End It Movement

Today I draw a red X on my hand in recognition of the End It Movement. It is estimated that around the world, 27 million people still live in slavery. Men, women and children around the world live under the shadow of another human, and today I know at least 25,000 college students around America also have marked their hands with a red X, declaring that we will not stand for this to continue. This affects all of us, because if you think this is only a "third world problem", you'd be mistaken. So, if you're with us, draw a red X on your hand, and let's make the whole world a Free World.

New Story!!! Chapter One!!

It was a beautiful sunny day, and everyone in the city of Selenia was outside in the warm summer air. It might have well been dreary and wet, for everyone, man, woman, and children of all ages had a solemn countenance. Most people sauntered down the streets and walkways, only a handful ran, looking for a television screen. TVs, radios, and computers were all looking at the same live event.

Last week, the beloved king of Solumia, was in a car accident with his oldest son Arthur. The king didn’t survive, and Arthur was put in a coma. Another car broke down and lost control, slamming into the driver’s side, where the king was sitting. It was announced that night that the king had died.

The city had been in a state of limbo for the week, some in disbelief or in denial. How could the great King Aquilan die in a car accident so suddenly? People thought it had to be a hoax, or some doctor had to be able to do something. They didn’t know how to deal with the news.

Today was the funeral procession. The body would be taken around the city one last time before being laid to rest. The royal family, minus the injured Arthur, would travel with the body. People gathered around the procession route or the tomb prepared for the king to finally see for themselves. It had been deemed a national day of mourning, and everyone in the vast kingdom was given the day off.

Carter stood with the crowd of people at the grave. It was a little before midday when the body was set to be lowered into its final resting place. Carter, like everyone sixteen or younger, was more amazed than anyone else in the kingdom. Aquilan had been king since before he was born. He and his generation had always lived under Aquilan, so used to seeing his face at festivals and on TV. The king had also spoken at his graduation from school, as the king always had. To be the last graduating class of King Aquilan was a heavy thought.

Carter couldn’t stop taking his eyes off the ornate dark-wood casket with the king’s seal on it. He legitimately loved the king, and couldn’t imagine a world without Aquilan. It was like as long as that casket was visible, he wasn’t really gone, but it would be buried by the end of the day. A world was ending before his eyes.

Some dignitary was speaking, but Carter wasn’t paying attention until now. “And now a few words from His Majesty’s family,” he said into the microphone.

Carter looked up to the royal family on the stage that had been set up behind the grave. A handful of important people sat up there, but all eyes were on the royals. They wore no special garments for the occasion, black suits and dresses, but everyone recognized their faces. The queen sat with her arms around the young princess, still a teenager, who had been crying harder and harder the longer they were on the stage. Neither of them stood up to say anything, but on the queen’s other side sat the king’s other son, Alexios, and his wife Celeste. Alexios stood up, straightened his suit and walked up to the podium in the middle of the stage.

“Thank you, Governor,” he said first. He took a second to look out among the crowd. “And thank you all for being here today. The support this nation has shown my family this last week is beyond thanks. I see a nation that loved my father as much as he loved it back. While we’re here to mourn the man’s death, let us not forget his legacy. We are his legacy. My father devoted his life to making this kingdom the best the world will ever see, knowing full well he would not see the climax of our world. Let us continue his vision in his absence.”

Alexios looked among the crowd again. “My father formally announced that our brother Arthur would succeed him. It’s unfortunate to say that because of our brother’s injuries, he cannot assume the crown. Our mother, Queen Juna, has also decided to step down from ruling alone. As my sister Avalon is too young, I will accept the responsibility of the crown until Arthur is well enough to accept his birthright.”

With that, he sat back down and took his wife’s hand. A priest took the podium and spoke to the people. An undertone of uncertainty formed after the prince’s words. Carter looked around to see people whispering to each other discreetly. Carter could only guess what everyone was concerned about

 No one ever thought Alexios would become king as long as Arthur was around. Alexios was three years younger than Arthur. He still attended University, and only married last year. He lived life normally, yet was well off because he was royalty but it never seemed he would take the throne. Alexios’s positions were mostly ceremonial; he had never accepted real power before.

