This question may seem redundant to those who haven’t read many fantasy novels or series. The fantasy genre is so massive that people have begun to split it into manageable chunks to make talking about it far easier. For example, Tolkien and Rowling both write fantasy novels, but that is where the similarities end. So, what types of fantasy are there? And which one is my novel going to fit into? That last question is not going to be answered in this post… so don’t hold your collective breaths.

Low Fantasy

Now, this may seem to be an abnormal place for me to start, but there is a method to my madness… trust me. Low fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy where the story is set in the real world, the magical or super-natural elements that shock the characters when discovered are simply added to our reality. This type of story has a lot of benefits when it comes to writing. First, you don’t need to create an entire world for your characters to inhabit. Being able to use the real world as a setting makes it far easier to focus on the story and not worry about anything else.

However, there are downsides to writing a book like this. While being able to focus on the story is nice, it also means that you do not have the freedom to do whatever you want as it has to be set in the real world with only very slight changes. This can make for some very interesting story lines, as it allows us to imagine how society today would react if, for example, toys were suddenly revealed to be alive… ‘Toy Story’, if you didn’t get the reference.

High Fantasy

This is the most common sub-genre there is in fantasy. When most people talk about fantasy novels and series, this is what they’re actually talking about. The biggest example of this is obviously the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series by Tolkien. These stories normally take place in a completely made up reality, often with different races and languages than exist here in our reality. This allows for a lot of creativity from the writer as everything is within their control, including the laws of physics. I mean, seriously… how many times are we going to see floating mountains in movies and books.

The issue with writing high fantasy is that what makes it great also happens to be what makes it difficult, the writer makes up everything. This means that, as the writer, you need to come up with everything to do with your world. Readers will notice when you’ve been lazy and just used real world norms because it was easier. This puts a massive burden on a writer when it comes to all the pre-writing activities that need to be done. They need to come up with the names of places, landscapes, countries, kingdoms, role of nobility, magical laws, modes of transportation, travel distances, commerce and economy, cultures, languages, and, of course, a map. This is no simple task for a writer as not only does a writer have to come up with these things, but also needs to have them all make sense when put together in a book.

Magical Realism

Now, this sub-genre is very much like low fantasy. The only difference is the fact that the magical/ super-natural is completely expected. The ‘Harry Potter’ series by Rowling is probably the best example of this. Magic is completely integrated into society and everyone lives with it and uses it just like they use their mobile phones in the normal world. This, in my inexpert opinion, is a combination between the high fantasy and low fantasy sub-genres. The writer is able to have complete freedom when it comes to designing their form of magic while also allowing it to be somewhat based in reality.

There isn’t much else to say about magical realism, but it’s always been a sub-genre that excites me. Being able to imagine what life would be like if there was magic that one could easily use. This is why the ‘Harry Potter’ series was so successful. It’s easy for the reader to imagine themselves in the world that the writer creates, how their life would be different if they could use magic as easily as swiping up on their phone. It’s an extremely attractive sub-genre for an aspiring writer.

Gunpowder Fantasy

I’m sure that most of you have realized that most fantasy novels seem to be set in a time similar to the medieval era. There are often heroes gallivanting around the fictional world with perfectly quaffed hair and a long sword, committing genocide against the unwitting evildoers. This sub-genre simply changes that preconceived notion of what a fantasy novel is by instead setting it in a world where guns exist. Now, this does not mean there AK-47’s everywhere, action novels have this covered. Instead the world would be similar to earth in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s. For those not well versed in dates, think Napoleonic Wars era. And for those not well versed in history… think ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.

Military Fantasy

Every fantasy fan can relate to liking the big battles that normally occur near the end of most fantasy novels. These battles tend to be the common archetype of the good few against the evil many. But this is not what is meant when we talk about the military fantasy sub-genre. These stories tend to be based around a character who is actually in some form of militaristic structure. There will be many battles in these novels along with many smaller skirmishes. This lends itself to some amazingly gripping action sequences of an epic proportion.

However, in this type of novel your protagonist will not be able to just go off and do as they please. They are a part of an organisation and will have responsibilities that, for the sake of a believable story, cannot and should not be ignored. This means, that as a writer, you have to make sure your characters do not stray too far from the rules set by the military you made up… get it? Simply, it somewhat restricts your freedom as a writer. Which can be a good thing… maybe.

Conclusion

These are only a few of the sub-genres that exist in the world of fantasy. And I have no idea which one my book will fit into. All I know is that I’m not going to expressly stick to only one. The best books I have read have it all. They have the adventure, the battles, and the sense of wonder, all mixed up into one neat little book… the task is terrifying. The sub-genre that your story fits into will be decided by the readers, not you. So just write what you want… if you can figure out what that is.

