In The Pitchfork of Destiny, the second novel in the Charming Tales series following A Fairy-Tale Ending, Jack Heckel brings the hilarity of living in a magical world to readers looking for something beyond Shrek, Xanth, and Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold!
Life in the Kingdom of Royaume has been happily ever for King William Pickett and his fiancée, Lady Rapunzel. But when Volthraxus, the Great Dragon of the North, returns looking for the love of his life, the Great Wyrm of the South, it becomes clear that some fairy tales never end.
After Volthraxus discovers his love was slain by the newly crowned king, he seeks his revenge by kidnapping Rapunzel. Once again, Will teams up with Edward Charming, the only man in all the kingdom with the skill, ego, and dashing good looks to fight a dragon. Our heroes’ fates depend on finding a weapon re-forged in dragon blood—the Pitchfork of Destiny.
But as the two set off after the dragon, Charming’s bride, Lady Elizabeth, falls into the clutches of a mysterious sorcerer known as the Dracomancer, who has his own plans for Royaume.

The Pitchfork of Destiny: The Hilarious Second Novel in the Charming Tales Fantasy Series

Literature & Fiction

Heckel, Jack

Humor & Satire

Harper Voyager Impulse

In The Dark Lord—a hilarious parody of epic fantasy—Jack Heckel (author of The Charming Tales) tells the story of a young man traveling into a dark and magical world of dwarves, elves, and sorcerers to restore the balance between good and evil.
After spending years as an undercover, evil wizard in the enchanted world of Trelari, Avery hangs up the cloak he wore as the Dark Lord and returns to his studies at Mysterium University. 
On the day of his homecoming, Avery drunkenly confides in a beautiful stranger, telling her everything about his travels. When Avery awakens, hungover and confused, he discovers that his worst nightmare has come true: the mysterious girl has gone to Trelari to rule as a Dark Queen. 
Avery must travel back to the bewitched land and liberate the magical creatures . . . but in order to do so, he has to join forces with the very people who fought him as the Dark Lord.

The Dark Lord: A Parody of Magic and Power in the Enchanted Trelari (Mysterium)

Collected for the first time, A Fairy-tale Ending comprises two volumes of Jack Heckel's Charming Tales: Once Upon a Rhyme and Happily Never After to become the first full novel in the Charming Tales series.Prince Charming had one destiny: to slay the dragon and save the princess. Both have been achieved, except there's a problem: Charming had nothing to do with either. A farmer named Will Pickett succeeded where royalty had failed—and this simply will not stand.Thus begins an epic adventure that has Prince Charming and Will Pickett vying with each other for the throne by challenging trolls, outwitting scoundrels, and facing all manner of fairy-tale creatures. All the while a dark sorcery envelops Castle White, and Will's sister Liz and her friend Lady Rapunzel uncover a threat to the kingdom. The fate of Royaume hangs in the balance as Charming tries to salvage his reputation, and the clock is ticking…

A Fairy-tale Ending: Book One of the Charming Tales

The second novel of Jack Heckel's Mysterium series, The Darker Lord follows&nbsp;beleaguered former Dark Lord Avery Stewart as he is&nbsp;forced to take up his cloak and his Imp once again&nbsp;and&nbsp;travel the doors between realms in order to&nbsp;keep the fabric of the universe intact. More or less intact, anyway. In The Dark Lord, Avery had an epiphany about the Mysterium. Only now he can't remember what it was, no matter how much coffee he drinks or how many times he reads the novel published from his notes. What he does know is that he has become the most famous mage in the multiverse, and no one is happy with him. His fellow mages are upset at his rapid promotion, Dawn and Eldrin are tired of him spending his days on their couch watching bad TV, and Harold the Imp won't talk to him. Luckily, things can always get worse. And they do when the Administration's enforcer, Moregoth, arrives at the first lecture of the semester to apprehend two of Avery's new students for undoubtedly sinister reasons. In a fit of foolishness and heroism, Avery defies the university and flees with his friends into subworld. There, he reunites with his former allies from Trelari and thus begins a frantic race through the multiverse to escape Moregoth. But as Avery's amnesia begins to fade, he realizes his loss of memory is no accident, that he is caught in a conspiracy as terrifying as Mysterium University's Student Records Building--and that his friends might not all be on his side.

The Darker Lord (The Mysterium Series, 2)

In the&nbsp;epic conclusion to Jack Heckel's whimsical fantasy series, Dark Lord Avery Stewart must join the Company of the Fellowship in a frenzied war against Moregoth and the corrupt forces of Mysterium. . . and&nbsp;destroy the magical artifact fueling the interworld chaos In The&nbsp;Darker Lord, Avery Stewart learned a terrible truth about Mysterium: the home of his beloved university and the reality-center of the multiverse is not the world he thought it was. The true Mysterians, innately endowed with the power to manipulate reality, were displaced eons ago by the subworlders with whom they shared their magical teachings, and written out of the reality&nbsp;pattern of their own world. For years they have lived in exile in the subworld of Trelari, shielded&nbsp;from the Mysterian pursuit led by Moregoth and the Sealers. That is, until Valdara, the warrior queen of Trelari, reopened the subworld to the rest of the multiverse and challenged the Mysterium to a final showdown. One year later, a violent war of worlds drags on, and Avery can't help feeling that all of this is his fault. But the good news (if you can call it that) is that Avery might hold the key--literally, a key--to ending the suffering and saving Trelari. For&nbsp;Avery possesses&nbsp;the Reality Key, a magical artifact with the power to bend reality to one's will, often to the immediate detriment of entire worlds. . . and, if it falls into the hands of the Mysterian forces, much more. To protect his friends, save Trelari, and&nbsp;bring order&nbsp;to Mysterium,&nbsp;Avery will&nbsp;need to do the unthinkable:&nbsp;travel to the heart of Mysterium, destroy the Key, and rewrite Mysterium's reality pattern to restore balance to the multiverse, once and for all.

The Darkest Lord (The Mysterium Series, 3)

United States