Julius’ Blog

 

Little J: There’s a bug in my room.

Adrienne: Really Mike? A bug?

Me: Honey I opened his window and a water bug came in.

Adrienne: Mike! A water bug?! Get back up there, kill it, and put him to bed!

Little J: It fly Mommy (flapping his arms like wings)

Me: It didnt crawl in. It flew in and it’s still flying!

Adrienne: Tasha get your suitcase we don’t live here anymore!

Tasha (my Mother in Law): Why?!

We left Tasha behind for asking too many questions in the face of an emergency evacuation. It may have eaten her…we may never know. Adrienne grabbed Disney and his hobo bag. We live in our car now, traveling around Charlotte, avoiding flying insects that shouldn’t freaking fly, solving mysteries, and fighting crime.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and it doesn’t involve flying bugs that aren’t meant to freaking fly, and you can find us maybe you can hire The J Team.

  Back when I was a little boy I watched a lot of cartoons, like most kids.  One that stuck with me was The Muppet Babies.  It was a cartoon about living in your imagination and oh my gosh I loved it!  Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, Rowlf, Scooter, Sketter, Fozzie, and Animal!  They were every part of my world.  Each one a little bit of something for everyone and the absolute best part was that I could see myself in each of them.

However, there were two Muppet Babies that really spoke to me.  Scooter and Skeeter were something special and I couldn’t place my finger on it.  They weren’t the stars, they weren’t the most talented, and they weren’t even destined for greatness like the others.  They were side characters thrown in to fill out the group dynamic.  Heck, Skeeter never even made the Muppet Show.  But still I loved them.

Scooter was the nerd I wanted to be.  Always working on something, building something, and dabbling in something else just to expand his knowledge.  But he always had time to leave his books and computer behind to cheer on his sister.  Skeeter was the athlete, the ultimate tom-boy, and Laura Croft before she was ever a thing.  Skeeter was fearless, adventurous, and always pushing her limits.  She reminded me of my cousin and I guess scooter reminded me of me.

Looking back they weren’t my favorites.  Not even the top five for the Muppets in general.  But they were special.  I think I know why now.  And I will forever thank Jim Henson for allowing a little boy who was too dark for part of the world and too light for the other part to feel included, even if it wasn’t intentional.  My son hasn’t discovered the Muppet Babies yet.  But when he does I hope he notices that Scooter and Skeeter have hair like his.

Today is the day!  THE DAY!  I am sitting down going through the edits for White Knight and I happen to look down at the date on my screen.  When I created Michael White I wanted him to be different, interesting, and a little odd.  This falls into all three categories.  Today, February 29^th is Michael’s Birthday.  Michael was born in 1996 and that means he is 24 years old.  Still young, still getting started in life, and with a lifetime of adventure ahead of him if he doesn’t loose his life in one of these books.

Just for reference Michael is 22 in the book White Knight, which takes place in 2018.

Happy 7^th Birthday Michael!!!

  The second round of edits for White Knight came back.  So while I work on getting these done everything else gets put on the back burner.  I’m still going to work on projects but I need to make that my priority.  The sooner I get this done the sooner you guys get to read my book and tell me how you feel about it.  Like it or not I just want you to read it…then read the next one.

This is my second check in for the first draft of this book and I am steadily approaching the end of the first act.  I have hit my stride and am happy with my progress… and that was my mistake.

So I caught a stomach virus.  One that literally had me on the floor trying to figure out just the right amount of cough syrup and rum would put me into a comma and possibly not kill me.  I spent half a day dry heaving every four to ten minutes because I spent the previous night throwing up more food than I thought I had eaten that week.  It was so many different colors, like a rainbow!  It got to the point where I was chugging water just to make throwing up easier.  Due to this I missed several days of work (my day job, writing, and patrolling the streets of my city as a costumed vigilante).  I didn’t sleep for almost 72 hours but once I did sleep it was just fever dreams and sleep walking.  Thankfully this time I didn’t wake up outside of my house.  But I survived and my son did not catch the virus.  That was seven days of my life that I am glad are behind me.

Apparently not being able to keep food and water down will make you feel pretty weak after you get over being sick.  So I spent a few days recovering my strength.  My head was sore from all the throwing up I had been doing so I stuck to editing.  Once I was feeling better I got some new material down.

Then, in the span of ten minutes, my transmission died.  So my families mode of transportation that has to carry my wife to work, my son to daycare, myself to work, and get us home basically died.  Luckily, we have only had the car for six months so its under warranty.  The warranty company even told me to take it to a repair shop just two miles from my home.  They contacted me 3 days later to let me know that I should never have taken it to that shop and that I needed to have it towed to the dealership at my own expense.  Also since I went to the wrong shop (which they sent me to!!!) the rental car that I have isn’t covered because technically I got the rental before they took my car in.  Oh and this all started on my birthday!  Yay 37!

