A couple of months ago I had the chance to read and review The Tower of Parlen Min by Matt Xell, a MG/YA fantasy thriller that I totally think that everyone should check out. My overall conclusion was that;Overall, Tower of Parlen Min was an action p
acked fantasy which had a few narrative and character issues that bring the rating down. I really enjoyed the story itself and Xell really brings his great world to life!
Overall rating BThe full review can be found here
Today I have the pleasure of introducing Matt Xell to the blog, who has written up a guest post for you guys. It's amazing and gives some fantastic insight into one of the characters of the books! Enjoy!
About Jerod Smeth
Hey everyone! Thank you so much for reading this here guestpost thing. Speacial thanks to Jade for having me on her blog. And today I'd like to talk about Jerod; one of the five characters on the cover of my book.
In Tower of Parlen Min, Jerod Smeth is one of the 20 children invited to the Tower by Jacobius Trent, the world of Everlon's wealthiest and most famous inventor, to compete in the Sword Challenge. Jerod is described as a mostly quiet and reserved Black-Atlantian 13 year-old boy who is uniquely distinguished by a seeminglyly stylish beanie he wears that covers his right eye.
Jerod was born on march 19th 1993, the son of Akim and Rose Smeth, in the Eastern Atlantian state of Jordan. Jerod, an only child, and his parents lived in an uptown city apartment until the devastating UAS stock market crash of '97. Jerod's father lost his job in the massive lay-offs and their family was forced to move to the slums of Jordan.
At age 9, when he and several of his friends barely survived a fatal neighbourhood shooting between rival gangsters, Jerod's mother Rose, fearing for his life growing up in the slums, had him moved to the country side state of Wichita to live with his High-spirited grand mother, Yolandra, a wealthy but very ecsentric old woman who was famous in the town for being a medium and a spiritual healer. Her one conditon for letting Jerod live in her home is that he become her apprentice, to which Jerod's father reluctantly conscented.
Upon arrival, Yolandra told Jerod that their house was haunted and infact belonged to the 14 spirits that dwelled in it. Yolandra had Jerod make peace with the spirits through an ancient ritual afterwhich she told him that he need to sacrifice a part of his body to the spirits so that they could grant him their power. Jerod who at first thought Yolandra was crazy and delusional and did not believe in spirits surrendered his right eye to the spirits.
To Jerod's shock, he started losing sight with that one eye, but in a bizzare trade off he started seeing the spirits with his left eye as well as other supernatural phenomenon. Jerod became more and more interested in his grand mother, the house, the 14 spirits, and his family history over the next months; spending hours in the house's library, reading ancient texts on Wicca and Hoodoo (though he could never perform any spells because he was not high-spirited), conversing with the spirits, practicing Yolandra's versions of palm reading, soul gazing, shamanistic chants, divination, ghost chasing and exorcism ... all of which he was extremely terrible at for he was not High-Spirited like his grand mother
By age 13 Jerod, though he didn't regret it, had lost complete use of his right eye and started wearing his signiture beanie to cover it when he went out into the sunlight, fearing as the spirits had warned him that he'd eyesight would return and he would stop seeing into the world of the supernatural.
In January of 2006, Yolandra passed away and became the 15th house spirit, Jerod becoming the heir of the estate. In september of that very year Jerod recieved and invitation to the Tower of Parlen Min.
When he arrived at the Tower, Jerod tried to behave as normal as he could to fit in with the other children, keeping his vast knowledge of the spirit world to himself after he saw how much attention Tammi Eriks, a High-Spirited Child of Wicca from the continent of Etric, recieved from the other children ... until he begun to notice Ves Asirin and, over the next few weeks, watched with his left eye as he became something more stranger and amazing than a High-Spirited being.
cheers and thanks again for readin'
Matt
Book Trailer for The Tower of Parlen Min
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