Arthur, meanwhile, had been essentially training to take his father’s place. He’d shadowed his father since leaving school, taking on more and more responsibilities as he got older. He represented the royal family on many counsels, including the treasury and internal commerce. He had developed into a strong and virtuous man, as well as a savvy politician, and people knew he was going to be great.

A nation grieved in silence that night, but the world was continuing the next morning. Carter sat with his family at dinner in their apartment in the city. The television was off; they had had enough of the sad news, but no one talked. Carter sat facing the window that had a great view of the Capital Mansion, where the royal family had retired together.

“What are you thinking about, Carter?” his mother asked, drawing him out of his own head.

Carter looked from the window to his plate. He moved his food around a bit with his fork before looking to his parents and asking, “Do you think Alexios will be a good king?”

“He’s still a kid,” Carter’s father grunted after a moment. “He’s lived his life in the fairy-tale version of royalty his whole life.”

“Is that bad?” Carter asked.

“It means that he has a tough job now, and he’s going to have to learn as he goes,” his mother answered.

“You know Dane is going to walk all over him,” his father commented. “The man got nowhere with Aquilan, and now he all he has is a novice on the throne to step over.”

Carter agreed. Tomias Dane was a kingpin in the shipping business. He had his hands in almost all of the trade going in and out of the kingdom, and hardly anything left the docks that weren’t on a ship he owned or financed. He was power-hungry, putting others out of business as his wealth grew to where he was the wealthiest person not of royalty. Aquilan did everything in his power to keep him from gaining a monopoly, but Dane was highly influential in the Counsels. He proved he wasn’t going to go down easily while Aquilan was alive, and now Alexios has to deal with him.

“Alexios won’t have to deal with him for long,” Carter’s mother pointed out. “There isn’t going to be a coronation, which means Arthur will be back soon enough.”

“The silver lining in all of this,” his father grunted.

Carter sat back and listened to his parents talk about Alexios, and it quickly became apparent that neither had any faith in him. He soon drifted back to looking out the window, toward the palace. The white building glowed in the starlight, watching over the whole city from its hill. Towers and walls from the old kingdom remained standing, but modern defenses had been added over the years. The old fortress was almost approachable.

One tower in the middle, taller than all the rest, was built after the last Kings’ War over two hundred years ago, and was simply known as the Beacon. The tower was bigger than any other structure in the kingdom, and its only equals were its sister beacons in Solumia’s neighboring kingdoms, Emporion and Romula. It is said on a good night the other two could be seen from any one of the three. As long as all three beacons remained lit, peace would last between the three kingdoms. Carter always dreamed of going up into that tower and seeing for himself.

The Beacon was lit, as it was every night, but the palace had a dark feel about it, an uncertain feel. Things were obviously going to be different, but at this point, no one knew how different.

Alexios sat next to the bed of his brother Arthur. The once strong Crown Prince now needed machines to help him breath and take away his pain. Three of his limbs were broken, and most of his ribs on his left side were broken, and countless bruises and cuts all over his body was the result of his accident. The doctors said he was stable, and that he would eventually recover, but that would be a while.

He’d been sitting there since the doctors left almost two hours ago. He didn’t say a word to the doctors and he remained silent. Their family left him alone in there, either thinking he needed to be alone with his thoughts or just not knowing what to say to him. Only his wife Celeste knew for sure he was going to step up to be king before he announced it, the rest of them could’ve only speculated.

There was a soft knock at the door followed by a quiet “Alex?” He recognized his wife’s voice and went to the door. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but when he opened the door he saw that his wife had changed out of her funeral gown and into her white sleeping gown. As soon as the door was open wide enough, they embraced like they never had before. Young love had always defined their relationship, always certain of itself and uncaring of the world’s eyes. This was a reassuring but still nervous embrace, supportive but fearful.

“Cel,” Alexios whispered into her ear, “did I make the right choice?”

Celeste looked over his shoulder to her unconscious brother-in-law. Swallowing, she replied, “You made the noble choice, Alex. Dad would be proud of you, and Arthur would thank you if he could.” Celeste pulled out of their embrace. They touched foreheads for another minute, pouring strength into each other. “Don’t be up too much longer,” she told him before heading off to bed.

