Lexington, KY - Necessity is the mother of invention, and when 6-year-old Nicholas Skidmore's love of the Harry Potter series was put on a temporary hiatus after the second book due to some intense imagery, the Picadome Elementary School first grader decided he would just write his own book, which would be fit for younger readers.
Well, he wouldn't actually write it - he's only recently started to learn how to handwrite - but he would dictate to his father, Christopher, a vivid fantastical world of superheroes and villains, futuristic gadgetry, and paranormal apparitions.
"I didn't type it immediately. Any scrap of cardboard or tissue paper, or whatever we had handy I would write down the story on," Christopher said. "The characters were really original characters that he came up with, and so after we finished the whole story I typed it. It's exactly as he dictated." This style of writing, Nicholas was curious to learn, was very similar to how Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling composed her first novel in the series.
"The Fiery Fencer and the Ghost of Rainia" is the colorful 16-page first book in the hopeful series of "The Saga of the Spectre-Hawk and the Fiery Fencer." The protagonist, The Fiery Fencer, a fire-propelled, red-caped hero whose magic sword creates a shield to block him from the rains of Rainia ("It rains a bunch," the story says) and wrist light that detects anything that moves, even ghosts, was born from the author's imagination and experience with the Bluegrass Fencers' Club. The hero's name, coincidentally, is also Nicholas.
"In the third book I'm going to put my friend Bailey in it. In the fourth book, Michael," Nicholas said. "I'm not sure about the fifth book."
Interestingly, neither the author nor his father has met the illustrator for the book, Jamie Bamborough, who lives in Birmingham, England. They haven't even spoken with him on the phone. The Skidmores found the artist on an Internet board and were impressed with his creations and willingness to work with such a young author. All correspondences were conducting over e-mail.
"He jumped on the opportunity," Christopher said. "He's in the computer game industry and he said it was more fun to do a kids book. He was really easy going. If Nicholas didn't like something, he would change it very promptly."
The book, available in hard and paperback editions, was published using two different print-on-demand services, CreateSpace.com and Lulu.com.
The second half of the book contains a version of "The Fiery Fencer and the Ghost of Rainia" in Spanish, translation provided by Nicholas' cousin Daniel Skidmore. Sandwiched between the two versions is a handful of magic tricks the reader can perform.
Also between the two versions of the story readers can learn about Nicholas' humanitarian efforts. Half of the royalties from the printing of "The Fiery Fencer and the Ghost of Rainia" will be donated to the Save Darfur Coalition (www.savedarfur.org). According to the text, 2.5 million Darfuris have fled their homes and continue to live in refugee camps throughout Darfur, or in neighboring Chad and the Central African Republic. The victims include men, women and children.
"We talked about different charities," Christopher said. "He picked that one because he wanted to help the kids."
Aside from envisioning fantastical worlds and characters, Nicholas also enjoys recess, playing chess, building robots and learning about robots, among other things. He is considering adapting the story into a novel aimed at young adult readers - something more fitting to his precocious vocabulary. In the meantime, he's enjoying a growing fan base; Nicholas reports that his friends "love" his first installment.
"My principal said he liked it a whole lot, and I'm going to be on the Picadome News, which everybody watches," Nicholas said.
For links to purchase your own copy of the soft or hardcover edition of "The Fiery Fencer and the Ghost of Rainia," visit www.fieryfencer.com. Soon Nicholas would like to have the magic tricks also available here.