Projects and Direction

   From time to time, I like to update everyone on what I’m working on. I haven’t released anything since last month, and I usually try to release a project at least every two months, but that’s probably not going to happen. You see, I’ve been working on getting my newest book ready. I’ve written new parts and edited it. It’s called The Divide, and I think it’s going to be amazing. I want to run over it one more time before I say it’s ready. Now, you might be asking this. Why won’t it be ready by next month if all you have to do is run through it one more time? Here’s the answer. I’m sending this one in to publishers. I think it’s a great book, and if I can’t get someone to pick it up, then I’m probably not going to be getting any offers from anything else. I believe in this one a lot, and I want to give it the best chance to succeed on a bigger scale. I don’t know how long it normally takes to hear back from publishers, and I’m not going to give up if the first person I send it to rejects it, so this could take some time. My guess would be that either my next release will be by a major publisher within a few months, or that I’ll put it on Kindle after enough time has passed for me to know that it’s not a publisher’s cup of tea. Make no mistake about it, though. I don’t think this book will fail. It has everything in it that most people look for in a book, and it explores some themes that are really popular. I want to share it with you guys right now, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to share it with even more people if I’m just patient. I’ll be sending it in to a very notable publishing company at the end of this month, and I’m sure I’ll hear something back within a few weeks.

   Now, on to other things I’m doing. I’ve written an entirely different book that involves espionage. It’s edited fairly well, but it’s not anywhere near ready for release. I’m in the middle of writing its sequel. I’m almost half way through writing it. I’ve also been writing a lot of short stories, and one really long story, that involves a lot of the characters from Wrong and Strange Visions. I’m just writing those for my personal enjoyment, but you wouldn’t believe how much of my time I’ve been putting into that. (I really need to work on that.) I already know what I’m going to do after I finish writing my sequel. I’m going to start on a sci-fi book. I have a few ideas about what to do. The weird thing is that I have some other ideas to write, too. One is more about personal relationships, and another is about religion and morality. Honestly, there are too many ideas, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to use all of them, but I’m thankful that I have them.

   Not everything in my life is about books, however. I’ve been house hunting because I want to own my own house, and I have found at least a couple of places that were perfect. Unfortunately, if you think something is too good to be true, you shouldn’t wait on it because a lot of other people will show interest really fast. I haven’t been able to get anything yet, but I’m still actively looking, and if I haven’t found anything by the end of the summer, I’m just going to say forget it and have a house built.

   All right, that about covers what I’m doing. I’ll be updating everyone about The Divide’s status as I hear back from publishers. Hopefully one day we’ll have the Divide and all of the Wrong and Strange Visions books in stores everywhere, but for now, I’ll just say that I’m thankful to the supporters I have and ask for everyone to look forward to what’s around the corner. It’s going to take some time, and regardless of whether a publisher takes a chance on The Divide, it’s going to be an excellent book.

Eternity

   Today I wanted to talk about something that I’ve been thinking about lately. I’m scared of death. I think we all are to some extent, but not existing on this earth is truly terrifying to me. It’s not necessarily the pain from dying that scares me or the lack of new experiences. It’s something deeper. It’s the thought of being forgotten. I don’t want it to be like I never existed in this world. With time, there’s a chance that my mark on this world will permanently fade, however. The people I loved will die, and their memories of me will die along with them. How do you live with that? We all want to be immortalized. In fact, we want that so much that scientists have been trying to figure out ways to do exactly that for years. People have tried to figure out how to stop the aging process, how to develop ways to make the body heal itself more efficiently, and lately, theories have even been thrown around that involve the possibility of transferring our consciousness into something else. It’s not that simple, though. We die. That’s the truth. No amount of research or technology will ever make us indestructible. It’s a cruel fact, but it’s one that I’m starting to come to terms with.

   That’s not what I wanted to leave everyone with, though. It’s just something you have to understand before you can fully appreciate how our world works. People pursue a lot of things, but very few people try to immortalize themselves. I’m here to tell you that you should spend as much time as possible trying to do exactly that - just not in the same way as people try to do it in a science fiction movie. There are many people who have shaped who I am. My parents have given me many good traits through seeing their example, and I’ve even picked up a few bad ones from them. You see, what I take from them goes farther than genes. I’ll teach my children a lot of the things that they taught me. Let’s go even deeper, though. Long gone musicians and writers have been my inspiration to push forward in life, and honestly, I haven’t been able to keep from drawing inspiration from their work. Even when I try to be completely original, there’s still one simple fact that remains. My inspiration and ideas are linked to things that a lot of great men and women did. My ideas are often built on principles that they created. I see how they did things, and I want to do them even better, but I have to acknowledge one simple fact. I might not even have the desire to do the things I do without them. In a way, everything I do is theirs. I can say the same for teachers. Their passion for writing, science, and history has rubbed off on me. I see my love for these subjects as my own, but it’s really not. It’s a reflection of a seed that they planted in my mind. In a way, every single person I ever help develop a love for one of these things will be because of the person who first gave me that love.

