Finding peace in a world that hates grasshoppers.

As a writer you want to put out only the best work you possibly can.

As a human being you want to walk the path that has the least amount of obstructions.

As a good writer you seek to inspire and energize the imaginations and dreams of your readers.

As a human being you hope to do no harm.

Can we do all those things?

Probably not.

Once said was, "You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time."

And that's just a simple truth of our world.

It's a world of constant shifting for balance...right and wrong...good and bad...happy and sad...enough money and not close to it. It's a world of opposites and don't let anyone tell you differently.

I've worked with some pretty rich people and they are no more happy than the poorest of people, they just have money to fall back on to indulge their down moments.

A wise grasshopper knows that the true balance in life is just doing the best you can, and walking that path with as little brusqueness as possible. Simply trying to do a good life is not easy. What is good for one person, may not be for another.

We are all souls climbing Jacob's Ladder. Some higher on the ladder, some lower, but all striving to get to the ultimate goal. Peace of mind and balance.

Whether you believe it is through money, sex, fame or fortune...well, that's your path.

But whatever path you take, just know it all ends up someday at the same goal. Balance. Even if it is painful getting there.

That all said.

I thought it would be fun to go through some of the thoughts on my mind as a write. I haven't had much time to do so of late, because of my regular job and trying to get in enough time writing and all my own crafts I enjoy...not including time for my loved ones!

Creative types can be driven or driving. I try to drive, but my love of art is so tremendous that sometimes I forget about the simpler things...like sleeping a full night, eating a good meal, keeping up with my friends...it goes on and on, but I try. As I'm sure we all do in our own ways.

I try never to judge another's failings, because I have a nice list of my own.

I'm looking forward to summer and the extra time it gives me.

Squeezing out my latest Sherlock Holmes adventure has been both a work of art and a time of great contrition, because I never have enough time it seems and it always pulls me away from doing something else equally as important.

"Ascension," my latest novel coming out on Amazon sometime this day deals with the rebirth of a famous author. One, whom I've loved since a child. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I still love his writing after all these years. And so I honor him by reinventing his world and modernizing it as I am pretty sure he might have done as well were he alive this day.

The fun of it is that I get to have him react with modern technology while still having some kind of familiarity about him...a Victorian environment jazzed up by Tesla technology. The equivalent of cell phones and computers in our own world and time.

Finding the time to write this story, which is a major expansion on an older idea I had, has been gruesome at times.

As many of you already know, I am a teacher in my Clark Kent time of the day and that requires a lot of time and effort as well.

It's been a real eye opener for me to teach at the middle school level these last couple years. It has actually helped me master a lot of things...like mostly patience. Kids are like bombs waiting to go off sometimes, and you have to tread lightly. Whoops! There's that balance thing again.

And if its not the kids, it's the parents, and more often than not the administrators...driven by their own demons...who add even more stress to the mix of trying to be a good teacher to so many kids who don't even want to learn.

I've seen a growing proportion of kids these days who are more interested in playing games...or mischief, unfortunately... than in developing personal skills and enhancing their knowledge of the real world.

Teaching in many ways is like writing. You are always trying to find the right/write combination of words or visualizations that will ignite the spark that flings the reader/student into a frenzy of self examination, excitement and urge to learn more.

I love pushing in the direction of a world where the wealth is more equitable and people more kind, even knowing that that dream may be just that...a dream.

I just try hard not to add to the grief in this world. Not all easy. Not always nice. Not always possible.

So what does this all have to do with science fiction and fantasy and especially my writing?

Everything!

Enjoy.

John