innocence

  Dear God

  151 Days

  Published by HARMONY INK PRESS

  www.harmonyinkpress.com

  By J.G. Morgan

  LORDS OF ARCADIA

  By John Goode: Distant Rumblings

  By John Goode: Eye of the Storm

  With John Goode: The Unseen Tempest

  With John Goode: Stormfront

  Published by HARMONY INK PRESS

  www.harmonyinkpress.com

  Published by

  HARMONY INK PRESS

  5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

  [email protected] • harmonyinkpress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Stormfront

  © 2017 John Goode & J.G. Morgan.

  Cover Art

  © 2017 Paul Richmond.

  http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Harmony Ink Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or [email protected].

  ISBN: 978-1-63533-276-6

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-63533-277-3

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953073

  Published February 2017

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America

 

 

 


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