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.

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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.

When I was in high school, I decided that I wanted to learn to draw. Since I’m a person who believes that you can learn just about anything from books, I checked out a copy of Betty Edwards’s book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

During the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I sat down with that book every single day and worked through the exercises. By the end of the summer, I had learned to draw.

The thing about learning to draw is that it’s really about learning how to see. It’s learning about how to flatten the 3D world in your mind so that you can create the illusion of three dimensions on two dimensions. 

To me, it felt like an explosive burst of sparkles in my brain, learning how to see in this new way. All of a sudden, I was noticing the tiniest details, shapes, colors. I felt like I was seeing the world for the first time.

Learning how to draw woke up my brain to beauty. It woke up my brain to being present, being slow, and truly noticing the world and the beauty of small things.

Even though I learned to draw, I never identified “artist,” even though making art was incredibly gratifying. I was a writer, not an artist, and drawing was this little thing I did on the side for fun. But I always enjoyed hanging out with artists, and I even married an artist. I met my husband in college, where he was studying sculpture and printmaking. His mother, my mother-in-law, was also an artist. She did clay, crafts, and wonderful botanical art. 

When I was in college, I took some classes on art history, and I fell in love with European art and architecture—particularly during the Renaissance, neoclassical, and romantic periods.

When I was lucky enough to study abroad in Prague, I spent the two months before my semester begin backpacking around Europe. In the Louvre in Paris, I remember breaking down into tears at all the wonderful art that I had seen in books.

I loved the aesthetic of the paintings and sculptures in the Musée d’Orsay. My favorite artist of all was Auguste Rodin, because it’s so beautiful how the figures in his sculptures seem to be pulling themselves out of the rock. I fell in love in the Rodin museum. I loved Rodin’s “The Kiss.” It is one of my favorite sculptures. I had drawn “The Kiss” in high school in my art class.

In Italy, I read The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone and I delighted in the art of Michelangelo. He’s my favorite Renaissance artist. “The Pieta” brought me to tears.

I loved the detail and the brightness of colors in the Sistine Chapel. I loved how his sculptures seemed to come alive, and how the colors in his paintings were so vibrant. There’s a lot about his art that seems to elevate the spirit.

Once I got to Prague, I was like, Whoa, this looks just like Paris, but with far fewer tourists! Indeed, some of the same architects designed both cities. I absolutely loved the architecture of the neoclassical and romantic era in cities, particularly in the art nouveau style. As people moved toward cities, they brought with them the beauty of the natural world. Their plazas celebrated nature spirits, like mermaids, gargoyles, and fairies. Their wallpaper had floral designs. The stone and iron work was carved to look like flowers and leaves. Everywhere I turned, there was beauty. I drank it in. I fell in love with Prague. If given the chance, I would absolutely love to live there again.

Once I graduated from college, I rarely drew. There is this weird thing about the arts in America where if it isn’t monetized, it’s not seen as worth doing. I graduated just in time for the Great Recession, and my anxiety over not being able to pay my bills was so huge that it left little space for doing things just for fun. 

In any case, my latent drawing ability was forgotten and unused for about 15 years. Until this year.

Earlier this year, when I had finished the manuscript for What We Talk About When We Talk About the Apocalypse, I gave it to my family and editors to read. My mom said, “What if you did some drawings before each of the stories?” My mind lit up with the possibilities.

So in February, I opened up my sketchbook once again, and began drawing illustrations. I thought about each of my stories and tried to come up with an image that would most represent the mood and content. How delightful it was to draw again! These illustrations will be included in the print and ebook versions of my book. Here is a preview.

If you like what you see, you might consider signing up for my newsletter. Newsletter subscribers get access to book deals, essays, music playlists and other awesome content. My illustrated short story collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About The Apocalypse will be available for purchase by the end of 2023.