My name is Thom, and I have recently uploaded my first novel: The King's Gambit. I started writing it during my final year of undergraduate studies and continued to write and edit throughout my first year of graduate school. I was inspired to write by the death of my mother, which I presume would have been a significantly more traumatic experience had I not found writing. I plan to continue writing because I enjoy telling stories and sharing my imagination with others. The Vault Guardian series is meant to be a story that teaches, as well as entertains. Topics of morality and personal growth are of particular interest to me, and I only hope that readers will take something away from the experience. Mythology and fantasy are of particular interest to me, though I suppose my work is more of a science fiction (I think it works well, as my education has been science-based). There are many allusions to various mythologies within my story because I find that it ties quite deeply into the human experience; moreover, I believe it is for good reason that humans have developed such rich beliefs, and the diverse cultures we see today would not be the same without them. Regardless of what is true or not, humanity has grown alongside these belief systems, and my characters grow as a result of them, too. I like to think I grew as a person during the writing process, and I can only hope my readers do as well.