The Sword of Fortune

I originally wrote The Sword of Fortune as a play with a manual typewriter in the attic of my wife, Fran, and I's Cape CodaEUR"style home on a table with a lamp in 1983. The play was never produced because the community theatre group to whom I offered it was dead set against producing new work by local writers. They were afraid that nobody would come to see it because it was a show that nobody ever heard of! That seemed silly to me, but I accepted the rejection and have turned the play into a novel that I think you will enjoy!

Do you believe in love, ghosts, hidden treasure, and the bad people who would dare to steal it? If so, then this book is definitely for you. As a writer, I much prefer the novel art form to the play because it allows me to go anywhere and do anything with the story without being limited to the physical confines of the stage. The novel is a wonderfully flexible creative art form that works very well in tandem with the writer and his or her readers.

I hope that you enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. I will admit that it made me laugh, cry, and cheer as I created the story, all the human emotions that seize us all at one time or another. All the characters became very real to me. It was as if they were in my den at my computer keyboard with me as I worked because I created them. I totally empathized with each one, the good and the bad.

For me, as I am sure that it is for all writers, the saddest part of every book is when I have to type the words "The End," when I realize that the journey is over. I came to love Sir Michael, Pamela, Amanda, Brian, and Loretta; cheer for the constable and his officers; and despise Karl and Trudy. I hope that you will too.

-- Michael Matre