C. Justin Romano said his book "introduces readers to Argentia Dasani, a bounty huntress in the realm of Acrevast, a place of dark wonder and dangerous enchantment where a catastrophic prophecy is drawing to a close."
By John Tredrea
A 1992 graduate of Hopewell Valley Central High School who still lives in Hopewell Township, C. Justin Romano, has published a science-fiction novel.
The 400-page work, "Lady Dasani’s Debt," was released by the Lincoln, Neb.-based publishing house of iUniverse, Inc. in February.
Mr. Romano, a 29-year-old bachelor who lives on Pond View Lane in Titusville, said his book "introduces readers to Argentia Dasani, a bounty huntress in the realm of Acrevast, a place of dark wonder and dangerous enchantment where a catastrophic prophecy is drawing to a close."
"Lady Dasani’s Debt" is the first book of the Shadow Gate Trilogy and the beginning of a series of six Argentia Dasanti adventures, of which six are completed and intended for publication."
Mr. Romano would be a hard-working fellow even if he hadn’t completed seven novels and published the first of them (the second will be released this winter, he said). He commutes daily to Bloomfield, where he works as a medical editor at the neurology desk for Clinician Publishing. With a master’s in literature from Seton Hall, he taught at that university for four years before taking a job at Clinician.
Amazingly, Mr. Romano also still has a part-time job he landed 14 years ago, while a student at Central High. He works part-time in the produce department of the Pennington Quality Market.
"The market has been very supportive of my writing," he said. "They’ve promoted my book and it’s on sale at the market."
Mr. Romano said he’s "always had a love of science fiction. I just sort of fell into it. I read ‘The Hobbit’ when I was in third grade and went on to C.S. Lewis’ novels. I don’t write in any other genres. I’ve been fascinated with this one since I got started with it."
Although he did not have any sales figures, Mr. Romano said his first book "is doing pretty well. Not well enough for me to retire on it, but it’s been pretty well-received."
Mr. Romano, who said he "doesn’t like to have much down time," generally starts writing each evening at 7 p.m. "I’ll go until 10 p.m. or about midnight most nights," he said. "I listen to Cclassical music when I write. A lot of Beethoven, some Wagner."
He said the four novels after the trilogy "have no underlying unifying plot. They’re the continuing adventures of Lady Dasani."
Of the plot of Mr. Romano’s first novel, a spokesperson for iUniverse said that when "it falls to Lady Dasani to rescue the kidnapped Princess of Teranor, Argentia sets forth with a pair of untried and possibly treacherous knights, a mysterious ranger and a magical meerkat. When she is suddenly caught in the tangles of the Prophecy, Argentia must pit her blade and her daring against all odds in a race across the Crowndom, not only to rescue the Princess, but to forestall the return of the Demons."
"It’s a race between the forces of good and evil," said Mr. Romano.