Hello

I feel like I say this an awful lot but it's been a while since my last blog. I guess I'll share what I've been doing lately. Most of my time has been consumed by school and church. Thankfully I've been able to finish another short story and start a new one. I guess my novels will have to wait a little while longer before they are completed on paper. It's amazing how much I've written since starting school. I had to write ten short essays for my American History Midterm. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find time to read (leisurely) and write (leisurely). Somehow I keep finding the time to do both.


Another thing that has seemed to jump into my life, and rather unexpectedly, is tennis. For the past few days Daughter of the King, a few of my friends, and myself have gone to a nearby tennis court for a few games. Before this my experience with tennis reached as far as Mario Tennis and Top Spin. I find that I enjoy playing quite a lot.


Hmm... what else is there? Ah yes. Another thing is that now we have upgraded to wireless internet. People always asked me why I never did anything online. My answer was always "Because our internet makes me want to throw my mouse through the monitor." Now though, I can finally enjoy being on the computer.


Another thing I'm glad has finally happened is that I churned out another song. Another two and my friend and I can cut a demo record. Not only would that be a great way to make money, but it would also get us out into the business.


Well that's all I can think of sharing for the moment. Until next time...


~Steps

My whenever-I-feel-like-it review (#2)

I've been trying to think of something to blog about for a while now and I finally came upon a subject that I felt the want to blog about. As you may know, Dark Knight comes out this month and there's been a lot of hype on the movie ever since its release earlier this year. So I think I'll add a little to the noise.



This newest installment into the Batman series based off of the version of comics by Frank Miller (writer of the graphic novel 300) and is the grittiest so far. I find it actually amusing that critics couldn't find anything wrong with the movie so they attacked how Batman talked. I personally think the way he talks if sweet, besides the fact that if he didn't disguise his voice everyone would know it was Bruce Wayne.

Anyway, back to the movie itself. This movie has Joker who is essentially the character that made it so big. Coupled with the fact it was Heath Ledgers last performance (thank God in Heaven it wasn't Broke Back Mountain) made the movie a regular record breaker. I won't give away any of the plot because I want you to get the full affect of it. I will tell you though that if you're planning on watching a remake of the first Tim Burton Batman, you're in for a shock. The Joker (and another villian I won't mention in case you haven't heard) is more than ready to kill anyone and everyone. And they both kill a lot of people.

Here is where the movie found its enemies. Parents who must not have seen the first one thought that there was an excessive amount of killing in it with no show of the consequenses, meaning no blood. Now I can understand this, but if they're not taking their to see a movie with violence, but no blood, would they have taken them to see a movie where when Joker stabs a man in the eye with a pencil (which he does) blood sprays everywhere. I don't think so. That's what war movies are for. Also, if they had put blood the movie would have undoubtedly been rated R.

Now me, I don't have a problem with that. An R rated Batman sounds pretty cool. But that's beside the point. The point is would the movie have sent a better message if it was bloody. Uh...NO! So I would rather not hear that side of the spectrum.

Another thing is that people deemed it too dark and disturbing for a PG-13 rating, but if we rewind a decade Poltergeise was only rated PG! So I don't want to hear that either. It's an action movie that give you a warning of it's content. So I suggest we look at the cartoons that are being played on kid's networks. Why don't you count up the kills in those and show me where the consequence of violence is there?

And finally, (are't you glad I'm almost done ranting?) there are those who have gathered an opinion of the movie before it came out. I've read numerous reviews from people who haven't even seen the movie. They say their sources are other reviews from people they don't even know. A review is nothing but an opinion on a movie. You can't judge a movie by five reviews alone. Those reviews that I mentioned were nothing but saying the movie is scary and disturbing and unsettling. I've seen movies that are like that and this is nothing like that. I'll just say that before you make an argument on a subject research both sides. Find a point and a counter point, then I'll believe you.

One of the biggest problems with people is that they always have a preconception on what the movie is like. I know quite a few people who just knew for sure that The Happening, M. Knight's first R movie would have sex and cussing in it. Needless to say it didn't. It wasn't even that gory or bloody. It just dealt with suicide a lot and that's a touchy subject.

Oh well. I give this movie two thumbs way up, as they say.

My Sweet Heart

I don’t believe I’ve done this kind of an entry before. Hopefully it will be the first of many. I want to dedicate this blog entry to my sweet heart, Daughter of the King. This’ll just be a few tidbits about us.