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Failure. It sucks…. like, really sucks. This shouldn’t be new information to any of you out there. Writing seems to be the one thing that I repeatedly fail at no matter how many times I try. It is really easy to say that you want to write a book, in fact every retired person I’ve ever spoken to has said they want to write one in the future. However, actually executing this thought is not as easy as it seems. That’s because, like me, they like the idea of coming up with stories, but have no idea how to go about the actual craft of writing. Every piece of literature I’ve read on the topic, and there has been a lot, has been completely different. So… why do so many people fail?

Attempt #1

The first time I failed at finishing a piece of creative writing that I had started was when I was twelve. I was completely engrossed in the ‘Eragon’ series by Christopher Paolini at the time and learned that he had started writing the series when he was just eighteen. I don’t know why, but this inspired me to start writing my own book. Now, how young I was may impress you… but it really shouldn’t. What I ended up writing was basically an alternative story line for my favourite Gameboy Advance game called ‘Golden Sun’.

I ended up getting bored with this project after writing only a few pages. Writing was hard, and at the time I was more interested in reading, watching, and playing the stories invented by others than I was in coming up with my own. Looking back at the plan I had for that fantasy series, it seems it would have been incredibly repetitive. If anyone remembers the series ‘Deltora Quest’ by Emily Rodda, mine would have been very similar. I’m not saying that those books were bad, in fact my mother frequently reminds me of how obsessed I was with the series, but they were children’s books. By that I mean that they had a very repetitive and easy to understand story line, and I didn’t. and don’t, want to write a children’s book.

Now, you might be wondering what the point of talking about these failures of mine is. And the simplest answer is, so that I don’t fail again in the exact same way. So, what have I learned from this failure? I suppose the answer to this would be to come up with a story that can actually retain my interest while I’m writing it. In other words, to not simply write about my fleeting fancy. I need to write about something that will hold my attention for the long haul… because this is not going to be a short process.

Attempt #2

The second time I tried to write a book was when I was twenty. I was in university and had obtained a friend who was just as much of a fantasy nerd as I was, and am. This was the first time I really put thought into making the story as original as I possibly could. I was constantly thinking of ways to make my story different from anything I had ever read before. Unfortunately, every time I thought I had succeeded, my friends would inform me of a story that was almost exactly the same. I must admit… it was infuriating.

The result was, that no matter how many different fantasy worlds I came up with, I never actually started writing the book. I drew rough sketches of really badly designed maps, but as soon as I realized that it had been done before, I quit. Not proud to admit it, but I quit a lot when it comes to writing. It actually seems to be the only pattern in my writing when looking at everything I’ve done.

The fix for this problem is simple… don’t quit. At this point, so much has been written in the fantasy genre that its actually really hard to be completely original anymore. In reality, the story I end up writing will probably be an amalgamation of every story I’ve ever read. And that’s okay. That’s the important thing to remember. Its more productive to think of the story you want to write and then put your individual spin on it, no matter how original it is. Just persevere with your story until it’s been written in a way that you’re happy with.

Attempt #3

This particular failure I’m going to blame on the internet and people who give advice on how to write a book. Now, this is advice that you are going to hear quite often when talking to others about your writing efforts. And this is, “just write”. I have found this to be the absolute worse advice when it comes to writing a fantasy novel. Another version of this is, “writers just write”. And this infuriates me. Anyone who wants to sit me down, and say that Tolkien sat down one day and just started writing and out popped fifteen languages and the ring of power, deserves a slap. Now, yes, I did quit this time to… but I’m gonna blame other people because this is my blog and I can do what I want.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t practice writing as much as possible, but don’t expect this method to produce an adequate fantasy novel. No matter what you do, you’re going to end up with things that don’t make sense in your book since you don’t write a novel in one day. You need to plan out your fantasy world, decide on the rules and quirks that make your world different from reality. When I tried to, “just write”, my fantasy world ended up being an exact replica of ancient Greece with no discernible story line.

I had tried to write about what I know. But what I know is history, meaning that it has already occurred. While it’s always fun to take inspiration from the legends of the past… it also happens to be rather predictable. Fantasy is fun because it deals with events that could never happen in real life, otherwise… what is the point.

Attempt #4

My most recent failure was probably the most frustrating experience of my life. Now, I need to explain one thing before I get into this. When I write, I like to have a map in front of me so that I can track my characters journey. I like this to be a fairly accurate map in terms of distances so I can estimate how long it would take to travel from place to place. However, I also happen to be really bad at drawing… like, terrible.

