“Somewhere between the rooftop and the page, the next version of me began.”
Why Hello there,
I wanted to give you a quick update from the writing desk, which lately has been my loft, my rooftop, and whatever corner of my brain decides to light up at the wrong hour.
The next FluxFall Friday short story is coming along, and this one digs deeper into Edith’s continuing story. It is still a short story, but it carries a much bigger reveal. One that starts to crack open the world of FluxFall and show that there may be a much larger universe waiting behind the curtain.
That story should be out next week.
Writing has become part of my daily rhythm now. The FluxFall short stories help keep my mind focused and moving, but I am also deep into editing and reviewing another book called The Gravity of Three. My goal is to have it fully self-edited and read by several beta readers by mid-summer. And to those who have already volunteered, thank you. Seriously. It means more than you probably know.
After that, I want to look at publishing it with a wider reach. I would love to see this book available beyond Amazon, maybe even through Barnes & Noble or other retail stores. That is the goal, anyway. One step at a time, with the occasional wild swing at the fences.
Here is a little insight into where my head has been.
I turn 55 this year. My career in IT has been important, and I am grateful for what it has provided. But I also spent most of my life making my career my entire identity. I do not want to keep doing that.
I want to take writing, storytelling, and the creative side of my life seriously now. Not as a hobby I squeeze in when I am exhausted, but as something I build with intention.
I do not have some giant capital fund that lets me walk away from work and write full time. That would be nice. I would not complain if a mysterious benefactor arrived with a suitcase of cash and a very relaxed repayment schedule.
But for now, when I am not with Debbi, I am usually home alone in the loft, writing.
And honestly, I love it.
Some nights I sit up on the roof, looking out over the world, and then suddenly, BAM, an idea hits. A scene, a character, a line of dialogue, a shape of something bigger. I sit there with it for a while, trying to understand what I am seeing in my head. Then I start writing it down.
No perfect format. No magic system. No grand ritual.
Just thoughts, images, dreams, and fragments slowly turning into stories.
Next year, one of my biggest goals is to have two books completed in my universe-building sci-fi series. The first book is called Meridian Drift: The Concord Reckoning. It is a deeper, more intense science fiction story with intelligence, tension, and enough action to keep the pages turning.
That universe is the one I eventually want to pitch to an agent.
Not just as a single book, but as something larger. A franchise-ready universe with history, mythology, conflict, strange worlds, and characters strong enough that any one of them could carry their own story.
I know. Lofty goals right?
But I have always had those.
My bigger plan is to spend the next five years building my creative work into something that can eventually sustain me. The dream is to reach a point where I do not have to give the best twelve hours of my day to a career and then hand whatever is left of me to the things I love.
I want the creative work to become the work.
Part of me has always believed that one day I will have some strange, accidental conversation with the right person. Someone will hear what I am building, see the potential, and say, “I know someone you should talk to.”
The cosmic accidental meeting.
The one that changes the direction of everything.
Maybe that sounds ridiculous. Maybe it is. But every big thing probably looks ridiculous before it becomes real.
So, if you are reading the books, the short stories, the blog posts, or even the occasional rambling update like this one, I hope you stick around.
One day, maybe you will be able to say you saw it all from the beginning.
No matter my age, my mind still feels young. I still have stories in me. Worlds, characters, broken people, strange futures, bad jokes, big reveals, and whole universes waiting to get out.
I am looking forward to the journey.
And I know I will be better for taking it.