The first story I want to share is actually kind of embarrassing. This happened about a month ago (I think, anyway). I had gotten this email and I thought it was from Daughter of the King. But you see her email address and her mom’s email address both start with the same word. So, hasty me just clicked on reply and began to write an e-mail back. Now I didn’t say anything bad (I can’t really think of anything I’d say to her that couldn’t in front of her parents), but I did proceed to call her “honey” and “baby” and “sweetie” and all that jazz and ended it with a few X’s and O’s. Well it turned out that I had accidentally sent it to her mom. At least Mrs. Lady G was a good sport about the whole thing (in her next e-mail she called me honey and that made me laugh). How I found this out was almost as funny. I was talking with Daughter of the King over the phone and asked her if she had gotten my e-mail. She said no and this perplexed me. I knew for sure I had sent it. Then she asked if I could hold on a second. I said of course. Apparently her mom had told her to come here. Well she took the phone with her and in five seconds all I could hear was laughing and Daughter of the King exclaims, “Mom! How did you?...” And that was when it hit me. I had noticed that the e-mail sounded a little too formal. I was like sweating, thinking about what I was going to do. Now that I look back on it I don’t know why I was so worried. But yeah, that was funny…afterwards.


Another time (this wasn’t embarrassing) me and my family went to the west coast for the day. I asked if Daughter of the King could come and her parents said yes. I was sooooo excited. Well we spent the day at the beach and we had fun looking for seashells and sand dollars. And the water was great. We spent the day on the beach until the sun went down. She and I got some great pictures of us in the sunset. It was great. Then we went to the bathrooms and changed. I got done before Daughter of the King so I just sat against the stall outside waiting. I can’t really remember what I was thinking about, but when she walked out I know it flew from my mind in a hurry. I don’t know what it was, but in the fading light of the day (magic hour) she was magnificent. She was in a pink tan-top and Capri’s (nothing revealing mind you) and she was just gorgeous. I just kind of stared at her for a moment, and then she chuckled and asked me what was wrong. I told her what she looked like and she just smiled and shook her head. After this we (my family included) took a walk down the pier and it was wonderful. We walked and laughed together. The whole time, all I could think of was how much I love her. I find that’s all I can think of more and more lately.


Well I could think of a thousand other things to share with you, but I have to start getting ready to leave soon. But I just wanted you (whoever you may be) to know just how awesome and incredible Daughter of the King is.


This is for Mrs. Lady G and her Knight (I don’t know what his actual pen name is). Thank you so much for letting me develop this relationship with your daughter. I know that you realize how much of a blessing she is, and I couldn’t ever imagine having to deal with letting her go. I know you approve of me or I wouldn’t be having these wonderful experiences with her. (Personally I don’t think I’m good enough for her, but she apparently sees something in me and you do as well.) Thank you, thank you, and thank you.


This is for Daughter of the King. I love you so much darling. I promise to protect you with everything I have and everything I am. I will strive to be the best, man, brother in Christ, and friend I can be for you. I love you.

My whenever-I-feel-like-it book review

Well I’ve decided to start something on here (hopefully I’ll keep up with it). I’m going to put up my own reviews of books. I’m going to have to put this message up every time so the nincompoops who love to say things like “The author doesn’t feel that way” or “The publisher doesn’t feel like that” or “You’re not qualified to say things like that” or (my personal favorite) “That’s not what the author was thinking when he wrote that”. Yes I have heard all of these complaints. Ergo, (wow, I’ve never used that word before) I need to write this.


The feelings or thoughts of the author(s) and/or publisher(s) of the book being reviewed are not expressed here. These are simply the thoughts of the author of the review itself.


There, now that that’s been taken care of we can move on to bigger and better things. This review will be on Stephen King’s The Stand (Uncut and Unedited). Now if you’re not a Stephen King fan, hold it! Do not exit this site yet. At least read some of the review. The common misconception of Stephen King is that he only writes gory, scary stuff. This is nowhere near the truth. Yes, he does write some gory things, like in Misery. Do we all remember the famous breaking the legs with a sledge hammer scene? What actually happens in the books makes this pale in comparison. She chops his foot off with a dull ax and then cauterizes it with one of those propane torches. All while he’s wide awake! Then later she cuts his thumb off with a mini power saw. There are a couple more gory things in this book, but they’re not gratuitously drawn out. In fact the chopping off of the thumb is skipped over and is told while he’s thinking of using the space bar on a type writer. The scary things, well I’ll get to that when I get into my review. The fact of the matter is he tells a story, not about ghouls and ghosts, but about people, people with regular problems. Like in the Shining. Jack is a former teacher who has a drinking problem. How many American’s alone have this problem? The story is about him dealing with this and overcoming it. It is just by happenstance that he has to do that inside a haunted hotel. (Quick note: if your only experience with The Shining is the version with Jack Nicholson then you have been greatly deprived. They could have named this movie Haunting and given the characters different names and no one would have thought it had anything to do with the book. Order the six hour version written by Stephen King himself.) One director said it perfectly, “Steve doesn’t write about the monster in the closet, he writes about the people who own the house which the monster’s closet is in.” Now I can move on to the review itself. You can leave now. I’ve had my say.