These two facts ended up resulting in the most frustrating cycle I have ever been stuck in in my entire life. I would draw a map, then decide the map wasn’t good enough, which then meant that I would draw another map, which also ended up not being good enough. The result was that I never actually ended up writing anything… which is problematic when writing a novel. I would quite often draw a map which ended up looking like an actual place in the world, like Europe. I was obsessed with trying to make something that was completely original and that I had never seen before, which seems to be a contradiction. I should also mention that when I don’t like something I’ve done; I usually just delete it from the face of the planet. This, in retrospect, is quite an obvious reason for why I seem to make the same mistake… repeatedly.

I then committed the unspeakable millennial evil… I googled it. I first tried the method of throwing uncooked butter beans at a piece of paper and tracing around them in order to create land masses. This method just resulted in a map that made no sense when paired with the story. Next, I tried just drawing a map from scratch. It should be fairly obvious where this method got me since I can’t draw. Lastly, I downloaded a map making program called AutoREALM. This was by far the best method as I was able to effortlessly create entire worlds without having to rely on my nonexistent artistic abilities. However, I went too big too quick. The maps I made were for entire planets when my story didn’t even require an entire continent.

Conclusion (#5?)

Drawing maps is hard. Having everything make sense is a difficult feat to accomplish. After all, a fantasy world needs to be somewhat believable otherwise it’s hard for the reader to truly immerse themselves in the story. Having a border with snow on one side and desert on the other makes zero sense. You also need to have a map that supports the story. Having your protagonist start directly next to their objective would make for a rather short adventure novel. It’s important to get each step of the process done correctly so that nothing holds you back when you begin writing, but you should always feel comfortable enough to go back and change things that don’t end up working. And also… don’t quit.

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So… this post has been harder to write than I expected. It is hard for me pinpoint what actually influenced me when it comes to writing. I believe this to be because what I actually love the most about books are the stories they tell. I have a respect for the craft of writing and have come to appreciate and love good writing, but that is not what started me on this journey. The most addictive part of this whole process for me is creating the story line and the fantasy world it is set in. However, this is problematic since it lengthens the list of my possible inspirations.

Harry Potter

I mentioned this series in my last post. This was the first story that I was truly obsessed with as a kid. There are a number of reasons for this, the first being that the main character’s birthday was very similar to mine. Second, I happened to be in the age group that grew up with series from start to finish. The first book was written three years after I was born and is the first novel I remember my parents reading to me, and the last movie was released the summer before my last year of school. The ability of this series to age with me as I grew up is something that I will never forget.

However, it would be pretty bad of me if this is the only reason I gave for ‘Harry Potter’ being such an inspiration for my story telling. After all, this post is meant to be about what inspired me to write and not just about what I enjoy reading in my spare time. I think J.K. Rowling really nailed a few very important aspects for me when writing this series that really made it stick with so many people. The first is her ability to create characters that are younger that actually connect with people of that age group. It was completely believable to me that the characters she crated could actually be real kids my age. This sounds like a simple task as everyone was young once, but as a kid who attended a boarding school, I have to admit, she nailed it.

I realize that the above doesn’t really explain what I’m going take from this and try to insert into my own writing… but I will try and rectify that presently. What I think really makes a story addicting is the personal growth of the characters. Being able to show that a character is learning and developing as the story progresses is not something I see in books very often. Usually, the characters in books are very stagnant and seem to make the same mistakes repeatedly, which gets old extremely fast. This has frequently been the factor that kills a story for me. So… I’m going to try really hard not to make that mistake. No promises.

Tolkien

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Why is this part not titled ‘Lord of the Rings‘?”. I promise that this was done on purpose. The reason I am constantly inspired by Tolkien is not just because of his ability to tell a great a story. In fact, there are parts of the story that I often forget. Now, this may be controversial, but I am not as fond of the Frodo and Sam story line as with the adventures of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it the first time I read it, it’s just not the reason I keep coming back to the series.

The reason I adore the works of Tolkien is due to his ability to create such a large fantasy world with its own unique features. I mean, he created 15 different languages and dialects. This seems like an absolute impossible act for someone like me who struggles to keep up with only two languages. He is also the founder and creator of the archetypal fantasy elves and dwarves which have been used by fantasy writers and creators ever since. The detail that he managed to put into his world astounds me every time I try and create my own. It’s also fairly depressing since I will never be able to do anything similar to that. But hopefully I can come somewhat close.

J.K. Rowling did create an amazing fantasy world, but it drew from real life quite a bit. Tolkien, however, created his whole world completely from scratch. Yes, he drew on real life experiences, but the fundamentals of his world were completely different than anything that had ever been done before. That’s the reason why Tolkien inspires me as a writer, his ability to create an entire world in his head. I still have a hard time understanding how that’s even possible for a human to do.

