My Inspiration

       I love blogging, but my real job is writing books, and I wanted to share something with people that I’ve never shared before. I wanted to tell everyone where I got the ideas that formed the Wrong Series and the Strange Visions series. Back when I wrote Wrong Place, I was in a state of complete reflection. I looked at who I was, where I was, and what I was doing, and none of it seemed right. As a matter of fact, it felt like I was living a life that was meant for someone else entirely, and as far as I could tell, there was no escaping that life. Many of the characters in the Wrong Series share that theme, and none share it more than Nathan and Sam. Nathan has never felt motivation or passion, and he’s trapped in a place that only seems to hold him down. Sam is trapped in a life that was never a choice, and she truly knows no choice. She only knows the orders that have been given to her. By chance they meet, and everything changes for them. I think that story is meteorically about my own journey through life. I didn’t originally intend for it to be completely about that, but to me it is.

       The inspiration for Strange Visions: The Beginning came from a certain video I saw online. It was about bullying. I recalled that I had been the fat kid and how I only wanted to be invisible as a child. That got me thinking, and before I knew it, I was creating a character named Trent who was no one special. In fact, he didn’t fit in anywhere. I gave him an unlikely opportunity to change everything for himself with an unlikely gift. I wrote a story about what I would have loved and about what many high school students would love today. There are still a group of misfits in schools today, and I wrote this book series because I wanted to create a story that represented a person who I felt like was a reflection of the so called irrelevant kids today. Maybe most of all, I wanted to create an unlikely hero who gets what he really deserves instead of what life hands him.

       I want to leave you guys with two things. One is a link to my author page just in case you want to check out one of my book series, and the other is a link to the video by #Shane Koyczan that inspired me to write the Strange Visions series.

www.amazon.com/Mitchel-Grace/e/B00DFF9MGA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltun92DfnPY

Right or Wrong

What is right or wrong? What is good or evil? Some people would say that God represents ultimate good, and Satan represents complete evil. Now, that may be true, but I’m talking about people. As an American, I usually view my country’s actions as justified, and I’m not here to say that they aren’t or to start a political conversation. I just think it’s odd how perspective changes everything about what we think is right or wrong. Take the bombing of Pearl Harbor, for example. Most Americans will agree that it was an evil act committed by the Japanese, but let’s reverse the situation. We had cut off their oil supply. What would Americans do if suddenly we had no gasoline to run our cars and we knew exactly who was responsible for that? I’m not saying that we would attack anyone, but when you’re on that side of the argument, things look more justified. Now, let’s look at personal relationships. When someone’s spouse cheats on them, half of people argue that whoever did the cheating is a terrible person, but the other half talk about what the other person didn’t do for the cheater. Maybe their needs weren’t being fulfilled or maybe the other person simply wasn’t making an effort to connect with them as a human being. Whatever the case is, right and wrong have very different meanings to both sides, but we never seem to see the other side. We close our eyes to what we don’t want to see and say that our actions are somehow justified. Is there any such thing as complete right or wrong, or good or evil when it comes to people? I’ve come to the conclusion that the answer is no. There’s always another side to the coin, and I’m not saying that someone is ever justified when they cheat or that murder is ever justified. I’m just saying that when we truly open our eyes and see the point of view of our enemies and our friends and lovers, life becomes much clearer. In relationships, we can learn what not to do and what to change about ourselves. We can also see if the person we are standing next to is really worth our time. Effort, loyalty, and love are always a necessity in human interaction, but we’re often too blinded by what the other person is doing to examine whether we’re doing those things for our partners. We also judge groups and even countries in the same narrow minded way as we do people. It’s strange. As I write this, I think about all the things I do. If I see someone doing something that I disapprove of, I never question why they’re doing that. When I see someone who looks strange to me, I never stop to think of how they ended up with forty tattoos and thirty piercings. I guess what I’m saying is that if we want to have great relationships and high IQs, we need to understand the why about everyone and after that, concentrate on ourselves because only then can we know what’s fact and what’s even worth our time.

