Perspectives

As I type it's beginning to grow late.

My home is quiet except for the rush of the heater blowing through the old vents and the pleasant chatter of Tiktok bubbling from my wife and sister-in-law's phones in the next room over. Outside, the night is still except for the occasional gust from the north whispering through the late October leaves.

I have found just how easy it is to go too fast. To not fully count the events of the day or the small victories which layer like brick and mortar my life, days, and seasons. Today, I almost discounted so much because I tend to live in my head. Live in stories (not necessarily a bad thing). I have a loving wife and family living in my home - an old Victorian in Hannibal, Missouri. While not a year ago I was isolated in the South Valley of Albuquerque - alone, stressed, and admittedly, drinking too much. And even though I miss my found family down at Side Track Brewing and their delicious craft beers, downtown with their enduring dedication to youth culture, I have gained a new life here now.

I have three smaller freelance marketing clients (somehow). God bless them. I love to help others with trusty insight which I now have proven works through my time out in the world working marketing jobs for more traditional venues. After the most recent Archon sci-fi/fantasy convention, I was reminded of my other found family here in the midwest - the writers and the artists. The other fledgling authors I've now inspired... It's humbling. It really is. The life I yearned for years now surrounds me (money challenges aside). I watched the leaves turn today on my upper back porch while a string of marching bands paraded down Broadway beyond. My wife was inside making jelly while my orange cat Lira slinked around below in our rough garden. Another tomato ripened. I picked and ate it fresh from the vine - sweet and juicy under a moderately tough skin.

Now it's late and my mind once again resolutely refuses to wind down. Such is life. So I type here now next to my ever-blooming New Mexican chile plant named Paco. How is it that all this has happened? All this wonder and abundance as the Celtic year draws to a close this Samhain (Halloween).

This National Novel Writing Month I've decided to finish the long-awaited sequel to Rienspel, That Dark Battle. I patched the sporadic writing I've typed for a few years now together into what I hope is a cohesive narrative. This way, I'll have a strong starting point when next month arrives. To be honest, my mind is still coming together creatively speaking. I feel like it's all too easy to think we can resolve deep internal issues in a few days, perhaps a week, or at longest, a month. However, it just isn't so. Life, humanity, and the grit we grow through unravels and sifts at its own pace. It's important to be reminded of that, you know?

I continue to write because of my readers. I continue to create because of my fellow artists. I make because it's just something I do. Hell, if I wrote novels as much as I journaled I'd have more books than Stephen King by now.

Such is my life.

Thank you, you few souls who care and still read my words. If all I can do is give you stories and thoughts it is enough. If my accumulated knowledge, skills, and experience as a marketer and author can help you, please reach out. I love to help!

May the sun illumine your path, and light by stars where else.

- Ryan