The Stand (Uncut and Unedited) is 1,141 pages long, possibly longer if you get the hardback version. It’s his longest and probably his best book. At least according to some people. I personally think IT was his best, but oh well.


This book starts out in a little military base in Washington State, I believe, where they are working on a biological weapon. Well due to unseen events the virus breaks loose and one man gets out of the base and travels east. Now the virus is 99.9% communicable. This means that .1% of everyone they come in contact with will be immune. Then the people they give it to will give it to whomever they come into contact with and so on and so forth. So you can see how this could affect the world. Steve sticks with America to keep it simple (haha, simple is one word I wouldn’t use to describe this book). It’s all about people having to deal with their problems when, by coincidence, the super flu hits. One man is dealing with debt and running from loan sharks. One girl has to deal with being pregnant before marriage. One man doesn’t even seem to have any problems; he simply works at a gas station. Another man gets caught up with a psychopath and gets put in jail (imagine being locked up when most of the world dies). And last of all is a woman who is 118 and chosen by God to lead the survivors. Now polar to her is That Dark Man, or Randall Flagg. He is the imp of Satan and wants to pretty much take over the world. Well the story unfolds as the people gather to the two different forces. So on the outside you could say it’s an epic battle between God and the devil. Which is what it’s about, but it’s filled with characters and events I don’t think a single person could hold in their minds while staying sane. I don’t suggest letting anyone under fourteen read it due to some content, but if they’re interested and you think they have the time for it, please let them read this book. I give it a 9/10

Busy, Busy, Busy (Part I)

Well these last two weeks of summer have been a little hectic. In this blog I’ll try to share with you what has been going on.


First off, there was Youth-i-Versity. Yes I know that’s not the right spelling, but that’s the way we spell it. Anyway, Youth-i-Versity is a week where from 7:00 to 9:00 youth gather together and have classes called tracks, in between those classes are what we call Snack ’n’ Yak where we eat whatever food is provided for that day and just talk about stuff. After the classes is the all important Lip Sync contest. This is probably my favorite part. The Lip Sync contest is where a group of people pick a band or artist and then Lip Sync to the song they pick. Now it has to be a Christian song and you get points for realism. It may sound stupid it is awesome. They hook up our sound system and put speakers everywhere so whenever they playa song it sounds like you’re in a concert. There was some pretty stiff competition. For example my friend A-ron did the song by Kirk Franklin, Stomp. Now if you have heard that song you can imagine how hard it is to lip sync to all of the stuff he says. He had gotten a couple of people and put choir robes on them to sing background. They were one the third night. My group was on the last night, Thursday. Me and four of my friends did a Third Day song that was live. That was really fun. For the first minute and forty seconds the lead singer (whom I was playing) talks. Just talks. No rhythm, nothing but talking. But I got it. I wish I could show you some pictures, but other individuals had there cameras out for that part of the night. Well we won and I’m glad because this is my last year doing this. Oh well, such is life; moving on from one phase to the next.



After the lip sync there were epic confrontations of power and might and skill... O.k. so we actually just did pogo sticking (I’m not really sure that’s a term) contests, hula hooping, jump rope, and carpet ball competitions. I came in second on both the hula hooping and pogo sticks.




Needless to say it was fun.

A New Boogeyman

This blog will be shorter then most because there’s not that much to tell. (I don’t even know why I’m posting it, perhaps to exorcise a demon or two.)


I was writing last night and it started out about an emotional memory of a character’s (now deceased) grandmother whom the character had taken care of during the last few years of her life. I began with a cousin who was a bit haughty and all that jazz. Nothing that bad, right? But when I turned around to give a little bit of background on what the grandmother went through in those last days she said something that disturbed me.


The character I had mentioned before was sleeping in bed, but was awoken with a start when she heard her grandmother screaming in the other room in the dark house. “Susie!” she had screamed. “Susie, baby! The men in the white coats are here! They’re finally here for me! Susie, please! Their hands have claws. Oh dear Lord in heaven they have claws!”


