It's 2:36 AM on December 1st as I write this...

What you're about to read may begin with me, but it isn't truly about 'me'.  This is about 'you' and all that you could be, can be, want to be, and might be.

I wrote my first short story on a typewriter in the early 1980s, it was called 'Rusty's Adventures in Space' wherein the main character (Rusty) took a Wonkavator (see Willy Wonka) too high, ended up in space and met some aliens.  

I remember pulling the paper from the typewriter and asking my father if it was any good, should it be a book?  By that early age, I was already a lover of books and the ambition to make my own was beginning.

He said simply 'No.' and flatly put, tiny me was kinda crushed by his response.  I threw the paper away.  

My next story was written later, we were learning about basic story structure in English class using hamburger cutouts, (the buns were the beginning and end, the middle was the meat, nice metaphor, I know) and clever little me wrote a story about rival boxers named 'Ketchup and Mustard and their referee 'Pickles'.  Yeah, I know, puns, even then.  

I didn't bother showing my father that one.

I showed it to my mother, I thought she'd find the ketchup/mustard/pickles joke funny, to this day I don't know if she didn't get it or didn't think it was funny.  

I did get a good grade as I recall, and I knew I wanted to write someday.  

The thing about 'someday' though, is that it doesn't ever actually GET here, you know?  

So... life happened, you know?  I got older, still loved English class, still wrote short stories and tried my hand at writing my first real novel at the age of 18.  I let my parents read it, my mother said it was too violent and my father, while he praised 'completing' it as admirable, I can't recall him liking any of it.

To be fair, I was eighteen and it was bad.  I still have it wrapped up in paper in my closet, waiting for me to revisit it, fix it, and publish it.  But I just don't look backward creatively, I'm not that kid anymore, and it would never be what I envisioned when I began.

Life though, continued to happen, after that first rejection I went off to college, then joined the Army after finding it 'pointless'.  Though if you want the truth, part of it was just to get the hell away from my parents, a fairly common sentiment I suppose, but one that, if I'm being honest, hasn't changed.

I didn't write much for years, I dabbled and dabbled but nothing came of it, I married, had children, became consumed with just 'life in general'.  

Then I woke up and I was forty(ish).  

I got assigned to a role as an instructor out at Fort Bliss with some of the finest people I've ever served with.  We ran things so well that our workday was twenty hours long, by this time I'd discovered the series 'Overlord' I saw the first and second season, read the fanlations of the first ten novels, and I, for the first time in a long time, jumped into reading fanfiction because I wanted content.

Then I read a story that, in a way, changed everything.  I read the fanfiction story 'Cardinal of Sin'.  Now there's a lot of opinions about how good that one is or is not, but that's not important here.  What was important was that it promised me what I knew Overlord deserved.

A war story.

And it promised that.

And it did not deliver.  The war was abandoned in favor of a final duel, I don't blame the author, a war story would be big.

But now here came the moment of truth.  I had time on my hands for the first time in many a year, I had the outline of a story on my phone, and the urge to write.  But... I also had the option of playing video games.

I opened up notepad and began to write.  I released 'Memory & a Message' chapter one, and then chapter two, that day.  I got the first few comments, including praise from one 'Pervysagechuck' like Yoda, but if the muppet was a pervert.  

And then I began writing 'God Rising: The Cult of Ainz' thinking it would be 30,000 words, ten chapters, and read a few dozen times before being forgotten.  

I still haven't gotten any better at estimates on length...

But I released the first chapter on FFN, and then the second, third, fourth... 

Like a dam burst, words flooded out... now in fairness, no editing was done, and I hadn't written anything in a long time, looking back, I did a mostly terrible job, but it was a beginning.  I started doing chapters for charity (writing chapters if people donated blood or food etc. to charities) I started the Discord server because somebody offered to donate $15 to charity, I figured what the hell, twelve people will join, my work will end, everybody will move on and my work will be forgotten.

That is not what happened.  I wrote my next commission for a pizza, literally, delivering pizza to my room.  :D  

The stories grew and expanded, and I got a little better at writing them.

I bought books on how to write, character, voice, arcs, plot, etc.  I studied it seriously as a craft, and I wrote relentlessly.

In a few days it'll be three years since that first release.  'God Rising: The Cult of Ainz' is now one of the longest fanfictions in the world even without counting the expanded Author Universe, it's been read over one million times, and the collective author Universe is larger than Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Star Wars combined.

In addition, I've published five original novels and have several more in the works including redoing 'Who Endures' as originals for later release.  

And of course, I have you wonderful people's support, helping to make it all possible, I couldn't have come this far without everybody's help along the way.  The beta readers who read over all my chapters, the readers who offer encouragement, the donors and crowdfunders and patreon supporters who think investing in my ability to take time to write is an investment in their own happiness.

And that now brings me to the long awaited point.

This began with one fateful choice on a December day in 2018.  

To write a story instead of playing a videogame.  

And it came as far as it did, because I had (and have) wonderful people along the way who were willing to help me.

And it was stymied for years by people who simply did not care to help nurture that dream in its early days.  

Let my mistakes and good fortune both be a lesson to you.

You have a right to your dreams.

And you need a community of people to encourage and support you, morally even more than financially.  

You will never make them come true by waiting for the right time.  You'll wake up one day, realize you're old, or at least 'older' and it may or may not be too late.  What could I have achieved if I had not waited twenty years?  That keeps me up some nights, but now I make up for lost time as best I can.

Whatever you want for yourself, you have the right to pursue it!  You should pursue it!  And you should associate only with the kinds of people who will 'add' to your energy, not detract from it!  

Avoid the people who want to tear down your hopes, associate with the people who will help you make those hopes a reality, even if it is by speaking harshly sometimes, but who will also praise efforts and improvements in results!  

You're on the cusp of a new year, are you happy?  Are you fulfilled?  Are you dreaming of your dreams and waiting for the time you can go after them?  That someday will never be real if you just 'wait' for it, because that temptation to sloth, to 'just play a game' will always get in the way and you'll wait for a longer time later.

For the sake of your happiness, chase your dreams, even if you fail, even if you fail a lot, you will get to say you tried it!  And as long as you're trying, no failure is permanent, but if you don't even try, that's worse than failing.  

Go on, dare to be awesome!  You deserve it!  Why shouldn't YOU have the chance to write that book, take those pictures, build that business, see those places?  Disrupt your own life for the better, take the classes you need, and make your life, your ONLY life, about making it the life YOU want to live, not just the one you survive in until you die!

As we come to approach the end of a difficult year, I ask you... I implore you, don't make a 'new years resolution' that's just putting this off for another thirty days, no... make a NOW RESOLUTION, not 'tomorrow' not 'next week', not 'next year'.  A NOW RESOLUTION, take action right this moment, that you will not let this day end without taking a step toward your fondest desires!  

I don't know what the next year brings for any of us, but I hope it brings your dreams to reality for all of you.  Best of luck!  And enjoy the next round of chapters before 'Who Endures' 2nd book comes out on Amazon and the 7th volume of 'The One Who Stayed' is finished and turned into pdf and ebook formats.

Thank you for reading this far, including my bit of self indulgent reminiscing, it seemed relevant enough, now go and may you have the very best of luck with everything!