What Kind of Parents Let Their Kids Do That?

Conspicuously skipping daughter number three is not an omission, but rather strategic timing. Stand-by …

Meanwhile, I have written very little about our youngest, Josiah, who is our only boy. That is by no means due to a lack of material.

Josiah is entering his senior year at Visible Music College, in Memphis, Tennessee. As you may have guessed by his school of choice, he is a musician preparing for a career in the Christian music field. You may have also surmised, by his genetic heritage, there is nothing normal about him either.

As a musician, Josiah plays acoustic and electric guitars, keys, violin, drums, and I may be missing something here. Naturally, he is a vocal major. He composes scores and does a lot of other music nerdy things that I don't understand even more so than everything else I have outlined.

His book is about halfway written and will be ready for his college graduation next spring. (No pressure!) No, I am not releasing that title yet. I have some entertainment for you of a different variety today.

What does a musician do when he wants to unwind? Evidently, he plays with fire … fire poi, that is.

CAUTION! This is real fire and it is really hot! DO NOT TRY THIS unless you have mastered the bolas! You WILL hurt yourself badly!

If you liked that, there is more. This video is featured on our son-in-law's YouTube channel, where there is also a multicam fire poi video.

http://www.manatthegate.com/

Fostering Creativity

You never know what creative talents your children may have tucked away in the back of their DNA. I think fostering their creativity is imperative to their development. It is also important to note that projecting your creativity on your kids is not the same as fostering theirs. That said, at times it can be difficult to tell if you are forcing a square peg into a round hole, or keeping your kids on task.

One such experience in our home was with our daughter, Rochelle. I'm not sure if she was emulating her big sister, choosing the least offensive option, or had a passing interest in playing violin. But somehow in her growing years, we connected her with a used violin, a good teacher, and lessons to make it happen.

The result was that she actually got decent with the violin. She followed through the prescribed training and played the obligatory performances. But she was not in love with the violin.

When her required training was completed, she asked if she could trade in the violin for a different instrument. No doubt, at the time, we wrestled with that decision. Undoubtedly, we wondered if that was just going to be her next muse. Ultimately, we agreed.

Rochelle sold the violin and bought a camera.

You can be the judge, but at our house, we've never looked back. I have included a link to her website. And you will miss a treat if you do not watch the video. The video was made by our son-in-law, Stephen. The model is our oldest daughter, Vanessa. And the score was composed and recorded by our son, Josiah.

http://srochellephotography.com/

The Real Reason I Write

I have always enjoyed writing. I love it when someone is drawn into my story, and I love hearing about it when someone reads one of my books a second time.

But the real reason I write is for my kids.

They're all grown now. Our youngest is about to turn twenty-one and our oldest just turned thirty. Ouch! How did that many years sneak by?

As it happens, we have four children: three daughters and a son. They are all far more talented than me, but as Dad, I still love to write them stories.

Today I have decided to share some of their many talents. I begin with the daughters because we have this epic triptych photo of them. They are in age order here.

The middle daughter, Rochelle, is the photographer. She is the mastermind and talent behind these photos. In fact, the really good photos on my website are all hers as well. I don't know how I can stand beside her and take a photograph of the same thing, and hers are epic and mine are ... not. I'll share her website here someday soon. The book dedicated to Rochelle is Ascent of the Falcon, Book 2 in the series.

I know, I started out of order. But doing the photo credit first seemed appropriate.

The oldest is Vanessa. She also writes. I am looking forward to seeing her work published. I will someday share a tiny book she wrote for me when she was a little girl. Vanessa is the linguist and, I must say, nerd of the family. She can carry on two animated conversations simultaneously ... in two different languages. How is that possible, you ask? One is in spoken English, and the other is ASL. American Sign Language was her first degree. I don't remember what her Masters is called. Blood Trail of the Falcon, Book 1, is dedicated to her.

Irene is the youngest daughter. She is probably the most mixed bag of talents. She runs long on visual design, and she also writes, and she sings. She also has been around the world with the US Navy. How many people do you know who have been to Greece, Turkey, Italy, Bahrain, Crete, Dubai, Georgia (the country), Romania, Bulgaria, and more? Besides all that, Irene can repair numerous communication systems on ships. Gepetka, Prince of Gypsies, Book 3, is dedicated to her.

Stay tuned ...

The Mysterious Gypsy Queen

All who seek, find. But, all that is found is not sought.   -Gypsy Queen, late 13th century

One of the most challenging parts about writing fiction, to me anyway, is channeling characters that are unlike myself. I draw from people I know and people I do not always understand. But to develop a character, especially one that is smarter than me, takes a lot of work. It is easy to write about the village idiot. That character has no deep or conflicting motivations. And, as a bonus, there is also plenty of “live” material around to observe.

The Gypsy Queen is quite a different story. She has always held fascination for me. She is dangerous, but not threatening. She can predict people with uncanny accuracy, yet lives marginally above the lifestyle of a nun. There is no contract binding her people to her, yet they remain staunchly loyal to one another. And she is self-educated, but at times with much deeper wisdom than those with multiple degrees of education.

In Gepetka, there is an under-story of the development of the Gypsy Queen interwoven into the background fabric of the main story.

In truth, that was sort of by accident. But once I found her, I really liked her. I hope you do too.

Once Upon a Time

There was a little girl named Vanessa. She grew up much like every other little girl, you know, in about three minutes. She had two sisters, Rochelle and Irene, who also grew up faster than their daddy wanted. That seems to be a redundancy about life in general.

The three sisters took a walk in the woods one day. To their amazement, they discovered a spooky path winding through the weeping willows near a hidden brook that seemingly had no source. Naturally they took the spooky path and discovered it led to an elvish house built into the base of an ancient elm tree. The whole scene seemed surreal. There were creatures of all varieties living in the tree. Over the door was an inscription in ancient runes. And as luck would have it, the door to the house was unlocked.

Naturally they … ?

A) Deciphered the runes by memory.

B) Took about 3000 photographs.

C) Befriended all the little creatures around and in the house.

Okay, so the story was completely fake, but the multiple choice was actually … a trick question. It was not a multiple choice at all, but an all of the above. If you know them, you know which one did which option in our little fairy tale.

It might seem that the three distinct personalities of my daughters could impose a particular challenge in writing books for them. Well, it's too late to worry about that now, because Book 3 is almost ready to print!

Book 1, Blood Trail of the Falcon, was written as a college graduation gift for Vanessa. Book 2, Ascent of the Falcon, was written as a college graduation gift for Rochelle. And Book 3, Gepetka, Prince of Gypsies, was written as a Navy graduation gift for Irene.

That Navy graduation day is coming up in a few weeks. The Navy does not make any fanfare for people who have completed their contract and are moving on. But we will celebrate somehow. And (hopefully) we will have a copy of Gepetka for Irene on that day.

I am proud of each of my kid's accomplishments. And this is a commemoration of Irene's service in the U.S. Navy.