Now after I wrote this I just kind of sat back and reread it a couple of times. Then I cast a nervous glance over my shoulder into the dark living room behind me and a chill ran down my spine. Ah heck, it traveled all through my body. I finished that paragraph and shut the computer down in a hurry. Then I rushed (as quietly as possible, mind you) into the bathroom and flicked all of the lights on in there and began to brush my teeth in a hurried frenzy. After this I had to walk from the bathroom to my bedroom, which is at the opposite side of the house, through complete darkness. By now I’m sure you can imagine how my somewhat twisted mind was coming up with crazy visions of tall men in white coats hunched over in the corners and crannies with there long claws hanging by their sides. The darkness is a perfect back drop for the fantasies of the mind to play out upon. I got into my room and flicked the switch on. I don’t know about you, but this happens to me a lot. When I turned the light on I actually saw (or thought I did, anyway) one of the Clawed Men standing next to my bed in the mirror. When I turned around, of course, there was only a shirt hung on the chair.


Well like I said before I don’t really know why I posted this, but I figured I needed to get it out of my system sometime. But it seems that now I’ve discovered a new boogeyman of sorts. Hopefully I won’t get any more “visits” from them again. If so, then I’ve dealt with worse.


Until next time I’ll be dreaming, writing, living for Jesus.

Long Time No See

Well, it’s been a while hasn’t it. I guess I’ll have to fill you (whoever “you” might be) in on what’s been going on with me.



Hmm…where to begin? Ah yes, “Concerning Hobbits.” Ha ha. Sorry about that, I just watched The Fellowship of the Ring and I thought it was somewhat witty. Tolkien quotes aside I’ve actually been quite busy. I’ve now come into possession of my own car which actually used to be my parents. My mother was the one who usually drove with my dad being gone at work all day so it had a bumper sticker that proclaimed proudly that “I [insert a red heart here] love my husband!” Well as you can imagine I was vary happy to finally own this car so I wouldn’t have to drive it around with that on the back anymore.



Now that I’m sitting here writing this I find that the car seems to be the center of all of my business. I needed the car to get back and forth to school (I’ll fill you in on that later) on my own. But to have a car I need money to pay for gas, which oh so painfully expensive now. Then again I did see a Seven/Eleven with the price of $3.71. Not bad when compared to the price of gas a month ago. But anyway, the issue of money brings me to my next point; a job. I was worried about finding a job near me (I live a half an hour away from the nearest Walmart, if that gives you any perspective on how much I have to travel), and the hours, trying to schedule around my classes. Whew, that’s a lot to worry about. (I know, not really. Unfortunately you can’t really tell when I’m being sarcastic with this thing, oh well, on we go.) But I got lucky. Real lucky. I got a job with a friend from church who does his own tree work business. This is more of am extra money thing for him and it’s not his actual career. He does this on Saturdays and pays me by the hour. And since we average 8 to 10 hours for one day, which fills my car twice, and I’m only going to be filling it maybe once a week you can see how that will add up. So God provided for me there.



The reason I need the car is so I can get back forth to school (as I stated earlier). Now let me fill you in on school. ­I won’t get into all of the details of financial aid. I’ll leave this simple. We sent in the information in April and didn’t get this thing resolved until yesterday. You can fill in the ridiculously large ­­gap with you imagination. Have fun with that. But I didn’t get my classes scheduled until yesterday as well. Once again I was extremely lucky (or blessed) with that. I got Tuesday and Thursday classes, Tuesday from 11:00 a.m.—6:20p.m.and then Thursday from 11:00 a.m.—9:30 p.m. And I like all but one of my classes to boot. (Go figure it’s Math). I’ll be taking College Composition I, Psychology, Elementary Algebra, (which is actually High School level Algebra) and American History (only on Thursdays).



So yeah. That’s what I’ve been doing. Until next time I’ll be dreaming, writing, and living for Jesus.

When is Gross too Gross?

Well as the title inquires, when is gross too gross? This blog will be quite short, but I figured I’d share it nonetheless. When you’re writing a horror story (and sometimes even in mysteries this arises) you have to realize when the gore is enough. I remember some advise I had given to a friend once who was writing a story and he was afraid that it would be too gory. These were my exact words to him. (Laugh if you like, it’s o.k. I laugh a bit myself when I look back) “Dude, you gotta embrace the gory goodness and roll in the carnage candy.” Hmm…pretty…stupid!


I mean come on. What kind of advice was that? Yeah, sure, if you want to write a little story that only the desperate will read. I should know. I’m writing a book (I’ve currently set in the “let sit and marinate” file cabinet in my brain right now while I work on shorter stories) about zombies. I believe it to be the first Christian zombie story which is making it quite easy to explain the origin of the virus, but I won’t get into that right now. What I was getting at was that it would have to be quite a bloody spectacle. You really can’t write a zombie story and it not be. Well I had one part where one of the characters is with two of his friends when the spread starts. His two friends become infected and turn and he is forced to…we’ll say dispense of them. We’ll also say that he dispenses of them with a golf cub and a crowbar. For your sake I’ll skip the details.


