Author Tabitha Min
Dark Fantasy, Thrillers, Romance, and with it all, a message of Hope
The Inspiration
I grew up on the east coast of Florida where I spent most of my days outside, creating fantastical adventures and exploring much of what nature had to offer. When I wasn’t helping my friends with creating a bunker in an old dirt mound, or building wildly unstable tree houses in the woods, I was using what inspiration I could to create endless worlds to lose myself in.
Despite the scorching heat of the day and the limited expanse of her residential cul-de-sac, it did little to sway my desire for adventure. But when the heavy rains came, as they so often do in the “Sunshine State,” I would often use that time to create those adventures by writing them down.
And though I grew to eventually pursue the hopeful journey which life would bring, writing somehow always remained the comfort and escape I often needed.
The Journey
When the time had finally come to graduate, I leapt at the first chance that presented itself to leave my home state of Florida. That sense of adventure that remained with me as a child had never left, and it drove my passionate desire to see the world even further.
So, just a few months after I received my diploma, I joined the military. I had always wanted to be in the medical field and the Air Force happened to offer that and a little bit more. Two years later, I was a certified flight medic and had been granted the opportunity to travel the world while doing what I loved most.
But with time, there came again the desire to discover what life had in store for me, so, once my contract with the military had ended, I used my training to become a paramedic for a time in South Carolina, and then in North Carolina.
Little did I know, however, that just one month after I moved to Charlotte, I would meet my future husband. And two years later, we were married.
Fast forward another two years, and a change in careers, we welcomed our first child, as well as the many changes that having a tiny human brings along with it. And though my passion for writing still remained, it was quickly pushed to the back burner in pursuit of the more pressing demands that life had for me at the time.
When things finally began to settle back down, for the most part, I returned to my writing, and what a wonderful feeling it was! It’s so easy to lose sight of the simple pleasures in life, and when we finally come to enjoy them once again, we find ourselves wondering why we even left it in the first place.
So, with the encouragement of my husband, I decided once and for all to finally write that novel I’d always promised myself that I was going to write. But wouldn’t you know it? A few months later, I found out I was pregnant again, and a couple months after that, we were moving to South Carolina!
And once again, my hopes for finally finishing that novel were pushed to the sidelines. It was hard enough writing with a toddler in tow, but having a new-born added into the mix? Forget it…
After our second child was born, all hope I had for finishing my novel had all but nearly been extinguished until three months after he was born. Post-partum depression was something which I had always known and heard about, but it wasn’t something I had ever experienced firsthand. It wasn’t something that I had to face when my daughter came, and so I didn’t expect it with my son. And when it first began to creep into existence, I brushed it off. But eventually, I couldn’t pretend that it didn’t exist anymore, and soon, I found that I was losing the battle.
I hated it, and I hated the place where it was taking me. And so, I needed to do something, anything, to finally escape it. But the only thing I knew how to do was to write. Writing has always been the greatest comfort for me in life and proved to be a fantastic escape when I needed it most. So, one morning, after both the little ones went down for their naps, I sat down in the much-needed silence of the day, and I wrote.
I promised myself that I would take it slow, and just write for a little bit each day. Just enough to let my mind escape. But the more I wrote, the more it consumed me and one day led to the next until finally, after just three short months, I had finished my novel.
It was surreal, to say the least. After placing the final period at the end of the sentence. I stared at it for some time, recounting the journey it took to finally arrive at the finish line. The one story I had always wanted to finish and constantly found reasons to push off, now stood before me as a completed manuscript. Of course, there was still much to do by way of editing and whatnot, but it was the one thing that I had labored over for so long. Only to realize that this one story which I had so often stressed myself to no end over, became the one thing that would end up taking away most of my stress.
It became this sort of gift to myself which I never thought that I actually needed until it was the only thing that was left for me to turn to. It may sound strange, I know, and even if this isn’t the kind of story many might find to be a stress reliever, I promise you, it was for me.
And to many, it might just be another story to pass the time, and that is perfectly fine! But to any who might be interested to know why it means so much to me, just know that the creation of this particular story renewed my passion for writing and the hope for what comes next.
THE FIRST BOOK
Set in a medieval-inspired world, one family faces threats from both man and the gods alike. Where evil schemes and the thirst for blood lingers, they soon find that darkness comes in many forms.
Ludica, the king of Faermire, has spent years creating a legacy for his three children. But when the death of a rival king fuels rumors of conflict throughout the land, he soon finds that threats to his reign are brewing both within and without his own borders.
And though Gwenora, the widowed queen, offers him a treaty after her husband’s death, they both find that such an alliance could ignite a rebellion from within their own ranks.
Meanwhile, Ludica’s eldest children, Beowyn and Estrith, uncover evidence of their uncle and stepmother’s involvement in a plot to usurp their father’s throne. But in revealing the truth, they must come to terms with the unintended consequences.
When the world as they know it begins to crumble around them; threats to their reign, treasonous alliances, and murderous plots abound, Ludica and the others must look to each other to defend their places in the world of Aecorath or risk the possibility of losing everything —and everyone—that they love.