So due to the delicious stress of life I haven’t gotten as much done as I had hopped.  This blog post is even coming out 3 days late (that’s the reason we are going with).  But at the end of the day I am still writing ( and defending the streets of my city).  What I guess I am saying is that life will get in the way of your dreams so you have to dig a little deeper and find that special twist that keeps you going.  For me, it’s the fact that my son likes hearing my stories (the ones I write just for him because the work I am giving you guys IS NOT FOR CHILDREN).

So to every would be writer out there that thinks its going to be easy, its not.  This was actually a mild month in my life.  We aren’t even covering family issues, home repair, job issues, friendships, or your internet history.  To all those would be writers that think its going to be hard, then you are right.  But if you love it enough you can find a way to make it work.  If not…then keep trying.  You deserve to do what you love so keep at it.  You are just one hard day away from having an awesome topic to throw your main character into.  I just described two that Michael White may get to enjoy as much as I did.

See you guys back here just after Valentine’s Day!

So this is month one, day 15 of the four month plan for my new Sword and Sorcery/ Soul work in progress.  So how many words have I written?  None.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Not a one.  ME NO WRITEY THIS MONTH!!!

Just kidding!  We have 21,231 words of a projected minimum of 50,000.  Now I know my close friends and fans are saying that I am half way there with three months to go but lets not look at it this way.  Lets look at it like I got a big boost from working off of previous writings, another boost from being excited about this, and still another boost from rent being due (poverty is a driving force in my life and if that doesn’t make you laugh, agree with me, or wonder how we can all get beyond that together you may be in the wrong place but stick around, we always have an extra plate for you here).

So it has become obvious to me that this novel will be far more than 50K words.  That’s fine, I can do that.  The original goal was 50K words in four months.  Let’s see if I can meet that goal and set a sub goal of finishing it in that time.  So 50K words and MAYBE complete it.  I can do that…lets give it a go…Disney has my back…my son helps by demanding that I keep gummi worms and juice on hand in “teenager hording snacks” amounts.  This just might work…maybe.

Oh and just to stick my foot in deeper check out the new page: Sword and Sorcery

So this is what is on the table.  White Knight gets a cover and hits the shelves soon.  Howl in the Knight goes in for editing.  My sword and sorcery/ soul novel gets January through April designated for its first draft.  Bump in the night gets May through August for its first draft.  Then it’s a coin toss between continuing with a sequel to my sword and sorcery/ soul and starting a literary rpg.  See, I’m ambitious…or crazy…or both.

Now why am I saying all of this, putting it on the internet, and setting myself up for failure?  Because for my entire life I have held things like this close to my chest.  I kept everything secret because I was afraid to fail.  I didn’t even tell my family that I was writing my first book and wasn’t going to tell them until it was out for sale.  Why?  Because its easier to be unseen then to have someone look at you.  Well now everyone I know can look at what I have been doing when I rushed home from work, skipped parties, and missed gaming sessions.

This is 2020.  This is going to be MY year.  And I invite the entire world to see me go after my goal.  I also, as always, challenge anyone that reads this to do better.  Why?  Because I like when people succeed in their dreams…as long as they don’t dream of harming others.  If you dream of harming others, I hope you fail…and get punched in the face…a lot!

50,000 words per novel (minimum goal).

150,000 words for 3 novels.

12 Months in the year (366) days this year.

150,000 / 12 = 12,500 words per month.

Can it be done?  Yes.

Can I do it?  I have 366 days to find out.

But now it has.  In plotting my story I discovered that there was going to be way more to cover than I originally intended.  After plotting what I thought was the entire book I realized that the story was incomplete.  I don’t mean that it needs a second book.  The first one needs to be longer just to cover the basic story.  I am ambitious and have started the project but I am already frustrated because its going to take forever for this to get done, to edit, to sell to a publisher, and then to edit again and again and again before it hits a shelf.  I don’t fell like doing any of that work other than writing the darn story!

But I guess that’s the rub isn’t it.  I am a writer that is transitioning into an author.  That means that I need to do the extra work.  Its all fun and games when I am just making a story for my friends and saying, “here it is, have fun!”  Now its work and I just don’t want to do it.  Realizing this has triggered both my depression and self-destructive nature.  Because of that I haven’t written anything new in almost a month and I have ignored my current projects.

