I’m happy to announce my next novel The Compass Rose: A Neverland Story is now available on Amazon (paperback and e-book). Writing a reimagining and adding my own flair to a beloved story in the public domain was a lot of fun, so I hope you will enjoy it. It definitely has that “R. W. Reed” vibe added to it, and those who have enjoyed my previous books will surely enjoy this one too 🙂
“The worst that can happen is that everyone says, ‘Well, that was dreadful’.” – J.K. Rowling
The New Allies are losing the war to the New Axis, and it’s all because of Captain Hook.
Hook has discovered the secret to the Lost Boys’ endless childhood: the mythical Fountain of Youth. With help from the New Axis powers, Hook has taken possession of the Fountain and is using its Elixir of Life to rule Neverland and strengthen the New Axis on the Mainland. Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are helpless to stop him, and now, cut off from their source of eternal youth, they must finally grow up.
But it’s not enough for Hook. He needs the ultimate source of the Fountain for the New Axis to put the final dagger in the New Allies and end the war. He needs the Source that produces the Elixir, an object just as legendary as the Fountain itself. But the only way to unlock the Source is with a key.
A key shaped like a Compass Rose.
Jack and his best friend, Elise, are both fourteen-year-old orphans trying to make a home for themselves in war-torn America. Jack’s father gave him a mysterious Compass Rose necklace shortly before he died. His father’s only instructions were simple: Protect it at all costs. When Jack and Elise are forcibly taken to Neverland by Captain Hook’s followers, they find the fabled land to be a much more perilous place than they read about as children now that it is being ruled by Hook, his pirates, and the New Axis soldiers.
For Jack to stand a chance against them, he will need help from Tinker Bell and Hook’s escaped slaves – who call themselves the Lost Girls – to bring Neverland back to its former glory, bring down the New Axis powers, bring Peter Pan back from old age, and bring Elise home.
2021 will be in the history books soon, and the current years’ end is typically where people wax eloquent about the previous twelve months. But this post isn’t about 2021. It’s about 2020 – the year of my life that feels like it was lost.
The year in which (what I consider) my best novel was published, and it got absolutely none of my attention. I’ve decided that I will be doing another round of promotion for the book, but, first, here’s an overview of why:
In March of 2020 I started a demanding job as a fabrication technician. I was given the responsibility of learning a very convoluted shipping and receiving system, and then was placed as an assistant on the largest operation the department had. It was more than I had bargained for, but always being open to new challenges, I grit my teeth, held my tongue, and soldiered on in silence. But to make matters worse, I was working with a very unsavory character who seemed to find his joy in life by antagonizing me at every opportunity. This was a daily challenge that I had to bear, but, again, I grit me teeth, held my tongue, and soldiered on in silence. The situation grew worse as time went on. As I dug deeper and deeper into my well of patience, it was seen – outwardly, at least – as an act of weakness or cowardice which seemed to only embolden this coworker to continue his antagonizing. I silently struggled a full year in this environment, the effects taking a serious toll on my emotional and mental well-being. But when things finally reached its zenith and (as a man) I could take no more, I put an end to it in a way that I will not regale you with for it is something that is quite shameful and uncharacteristic of me. But, nonetheless, I was finally moved out of that situation and was able to finally find some peace of mind around other good-natured and easygoing coworkers.
Coincidentally, the exact same month I started this new job, Covid-19 shut the whole world down. My daughter moved to online schooling at home, and my wife had to work from home and simultaneously help my daughter navigate an increasingly complex online learning platform.
When summertime arrived, we welcomed the break from the stress of our daughter’s online school. Then in June, my wife got inexplicably pregnant, something we have not been able to do for 12 years. We had already gone through a terrible “missed miscarriage” and had long ago succumbed to the reality that we would never have any more children. It was the most exciting thing ever and we felt so blessed. Then reality hit us that, oh yeah – we haven’t had a baby in 12 years! We were essentially starting over as new parents. I didn’t remember any of it anymore. Feeding, burping, sleeping, crying, diapers, cribs, bottles, blankets, onesies, swaddles, diaper bags, strollers – it was a lifetime ago. We remembered none of it. We were truly starting over.
