OAKLEAF — For more than 20 years, Joseph Mazerac worked as an unexploded ordnance technician.

 And although that career is still meaningful to him, the creative bug that bit him years prior never left him alone.

As an award-winning author, he now has two novels to his name.

Mazerac told a story of bravery and adventure in his debut book, "Into the Attic of the World", three years ago. The book is part of the "Castatine Chronicles", a young adult fantasy two-book series, with another on the way. The most recent, "Into the Red Realm", was released this year.

Mazerac said the plot of the first book takes place right here in Clay County.

In a fictionalized version of the Oakleaf community circa summer 1990, 13-year-old Charles Miller has a good life. Living in a lakeside townhouse, he has reasonable parents, friends and vacations.

That is, until he meets a strange boy, Captain Kid, who drifts across the lake in a homemade raft. Captain Kid said he’s from another dimension and is searching for a missing princess, the Patch Fairy. Charles and his group of friends then band together to help track her down. Mazerac said it’s a summer adventure like no other.

Mazerac said that his time living in the area inspired him immensely. The lake that Charles lives by, the one that Captain Kid is seen drifting by on, mirrors the long, skinny lake that borders his family’s townhome.

“I loved living there. The sun would go down and we’d get to see the sunsets over the water,” he said.

With themes of bravery, adventure and friendship, Mazerac said readers will dive into what it means to maintain the “balance between looking out for people you love while risking everything for the greater good.”

Geared towards teens and young adults, he said that he chose the theme because of his status as a father of four.

“The kids are about the same age as my kids at the time when I started writing it,” he said.

In fact, he said Captain Kid was inspired by an encounter he had while on vacation with his family. He said they had gone on a cross-country trip, landing in Washington State.

“When we were there, I was walking around with my sons, and this kid popped out of a boat that was tied up to the dock. He waved to us with a big smile on his face, decked out in all his boating gear," he said. "... I started making up all these stories about how he rescued a mermaid and found buried treasure. I just did that on the fly. Later in the day, we saw him again, and he popped up and waved again. And I said, ‘Hey, that was Captain Kid.'"

As an artist, Mazerac said he also illustrated the cover and graphics in Into the Attic of the World. Drawing is another passion of his. One he discovered while constantly moving around as an Army child.

“I would compare myself to all these other kids that I was meeting. Two things were very apparent. One was that I could draw really good. I could draw way better than most people,” he said. “But another thing that was very apparent was I was a terrible reader.”

Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, he said he chose to use the grand stories inside his head instead to create his own plot points.

“I had this huge imagination. I was always coming up with characters. I wanted to be a comic book artist when I was young.”

In his senior year of high school, Mazerac said one of his teachers played an audiobook in class, and he fell in love with it. Although he did end up illustrating a graphic novel, he said that he soon grew to appreciate long-form stories.

So, he dipped his toe into writing novels and wrote a huge epic fantasy.

“In all the years I was working on that, I would listen to audiobooks while I was drawing and at the computer...so, I'd listen to easily 100 audiobooks, probably way more than that," he said. "...because I had done comic books, I also appreciated the fact that comic books [are] the slowest way you can tell a story. Because they’re only like 20 pages and it takes so long to draw…but, if I was going to tell a really big, epic story, comic books just weren't the format.”

When his third book is released later this year, he said there will be plenty of his old drawings included in the book. Additionally, his fourth book, "Tournament of the Moons," is also scheduled for release.

Soon, he hopes to also make his novels available as audiobooks.

“That could really help young readers who don’t naturally like to read.”

Mazerac said that overall, he hopes his books make a difference in the lives of young readers all over.

“When I started experiencing these types of stories, they were very impactful for me when I was young. So, I try to be positive, and these are family-friendly books, as well," he said. "But, also, I don’t want them to be boring. I want them to be exciting, because that’s what keeps you reading."

Mazerac will be a featured author at the Garden of Reading Literary Festival in Ravine Gardens State Park on Saturday, Sept. 6.  From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., people are invited to come out, browse books, meet various authors, listen to book readings and poetry slam, participate in a poetry workshop, make crafts, watch a character parade and more.

To learn more about Mazerac and his novels, visit josephmazerac.com.