Welcome to the Draconic Author's Blog

Welcome to my blog!

Greetings!  My name is Shane Press.  In 2000, I was introduced to a novel known to many around the world as "The Hobbit." Handed to me by my mother one day while I sat in a chair watching TV, I was quickly drawn into a colorful world filled with orcs, goblins, dwarves, wizards, dragons, and of course hobbits.  Unsatiated by the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield, I quickly dove into "The Lord of the Rings," and followed Bilbo's nephew Frodo on his own, far more epic and dangerous adventure, to save the world from the Dark Lord Sauron by destroying the treacherous One Ring.  And then, on December 19, 2001, something happened that would change my life forever.

When I first saw "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" I was blown away by the music, the costumes, the weapons, the scope, and the sheer genius of the production.  The classic novel I read and the daydreams of fighting in Helm's Deep and on the walls of Minas Tirith were brought to life by the performances of Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, and so many others.  And in the two following years as I got to watch "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" I came to realize I had to do one thing:  I had to write my own epic fantasy.  In the years since, I have been slowly working through my own novel.  The earliest iterations have evolved from a simple plot-clone of Tolkien's fantastic work to a developed coming-of-age tale.

I am currently 78 pages into writing the novel's most current and stable iteration.  Whether it was good or not, from 2006 to 2013, I wrote very little due to my time at Rutgers University for my undergraduate work and at Kean University doing post-baccalaureate work.  To compound the difficulties I had writing during my university career, I suffer from the constant desire to revise and edit things I've already written instead of just writing!  However, I was lucky to be able to take some Creative Writing classes at Ocean County College in 2014 and early 2015 where I finally found my stride, and the disparate threads of my story finally began to be weaved together into their current form.  So now as I slowly march forward, struggling with the urge to revise and the other constant distractions of life (I like video games too much), I look forward to sharing the story with the world.

So I hope to occasionally post some snippets of the book here, as well as some conceptual art I had commissioned to assist me in solidifying certain aspects of my characters and important objects in the story's world.  But I will close this post out with a piece of art:  An amulet that once belonged to an ancient organization devoted to protecting their world from an evil more ancient than the Gods that enlisted them.  They also give us the working title of my novel.  They are The Pathkeepers, and the newest member of their ranks may prove to be the only being that can prevent disaster.

An amulet that once belonged to a Pathkeeper, showing the sun motif, the runic motto of the Pathkeepers, the purifying flames, and the central labyrinth (the Path) that they guard.
 Art by Graey Erb for Shane Press, Copyright 2015.