NOTHING COMPLEMENTS YOUR HOUSE PLANTS LIKE A GOOD FANTASY TRILOGY. Local author Nate Aeseng recently published The Five Realms.

If Nathan Aaseng isn’t the Chippewa Valley’s most prolific author ever, he certainly must be close to number one. Nate has published an astonishing 175 books with several established publishers including Enslow, Lerner, Millbrook, Lucent, Oliver Press, New Discovery Books, and Twenty-First Century Books.

Nate’s latest project is a self-published fantasy series titled The Five Realms. “It was always my dream to do something Tolkienesque, something similar to the works of C.S. Lewis,” he said. The Five Realms began a few decades back as a short story during Nate’s senior year in college. Over the years, it gradually took shape as the much larger work. Nate’s “reward” to himself was to work on the trilogy only if he put in a full day writing his other books. “This project was always fun,” he stated, “while the other books were often just work.”

Nate has his foot in two worlds. He has degrees in biology and also in English. He used both to develop the setting for The Five Realms. Nate provided the following description of the realms:

“The First Realm is so oppressively gloomy that the colors of the rainbow cannot penetrate it. The inhabitants are as dull as their surroundings. The Second Realm corresponds to our world. The Third Realm is the natural world, but more intense. Each people is blessed with a special ability. The Fourth Realm is a land of great empires, breath-taking magical powers, and noble beasts. The Fifth Realm is the spirit realm. It is far beyond our understanding and inhabited by immortal spirits with unspeakable powers. No creature can acquire powers greater than those that exist in his native realm. Nor can one retain powers beyond those of the realm he visits.”

One characteristic of fantasy is that it is an age-equalizing genre. Unlike other categories of literature, many of the great works of fantasy can be enjoyed as much by a child as by a senior citizen, and the ages in-between. Indeed, Nate has already gotten positive feedback from fans of this work, ranging from a 13 year-old to a 78-year-old man, as well as a young soldier in Iraq.

When asked why he decided to publish The Five Realms himself, Nate simply replied, “Control.” He went on to say that he worked on this project so long that it’s a part of him. He wasn’t willing to compromise. Instead of shipping the manuscript off to an editor, Nate instead found Create Space, a self-publishing service provided by Amazon. His son Maury did the cover illustrations and Maury’s wife, Charlene, did the layout.

Nate used to be a full-time writer. His first work was a biography of Bruce Jenner for young people. This book came out in 1978. As previously mentioned, he wrote and published an extraordinary amount of books, mostly nonfiction, while raising his family in Eau Claire. In 1999, Nate was awarded the Notable Wisconsin Children’s Author Award from the Wisconsin Library Association.

His works cover a wide range of topics. Some of the series he wrote for include Weird and Wacky Science, Nobel Prize Winners, Famous Trials, U.S. Military, Business Builders, The Innovators, World History, and You Are the Coach series. (He also wrote You Are the Corporate Executive, You Are the Explorer, You Are the President, You Are the General, You Are the Juror, and You Are the Senator.) He wrote biographies about famous people from Jim Henson to Bob Dylan.

Nate then made a big change in his life. He went off to seminary and became a minister. He and his wife Linda moved to Iowa for a few years. The couple recently returned and Nate is currently serving as the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Eau Claire. He doesn’t write for young people any more. “I now write a sermon every week and that takes up a lot of time,” he explained. However, if Nathan Aaseng gets a strong reception from young and old alike for The Five Realms, and these fans clamor for more, he may have to find the time for a new pet writing project.

    The Five Realms can be purchased through Amazon.com or from Nate. Contact him at 715-514-0686, or via email at nlaaseng@charter-net.