There is something I have always enjoyed about this day, the winter solstice for us in the Northern Hemisphere. I just love the idea that ancient peoples came up with this celebration of life and sunlight in the face of the darkest day of the year, to look ahead to brighter days and know that better things were ahead. In times when winter could mean a struggle for survival, they were optimistic enough to celebrate the shortest day of the year. That speaks to the resilience of the human spirit. So Happy Solstice to everyone! I’m celebrating with a bonfire outside and some mulled wine. 🙂

I wish everyone joyous holidays and a better 2022. I will be hard at work on my book, preparing it for release next month, and working on an audio version. Stay tuned next year for the release of the book and the audio version sometime in winter or early spring. Best wishes to all!

Below is a sample of me reading from Chapter fifteen, as Jacob arrives at the library, that most wonderful of destinations.

I enjoyed The Wheel of Time books so much back in the 90s, when I was in high school and college. It was just the kind of series I’d been looking for after reading Tolkien, and between Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, and others like them I was reading lots of fantasy during that decade. So the new series is something of a fun nostalgia trip for me, and I decided to re-read the start of the series, Eye of the World. I’m enjoying it tremendously after nearly thirty years. You might even say an age has passed and the wheel has turned since 1990!

The show is so well done, with a wonderful cast and amazing scenery and effects. They have of course made some changes from the novels, but they seem to be capturing the spirit of the books and hitting many of the right notes with our favorite characters. Rosamund Pike as Moiraine and Daniel Henney as Lan are particularly well cast, and have a great chemistry between them. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this series, and can’t wait for the new installments.

I have also been working on my own fantasy stories for some time now. Once I have published the Osprey Man, (which you can pre-order here) I plan to start readying those stories for publication as well. Fantasy has been my favorite genre since I was a young boy, and I couldn’t help but want to write my own version of the myths and stories I’ve been reading for so many years.

“You want stories?” Thom Merrilin declaimed. “I have stories, and I will give them to you. I will make them come alive before your eyes.”–The Eye of the World

           Kris pulled a sketchbook out of his knapsack and opened it up.

           “I thought Osprey Man needed some jazzing up, you know?” Kris said. “He’s too much of a wuss. So I did some work on him, see?”

           Kris pushed the sketchpad over to Jacob. Kris’ vision of the character was not what Jacob had in mind. Osprey man had been transformed into something that looked like a flying version of the Incredible Hulk. He bulged with muscles. He had a massive chest, huge legs, and his wings were pointed and barbed to look like weapons. Osprey Man now had a square jaw and an angry sneer on his face.

           Worse, he had a rocket launcher attached to his back. The rocket was shooting fire out the back, and out of the front an enormous missile burst forth into the sky.

           The colors seemed too bright, almost neon. Osprey Man had golden wings, lime green tights, and his beak was a lurid pink.

           After a long, awkward pause, Jacob said, “He looks like a demon.”

           “I know, right?” Kris said. “He’s awesome now.”

           “But Jon’s version was realistic,” Jacob protested. “This guy looked like he just flew out of hell. And what’s with the missiles and rockets?”

           “I thought you’d like those,” Kris said. “He has guns too, check it out.” Kris flipped to another panel that featured Osprey man holding what appeared to be an M-16 assault rifle. Some hunters were on the receiving end of a burst of gunfire.

           “This isn’t right at all,” Jacob said. “I mean, did you even look at Jon’s sketches? Did you see the bird at Indian Island?”

           Kris leaned back in his chair and put in hands behind his head. He shrugged and smiled. “I saw his drawings, yeah. And I saw that dumb shitbird, OK? It was boring.”

           Now Jacob was angry. “Don’t talk about Jon that way.”

           “Don’t get all sore at me. I’m talking about that bird, not about Jon. He was my friend too, you know. Jon could draw, I’ll give him that. He was way better than me. But he can’t draw no more, and I can. So if I’m gonna draw these comics, they gotta be how I say.”

           Jacob shook his head. “That isn’t how it works, Kris.”

           “I can just make my own comics then. You ain’t the boss of me.”  

           They looked at each other across the table. Kris was adamant, Jacob knew. Without Kris, Jacob didn’t know how he would get the comic done. But he was just as sure that it would be a mistake to make the comic how Kris wanted it. It would violate everything Jacob and Jon had worked on.

           “Look, hear me out,” Kris said. He sounded to Jacob like he was a seasoned car salesman. “I dig what you’re saying about Jon. He was a better artist than me, no doubt. Thing is, no one wants to watch that NOVA or Wild America shit. They want to see stuff blow up. Have you been reading any new comics lately?”

           Kris rummaged into his backpack and came out with the latest issue of The Incredible Hulk, which featured the hero holding an army tank over his head. He was about to hurl it at a group of soldiers who were firing on him.

           “This is what I’m talkin’ about man!” Kris said, pointing at the cover. “If we’re gonna sell this thing, it can’t be all realistic like that bird at the park. No one would read it! It’s gotta be a butt-stomping, know what I mean?”

           Jacob looked at him. “You sound like your big brother.”

           Kris’ face grew redder than it already was, til it seemed to Jacob that it was a plum about to burst.

           “No way man!” Kris yelled. “No way! I ain’t nothin’ like him!”