Five years ago my daughter asked me to write her a story. "What do you want me to write about?" I asked.

    "Write about gnomes, dad. There are no good gnome stories!" she replied.

    That night, I, a science teacher, not a writer, sat down at a computer and began to write, I wrote most every morning between the hours of  2 am and 6 am for the next five years. Naida's Quest became a story where I could slip into another world with nothing more than the care for my characters weighing on my shoulders. It was heaven!

    I decided I would create a strong female character who stands for her beliefs and is open to challenge. Along with Naida comes Randin, a gnome lad who doesn't quite fit in with the other gnomes. During the story Randin develops into a leader and what he lacks in physical strength...he gains in wisdom and compassion.

   My stories were passed around in my local community in Grass Valley, California, where over 200 children have enthusiastically read them. A local author, Lee Roddy, of the Grizzly Adams fame, read the first book and encouraged me to seek publication. In fact, he turned me over to his agent, who quickly sent the first manuscript to Scholastic, Harper, and other big houses who liked the story, but because I am an unkown and Harry Potter hit the market, they turned me down over known authors writing fantasy. Several of the publishers asked me to resubmit in a few years because the market was flooded.

   Publish America, who was one of the first publishers that accepted the book, didn't want to wait. So here it is!

   The story is imaginative, fun, exciting, packed with messages of positive choice making and personal responsibility. The target age is 9-13, but teens and adults have found the trilogy to be a great read...so I am told. I didn't write the story for publication. I wrote it for my girls. The rest has been icing on the cake. I hope you find it as fun as they did.

 Ken Ramirez