My love of Sci - Fi - I am really not one to write blogs and such, however, I can expound on my undying love for literature and a great story. I have always had a very "vivid" imagination. So much so that I used to get scolded for it often. When I was around the age of 5 I was convinced we had a killer whale living in our basement. I KNEW we did! I can honestly say that was the first time I remember being considered "odd". Looking back on my life I realized that somewhere along the way I learned to keep my weird ideas to myself. That is until I discovered literature. I was raised in the country with little or no media influences. I spent most of my youth outside trying desperately not to break a bone or get covered with some type of animal fecal matter. My physical life failed to dispel my constant and very vivid dreaming. I remembered them all and eventually started writing them down. I discovered reading and it became an emotional outlet that eventually lead to my overall questionable sanity and ability to function in a world full of humans that seemed content to live in the waking world. I was not. The races we run internally can be terrifying and isolating. I could not hide from my imagination in the waking world or in dreams. Writing them down was the only way to keep my mind stable. I learned that it was also a way for me to have both worlds.

Let's be clear, I never imagined or willfully anticipated that I would one day be an author. I wrote simply because I had to. I have never done drugs. I have a very active personality, yet find socializing difficult. Writing was a way for me to create a world of beings that I could relate to. One could say it was my vice among vices. I have never been one to bend to peer pressure. Coupled with music, writing pulled me though three marriages, two children and the life of a single, "weird", nerd in America.

The ability to publish this series has eroded down any delusions that I may have had that being a writer is easy. If there is any advice I can give to those souls that persist to write it is this: Write because you have to. If you roll around in dreams of instant fame, you will find yourself smelling less and less like a rose in the rolling. I believe the best stories come to us like a natural deluge. If your writing pleases you, helps you and promotes growth, then do it for the sake of it.

The decision to be a published author is a fully separate exercise. It is the same decision, I believe, that we must all learn to make in our lives entire. If you don't invest in YOU, you will never progress. The cold reality is that sitting still and accepting your fate is often more painful than reaching out and growing. Any form of art is work. You don't become a great musician by looking at an instrument. You must have calloused hands and have succeeded in pissing off your friends and family on a regular basis with your obsession to make noise over and over until it sounds right. To be a writer you must learn that wonderful balance of when to keep editing and re-writing and when to let go and let the story happen. Either way, the movement is crucial.

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-Rowan Canterbury