Novel Preview: Rekindler

Rekindler Preview: My Book

Bada-ba-bada-bop-boop: Hey’all! How’s it going? A warm welcome to all of you coming to Holy Trinity this year, especially the Grade 9’s and 12’s, so I have a message for both groups.

Niners: Don’t worry, high school’s not the den of Boogeymen that some of you may have been led to believe; yes, there is a lot of work involved, and for a lot of you will be doing mixing and matching with your courses to discover your strengths and weaknesses. But, if you go out and say hi to a few people, you’ll make a circle of friends that’ll help you get through anything by being at your side, and before you know it, you will - hopefully - be enjoying high school life. And if not, which I know is the case for some people, it’s only 4 years compared to the rest of your life, right? But then again, 4 years can be a long time.

Twelves: As a twelve myself, I’ve gotta say, I’m proud to have been taught here. But, now it’s time to avoid getting our butts hit by the door and choose what to do after this year. Go straight to work? Go to university or a community college? Break down into tears over not knowing what to do and curl up on the ground while our moms argue with our dads what approach they should take with 17-18 years of hard work on their child? That’s up to you, and even though I, admittedly, don’t have much experience going into ‘the real world’, if millions of people did it before, I can’t see why we can’t.

Now, with introductory bits of welcome and praise out of the way, time to get to the heart of this article: Shameless plugging.

You see, you might be wondering what ‘Rekindler’ actually is. What are we previewing here? Well, it’s my book. A science-fiction/fantasy/superhero novel that does more than toy with the idea of multiple realities. The main character is a 14 year-old boy named Garrett who was the victim of a traumatic accident that ties in with this whole concept of worlds beyond our own that are the same and different. This serves as the backbone of his character development as he teams up with an old man who only strives to find peace again, and a hacker/genius 10 years Garrett’s senior, (yet he is actually much more mature than she is). Garrett himself is actually quite gifted with the maths and sciences despite somewhat lacking in other school subjects. In addition, his rough-around-the-edges attitude at times can lead to a lot of friction with his family, friends and even teachers from time to time. Divulging much more spoils the plot just a bit much for my liking, but besides, I think what I just described is satisfactory for a plot description.

My progress on the book has been alright, but it’s still nowhere close to being finished. My goal is to wrap this up before Grade 12 is over, but because of all of the stuff I’m going to have to do during this final year, I’m not 100% sure if I’ll reach that goal. But I’ll try!

I’ve actually posted the first several chapters online on a site called Wattpad as a sort of extended preview, even though I won’t be posting there any longer as I want this thing to get published by an actual publishing company. I mean, putting it all online for free kind of, you know, defeats the purpose of buying a book. But don’t worry, there’s more than a decent amount of there to read and, if you would kindly do so, review. To login, all you need to do is enter in your Facebook account; otherwise you have to set up a manual account all on your own. So really, anybody with an internet connection can view the said chapters that I’ve posted right here, if you’d like: https://www.wattpad.com/story/35119826-rekindler

If you can’t get on there for some reason, I have the list of characters right here. A few might seem strange, but trust me, they pan out in the overall story as essential characters in their own right.

CAST OF CHARACTERS Tamara Trace - A woman betrayed by a former love Barry - A beast of nature, tamed by nurturing Lucy Woodward - An artist faced with unrequited affection David Woodward - A boy in want of being a man, attempting to imitate his father's stride Damien Woodward - A leader and a father Mary Woodward - A mother with a fierce yet kind spirit Switcher - A ghost from another world, consumed by needless spite Mayhem - A terror that knows nothing but chaos Emily Jones - A young girl searching for hope Jason - An old man, worn by battle, attempting to find his past Slugger - A loyal companion Garrett Warner - An old soul with a fractured heart

So yeah, that’s my preview of my book.

Look, I just want to say this: I’m some dude who thought this all up either in his bedroom or in school. I thought this up and ran with it because I thought it was cool. To be honest, this was MUCH more of a fantasy story years previously, and I actually wrote several versions of it in that format. However, reading over all of them made me realize it was just bad. And I knew that I’d read books like that that were published and they ended up not captivating my attention due to how bland and uninspiring they were. So I had to retool it so that it was something I was more comfortable with, and since I’d like to think I’m much more skilled at writing now, it’s a lot better in my mind. And the response I’ve gotten so far is ravingly good, so that’s encouraging.

Now, I don’t claim to be the greatest writer in the world. I’m not Shakespeare, I’m not Edgar Allen Poe, and I’m not freaking JK Rowling! I’m none of those people, and I wouldn’t want to be. I like being myself. I’m a kid whose favorite superhero is Superman despite claims that ‘the character’s become irrelevant and he’s boring’. I’m a kid who played baseball for years before realizing that my heart hadn’t been in the game for a long time because it just wasn’t for me anymore, despite what people said. I screw around with my guy-friends on group chat talking about Batman, lightsabers, DBZ and who knows what else. I even bemoan the fact that I don’t have a girlfriend yet! (Yep. I said it.)

This is just one of those things that I grew really passionate about: I want this to be good, I want it to not only be a success, I want it to show that I did something. I did this! My very own book! Maybe it ends up being less than what I want it to be, and maybe it just falls flat on its face. Big deal, I move on with my life to something else. But I just want to show… I have something to contribute.

So, the name’s Josh Volkers. I’m 17 years old: I love steak, movies, books, games, dogs, cats, parties, holidays, watching baseball, and writing. I hate: Usage of the word bae (look up what it means in Danish), Uwe Boll, Batman and Robin, Superman 3 and 4, my old racist former neighbor Walt, and Kanye West. And I humbly ask you all to look over the bit of my book that I’ve put up on Wattpad. And maybe, just maybe, you can see my name on bookshelves in a few years. But who knows.

Also, I will eventually return to my bi-weekly movie feature, but I’m a bit caught up at the moment, so it’ll take a few more weeks. I’ll say this though: Go out and see ‘The Martian’ this weekend. You won’t regret it, trust me.

Remember, you can follow the latest updates on the paper by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, or even following us on Instagram! As you can see, we’ve launched a brand new, clean, pretty-looking site right here, so expect things to run a bit more smoothly. So, until next time Titans: good luck and stay strong!

#books #arts #entertainment