Kyra did not begin originally as a novel. I started it way back in the fall of 1998. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was spending a few days in a motel before I would be staying with some friends, and since I had nothing to do during those few days, I knew it would be perfect for writing, perfect for writing something new. I knew I wanted to write a children's fantasy novel and back then Harry Potter had barely started and it was a relatively open genre.

For some reason, I'm still not sure why, I wanted to try a whole new layout that hadn't been done before, so I decided to make short three-page chapters, essentially covering an entire scene, all done in long-hand. I can still remember the very notepad I wrote the story down with, which I may still have in a box somewhere. I knew from the very beginning I wanted to have a young female character (though I think now I should've made her even younger than I did) and that the fantasy element was going to start right away, which it does after the first few pages of Chapter One.

When I left that motel with a bunch of written pages, no more was written for a few years. Then I decided to do my first Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month, in November) and to make Kyra into a full novel. Two thirds got written in that month and then there was more waiting, then the following year I picked it up and made the last long run to the very end.

I wrote the prologue after finishing the novel, feeling that I needed a strong scene with the whole family to show that this was important to the book, but it just felt too tacked on and I was going to work it in somewhere later in the book. For now, it remains separate, as the prologue.

I am also including here the maps I created for this world, the main one of Enchantus and the events of the book is linked below. There will be another map later, an inset of the larger map as the chapters involving that area are put up.

And now, I invite you to read Kyra: The First Book of Enchantus . . .