He’s working on books for three different series, preparing for the independent release of his thriller (Ghost), helping found a guild (Spearhead), and connecting with his online fan base. And if that didn’t keep him busy enough, Wayne Thomas Batson is also teaches fulltime and has 4 kids of his own.
It was his teaching that led to him becoming a writer. “I started writing short stories for my students to supplement the curriculum,” Wayne shared. “If I didn’t have the next chapter or something ready, they were ready to strangle me.”
Throughout years of revision, those stories grew into The Door Within Trilogy (Thomas Nelson), an alternate-world fantasy for preteens. After that, his publisher asked him to write the pirate novels, Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire, and Wayne later teamed up with Christopher Hopper to write the Berinfell Prophecy series (Thomas Nelson).
Wayne’s latest series, The Dark Sea Annals (Living Ink), is a sprawling, seven-part epic about a kingdom where God has been silent for years and a prophecy about a coming hero. Book two, The Errant King, tells of a young sovereign who spends a week each month going incognito among his people. One time while he’s away, the kingdom is overthrown, and King Lochlan must raise a new army to take back his throne.
“The heart of all of my novels is hope,” Wayne says. “One of the great things about fantasy is that it plops you in the middle of a world that unfamiliar. The people that inhabit it, even if it’s walking and talking trees, can help you have insight into your own life. I think my books offer the hope that there is another world waiting, and even though we may feel like it here, we’re never alone.”