   This is the basic thing I want anyone reading this to take away. Give your children lessons that they won’t be able to help passing on to their kids, be passionate in such a way that it’s infectious to those around you, and finally, write down every thought, record every moment, and take every picture possible. Your actions, passions, and the records of your life are going to be what’s left when you’re gone. I fully plan to be immortal, or at least I plan to do everything I can to stay a part of this world for a very long time. I’ll love, impart knowledge, write, and leave behind a trail of breadcrumbs that future generations may not even realize belong to me. I’ll live through my future children, my characters, and maybe most of all, the seeds that I plant in everyone around me - the ones that people can’t help but spread to other people in their lives.

   If you want immortality, it’s actually within reach. It’s not in a pill form, and it’s not accomplished by some type of program in a science fiction movie. It’s much more simple than that. It can be seen in complex people like George Washington, Frank Sinatra, Robert Frost, and every person that history didn’t write down who shaped these influential individuals. It’s an example or a memory, but not an ordinary one. It’s one that transcends time and even when we don’t realize it exists, continues to keep our hearts beating, if nothing else, in the minds of everyone in our world.

Night Terror!

   I had a night terror last night for the first time in years. In case you don’t realize what I mean by night terror, I’ll tell you guys what my experience was with them when I was little. I would be completely asleep but also sort of awake. I would be dreaming about something terrifying, but I would spring up out of bed in a complete panic. My eyes would be wide open, and I wouldn’t be able to catch my breath. A lot of the time, I would also feel like my heart was going to explode. That was the main thing I remembered about them. I remember my dreams, but I don’t actually remember running around the house in a panic and saying things that made no sense. That’s just what I’m told I would do when I was little. Here’s the thing, though. It happened again last night, and it might surprise you what I was dreaming about when I felt so panicked that it felt like a thousand pounds was sitting on my chest.

   I distinctly remember dreaming about how I needed to get more likes, write at least six thousand new words, edit a few chapters, write a new blog, post something on my regular Facebook and my street team page, promote my books on whatever sites would let me, and finally, to live. I just couldn’t understand how I was supposed to complete all of these tasks and still be able to have one moment of fun or at least peace. That’s when I started to feel myself losing it. It was like my airway completely shut off. I was told I was talking about likes or something in my half-awake state. (I assume on Facebook.)

   There’s a point to all of this. Many dreams exist to tell you something important. My body felt like it was dying, and my mind was in absolute turmoil to the point that I couldn’t even control it. That’s how I feel a lot now. I love writing, but I hate having to spend every waking minute doing a list of things. I’ve gone out with a friend once in the last four months, and forget about dating. It’s been non-existent, and for what? Because some people say that I need to do all of this? If I’m going to write, edit, promote, blog, and interact with people all the time, then something’s going to give eventually, and I’m afraid that something is going to be me. I don’t feel happy anymore with what I’m doing, and what I’m really writing to tell everyone is this. Things are about to change. I’m going to write what I want to write, books are going to come out slower, and I’m not going to take any of this so seriously. It’s killing me to take it seriously. Most importantly, I’m going to start focusing on what really matters. I need a life outside of this. I work on this stuff eighty-four hours a week. If you don’t think that’s true, then I invite you to come live with me for a week. You’ll see. It’s all I have time for. I’m scaling back to no more than forty hours a week, and I’m taking every minute of the weekend for myself. I need to find a girlfriend, friends who share my interests, and a quiet place to just shut off my mind. I’m literally working half of my life away, and the other half is being spent in thought of what I need to be doing. (Even when I’m asleep apparently.)

   Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys won’t mind waiting a little longer for books to come out in the future. I put out twelve books in ten months, but over the next ten months, I’ll be lucky to put out half of that. I think that’s for the best, though. I need to enjoy what I do, and to do that, it can’t be something that’s nightmare worthy. I still have a lot of passion for writing, and that’s what I want to concentrate on - that passion. I don’t want to concentrate on the negative things about this or to be dragged down by an endless amount of tasks. This isn’t a job. It’s a lifestyle. Real writers are addicted to writing. We couldn’t stop if we wanted to. It’s just who we are, so I’m going to stop treating this like a job. This is my passion, and it’s a place to show my creativity, no matter how long that takes or what anyone thinks of it.

