It’s strange to say the least. How does a sixteen-year-old girl who stems from my own self-conscious and wrestles with controlling her telekinetic abilities teach me such valuable life lessons? And yet, this is somehow the way it works.
This is one of the central reasons I write fiction. I’m terrible at journaling. It’s hard for this old dog to learn new tricks. But when I push my characters to the brink of destruction, they light upon the central lessons I need so desperately to learn. They recite these lessons back to me in their actions, in their inner dialogues, and in their spoken words. Most of the time, I’ll manage to gloss over all of this until some point during the rewriting and/or editing stage when the underlying moral weave of the story will suddenly slap me across the buttocks like the paddle of punishment from my younger days.
It smarts at first. The short-lived sting generates the impulse to massage away the pain, but my stubbornness always refuses to surrender to this early impulse. I’m too obstinate for that. After the initial sting fades, the realization settles in its place. That’s when I wake up from a night of restorative sleep to suddenly realize a telekinetic teenager of my own creation has been preaching to me for several deaf months.
The moment of realization feels like waking into the opening credits of a James Bond flick. It’s lavishly abstract and yet concretely provocative at the same time. The moral truth is irresistible when it comes to you this way. It’s like your subconscious playing the worst kind of dirty trick. Remember the old Bible story of how the prophet Nathan confronted King David with the whole Bathsheba episode? Oh, that wily prophet! He wove the most sympathetic story of how a wealthy man crushed a poor man by taking his only-little-baby-lamb (a ewe that had been raised like one of the poor man’s own children), and served it to his company for dinner! Just as David is stomping around his throne room asking who the guilty party is so he can bring down his thunderous fist of justice, Nathan of course points the accusatory finger (like only an Old Testament Prophet can) and says, “The wealthy man is you!”
Booyah. The gravity of the lesson sets in. I mean, when your own subconscious smacks you with a watertight argument, what can you do but take a deep breath and nod your head? Do your best to take the lesson to heart. Through my own writing, I’ve been telling myself to wise up for the last several months. It has come out in my own written text a half dozen different times. I guess this is my processing of the moment, and my acknowledgment that I’m finally listening.
A Merry Christmas to y’all, and may your subconscious wrestling matches be productive during this season.
Over Fifty Free Reads for the Holidays!
At the Desk This Week
I’ve finished my final run through of Season Three of the Green Ones. I think I’m gonna call it, Awaken. The scene that is sticking with me is far too much of a spoiler for me to share it here. It hits me in the gut every time I go back and read it. Now I have to figure out what to do with Season Three. Do I share it here on Substack with y’all? Do I push it out via Amazon in a more formal finished product version? Or do I do nothing with it for now? I haven’t been doing any marketing at all. Any formal publishing attempt at the moment would probably result in something like 15 sales. I’m just not up for that sort of time and soul suck at the moment. I’m really just writing to keep myself writing at this point. I have no formal plan. That feels weird in some ways. I’ve always had some grand plan (that would later not pan out). I suppose I’m trying to say that if there are enough of you who are looking forward to reading it, I’ll publish it here on Substack. That doesn’t take more energy than I currently have to give. So let me know!
If You Wish to Start Reading The Green Ones…
[Click here to start at the beginning.]
Thanks so much for taking the time to read these scenes of Boundaries, Season 2 of The Green Ones. I’ll be publishing FREE daily scenes from The Green Ones until…I die…or something terrible happens. Seriously, I’ve got over 100 scenes written so far, and I’ll be writing more until the story reaches its natural ending. You are totally welcome to read the entire story for FREE! If at any point you decide you would rather finish the story in ebook or print format, just click the buttons below and you can do that as well. If you enjoy reading the serial releases, BUT you would also like to support me as a writer (my kids need wine!) please subscribe to my premium content for bonus scenes, exclusives, and insider access to my process. And of course, I’d be grateful if you would share this post with any of your reader friends who you think would enjoy The Green Ones. Happy reading!