A very good friend of mine knew that I was in this rut and reminded me that more than being lazy I hate doing things “half way”.  So which is greater, my laziness or my distaste for half measures?  I am not sure but we are going to find out.  Either you folks are going to see a new high fantasy novel evolve here or you get to see one crash and burn.  It’s a coin flip at this point.  But as usual if I can take this first step so can you, in anything that you wish to do.  So I am going to get to work…after this nap.

We were at my wife’s grandmother’s home and were getting ready to leave for the night.  His great aunt goes into the cabinet and pulls out a bag of cookies.  She hands him one and he immediately starts to nibble on it.  Then, like clockwork, he looks over to me.  My son believes that anything I eat, he should eat and anything he eats, I should eat.  He crawls over to me and of course I pick him up.

No sooner do I lift him into the air then he holds the cookie out to me.  I graciously take a small bite.  “Emmm buddy that’s yummy!” I tell him.  He went back to eating his cookie and everyone talked about how cute he was.  Little did I know that I had lost the game.

He held out the cookie to me again but there was so little left that the slightest bite would be the end of it.  I, being unfamiliar with the game, opened my mouth to tell him no thank you.  He put the cookie in my mouth!  Okay…I didn’t fight him.  That cookie was delicious.  So I chewed it and ate it.  He was giggling and happy as can be!

Then he realized that the cookie was gone.  He looked at his empty hand, looked at me, and smacked me like I had robbed him!  He then grabbed my lips with both hands and pried open my mouth.  He was screaming and crying and probing my mouth with his hand.  He smacked my nose, my tongue, and my teeth.

He turned to his mother and great aunt as he pointed at my open mouth.  “Did you really eat his cookie,” they said in unison.

“He gave it to me!” I said in my defense.

“Don’t you know you aren’t supposed to eat the cookie?  You don’t eat food a baby offers you, that’s not how you play the game!” his great aunt told me.

I was in the dog house for the rest of the night.  But now I know the game and when my son offers me food I don’t eat it.

…

But when he offers me a cookie I do!  Play to win!

Also these cookie taste just like girl scout cookies!!!

First, I get it.  A lot of you really don’t think Ariel’s skin color/ race should change.  I know its hard to have something that seems cemented as fact change for you.  It can literally topple your world.  However that is kind of the point isn’t it?  Wasn’t Ariel’s whole adventure about how she wanted to change?  To do something new?  To be something different?  Not because she wasn’t happy being herself but because she wanted to explore something that was new and exciting.

I’m sure when some of you tagged along with Ariel you felt that you could see yourself in her.  I didn’t because I AM TERRIFIED OF WATER!!!  But my female cousins did.  They loved Ariel and as children they did understand that even though the movie was made for us, it didn’t feature “them” as much as it featured “other people”.  No Disney movie did.  And you know what, that was okay for that time.  Not because we accepted it, but because it was all we had.  It was all they had.  It’s a moment in time that they will always look back on in awe.  Though I am sure that awe is a mixture of love for the movie and disappointment that “they” could never be a part of that world.

Well now they can be.  They have grown up into bright young women and have little boys and girls of their own that want to see an Ariel that looks like them.  Personally I would LOVE if each of Ariel’s sisters was a different ethnicity.  Also Urchin should be movie cannon…that’s for me…don’t care about anyone else’s opinion on that.

I’m sorry that some of you may not feel that this Ariel portrays you and isn’t your Ariel.  To those of you who are still waiting for an Ariel that does look like you I hope you get your wish (maybe on Broadway or in a new cartoon).  But to those of you that are just upset that this different version of Ariel doesn’t look like you just imagine how it felt for every little girl that didn’t look like you to watch every single Disney movie time and again only to not see herself for decades.  You still have the original move, the cartoon, and every single Disney Princess cameo that Ariel makes.  The original isn’t going away.  Your collections complete.  You’ve got everything.  But you want more…

Well you get to have your wish and so do other people.  An Ariel that is a little different and that will give a few other little girls a glimpse at being part of that world.  If you can’t appreciate that I am sorry but I think you missed a big point to the original movie.  To love and embrace something that is different.  You should watch it again.  Different isn’t always bad.

To the rest of you that are still kids at heart I have something very important to say to you:

Girls and Boys, It’s time to explore that shore up above!

Eleven months later my second book (yes my first one sucked!!!) was picked up and now its in the final stretch to publication. So here is my website and as I begin this journey I hope you check in every once in a while and enjoy reading my work as much as I enjoyed writing it…maybe more…some of that stuff hurt.

I have two urban fantasy books written and in process for you, a sword and sorcery in the works, and a literary fiction on the back burner.  Ambitious?  Yes!  But I believe you have to be in order to succeed at what you love.

Well that’s enough back story for now.  Go check out Michael the Knight and enjoy a short story before the novel releases.