"IT'S BOOK LAUNCH DAY!"

The Final Two Books in the Pearlsong Saga Are Available NOW!

“To all of us sojourners
who have lost heart
on the way to our dreams …

Have hope. It’s never too late to be
who you might have been.”

— Dedication, Gideon’s Dawn

In the opening pages of Gideon’s Dawn, the first book in this four-book epic, I dedicate the story to all the other people out there in the world who in some way or another feel like they’ve gotten lost on the way to the life they thought they were supposed to have. People who constantly long for a genuine sense of home in the world, but don’t know how to find it…or even what “home” is supposed to be.

That’s certainly true for Gideon, our lead character in the story. It’s true for me, too, and for so many other good souls I’ve had the privilege to know. For many of us, early on, the world sold us a pretty compelling story about how great life could be and what great players we could be in the grand drama it promised to unfold. But what the world fails to tell you is that you’ll get hit along the way—hit hard, and a lot—and many of those hits will break things inside you, and not all of those breaks will heal the way you need them to heal if you want to actually build that life you were told could be yours.

In a lot of ways, this story is for beaten-up souls—the relational vagabonds, the social drifters, the silent rebels, the spiritual sojourners—those who are always trying to blend in to a world that feels to them as relentlessly alien as it is inescapable. Beautiful misfits who never quite understand why life is the way it is, or why no matter how hard they try, they can’t seem to make it work the way they were told it would, or should.

It is, of course, also, a fantasy story—a “fairy story,” as J.R.R. Tolkien named it in his excellent essay “On Fairy Stories,” which I heartily recommend every lover of the written word should read. In that essay, he describes fantasy narratives this way:

The land of fairy-story is wide and deep and high, and is filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both sorrow and joy as sharp as swords. In that land a man may (perhaps) count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very riches and strangeness make dumb the traveller who would report it. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates shut and the keys be lost. The fairy gold too often turns to withered leaves when it is brought away. All I can ask is that you, knowing these things, will receive my withered leaves, as a token that my hand at least once held a little of the gold.

He goes on to argue that one of the great strengths of fantasy stories is their ability to cause us to see with fresh eyes the magic and miracle of our real lives, and to reawaken our faith in hopeful possibilities for a better world, or a better us, dreams that time and injury have dulled or deadened.

That is why The Pearlsong Refounding is a fantasy story, because through fantasy I hoped to provoke and inspire all the lost souls out there like me to see their lives through new eyes of hope and possibility; to recognize that for all their wounds and wayward paths, their story is not yet fully told; and to believe there may yet be room in their tale for not just one miracle but many—and, best of all, a slow opening in the trail that will at last reveal the way home.

     Rise up, sleeper, knowing the time.
     It is already the hour for you to awaken
     and feel the strength of your own right arm. 
     Rise up! Stand up! Step forward and see! 
     The Day of your Fear and Courage has come; 
     for anointing draws near to the ruthless and free.

     —From the writings of the Prophet Endimnar, in the year S.C. 1480

Get Your Copies of the Books Here:

Gideon’s Dawn

Waymaker

The Song That Shatters

The Word That Prevails

Send Me Proof of Purchase for Bonus Giveaways (and win free copies of the first two books):

The Pearlsong Refounding Giveaways

Buy Some Pearlsong MERCH (and tell me what other products you’d like to see):

The Pearlsong Merch Store

Explore My Pearlsong Lore Videos:

The Pearlsong Refounding YouTube Playlist

Help Spread the Word!

Reviews and personal recommendations to friends are the lifeblood of self-published books like these. So if you do read them, please do tell your friends about them, and write a review on Amazon and Goodreads.com. In addition, here are some other ways you can help spread the word about this series:

• Consider recommending it to others on your social media platforms.

• If you’re a business owner or social media influencer, consider offering the book as a giveaway.

• Reach out to your favorite author, artist, or influencer, and encourage them to read the book and consider promoting it to their network.

• Invite your book club or writers circle to read the book together.

• Encourage your favorite podcaster or booktuber to review the book and interview the author (i.e. me). :)

• Support small bookstores by ordering the book at your local bookshop, and giving it away as a gift.

• Buy a few books to donate to prisons, libraries, schools—anywhere people might enjoy reading it.

• Talk about the book in online forums you frequent, or in other communities you belong to.

Thanks, everyone! I’m so grateful for the incredible response the story has had so far (just check the Amazon reviews on Books 1 & 2 to see what I mean!), and I’m even more excited to finally get to share the rest of the story with you all.

For the sake of the Pearl,

Michael