Needless to say I skipped the whole emotional part and went straight for the shock value. Was it shocking? Yes, in the way that it’s the first real scene with zombies and it’s filled with blood and other…things. Was it a bit overwhelming? Uh…That’s a big YES!!! A bit overwhelming is an understatement if there ever was one. Back then I thought overwhelming was a good thing, but I had missed one important thing; the emotionality of the situation. This was the kid’s two best friends and all I had him do was a little bit of crying and throwing up. If I had to do that with my friends I would probably want to kill myself and never sleep again. But thankfully I’ve gone back and hopefully fixed that problem.


Now to the other end of the stick. You don’t need to be afraid to throw some blood in there. That was the problem on my first book. I was too afraid to be violent and therefore took away from the power of my antagonist (the villain). If you don’t have some violence then you’ll never get across to the reader the consequences of messing with this guy. Yes, you need to be concerned, but don’t be afraid. That would be like if my Sweet Heart goes on a long trip and I’m afraid she’s going to die the whole time. That’s not what I do. I’m simply concerned for her safety, not paranoid something’s going to happen.


Like I said before I’m not exactly sure why I decided to post this, but I figured it’d be fun. ‘Till next time I’ll be dreaming, writing, living for Jesus.

Summer Camp

Well we got back from Summer Camp last night (it was actually more like this morning, but you get the picture). So I decided that I should probably blog about and I guarantee it will touch someone’s life. I will try to describe what went on with accurate clarity, but I will more than likely fail. Oh well, as I like to say, you gotta try or you gotta go.

The first things I’ll share about are more one the fun filled side of the experience. First of all I’ll tell about my roomies. There was Hoshua and Magic-man. I’ve known Hoshua for about half of my life and we consider each other brothers. We’ve had lots of fun times. Magic-man, on the other hand, I’ve only known for a few months and even then I haven’t spent a whole lot of time with him. He’s a middle-schooler and I’m a senior. Hoshua is a Junior, but he’s older than me so we’re pretty much equal. When I first heard that Magic-man was going to be rooming with us I was like “Oh great. Now we’re going to have an annoying middle-schooler with us. This is going to be fun.” Little did I know that he was going to be the one who made me laugh the most.

Now there’s something I need to clarify before I go any further. Me and my group of friends trash talk each other like crazy. If people saw us talk to each other and didn’t know it they would probably think we hated each other. But it’s actually the polar opposite. We are inseparable. There are times where we’ll almost beat each other up and then two minutes later ask if the other wants to come over. Perhaps it is so we prove to each other how much we really like each other. But I don’t really know how to explain it.

Anyway. The first night we were there and unpacking we were already telling each other (me and Hoshua always do this, but this was the first time I had spent any real amount of time with Magic-man) to shut up and go jump in a lake, etc. It was like we bonded after the first minute. He made me laugh to where I couldn’t breathe. Here’s an example. We were rolling around in the computer chairs that were in our dorm and then we got a novel idea. Let’s roll each other as fast as we can at the beds and fly off of the chair. Great idea, huh? What do you expect, we’re a couple of guys. Well it didn’t really work. The first try we decided we would swing the person around in the chair and then let them go when we were pointed at the bed. Well when Magic-man let go of the chair with Hoshua on it the chair immediately flipped over without moving forward. I thought that was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. Round two worked a little better, but not much. It was my turn to be in the chair and we still swung each other around, but this time they didn’t just let go. We would swing and the push them towards the bed. Well this probably would have worked if I had jumped off of the chair. Instead I just sat there like an idiot and almost got my foot smashed into the metal frame of the bed. The only thing that saved my foot was God’s grace and the arm of the chair. They say God pities children and drunks, they should add idiots to that saying.

Well that was just a taste of the fun side. Onto more serious matters.

I don’t know how many of you know of what happened at Camp, but I’m sure most of you do. For those of you who don’t a couple of guys were talking about doing something that is strictly forbidden in the Bible and apparently one had already done it. There was more but it’s all in the past now and I don’t feel the need to share it here.

The whole week’s theme was about being unshakable in God’s word. As you can guess there were a few members of our youth group that weren’t entirely unshakable. Well I’ll skip the details and move one to the most important part. The last night we were there in our share group time our leader decided to put us in a big circle. Then all of the new comers went into the middle and the rest of the group, if they felt led, went and encouraged them, said a prayer over them, whatever they felt led to do. Then the seniors went out. I never knew how many lives I had touched. Then again, I’m not the one touching lives, am I? One thing the Pastor there had said was that we are vessels in which Christ dwells and pours His power and love through us. Anyways, after the seniors were done. The leaders went into the middle and if anybody had a problem they went to them and talked to them about it.

