Former General Linvin Grithinshield returns home to find his parents murdered and a price on his head.  Through his wise Uncle Anvar he discovers his destiny is to find and master the legendary Red Sapphire.  In his flight from danger and ensuing quest he must fight man-eating wolves, goblins, bandits, a dragon and worse of all, his cousins.  Will he find the gem before the murderers do?  Will he prove worthy of the gem at all?  Can one half-elf truly make a difference for many?

Rival Gates was born in Port Huron, MI and was the youngest of four surviving children.  At the age of five, my Father took a position as a magazine editor in Toronto, Ontario Canada.  We moved to a large city just outside Toronto called Mississauga.  The different cultures and demographics to which I was exposed formed many of the ideas for my story. 

When I was thirteen, I set out to write a short story about a magical gem called the Red Sapphire.  My brothers teased me that such a stone was simply a ruby.  That irony was part of the attraction for me.  After all, who would be writing about a Red Sapphire?  Years went by and we moved down to my Father’s home town of Harrow, Ontario on the shores of Lake Erie.  It was a drastic change from city life and I found myself retreating more and more into my ever growing story.  By age fifteen I had a two-hundred page hand-written manuscript. 

Advancing from high school to college at Michigan State University, there was little time for writing and the project sat in a drawer in my parent’s home.  In spite of my lack of attention to writing, every night I would fall asleep working out details of the book and the series to follow.  He met a wonderful woman there, who later became his wife, and mother of his children.

He began a career in retail management and sales.  For over twenty years he excelled in the field and even incorporated some of his knowledge into the book.  He holds his position in the greatest esteem.

While he rewrote the story several times on his computer, he did not attempt to publish it until the longest supporter of his writing, his Mother, became ill.  She told him the last time he saw her how proud she was of the story he had created and made him promise to publish it and share it with the world.  With the loving support of his wife, their three children and the help of the good people at Alpha Wolf Publishing, he is fulfilling that promise. 

When his Father (ever the editor) read the book, he told Rival how proud he was and that somewhere he knew his Mother was equally proud.