By Lisa Cornwell
The Associated Press

A fantasy tale given to family and friends on a young author's last Christmas 25 years ago has won recognition usually reserved for mainstream books.

Will Allen wrote his final story, filled with magic, heroes, villains and a lot of humor, after being diagnosed with cancer. Two years ago, his brother, Paul, began editing, typing, publishing and marketing the manuscript, despite knowing little about the book business.

"I never really thought about publishing Swords for Hire until I began reading it aloud to my daughters and realized just how good it was and how much I wanted other people to enjoy my brother's humor and spirit," said Allen, a marketing consultant from Mariemont.

The 168-page book aimed primarily at readers aged 9 and up has achieved stature that does not often come to self-published or small press books.

Swords for Hire was No. 2 on the American Booksellers Association's most recent Book Sense Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Picks selected by independent booksellers nationwide, and it received a Writer's Digest magazine national award. The book also won the fantasy/sci-fi category in the 2004 Independent Publisher Book Awards announced in June at BookExpo America in Chicago.

Those awards are open to all independent publishers in North America, a group that ranges from major university presses to self publishers.

Voice of Youth Advocates magazine, a journal for librarians, educators and other professionals who work with young adults, included Swords for Hire in its Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror List released in April. That list included J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Swords for Hire also made the February list of 10 "Best Books" for teenagers chosen monthly by a reviewer for the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English.

The story behind the story is that of an author who packed as much creativity as possible into a life cut short by cancer.

"My brother always wrote things - hundreds of songs, stories, poems, even short movies that he produced with 8 mm film - from the time he was in elementary school," said Allen, 49. "He was constantly jotting down ideas in a notebook for his next project."