Not only did people go up to the leaders I had two people come to me. I just never knew that I was that important. It was really encouraging to see this. Daughter of the King had knelt by her chair and I went over to her and prayed with her. I realized that I needed to step up to the position of a spiritual leader in our relationship. God was telling me (not in an audible voice, I don’t believe that has happened since Jesus was baptized. I could be wrong though) that if I really did love her then I needed to help lead her in her Christian walk. She supports me in everything I do and I know she’ll support me in this. I also know I’m gonna need it.

The next morning, the morning we were to leave, we got into chapel for the morning worship service. We were all there before the it was do to start and we found out that a couple of our youth members were being accused of helping steal something that a girl from a different church had stolen. We could tell right away that Satan was trying to undermine what had happened the night before. He saw how strong we were (and are) when we stood together. So we all decided (the leaders were dealing with the police, I believe) we needed to pray. We all went out of chapel and stood in a circle right outside the building holding hands. We knew that chapel was about to start, but we also knew that this was what God wanted us to do. We each said a prayer and never before had I ever felt spiritual warfare that close. I know it is constantly going on, but I could really feel it in the air.

Well needless to say, God won. He always does, but He invites us to be a part of that and when we say yes to that it is an amazing feeling.
I think I’ve said enough for today. Until next time I’ll be dreaming, writing, living for Jesus.

I Wonder?

Lately I've been reading a whole lot of Stephen King, the most resent being The Mist (which I have to say here, if you are a parent I would suggest you don't see that movie unless you're a horror movie fan or Stephen King fan [No those things are not synonymous]). But my mind keeps wandering back to one of the first books by him that I read. His work ranges massively from one subject to the other. For example, Cujo is probably the story of Ole Yeller if they hadn't of taken him behind the old wood shed. This also deals with the relationship of a young boy and his mother. Then there's Cell. If you read this you won't want to use your cell phone for months. This particular tale is about a sunny, perfect day that goes absolutely down the pooper (to put it lightly) when a signal is transmitted to every cell phone in the world, turning all that are using them into zombies. And of course how can I mention Stephen King and not talk about IT. Now don't be fooled. If you were to ask the average person what this story is about, the extent of their experience is probably limited to seeing the movie. This person will tell you it's (no pun intended) about an evil clown terrorizing this town. But this gigantic novel (which is over 1,ooo pages long, not including the introduction) is actually about a group of friends having to deal with every day things a child must go through to become an adult and there just happens to be an unstoppable evil force out to get them.

Wow. Sure did chase that rabbit. Sorry. Now back to that certain book I was talking about before. This one in particular was called Desperation. The thing that made this 800 paged book so interesting to me was that if I wanted to prove to you that Stephen King is a Christian, all I have to do is sit you down with a copy of this book in front of you. The story itself is how in the end God knows what He's doing and His saving grace is available to all as long as they ask Christ to live within them. Now if you are a Stephen King fan and have not read this book please do. And even if you're not, and you just want something good to read, pick up this book. Now it is pretty horrific. It kept me up into the wee hours of the night wanting to read something that wouldn't haunt me in my dreams, to no avail, I might add. Yes, he's not the cleanest writer around. No, he has not professed himself as a Christian. And I'm not even saying that he is one. This blog entry was simply to lay down the facts and present the possibilities.

So I guess I will leave you for now. Until next time I'll be dreaming, writing, living for Jesus.

A Random Thought

This post will be the first of probably many like it. A seemingly random thought or conversation with myself that really holds no pertinence to anything. I'm just putting it on this blog to see if it could actually be interesting. This will be the former of those two.

Like I said in one of my previous posts I'm an aspiring writer and, like most writers, I've learned to fill my free time with conversations with myself. Now I know what you're thinking. "He has conversations with himself? Must have a few screws loose." Well you can rest assured I am not crazy or a psycho or anything like that. I am a completely sane person. Don't worry. But where was I? Oh yes, conversations.

This random thought (or a series of thoughts, whichever you prefer) was about my first novel. I haven't really started writing it yet, I first need to complete the rest of what I call my "Sorta-Series", which is a few short stories, novellas, and one novel all loosely connected. This novel (with a working title I won't share until I've actually started writing it) is going to have so much back story and answer so many questions that are presented in previous works that I have to wait and see where all the details and character arcs are leading to. If I started writing now I wouldn't know who is still alive, who is dead, who has been introduced already, what events have already happened, etc.