Nerve

   There are a lot of things that are important in this world. The most important characteristics to individuals often open doors to them. We put a huge emphasis on education, creativity, looks, social skills, and being spiritually at peace. These can all be important in certain situations, but I want to talk about the thing that is always left off the list of important things about people.

   I would argue that nerve is the most important thing for a person to have. Do you want that job you don’t feel like you’re fully qualified to do, that girl who’s supposed to be out of your league, or how about that house or car that people say you aren’t going to get for under a certain price? Getting all of those things can be really simple regardless of how smart you are, good looking you are, or how well you can negotiate. Having the nerve to actually apply for a job that’s a little above you while presenting yourself as fully deserving, talking to that girl and treating her as your equal and not some unattainable person, and simply offering only what you want to and sticking to it, can and will get you all of those things. Sure, you’ll get rejected by employers and women sometimes. Not every homeowner or car dealership will work with you either, but here’s the thing about this world. Anything that is possible will happen eventually. So you want the perfect job. Keep applying for your definition of perfection and never cease in doing so. There’s someone out there who will give you a chance, and if you keep pursuing your dreams, they will become a reality. If you want the perfect man or woman for you, it’s not accomplished by dating a bunch of people who aren’t that. It’s accomplished by having the nerve and confidence to approach exactly what you’re looking for. Sure, three out of four of them might reject you, but wouldn’t you rather have the nerve to face rejection than succeed on finding the opposite of what you’re looking for? Finally, the key to negotiating is simply to stick with your instincts. If a deal isn’t right, have the nerve to never cave.

   All of this sounds simple, and I know you can’t go to job interviews and constantly be rejected. Sooner or later you have to pay the bills. That doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to apply for and pursue better things, however. I also know that many people don’t want to be alone. That’s understandable, but I’ve looked at that part of my life like this. I see so many people who are afraid to be alone. Their marriages end in divorce or in never-ending resentment most of the time. Wouldn’t you rather have the nerve to wait it out - to be lonely? What if you could find someone you wouldn’t resent? What if they would be the person you were looking for? That can and will be a reality if you simply have the nerve to only pursue the exact people you’re looking for. It’s the longer road, and it’s the harder one, but ultimately, just like most things that are hard, it pays off in the end.

   I guess the main thing I’m saying is this. Have the nerve to bet on you today. Do you think you can do more or that you deserve more? Start letting people know that, and never doubt anything that you’re doing. Know in your heart that you deserve it all. Here’s the thing, when you start believing that, so do the people around you. When you tell your employer why they need you and not the other way around, it’s an eye opener for them. In the same way, realize that anyone you could walk up and talk to would be lucky to have a conversation with you. Have the nerve to realize your own value and to put a value on every situation you walk into. Then do one thing. Never settle for less than everything you’re worth.

FREE BOOK

   I just wanted to post something real quick to tell everyone that Wrong Place is going to be free for the next couple of days. Everyone please spread the word, and if you haven't checked it out, I hope you will while it's free!

   www.amazon.com/dp/B00DE6GP24  

Trailer

    I just wanted to update everyone on a few things that I’m doing today. I have made a video promoting The Wrong Series, and I’m going to post a link to it for all of you to see. It was the first video I’ve ever made for anything, so it’s probably not perfect, but I spent a considerable amount of time on it, and I really like the way it came out. Hopefully, you guys will, too. I’m also going to be making a video for the Strange Visions Series very soon.

   Outside of making videos, I’ve been doing a lot of writing and editing. I’ve finished with an edit of two brand new books. One of them is dystopian, and the other is a spy novel. The dystopian book is a stand alone novel, but the spy book will be a series. (probably 3 to 4 books) I’ve been writing some different things, too. Sometimes it’s nice to just write for your own enjoyment, and I’ve been writing some short stories like I used to when I was fourteen. Some of them actually feature the Wrong and Strange Visions characters. (No, they will not continue the series. They truly are just so I can keep connecting with Nathan, Sam, Trent, and Ally. J) That’s the thing that I’m discovering more about myself. I don’t know if I can ever quit being a writer. Sure, one day I could get sick of writing books for money, but I know I would still write. It’s become an addiction to me, and I find myself writing new chapters, stories, and thoughts daily. In some ways, I’ve probably been able to be more creative than ever now that I’m through with the Wrong and Strange Visions series because I can write about anything. 

   Anyway, I hope you all love what I do in the future, and I hope you’ll check out my new trailer for the Wrong Series. Thanks to everyone who has already checked out my work, and to everyone who hasn’t, maybe my trailer will persuade you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JQr-HbCbdg