One Guy

Hello friends and dear strangers. Should I have just put a comma there and gone on with my post? Probably. What about an exclamation point? What will grab your attention? Have you already written me off as a person? Will you never return to me? Will you read my book? Will my book turn into a successful series? Such are the thoughts in my head. One of the characters in my work-in-progress is insane. The voices in his head rarely stop, and neither do mine. Does that make me crazy or just thoughtful? I don't know. And neither do you. And you may never find out. After all, the purpose of this blog is less about the one guy and more about the one story. However, it seems appropriate for me to introduce myself to those of you who do not know me or have lost touch. If you fled my life on purpose, I apologize for sucking you back in. Your suffering is not my intent. Not unless you are one of my characters. In which case, you should not be connected to the Internet. You're not from Earth! Convinced of my insanity yet? You should be. If not, read what lies beneath.

 

I have a pastoral ministry degree from Lee University. I'm not a pastor. I have a law degree from Wake Forest University. I'm not a lawyer. What am I, you ask? Well, you should have picked up on it by now. If you haven't, my book(s) may go right over your head. If you still haven't figured it out, you may have an IQ below that of many intellectual giants. Let me spell it out for you: I, Josh Brannan, am an aspiring writer.

 

Why do I say aspiring? Have I not actually written a book? Yes, I have. What is it about? Well, this initial post is about the one guy (me), remember? The next one, which will be above this one because blogs are weird things that care little for chronology, will go into the one story. No, I say aspiring because the act of turning writing into money is a lot harder than the act of writing itself. I've written a full-length fantasy novel and most of a second and have an outline for the remainder of a series the scope of which the world has never seen (does poetic license cover all lies?). The scope is big, but perhaps I should have toned down my language. If only keyboards could go back in time and erase earlier words! Anyway, pretend I just said the scope is really, really big. Because it really is, and I really have done all that.

 

It's not that much. I didn't cure cancer or stop terrorism. But it did take months of hard work. That's not why I'm trying to turn it into money. If I never make a dollar off what I've done so far, I'll still write this one story. Because I absolutely love doing it. I wrote and edited the first book during my final semester of law school. I didn't do it because law school is easy. It's not. I did it because I couldn't stop. I still can't. I don't think I'll ever be able to. Because I love it. I love my characters. I love my story. I love the process. I love it all. Well, sometimes it sucks researching things life geography and climate patterns to keep things semi-real. But I love most of it. And that's why I'm trying to turn my one story into my one career. Because I want to do this every day for the rest of my life. But, like most of you, I need food. And food costs money. So, I'm trying. I know what you're thinking, and the answer is yes. I am insane. I think.

 

P.S. If you are interested in such things, I am an avid fan of NC State athletics and the St. Louis Cardinals. I also like relaxing while bass fishing, relaxing while surfing the Internet, relaxing while watching tv, and relaxing while sleeping. In short, I like to relax. And eat. Seriously though, just about the only thing that raises my blood pressure is watching a NC State basketball game. I get looney. It's bad. I apologize to my family and all my former roommates. None of you deserved to hear the things I said (screamed) during those games or have any of your things thrown into walls. But hey, you were aware of my condition, and you still decided to leave those things within arm's reach of me. As you may know, North Carolina still adheres to the doctrine of contributory negligence. So good luck with the lawsuit!