I can't tell you in full detail all of what I was thinking about last night because if I do wind up writing and publishing all of these stories I would have to give up the twist, which I just can't do. What I was thinking about was the antagonist (the villain) and his origins which is what this series is kind of about. The Darkman is really the only consistent character through all of the books. I'm actually quite proud of the past and connections I've been able to give him. He's probably the best character I have yet to write. But then I ran into a problem, which is where these thoughts come in. This kind of how it went.

"O.k. I've hopefully created the ultimate bad guy who's going to be built up over five books. He's a serial killer, a supernatural figure, a child's nightmare in a bedtime story, and someone who ultimately gives himself completely over to evil and in return he thinks he can control evil. This of course leads to his downfall."

"Well how are you going to portray his downfall and still be scary and a threat. Serial killer movies don't scare you because in the end they're all just human. Now that you've made this guy superhuman he's scary, but how do you make him identifiable with whoever reads about him, and keep him scary?"

"Well that is quite a problem, now isn't it? What the heck am I gonna do now? I can't go back and make it different. I'd have to start from scratch."

"So what are you going to do?"

This is when it hit me.

"There is no way that you can have a good story and the antagonist not be inevitably pathetic when you get to the core of his/her being. Darth Vader being a perfect example. He is probably one of the most iconic villains of all time and when you get down and dirty he's really just an old guy who is missing an arm and a leg and most of his skin. But he's still a big villain. Davy Jones, being one of the coolest bad guys ever, all he really wanted was his true love."

"What's one more thing all great villains have in common?"

"They all have horrible backgrounds. Something happened to them that scarred them (either physically or internally) and made them come to that place where they had to make a decision on whether or not they were going to choose evil over good. They just made the wrong choice. Even Satan, when he was called Lucifer, made the wrong decision. Now granted nothing horrible happened to him to scar him before hand, but afterwards he was cast into Hell. And just like God is love Satan is evil. And I don't mean just the state of being, I mean he literally is evil personified."

Then I realized that I didn't have to change a thing. I already had all of that. And so what if when I reveal who he is it's pathetic. The Devil himself, I believe anyways, is completely pathetic when you get down to the nitty-gritty. He can't do a single thing unless it ultimately goes with God's will, which is quite a comforting thought when you think about it.So in reality I had no need to worry. And like I said, this was completely random, but I figured someone might find it interesting.

Until next time I'll be dreaming, writing, and living for Jesus.

What Now?

Well I'm a senior this year which means a lot of different things. First of all it means I have to get a job. Yay, yippee, hurray for me, right? Well it's not that bad really. I've filled out a few applications and heard back from none of them, but I still have a few more places on my list, so I'm not too disappointed. I just need one before the fall and it will be next to impossible to find one after summer break.

The fact that I'm a senior also means that I will be out of school and into college. I guess I could also say it like this. I'm jumping out of the pan and into the burner. But that's o.k. too because I have what a lot of other people unfortunately don't. It's the default Sunday school answer; Jesus!Besides get an education, my main goal at Lake Sumter (I know there are those of you gagging when I say that name) will to hopefully shine brightly enough for my fellow students and teachers to see that there's something different.

Well this morning our church had a senior recognition service. We each got up in front of the congregation and said our names and gave a little speech. Everyone tells me I did a good job, but after saying my name I really don't remember too much of what I said. I was sort of nervous, but like I said, everyone told me what a good job I did.

You never really know how many people care about you and are supporting you until something like this comes up. It seemed like the whole church came up to me and shook my hand and told me how proud they were. I was able to hold back from crying during my little speech thingy, which I was kind of surprised about since I'm pretty emotional. I think everyone else cried, or came close to it, when they talked. I know I came close. Oh well, it was all good. If you want to see pictures I'm sure you could find some in the blog "A Glance Into my World."

Mother's Day

Yeah, it Mother's Day! This post will be kind of short sine I only want to do one thing. The following is for my mom and remember that I write books, not poems. So bear with me.





"Well once again it's Mother's Day~

And Mommy, there's just one thing that I want to say~

I wish there was more than one day a year~

Where we can celebrate the women we hold dear~

The woman who cooked me soup while I was sick~

The woman who taught me which friends to pick~

The woman who showed me Jesus for a friend~

So now I know I will see her again~

Even though there were five of us boys~

You could keep us laughing without games or toys~

You gave us the chance to make our own choice~

But with our decisions you still had a motherly strong voice~

Now today there's just one thing that I want to do~

I want to show you, Mommy, how much I love you."




Well I hope that wasn't to sappy for your taste, but that's just the way I feel. Like I said, I'm no poet, but what I wrote came straight from my heart. Until next time...I'll be dreaming, writing, and living for Jesus.