Racism

I wanted to talk about something kind of different today. It might be a little controversial to some people, so if you’re sensitive, now would be the time to cover your ears and start humming. I wanted to talk about racism. Yes, I know that it’s a subject that’s been talked about a lot, but it’s really been on my mind lately. I’ve heard many racial remarks by others and even seen some terrible things in the past. It’s strange to me. How can so many people still be this backward? You still have this group of people who think that the color of our skin determines our worth, and the funny thing is how that way of thinking isn’t exclusive to one race or group. It’s everywhere, and it seems to be spreading. Throughout my life, I have heard and seen many things that were downright sickening. I’ve even heard a preacher try to twist Scripture to make it sound like a white person and a black person being in love was an abomination to God. Where does this ignorance end? At what point do we say enough is enough and allow ourselves to see people for exactly who they are? One thing I’ve seen most in my life is fear. Most people aren’t racist, but almost all of us show some kind of fear of being persecuted. Some people may only have close friends of the same race out of fear of what another friend might say. Others may not date someone they love because of what their family might say. Why are we all such cowards? Why do we care about people whose thinking is outdated and irrelevant? I started thinking about this because of something I saw in a Wal-Mart parking lot last night. There was an older man who was yelling racial things as loudly as possible. I believe in freedom of speech, but only for people who have a certain IQ. People talk about tolerance in our world. The funny thing is that I’ve heard so many people say how others shouldn’t be tolerant of things like interracial marriage. Their skewed view about tolerance is ridiculous. In fact, the people who are really being tolerant are the regular people who see worth and not color. We’re being tolerant and allowing them to spread their vile view freely. They poison our children’s minds, and they make us feel strange for doing what ought to be normal. In some cases, they make us feel different or somehow less than, and it’s time for us to say no more. I know that I’m going to say, “No more.” Racism may exist in the world, but I’m not going to pretend it’s normal or even acceptable. I can’t afford to accept this backward view anymore. God forgives us all if we ask for it, and He loves us equally. Imagine if He chose who He loved based on things like race and gender. Where would we be? 

Well, I’m sorry about the strange subject, but that’s something that’s been on my mind lately. I hope that most of you understand what I’m talking about, and if you’ve ever been insulted in a Wal-Mart parking lot and wanted to tell an old man off, I’m guessing that you do. Thanks for reading, and love everyone . . . unless they’re like that one guy I met last night. Then pray for them for them to grow a lot smarter really soon.

  

New Books

I have officially released three new books today, although one of them hasn’t shown up yet. Strange Visions: the Beginning is available for free right now on Amazon Kindle, and Strange Visions: Yesterday’s Sins is available for 3.99. Look for Strange Visions: False Endings to pop up sometime tonight. I think anyone who likes crime, romance, or action in a book will like these books, so check them out if you want to. It’s been a hard few days. I set a goal back in January to release six books by July, and that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ll never do it again because the task is a little daunting, but I met my goal which makes me feel good about the future. For anyone who enjoyed or is still enjoying the “Wrong” series, I thought I would share a little news with you. The new Wrong book is already going through the last editing stages. Wrong Regrets is about the one thing that still haunts Zane to this day. As he recalls what made him the person he is, you’ll get to know him better and some of what he says might just be relevant to the present. I drop many hints in the book at the future direction of the series and one bomb shell at the end. I still need to find a cover for the book and do a little more editing, so I’m not going to announce a release date just yet, but I hope to get it out there soon. The fourth Strange Visions book has also been written, but it’s still in a very raw state right now. It will probably be a while before it’s released. I was thinking that I might be able to have it out sometime in September.Thanks for reading, and I promise that I'll talk about something besides books next time.

Faith

I wanted to share a few thoughts on something personal to me today. I want to talk about faith. Now, don’t run out of here before you hear me out. There will be no fire and brimstone preaching here. Faith takes many forms. I’ve found that my faith in God is much rockier than the average person likes to describe theirs. We get this image that when you believe in God and serve Him that everything in your life falls into place. I’m sorry, but that’s simply not true. I’m not perfect, and unfortunately, neither is my life. I’ve found myself crying out to God and asking “why” on several nights. I’ve even blamed God for a few things in the past. My faith has wavered, and I’ve come very close to turning away from God many times. For some reason, I always find myself coming back to Him, though. No matter how much evidence there is against my God’s existence or against me ever being blessed by Him, I find that I continue to come back to Him and believe with all I have that He exists and will bless and love me. It’s the same with many relationships. Sometimes there’s no reason to believe that a marriage will work, but more times than not, people continue to fight for and have faith in the people they love. Are we all just fools? We believe in things that there are no explanations for. We put our trust in things that we cannot see and trust people who are by nature selfish. When I examine the facts from the outside, I have to say that I look pretty stupid sometimes. I believe in things that I can’t see, and I have faith that if I continue to plug away and try with all I have at my craft that good things will happen. Is it out of self-preservation that I do this? Maybe I need to believe that. If I believed that there was no God, I would never know success, and the woman that I’m so desperately seeking didn’t exist, then what hope would there be? Would there even be a reason for living? Hope, that’s the key ingredient. We’re all looking for it. It’s a cruel word in some ways. It implies that something could theoretically happen or be that is so far removed from your world that all you can do is dream about it. That is a little sad. Even so, I find that I come back to faith and hope. I need both of them, and I believe in them. Maybe it’s okay to dream and even believe in things we have no evidence of. Is my belief born from weakness? Yes, it is, but I think that’s all right. I have Faith that God will find a way to bless me one day. In time, maybe I’ll even find the right person to spend my life with. Who knows? I might even reach a place in my writing that I’m happy with one day. For now, I’ll only hope, though. That’s all any of us can do. I’ll sprinkle a few prayers in there too and know that tomorrow might be the day that everything changes.