February, 1975: Geno Allen was born in a small-town hospital in a rural
community in Oregon under somewhat extraordinary circumstances. His
mother hemorrhaging, Geno suffocating, the doctor's expectation was
neither would survive. In a moment that was later described by the
doctor as "miraculous", the hemorrhaging stopped on its own, and both
came through unscathed.
Geno spent his childhood years on a small
farm nestled beside a little river in a tiny valley. It was an idyllic
place to inspire imagination, and any number of days his artist mother
would keep him home from school for some "quality time". Quality time
usually involved working on artistic projects or listening to her spin
yarns about children living in the sea, or fairy's, or everyday animals
doing uncharacteristic things.
Geno credit's his gift of story to
those times with his mother. He began "writing" stories as young as he
can remember. Unfortunately most of his early efforts never actually
made it onto paper, but his imagination was creating worlds none the
less.
At fourteen years of age he had the idea for a story that
would involve the supernatural, but not in a typically spooky way; in
what he considered a more plausible manner. It grew in his imagination
and fell away, cropped back up and expanded then drifted again into the
far reaches.
Between fourteen and twenty he wrote a number of
other short stories, and skits, and had begun writing songs for his own
amusement, but at twenty one he decided to finally sit down and write
THE story.
He wrote four pages, shared them with those closest to
him, and they all agreed it was the best writing he'd ever done. And...
that's where it sat until 2006. When asked about the ten year gap he
said, "I'd just written something better than I ever had. I felt it had
the potential to be profound... in some way. And, I had no idea what to
write next. It was a picture of a character that I had in my head. I
knew who he was, and I knew what he was supposed to do in the end, but I
knew nothing about what belonged in between. And, I had no idea how to
write dialogue for a novel. I let my inexperience in life scare me into
putting it on a shelf."
December, 2006: while driving from Oregon
to Southern California to visit family (his wife, not feeling well,
slept most of the trip) passing through the town of Redding, CA he saw
the exit sign for Knighton Rd. and thought, "That's a good name for a
town in my story." That did it—a little inspiration, the silence of the
road, the length of the journey—and the world of Treasures of Darkness
- Treasures of Light exploded in his imagination. Eight hours later his
wife awoke refreshed and feeling well. She took the wheel, and he
grabbed a laptop.
The very busy years between 2006 and 2012
carried a number of challenges and rewards, but afforded far less
writing time than Geno would have preferred: Lunch breaks at his day
job, 15 minute breaks, time in the car while carpooling, 2 - 3 hours
every Thursday night, and as many as 6 hours on a Saturday morning but
not every Saturday. One of his deep desires is to see the series take
off affording him more time to write.
Regarding why he decided to
write a series, Geno said, "I didn't really decide. The story decided
for me. That car ride back in 2006, I thought this book'll be 285 pages
tops... give or take a few. When I hit 578 pages and saw I was finally
near the middle point... that's when I realized I was writing a series."
November
26th, 2012: Geno published Treasures of Darkness - Treasures of Light,
Book One: Through the Dark Wood. And is well on his way to Book Two: To
Meet the King.
When asked about future writings he shared, "I've
got a few projects in various stages right now. Obviously the TODTOL
sequels, but I also have two rhyming children's stories finished and
awaiting illustration. And a children's novel about a mouse—actually a
descendant of Hickory Dickory Dock to be specific—that's about three
quarters written. I also have a fairytale my mother wrote when I was a
child that she asked me before she passed away to polish and publish for
her. I'm looking forward to that. And... there's just a slew of content
rolling around my brain in the TODTOL world. When I finish Zam's story I
hope to write more. I have ancient stories scribbled down and some that
follow after him. So, we'll see."
When asked to sum himself up,
Geno chuckled, sighed, shook his head and said, "How to sum up me? I
love helping people when I can. I love to make people think and probably
more to make them laugh. I'm always hoping to help people understand
how valuable they are. I didn't always understand that about myself and
it produced some pretty dark times. I'm a pretty serious person--not
that I'm pretty, just pretty serious--wrapped in an exterior that often
behaves a little goofy. (Here he smirked) Or... a lot goofy. Like both
my parents--and possibly the Transformers--there's more to me than meets
the eye."
Sum it up in one sentence.
He raised an eyebrow and smirked again. "I'm a character."
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