Amanda's Quest - Paperback

D.M. Stoddard, author, artist, and composer. D.M. Stoddard actively seeks to provide an interesting and enjoyable story for fantasy readers. His love for storytelling began when he was a pre-teen, writing fictitious stories that ranged from football games to modern war battles. In his twenties he wrote poetry and was introduced to fantasy role-playing games. After years of being a game master where he developed worlds and designed fantasy campaigns for players to enjoy, DM studied creative writing and Greek mythology at the University of Maryland. Later, while telling improvisational stories of whimsical forest creatures to his children at bedtime, he became hooked on storytelling. D.M. Stoddard has been exposed to a variety of athletic experiences that he relies upon in the Kingdom of Torrence series. When he was young he rode horses, shot bows, fished, and camped with his family. In college he began studying martial arts. Through his outdoor activities, DM learned to track and is currently returning to backpacking and archery. He incorporates his knowledge of these activities into his writing to enrich his stories. D.M. Stoddard has a Master's degree and has studied Chinese, Spanish, and Tagalog, although English is now his only functional language. He is retired from the United States Navy and works for the State of Nevada. He and his son wrote and published Lost Kingdom of Terrace Xul, The Bard's Song(c) for the song in chapter nine of The Legend of Jerrod. D.M. used watercolors to paint the sword on his first book and the dagger on his second. He did the maps in pen and ink. He received two awards for his debut novel, The Legend of Jerrod: -Next Generation Indie Book Awards - 2014 Finalist for First Novel (over 80,000 words) -San Francisco Book Festival - 2013 Honorable Mention in Science Fiction As an author, the most influential quote D.M. Stoddard heard was from his creative writing professor: "Just keep writing."