Wednesday Words of Wonder

Hello Ravenites! Hope everyone is having a good middle of the week. I may have embellished my title a bit as I'm not sure about the words of wonder. Tonight, it might be more like "Words of Wander."

Last night, I must say, was a really good night of writing. I wrote over three pages, but when I finished the scene, my heart was actually pounding a bit. I've learned so much since Magic Reborn, but I know I'm merely at the beginning of my career. The other night, before I went to bed, an idea for Book #3 just appeared in my mind. Two major scenarios will play out, but they won't drown each other out. In fact, they might complement each other. Time will tell when I get to that point. By then, my characters might move me in a completely different direction. Who knows? They are completely unpredictable these days.

Mentioning characters doing their own thing, I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing. My wife, Heidi, bought me his book for Christmas, but I just got around to reading it. Turns out, he pretty much follows his characters through a story as well. He had a completely different ending planned for Misery, but the direction of his characters completely changed the ending, and for the better, I might add. If you want to know the details, buy the book! It gives some details of how he grew up and what happened to him during the writing of On Writing. Now, does that mean I consider myself on par with Stephen King? Absolutely not! I'm not even worthy to hold his pen at this point. It's just interesting to me that I write in a similar style as he does without even knowing it.

While I would love for a hundred thousand people to buy my book so I could do this gig full-time, I'm not against promoting other books as well, even from an author who has no idea I even exist and may never know I exist, and that's okay. Maybe I should see this as a competitive industry (And I guess in some ways, it is), but if I see two books I like, I'll buy two books. Maybe not in the same week, but I will buy them. That's the beauty of books. Once you read one, you can always read another.

I guess I've always had a somewhat creative mind, and I have tried writing before. In my late twenties. I wrote a few poems that were sappy and just awful. I wasn't going through the best of times then, but I pulled out of it and moved on with my life. I'm not sure if I even have any of the poems left; they might be in some boxes somewhere at my sister's house. I read a lot in my thirties, but not so much in my forties. I kind of fell into a stressful position at work in the blink of an eye, so I told myself I didn't have time to write a book or anything else for that matter. I'm still doing that same job, but I'm more at ease these days (sort of), but I made my mind up to become a writer. I love sitting down and creating a world for people to read. It's exhilarating and frightening at the same time. What if the book is horrible? What if no one likes it? I've always doubted myself in just about everything. I can't blame it on a bad childhood as mine was better than most. My parents didn't scoff at everything I wanted to do. They just wanted me to make the right decisions. My twenties were pretty much me making the wrong decisions about everything it seems. At least once I hit my thirties, I began to mature somewhat. Even now, I consider myself a kid at heart, but I'm serious when I need to be.

Now that I've bored you with my "Wednesday Wonders", I will close this for now and get back to writing my novel. Thanks again for taking a small moment out of your day to read this. It truly means a lot to me. Until next time, keep reading!

Sincerely,

Anthony Butler