The End of the Road (when is it coming?)

Well good morning. Today is going to be one of those days where I can't wait for it to end. Well...maybe just the first half, that is. We're going to be leaving for a funeral at 9:30 I believe that will be taking place up in Lakeland.



I'm glad we're going, in a sense. My Aunt really needs it. She just lost her mother (who had been suffering from Alzheimer's) just a few weeks ago. She barely had any time to start coping with that when her ex-husband got in a motorcycle accident on May 7. When he got to the hospital, his biggest worry would be his career ending, which is a pretty big thing. You see, he was a police officer, but he had broken some of his ribs and I believe his ankle as well. But after they did some tests they found that his lung was punctured and his heart was bruised. Then he had a stroke. The doctors then put him under for something else, but I can't remember. Perhaps to see the full extent of the damage done to his internal organs. Anyway, while this was happening his heart stopped. They tried to massage it, but they were unable to get it beating again. All of this within four hours. Absolutely amazing isn't it.

The day that this had happened was Wednesday and we were on our way to The Daughter of the King's house. We got the call right before we left that he had died. We got in the car and five minutes into the drive I had this nagging feeling that I needed to turn on the radio. The first song that played went something like this,

"There's a cross on the side of the road where a mother lost her son,

how could she know that the morning he left would be the last time, she'd trade with him for a little more time

So she could say she loved him one last time

And hold him tight,

But with life we never know when we're coming up to the end of the road,

So what do we do then, with tragedy around the bend?"

I listened to the words in amazement. I could believe that one particular song was playing when I turned on the radio. Then again, I wasn't really the one who decided to turn on the radio, now was I? The hand of God had nudged my mind and therefore my hand. "Why did He do that?" one might ask. I believe He did that so I could write about it here and hopefully someone who needs to hear this will read it.

Another question that could be asked is "What do we do with death around the corner?" That same song has the answer: "We live, we love, we forgive and never give up. Because the days we are given are gifts from a above and today we were given to live and to love." This is so true. How different would we look at our loved ones if we thought about how we could lose them in the blink of an eye. I know my perspective would be very different.

So the ultimate question would be this: "When is the end of the road coming?" The truth is no one knows except God Himself. So let this be a lesson to you (I know it was for me). First of all, God can use anything for the good, even the death of a loved one. Second, live like your only have one day left everyday, so that there will be no regrets on what you've said or done. I know that if I had died on Wednesday I would have had regrets. Would you? Even more so, do you know where you would have gone if had died?

Until next time I'll be dreaming, writing, living for Jesus.

First Shot

Well, as the title implies, this would be my first try at a blog of any kind. The closest I've ever come to this before was when I put "My Interests" on a Facebook account. I hope the things you red her will help you in some way or another. Either to lift you up on a down day, or even possibly give you a little insight on a matter you you are dealing with. Or maybe you would just like to read what a goofy guy like me has to say for the day. Whichever it is I'm glad I can help.

You might recognize my pseudonym (I believe that would be the right term for this) from another blog entitled "A Glance into My World". The Steps mentioned in that blog and I are one and the same. I don't know when I'll put up a profile picture. I've recently sustained a wound to the face in a somewhat embarrassing accident. Perhaps Lady G will tell that story in one of her blogs. Maybe in a week or so it will heal up and I can get the picture.

What this blog in its entirety will be about I have no idea. I do know, though, that I will have a private blog set up where only the people I know personally and trust will be able to read some of my work I've been doing over the past few years. Like it says in my profile description thing I like to write and I plan on being a writer for my profession. The only problem that I am facing with that is getting published. It seems that the saying "Money makes the world go 'round" is partly true. When you publish something you're using the magazine's or book's materials, therefore you must pay for those materials. When you begin to add the cost of mailing the manuscript (which must be first printed off of the computer with ink and paper that usually seem to disappear quickly) in a manila envelope overnight with the payment of being published you find that at the beginning you spend almost as much as you are going to make. That is until you become a name on the best seller's list. Once there it seems the worst thing to look out for are ridiculous critics.

Well I chased that rabbit more than I expected. You'll find that I do that a lot. Oh well, I'll try to stay away from doing that as much as possible (which probably won't be very much, ; ) ).

One other thing you'll find is that these blog entries will more than likely be shorter than most. I seem to be able to express what I want to say in little time. I guess that might be a good thing. I also don't know if this will read like most other blogs. I've never really read one where it rambles on about really nothing. I'll try to keep these entries interesting. How I'll do this I don't know, but I will try my best.

Well that's all for now, until next time you'll find me dreaming, writing, and living for Jesus. Farewell.