October Nights

I know that it's been a while since I have given any updates. It's almost like I dropped off the face of the Earth. On some level, I apologize for that.

I hope that all of you are healthy and well, and I feel for the losses some of you have had, the new shifts in thought, the fears that have presented themselves in front of you, forcing you to take action.

I'm having many deep thoughts right now because it is the middle of the night when my mind opens the best. My little one laughs in her sleep. I get caught up in it and can't stop grinning myself. I want joy in slumber for her because I don't get that.

I've been a soldier, a paratrooper. I've had significant battles in my life, some I've won, the most important ones I have lost. I have failed at following my drive, I've failed at pursuing people and dreams, I've blatantly ignored good advice presented by my mentors I didn't deserve at the top of their game.

Let me ask you: What moves your soul? What grabs you? Chew on that while you have the chance.

Over the past few months, I have backed away from writing, not because I disliked it, but because I needed to go back to school to learn new things and correct some old bad habits. I learned graphic design from the California Institute of the Arts, got some engineering and more computer science under my belt from Georgia Tech, which was necessary since I was born within walking distance.

My latest is finishing up Journalism with Michigan State University. MSU has been the most important because I have a weakness where I want somebody, anybody, to give a shit that I breathe air. At MSU, if you study with them in any capacity, you are a Spartan. Period. Hearing "you're one of us!" is the sweetest phrases to enter the ear.

That's why I try to be inclusive of new artists and writers and poets, new to me, anyway. I care about those who choose to read what I write. We have an unspoken relationship that I hold sacred. I wished to improve myself to accentuate that.

And the thought of readers brings us full circle to NaNoWriMo. It's that time again, and while I fully considered working on Flow, after a Twitter poll that broke even, the tiebreaker led in a different direction. Now we're headed in the other direction, one that might make a former mentor proud, and will perhaps be both timely and topical in a bizarre way.

We'll see how this goes. Men Who Sell Dust will be out in December.

Remember that you asked for it.