My first foray into e-publishing is a novel-in-verse that my close friend I.C. Shaw and I co-authored a few years back, The Legend of The Books.

“In former days when legends still gave shine…” Thus the tone is set for The Legend of The Books, a novel in verse that hearkens back to epic poems of the days of old.

Replete with war and ruin, death and debauchery, jugglers and clowns, adventure and intrigue, The Legend of The Books arrives with a promise to return poetry to its rightful place in human history as a source of enjoyment and recreation for the masses. In homage to the works of Homer and The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Legend of The Books is as much Literary Ballad as it is Epic Poetry. Best read aloud around a roaring campfire with flagons of rum, The Legend of The Books recalls the oral and ancient tradition of storytelling.

Continue reading “The Legend of The Books” →

Never one to scare easily, I have always sought out those things which normal people seem to eschew out of fear, whether rationally or irrationally. From my first encounters with Grimm’s Fairy Tales to that first nightmare about bees that sent me running to mother’s bed, not out of fear, but to warn her, I’ve enjoyed fear.

This quality later manifested itself in cross-country hitchhiking and rock climbing, to the modern, middle-aged-man equivalents of eagerly driving to the corner store in a driving blizzard just to get some milk and PBR, or admitting that I am pro-life and Republican in 2016 just to get a reaction. Fear is one of those experiences that always makes me feel more alive.

There is, however, one thing that has always scared me more than my logical mind can rationalize. One thing exists that can freeze me in my tracks just by thinking about it; one experience haunts me when I sleep, and when awake: a simple poem. Continue reading “The Seven” →