My 9-year-old son just published his first book! Quest for Aeloria is a sword and sorcery fantasy novel intended for readers aged 8 to 12.
Join the Adventure, Unravel the Mystery, Save Aeloria.
In the enchanting kingdom of Aeloria, young Milo’s life takes a dramatic turn from rooftop escapades to a daring quest against tyranny. Born with extraordinary cat-like abilities, Milo, along with his friends Lara, the astute strategist, and Ethan, the ever-jolly companion, uncovers a dark secret that could change the fate of their kingdom. Under the oppressive rule of King Jochen Sassy, their playful days morph into a race against time to reclaim their home.
Guided by the wisdom of the wizard Iliandor and armed with an elemental blade, the trio embarks on an epic journey. From deciphering ancient rituals to navigating hidden passageways, they confront dangers and betrayals at every turn.
But time is a luxury they don’t have. The rare celestial event that could seal their success is fast approaching, and missing pieces of their puzzle remain. Will Milo’s cat-like prowess, Lara’s keen intellect, and Ethan’s unwavering loyalty be enough to overthrow a king and restore peace to Aeloria?
“Quest for Aeloria” is a riveting tale of bravery and friendship. It’s an adventure that captivates and inspires, weaving a story of a young hero’s journey to save his kingdom and define his destiny. Join Milo and his friends as they fight to restore peace and bring a new dawn to Aeloria.
This enchanting middle grade fantasy book is intended for readers age 8 to 12. It was a collaborative project written by E. S. O. Martin and her 4th grade son, Wade Patrick Martin.
How “Quest for Aeloria” Was Written With The Help of ChatGPT
Note: This is an edited excerpt from the publisher’s note at end of the book, explaining how my son and I co-wrote this novel with ChatGPT.
Quest for Aeloria is a sword and sorcery fantasy novel written by Wade Patrick Martin and E. S. O. Martin, with ChatGPT as part of Wade’s 4th grade school assignment.
Wade came up with the concept for Milo, a kid with cat-like abilities who needs to battle an evil king. Wade’s inspiration for the character arc of Milo is the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini. Ultimately, Milo is a typical young fantasy hero, following the Hero’s Journey.
Wade’s mother, the writer E. S. O. Martin, acted as prompt engineer, typist, and intermediary with ChatGPT4, which is a large language model artificial intelligence created by OpenAI.
The purpose of this project was to take a creative piece of writing from concept to publishing, while experimenting with blending human and machine storytelling. Wade acted as the director.
Since Wade is a child and knows what children like, he made creative decisions about what would happen in the global story, how the characters would behave, and what types of things they would say. It was particularly important to Wade that there be some comedy relief in the story, and that was how he created the character of Ethan.
After coming up with the concept of the story, Wade and his mother asked ChatGPT to generate a twenty-scene outline for the book. They edited the outline to make sure they liked the story. Then, they started writing the book.
Their writing process was to review their outline notes, see what details they could come up with, and then ask ChatGPT to fill in the rest. As they were writing the story, they abandoned five of the outline scenes, and ultimately figured out how to tell the story in fifteen chapters instead of twenty.
Then, they read through the book, and made edits so that the story would have better continuity. They rewrote a couple of chapters. They ran the book through a grammar checker and a plagiarism checker. They also asked family members to offer edits.
They asked ChatGPT to generate illustrations and book cover designs. Then they edited the images and created the book jacket using Canva and Photoshop.
When they were finally ready, they published the book!
If you would like to check out Quest for Aeloria, it is available in ebook and paperback on Amazon many other stores. Check out the book page.
You can also buy the ebook and PDF version from my Payhip store.
—
UPDATE — This blog post includes images generated with the assistance of OpenAI’s models. I provided detailed prompts, curated the outputs, and made edits, but the majority of the content was created with AI assistance. This disclosure aligns with my commitment to transparency under the EU AI Act. Disclosure added on November 18, 2024 to align with transparency requirements under the EU AI Act.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Portions of this content were generated using OpenAI’s models, with significant curation, editing, and creative input by E. S. O. Martin. AI-generated portions may not be subject to copyright under current laws.