Alexios turned back into the room and headed for the window, looking out into the city. Everything was bathed in the soft light of the Beacon behind the palace, making little need for street lights, not that any nightlife could be seen tonight. Alexios had to be strong for them and for his brother behind him, just as his father and grandfather before him. He stood up straighter to mask the nervous beat of his heart.

Tomorrow, the reign of King Alexios Xavier Juventas Arcean began. He prayed to God it would be a short reign.

Editing

With my manuscript finished, I'm now in the editing phase of the project. I think I enjoy editing as much as I do writing, and for the opposite reasons. I enjoy the writing process because I alone have control of the story and what directions it will go. I set my own pace and decide what is important.

Writing I do by myself, and therefore it takes forever. Editing larger projects is usually a group effort. I'm lucky enough to have some friends I can call on to be a small editing team. I'm grateful for every fresh set of eyes. A finished manuscript is still a rough cut that needs to be smoothed out and made beautiful.

Still a ways to go before book two can be published, but based on the success book one has gotten, I hope it will do great. 150 downloads by the time of this posting, and the number won't stop going up. I have you all to thank for this, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Announcement

I'm super excited to announce that my second book's manuscript is finished. It's been a long road, with a few turns I didn't expect when I started writing.

While I'm proud of this achievement, there is still a few things to do before it is published. I said last year I would have the manuscript done in February, and I met that goal.

What's unbelievable to me is that I got this far with book 2 in less than a year since book 1's publication. It will be a full year March 27, and I'm overwhelmed at the success that it has had, too.

As always, I'll keep you updated if you follow this blog. Thank you all for the support, you are the inspiration for me to share what I have.

World Building

One of the best parts of writing sci-fi for me is world building.

Most of the time, when I write something, it's set in our world with normal laws, both physical and social, although I usually deviate from some sense of normal. Sometimes that makes it easy, knowing where the limitations of what a person can or can't do. A normal person is not going to be able to jump two stories or go more than a couple of days without rest and food. These are just the natural rules of our world.

There are ways I've gotten around the rules of this world. One is by making the character somehow extraordinary to where they don't apply to him. But there are still laws that apply to him, such as social laws. Super powers don't give a person the right to say whatever they want. They still have to be able to function in this world in a believable manner if they are set in their world, planet, country, even region and time-period.

Another way to get around the world's rules is to make your own, which is what I'm having so much fun with. Creating a new world is the closest I get to playing God. You decide how people live, how they act and interact with each other and their environment. A good place to start is the geography, and from there (forgive the pun) you build the people from the ground up. Culture is very much affected by geography, and from there you get social norms and even the types of animals and hardships they deal with. How people live determines what their ideas of the purpose of life would be, and from there you can spawn a whole religion. You can design whole star systems and histories that shape these people's racial experiences.

I'm not going to lie, it might take a while. Cultures in real life take hundreds of years to develop and still constantly change with time, so its sort of unrealistic to come up with a fully developed culture overnight. My advice to new writers is to just get started, put something on paper, anything, but don't let it sit there, but build on it, and soon it will start writing itself. An idea is like a seed; it has all the potential in the world to be a big strong tree, but while it's small, it just needs some love.

Hinduism

Hinduism, in my opinion, is one of the most unique religions in the world. It is one of the top five religions of the world, the others being Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. I feel like Hinduism is just kind of bunched together with all of these other religions when it is so unique among them. Aside from being the oldest of them, it has many aspects that stand out. I'm not saying the others are very similar, all have their own uniqueness, but sometimes I feel like people just don't bother, whether they honestly don't have the time or just don't care, I don't know. But, here's some interesting things about Hinduism.

The word "Hinduism" is derived from the name India, the land the religion was founded in. It refers to a wide variety of religious traditions and philosophies that have developed in India over thousands of years.

As I mentioned before, Hinduism is the oldest religion still practiced on this planet. It has been practiced across Asia for over 5000 years, but has no identifiable beginning in history. For comparison, Judaism has been dated to been founded around 2500 BC by the patriarch Abraham.

