Creation of the World of Herannon
In Ijuí (state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), my hometown, during my teenage years, I used to play RPG with my friends every weekend. Back then, we mostly played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As the Dungeon Master, I initially struggled with the lack of reference material for “the world” of our campaigns (since I didn’t have access to supplements like Forgotten Realms or others), which is why I started using some references from a local RPG magazine. However, wanting more creative freedom and inspired by reading The Silmarillion, I eventually decided to create my own world-setting. That’s when Heranonn was born (this was the original spelling, until I realized that “Herannon” looked more elegant).
The End of the RPG Era (at least for me)
At this time, I moved to Porto Alegre. We had just wrapped up an AD&D campaign that marked the end of the 2nd Era of Herannon, and despite the distance, I started planning a new campaign to continue the game. I began noting the changes the world would undergo over a 100-year period and creating key characters within that context. Although some of the names changed, certain characters that appeared in The Archmage’s Apprentice and The Lost Son had already existed from the start (like Kyehn and the Dragonslayer). However, during this period, characters like Vedriny were conceptualized, as well as the main villains of The Herannon Chronicles (who have yet to be introduced). Unfortunately, the planning was never put into action, and I eventually gave up on RPGs entirely
Inspiration to Write Novels
Despite my experience with blogs, I had never actually thought about writing a book until around 2006. I was rereading The Chronicles of Dragonlance (which I had first read in 1997), and although I had great memories of the story, I found myself quite disappointed during the reread. I was discussing this with a colleague at work and said something like, “I think I could do better than this.” She responded, “Why don’t you write your own books?” I decided to take her suggestion and started developing my own stories.
Using events I had planned for the RPG campaign that never happened as a foundation, I began writing The Path of Vengeance, a book that would tell the story of Aglarion, a mage who wouldn’t be a hero and wouldn’t aim to save the world from Evil. I also planned a series of several books that would continue this narrative, resulting in the The Herannon Chronicles project.
Frustration and New Inspiration
I went through a creative crisis that prevented me from continuing with The Path of Vengeance, and as a result, I found new inspiration to write a prequel to the story, where I would introduce Aglarion and other characters. By the end of 2008, I finished what would have been my first book and sent the manuscript to my best friend for review. He printed out the text and made countless negative notes along the pages, and in the end, he handed me the marked-up volume and said something like, “It’s a great RPG adventure, but it’s not good as a book.” He also pointed out that I was too attached to the rules and features of the Dungeons & Dragons universe and gave me an interesting perspective: that it would take many years to learn to write a good book, just look at the ages of established writers. So, despite being frustrated with the result of the first book, I decided to change my perspective and work harder — and without rushing.
In the end, I decided to take a step back in the timeline and write a pre-prequel to The Path of Vengeance in order to build Aglarion’s story from the beginning. That’s how I began writing The Archmage’s Apprentice.
Decision to Pursue Medicine
On this day, I was ‘inspired’ to leave a stable career in Civil Engineering to try my hand at Medicine. This decision later led me to enroll in a preparatory course for college entrance exams, which required a lot of dedication to balance a full-time job with studying for the exams. Unfortunately, this also ended up affecting my focus on writing.
Decision to Publish the First Book
At the end of 2014, for some reason, I decided to reread what I had already written for my first book. To my surprise, I was quite satisfied with it. The story wasn’t finished yet, so I focused on writing the missing chapters and decided that I would publish the book. On this date, I submitted a proposal to the vanity press Chiado Editora, located in Portugal, which offered me terms for paid publication. From there, I started a crowdfunding campaign to make the book’s publication possible while simultaneously working on the final revisions of the manuscript.
Publication of the First Book
After months of revisions and raising funds through the crowdfunding campaign to make the publication possible, my first book, The Archmage’s Apprentice, was (officially) published on this day. The original edition had a horrible layout by Chiado Editora, which resulted in a 630-page volume, making the book appear much larger than it actually was—definitely not very inviting for readers.
Launch Event for The Archmage’s Apprentice
On this day, the launch event for The Archmage’s Apprentice was held at a great bookshop in Porto Alegre. During the event, I had the pleasure of receiving visits from several dear friends and also had the opportunity to meet new readers who attended the event.
Guest Author at the Book Fair
I was honored to be the guest author at the traditional Ijuí Book Fair (my hometown), where I had the privilege of being interviewed by a local radio station and featured in an article in one of the city’s newspapers.
Acceptance into Medical School
After much hard work, on this day, I was accepted into the Medical School at UFCSPA, one of the most prestigious universities in Brazil. As a result, I had to quit my job and focus entirely on my studies, which, unfortunately, wasn’t conducive to my writing.
Completion of the Second Book
The Covid-19 pandemic led to social isolation and interrupted academic activities, giving me a lot of free time during the first half of 2020. Taking advantage of the available time and a bit of inspiration, I resumed writing my second book and managed to finish the narrative before the university resumed classes. Still, when reviewing the book, I realized that some sections weren’t satisfying me, so I decided to wait and reflect on ideas to improve the overall work.
Publication of the Second Book
Nearly two years after “finishing” the new book, I finally had a burst of creativity that inspired me to improve everything I wasn’t satisfied with. After that, several careful revisions were needed to consider the book ready for registration and publication. On this day, my second book, The Lost Son, was finally published. Due to a lack of resources to invest in cover art, I decided to publish it exclusively as an e-book on Amazon, postponing the plan to release a print version, as well as the second edition of The Archmage’s Apprentice.
