• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Purchase
  • More
    • Home
    • About
    • Contact
    • Press
    • Purchase
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Purchase
Shadowlands Entertainment

About aUTHOR: A.C. Smith

My Life

 

  •        I was born in Colorado and lived in several states before my parents settled in Kansas when I was just becoming a teenager. I attended a small, rural high school where I met and fell in love with Dianna, a farmer's daughter. We married our first year of college. We've now been together 43 years and live on 10 rural acres in a house we had built in 1999. We have a son we are extremely proud of, an amazing daughter-in-law, and two beautiful granddaughters. I worked in fire and emergency medical services until an injury forced a change in my career path. Now I'm a retired teacher, working in a medical field.
  •       I was blessed with two loving parents who had expectations of me while I was growing up. They taught me my values and my work ethic, and I've always tried to stay true to their teaching. The most important things in life to me are my religious faith, my family, my friends, and my word. 


photo by Sadie Sprinkle

My Work

  

  •      From my early years I loved books, but struggles with reading comprehension dampened my enthusiasm for learning, and I grew content with being average. Then my family moved to Kansas, and in grades 8 thru 12, I had two amazing, caring, wonderfully demanding English teachers who offered their students the kind of tough love I responded well to. They made me want to learn and excel, and I wouldn't discover till many years later just what an incredible gift they  had bestowed.
  •      I always enjoyed medieval history and was artistic with an active imagination. So eventually, I started writing short stories in a private journal. The story that started the Companions of Fate series was conceived in the mid-90's, but it wasn't until 2005 that I began writing what would become Book I, A Perilous Road, and Book II, A Fighter's Destiny. I finished them in 2009, and while I was busy with my job, my family, and my life, they collected dust on a shelf for 13 years. Finally, after persistent encouragement from family and friends, I tried marketing the story. Now with Book I soon to be released, and Book II planned for next year, I've started penning Book III, A Relentless Enemy. 


photo by Sadie Sprinkle

My Philosophy

  

  •      While the demands of life have always forced me to relegate my writing to the status of hobby, it is one of my two favorite forms of escape. I love to immerse myself in the imaginary worlds I write about. That's why fantasy is my favorite genre. While I like other genre's and some authors who write in them, fantasy is literally just that, an escape. It's a place where the writer can create tension and intrigue, yet mandate that good triumphs over evil, that altruism triumphs over apathy and greed. And it's a place where the reader can indulge their imagination while inexplicably connecting with the characters that only exist in that make believe world. No matter what happens in your life, when you open that book to continue reading, they're still there in that magical place waiting for you. 


photo by Sadie Sprinkle

My Inspiration

 

  

"FANTASY FICTION WORLD" What is it? A place created by a writer to accommodate their story. A place conceived in their imagination. By definition, fiction is "imaginary" or "untrue". Everyone had their favorite subjects of learning while growing up. Mine were History and Geography. I loved to study maps and imagine what those faraway places looked like. I especially loved medieval history and ancient warfare. I guess that's why I fell in love with fantasy fiction based in medieval times. 

I can't help but ponder what life would have been like in Europe in the Middle Ages: harsh, difficult, at times brutal, but also simple, peaceful, honorable. I sometimes feel like I was born 700 years too late. If you've ever seen the movie "Timeline", Gerard Butler's character was me. 

When I set out to write the story that has become the "Companions of Fate" series, I wanted to accomplish two things, besides becoming rich and famous - just kidding - I don't really care about the fame. 

I wanted to create characters who would do more than engage and entertain the readers. I wanted every aspect of their lives: their thoughts and actions, their hopes and dreams, their motivations and desires, their fears and regrets, to embrace and profoundly impact the reader's imagination. In other words, I wanted them to have the same baggage that you and I carry around and deal with every day. 

The other thing I wanted to do was to build a world of such stunning, breathtaking beauty that the reader would be carried away to join their favorite character in the story. They could walk beside them on the dusty road of that quaint little town or the fanciful cobblestone street among the mansions of the wealthiest residents in a sparkling, bustling city. They could ride with them through the forest and smell the coming rainstorm as it moved down from the high country or stand on that mountain and survey the snow-covered valley far below. 

I've been blessed with a life of travel. Though I've not been overseas, I've travelled North America extensively, including 46 of our 50 states and Canada. I've witnessed many splendors of the natural world and ultimately used those experiences to help me craft my fictional world. 

I've stood alone on a mountain top where I could see for a hundred miles and walked through the arid deserts of the American southwest. I've been to the everglades and stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon. I've swam in the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and been to all the Great Lakes. I've sailed on a paddle-wheeler down the mighty Mississippi and witnessed the turbulent waters of the Columbia River Gorge. I've witnessed the geysers of Yellowstone and the waterfalls of Yosemite.

I've stood in the beautiful, serene meadows of Civil War battlefields and imagined the ferocity of the fighting as Americans faced each other for a cause they each considered righteous. I once spent a week in a snow cave in February at 11,000 ft. altitude in the Colorado Rockies. Alone, I sat down on a boulder at the tree line while snowflakes the size of silver dollars fell. It was so quiet and still, I could hear them settle on the snowpack around me. For me, it was truly a perfect moment in time. 

Amazing things I've witnessed in my lifetime, yet nothing in nature has moved me like my first walk through the Redwood Forest of northern California. Every time I've been there, it has been an indescribably surreal experience. Nothing else has ever made me feel so tiny and insignificant. That is why I created the Land of Dead Giants in my fictional world. I alluded to them in book I and book II, and I plan to take the reader there in person in the first book of my next trilogy. I never seem to get enough of visiting those places in my mind.

Join My Journey

  

  •      I'm sure it will take some time for me to reconcile the notion that people I've never met could care about me and my storytelling. No doubt some would crave the publicity, but not me. Whether true humility or just a lack of self-esteem, it's mind-boggling to be at this juncture where soon the whole world will have access to my stories and my imagination. I can only hope they survive the court of public opinion.
  •      I welcome reader's inquiries and comments. Be honest but kind, and I will do the same. I want you to be entertained by my make believe worlds and characters. I will always strive to meet your needs in that regard. Since my writing is, at least for the present, a hobby, and I work a full-time job, please be patient as you await my response to any questions or comments you may pose. Although I am an intensely private person, if sharing my experiences can inspire readers, or other writers, then I'm glad to avail myself. I hope my writing provides many people with the hope, joy, and fulfillment we all desperately need in a tumultuous, uncertain world.

       May we all chase our dreams and catch them.  A.C. Smith


photo by Dianna Smith

Copyright © 2025 Shadowlands Entertainment - All Rights Reserved.

Powered by

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Press
  • Purchase

This website uses cookies.

We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.

DeclineAccept