While my wife was dealing with the physical, mental, and emotional struggles of being pregnant, she was still working from home. The pregnancy went well, but my wife was having a hard time. The lines had blurred between home and work (mostly due to the fact that workers’ offices were now firmly situated in their living rooms), and the unspoken expectation was for employees to be available at all times, whether it be nighttime or the weekend. Like so many other people across the country, my wife had to endure this added level of stress as well. The difference was that she was also in the throes of growing a new life inside of her. I can hardly remember a time when she was more stressed out and upset as then.
So here is a small snapshot of the wild things that were thrust upon me in 2020. And during that time, the book that I had been working on for five years was finally ready for publication. I had great results after its publication in August of 2020, but not at the level I had hoped. I had a number of advertising and marketing plans up my sleeve, but life continued to get in the way, and no matter how hard I tried to focus my attention on it and get it further out there into the world, it simply became an afterthought while I had to tend to the garden of life.
And before I knew it, my wonderful, healthy (adorable, I’ve heard) baby boy was born and every single one of my priorities drastically shifted again.
I was a “new dad” again, having left all of my experience and knowledge with babies back in 2008. And then, my wife, who was already at the end of herself, had to start working from home and taking care of an infant after her maternity leave ended. Being “burned-out” was now her default mode, something she lived with 24/7. (And yet, she continued to go above and beyond – in our marriage, with our teenage daughter, with our infant son, with our household, and with her job. To say that my wife had become a bona fide superhero is putting it lightly. If I were recruiting my own version of The Avengers, I wouldn’t call upon Iron Man or Captain America or Black Widow or Thor. I would call upon the person who crawls through the mud every single day to make sure everyone else is taken care of and still somehow comes out looking like royalty. She alone had become (at least in my eyes) Earth’s Mightiest Hero.)
And just to take things up another level, while all of this was going on, things began to ramp up at my job at the plant. I was, again, given the responsibilities of the overly complex shipping system in place at our facility, and simultaneously had to run and learn the intricacies of the biggest piece of equipment our department has owned in its entire history (something that I have still not mastered as of this writing). This left me with hardly any time for my family, and definitely no time to promote a novel. Soon, as 2021 began to slip away as well, I went into autopilot and just started going through the motions of life. Work, eat, baby, (occasionally) sleep. Repeat times infinity.
Deep down, it pained me to see what I consider my Magnum Opus just sitting there idle. It was probably the greatest thing I have ever, or will ever, write. And it was published and forgotten about when it was the one book that I had poured every fiber of my being into. That novel contains all of me – heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit. It’s the one book that I’ve written that I tell people, if you ever want to know the real Richard Reed, read my book Into a World of Light. (The people who have reached out to me after finishing the book know what I’m talking about.) My whole being is in that book and most people don’t even know it exists.
When I finally took stock of my life and realized all of this had happened and why it all happened, I decided to do another round of promotion for it to give it some added attention. I realize how strange it is to suddenly start marketing and advertising for a book that was published in August of 2020 while we’re all here on the cusp of 2022, but if you’ve read this far, you know why.
So what I’d like to ask from you, dear reader, is:
1) If you haven’t already purchased your own copy of Into a World of Light, please consider giving it a try (you can find the book HERE).
2) If you have already purchased the novel in the past, if you would be so kind as to leave a rating and a review on Amazon. Leaving reviews on Amazon is one of the most effective ways to increase a book’s visibility and attract new readers. And as I continue to promote the book through other avenues, when potential readers are trafficked back to the novel’s landing page on Amazon, they’ll be much more inclined to make a purchase if they’ve seen others have already enjoyed it in the past.
So that is all I’m asking of you: to leave a rating and a review to help me with spreading the word about it. Just those few minutes will help more than you’ll ever know.
And lastly, as a little incentive, for those who do leave a rating and a review: I will send you the title, synopsis, and first FIVE chapters of the next novel from the mind of R. W. Reed that I’m hoping will be published sometime in 2022.
Yes. Seriously. Early access to my next completed novel. You’ll be one of the first people to not only know what my next novel is about, but actually get to read an excerpt from it. The only person who has read this novel so far is my daughter (she’s become the greatest beta reader I ever could have asked for!), so you will be in very elite company. So don’t miss out on a chance to get ahead of a everyone else and see behind the curtain of my creativity!
Thanks for reading, and hopefully I’ll be reading your reviews and sending your documents out soon! 😊
R. W. Reed 