Herein read of a story about a story, a passion project for one T.J. Sally that I took to my own heart.  Oh, it is not yet published (hence this page), but I think we’re overdue to roll back the curtain a bit and pray the right people see it.  This is an epic little story comprising of seven books and one spin-off tale, that begins with “Journey Of The Queen”.  It is a tale about bees, steampunk, and a rather unusual personal journey.

The Land of the Hive book series is definitely fantasy but a little on the unusual side.  It began with a cry for help from my soon-to-be writing partner on this project, T.J. Sally.  She had an idea and asked if I could help her with a story that combines intelligent insects with steampunk; I called it “bee-punk”.  I told her that I’m probably the one person that can do it and not make it sound like it was written solely for eight year olds.  I succeeded beyond her wildest expectations, and everyone she began showing the first book to loved it.

She then asked if I could get three books out of it, and I reminded her than I’m that guy that crafted a THIRTEEN-book series; I doubt that I’d be able to keep it down to just three.  Thus began a journey with her notes and ideas she’d been dreaming of since a little girl, combined with more ideas and boudnless creativity from myself, then myself penning the story itself.  There are stories I could tell you of the back and forth we did creating this world, who’s idea it was for which characters and then what I ended up doing with them.  For instance, I came up with the idea for City Trees (which you see in the second novel), whereupon she began sending me pictures of different types of trees that she wanted for each of the various Hives.  She told me that Beatrice must have a colorfully dressed dragonfly friend, so I designed his look and gave him something to chew on that I named ‘moonjava leaf’.  (Little bit behind the scenes: I originally called it ‘ganja leaf’ until she asked me what ‘ganja’ was and reminded me that kids will be reading this.  Oh well.)

The final result is something on a level with my other works, an epic in its own way that actually made it into the hands of a producer from Universal.  Alas, TJ left this world in September of 2018 (and with her went the contact information for the Universal lady) so now it is just myself to pitch this classic-to-be.  Her dream, both of our fanciful ideas, and my words and craft.  She lived to see me complete the final volume and loved the end-result dearly.  Though 3000 miles separated us and I saw her only via Skype, she felt like my sister (or rather, how a sister should be, as opposed to my biological one) and she adopted me as her brother.

The first novel in the series stands at 116,000 words and is designed to be fit for any age and lover of fantasy (I’d call it about age 8 well through adult).  T.J. wanted to make sure it was crafted for the younger set while I refuse to write ‘down’ to anyone and made sure that adults would love it as well.  It is a fantasy that includes elements of steampunk in a world where insect life is intelligent, where bee hives operate on steam power and can fly through the air.  Where steam-powered air-yachts fly under cover of the trees so as not to be spotted by humans until such time as they can at last journey back to their home world.  A world linked to Earth through various portals; a world called Sektara.

About The Book:

Beeskeep Kentucky is the home of the Brookstone Bee Farm, famous the county over for its various colored honeys, the secret for which Duncan and his wife Amerlia will not tell a soul.  Into their lives then comes an infant, plopped right on their porch in an intricately woven basket, with no clue as to her parentage save a note identifying her as ‘Beatrice’.

Now Beatrice is a school teacher nearing her twenty-fifth birthday and life is suddenly getting pretty strange.  There seems a rash of people suddenly dropping their ‘B’s when they speak, fits of random anger that only calm down in her presence.  The only one that seems immune to this is her boyfriend, another teacher named Forest.  But puzzling through this mystery is, it is complicated by a few other things. Principle Fendish, an angry relic from some ancient age, is determined to get the fumbling teacher fired, industrialist Charles McCreedy wants the secret of her father’s colored honeys at all costs, and then there are the bees.

Intelligent insects dressed in gladiatorial armor living in a steam-powered hive deep in the woods.  An entire mobile community that includes a grasshopper wizard, a colorfully dressed Jamaican dragonfly in a zoot suit, and a three hundred year old queen bee that tells Beatrice not only is she her daughter and heir to the throne, but that the Wasp King will stop at nothing to get her if he ever finds out she’s still alive.  For Beatrice was born a Sektaran bee then hidden as a human until she would come of age.

Now Beatrice must decide if this can really be true or if she might be losing her mind.

About T.J. Sally:

A lady with real-life golden eyes, she was a business professional for many years, at one time owned and ran her own school, and dreamed of being the Golden Princess as a child.  She had many detailed ideas ready for her dream of the Land of the Hive, but needed a person with the right skill and imagination to partner with.  Unfortunately her life took too many downturns in her last two years and she finally took her own life on September 30 of 2018 (I was the last to speak with her).  Should LOTH be published I promised myself, and told her son, that what would have been her half of any profits should go to a fund for her grandchildren so that they would have something more memorable to remember about their grandma.

The Excerpt:

I’ve posted a quick little excerpt for you to read right  here; really just Chapter One, minus the Prologue, but it might give you the germ of an idea.  But then again, if you’ve been reading any of my other books then you might know what level of quality to expect of me by now.  Enjoy.