Unlike the other "Big 5" religions, Hinduism doesn't claim one founder. Jesus Christ, Abraham, the Prophet Muhammad, and Siddharta Gautama (the Buddha) were all considered the sole founders of their respective religions. In as few words as possible, Hinduism is the culmination of the teachings of several individuals called "Avatars", or an incarnation of a divine being.

Hinduism is pluralistic and accepts that all beings (even animals) have divinity. All beings are considered a manifestation of God, and that man has the spiritual capacity to respect and honor that divine aspect in all living things. Thus, Hinduism is very accepting of other beliefs, and accepting of there being multiple paths to Ultimate Truth (God).Thus, Hinduism asserts that it is not only harmful, but inherently flawed to insist that one’s own path towards God is the only true and meaningful path. Based on this firm pluralistic belief, Hinduism has never sanctioned proselytization, or converting others to a specific faith. Further, over their vast history, Hindus have never invaded another land in the name of religion.

This is a very watered down representation of Hinduism, and I encourage people to do research if interested in learning more. I'm not saying Hinduism is the right thing to believe, again I leave that to you to decide. I'm not a theologian in any respect, I'm just a teacher trying to educate the world. I hope you learned something.

Backstory: the Galactic War and Great Ascension

Millions of years ago, when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth, one family of immortals assumed the entire galaxy as their kingdom. Hundreds of planets bore life in those times, but none were as powerful or as old as this family, who came to be known as the Overseers. Their origins were connected to the origins of the galaxy, or even almost as old as the universe itself. They were strong and proud and possessed powers beyond any other race.

The Overseers ruled with an iron fist, merciless to any who would stand up to them. In the earliest years of their assumption to power they destroyed several advanced species who stood against them, reducing entire planets to clouds of dust.

Despite this bloody history the Overseers ruled the galaxy justly, fostering peace and prosperity in their empire. Old races died out, but new ones emerged under their care, including the humans of Earth.

But it was only ever the illusion of peace. The Overseers kept their empire in check with weapons capable of destroying any planet, and exploited many planets for their various resources. With an entire galaxy supplying them, none could challenge them.

It was only a matter of time, though. While they were immortal beings, the Overseers had several children. This second generation outnumbered their parents and matched their powers, but the Overseers were had no intention of stepping down. Their children eyed their position with jealousy, and soon challenged their parents for the throne. The children became known as the Tyranus, for they knew no compassion, only greed and power.

The Tyranus began conquering and destroying planets that served the Overseers, and the Overseers responded without impunity, destroying any race they believed to be supporting, willingly or not, the Tyranus.

It was a terrible war. The numbers of lives lost is beyond countable, and no one could stand against either side.

A higher power had to step in to stop the Overseers and Tyranus, and that power chose one race in the galaxy, the Nuvians. They were an old race, one of the oldest, and were able to stay neutral in the conflict. They were left alone by the Overseers since the beginning for unknown reasons. The Nuvians are a very spiritual race in which every individual actually possesses two identical souls, one that stayed with the body and the other used to connect with their Goddess.

During the main conflict, their Goddess blessed them with great powers and new technologies and weapons. Their Creator also gave them the task of ending the war and destroying both the Overseers and the Tyranus, for neither side knew love except that for themselves, and the galaxy would never be at peace until both were gone.

With new powers and weapons the Nuvians rose up to quell the fighting, and while it was an entire race against essentially one family, a species of several hundred millions against fifteen individuals, the effort took hundreds of years. The Nuvians had a higher purpose for fighting and were united in that purpose, while the Overseers and Tyranus thought only of conquest, fighting each other at the same time as the Nuvians.

The Nuvians were able to destroy the last Overseer when Amenhotep III ruled Egypt. The last Tyranus was destroyed when Nero ruled Rome.

With the war over, the Nuvians ushered in an era of true peace, but it was a galaxy essentially in post traumatic stress disorder. The Nuvians recieved a second mission: to heal the galaxy of the Overseer/Tyranus control and protect the various races that live in it.

To this day Nuvia is a shining beacon in the galaxy. Under their protection the galaxy is recovering, with the hope that soon, every living thing  in the galaxy can finally live in harmony.