Back in Business

If you are reading this, I hope you are doing well in your corner of the world.

Perhaps you are familiar with my work. Or perhaps you are new here. Either way. things have been a bit inactive on this website. Please allow me to explain...

I am a writer. Ever since the fourth grade, I have been madly obsessed with writing stories and poems. I'm a total nerd, so of course I usually (but not always) write in the realms of fantasy and science fiction. Against all odds, some of my work has seen the light of day in print or online. I don't want to brag, but I was really on a roll for a while.

So, what happened?

It was a perfect storm of unpleasantness. First, there was a global pandemic that started in late 2019 and turned 2020 into a nightmare. Certain political crises in the US and abroad flared up. There were a few changes in my professional and personal life. All this made things, well, stressful. This partly (but not completely) led to a few fistfights with my depression and anxiety. I was having a devil of a time playing hide-and-seek with potential agents for my two unpublished fantasy novels. As a result, over the years I've frankly had difficulty mustering brain power to put new words on paper. So I just kinda...stopped. I had a few poetry acceptances that I didn't bother to update on the website. I pulled all the old blog posts down in some half-baked attempt at re-marketing. I neglected to write in my writer's notebook for days at a time. My quest to be a full-fledged novelist went on the back burner as I sorted through the muck life threw at me.

But life went on, and slowly things got better. I took an opportunity to teach English in Mexico for eight months, and after that I worked in special education for a time. The dust fell from the personal things that I may (or may not) share at a later date. I helped friends workshop their books, and they helped me workshop mine. I even began to collaborate on a novel with a friend (more on that later). Most important of all, I admitted that I need medication and therapy to combat the demons that are anxiety and depression.

Recently I found myself at yet another professional inflection point. I decided that I was done lurking in the shadows. I have fears, but I'm not going to let them run my life. I'm an author, and authors write. I'd like to support myself on this work one day, but I'm not in this to make billions and trillions and zillions (though I wouldn't be opposed to such a paycheck). I'm in it for the craft, for the sheer joy of creating art that others can enjoy. I'm in it to help spread awareness about issues that matter. I'm in it so people can dream about other worlds for a time. I'm in it because we all have to use our gifts to make the world better.

So as of today, I'm back in business. I'm starting fresh with regular blog updates. I'm in the process of updating the website's bibliography and features. I've written like mad in my notebook, submitted fresh poems to publications, and I have new fiction in the works. I even took the big step of making an official Author's Facebook Page (I was going to wait until I was more "established", but a writer friend of mine told me "Why wait?!").

In the coming days and weeks I'll be updating you on my shenanigans. Please, shoot me a message via email or Facebook if you want to get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

There is much work to be done. Until next time!