Hornblower

‘Hornblower’ by C.S. Forester was the series that I think really pushed me into writing. I realize that this series is not in the fantasy genre, but let me explain. Historical fiction has always been a genre that has been exciting for me. This may be due to the fact that I am a complete history nerd, but I don’t care. There is no world building when it comes to historical fiction, which can make it less exciting for some people, but as my mother always said, “the past is a foreign country”, which must be a quote from somewhere but I refuse to google it.

The thing that I loved about this series is how flawed the main character was. Most main characters in novels are pretty near perfect, they may have some flaws but only in a way that actually makes them better. Like when you go into an interview and say, “I think my biggest flaw is that I’m such a perfectionist.” I think that most people’s flaw is that they seem to think that that’s a flaw, but moving on. Forester really gave his main character some crippling flaws that he had to fight through in order to succeed. This made the character far more believable for me as a reader. Just from failed past experiences, I can tell you that creating a character with believable flaws is far harder than creating one that is perfect.

The Martian

Now, I do not normally like the science fiction genre, but this book by Andy Weir is an exception. The techie side of the book completely flew over my head since I admittedly have zero talent in the sciences, but the story telling was sublime. Weir’s style of writing is genuinely just funny, the book had me laughing out loud from the opening line. I had never laughed out loud while reading a book before so it was a new experience for me, which proved to be pleasant. I have learned to appreciate books that can be both serious and funny at the same time.

So… that’s it for this part. I expected this section to be longer, but I really don’t have anything else to add. Next.

Honourable Mentions

This is the section where I just dump all of my left-over thoughts, so feel free to skip this part (please don’t actually). This section may prove to be controversial for some people since I am going to mention two sources for inspiration that are not books… crazy, I know.

The first honourable mention goes to my time spent as an avid gamer. I may not play as many games as I used to, but that doesn’t mean they were just a phase during my childhood. RPG’s (Role Playing Games) were by far my favourite as they allowed me to become a character in the fantasy world itself, which is a magical experience for any kid who loved knights and dragons. This is what I meant when I said I was more enamoured with storytelling than writing at first. The ability to feel as if you are a part of the imaginary world is something that really fascinates me.

The second honourable mention goes to manga. Now, I do not have a particular series in mind, but hear me out. The thing that most inspires me about the world of manga is the sheer variety of stories that you can find. This showed me that it is possible to create something new even if you aren’t completely original. It’s all about doing it in a way that draws readers into the world and allows them to escape from reality for a minute or two… or several weeks. Depends on how much you want to procrastinate.

Conclusion

A conclusion may seem quite out of place in a blog, but I have been brainwashed by multiple years of academic training, so deal with it.

I suppose all of these previously mentioned inspirations of mine are like the building blocks of my future novel. I will probably never be as good as any of the authors I have mentioned in this post, but I hope I can at least be put in the same category as some of them. My aim is to be able to write something that people can immerse themselves in while also having a bit of a laugh.

I promise that this blog will eventually get on to the actual process of writing a fantasy novel… but maybe don’t hold your breath for that.

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Hi there, my name is Robert, and welcome to my blog. I suppose I had better explain why on earth you should read anything written by me whatsoever. The simple answer, I have no clue. All I know is that I have been interested in creative writing ever since I was assigned it as a piece of torture/homework.

Personally, I have a bit of a bizarre origin story. I come from a nice family who are all alive and well, so there are no Batman shenanigans going on here, but I have had quite an interesting life so far. I was born in Oxford even though my family was living in Madrid. My mother was English but my father still managed to sneak me a US passport since he also happens to be afflicted with one. I have to say, the ability to have more than one nationality has been fun at times, but it does get confusing when the dreaded question gets asked, “So, where are you from?” The answer… very long, almost annoyingly long in fact.

So, I’ll tell it to you. And I’ll even organize it well. Your welcome.

Early Travels

After being born my parents very quickly decided to fill up my passport with stamps from non-exotic lands. We moved from Madrid, which I remember none of, back to London, which I also remember none of. This makes this portion of the story a rather short one. Don’t get used to it.

We then proceeded to move to the United States, this is where my first inklings of consciousness began to form, and also where I got tagged with an unlosable American accent. Apparently, the by-product of peer pressure and bullying, which my mind has quite correctly and efficiently suppressed. However, America was not all bad, as it is where I learned to just about completely lose myself in a good story. My parents, quite rightfully, made the decision to read to me from quite a young age. And as soon as I was able to turn the pages myself, I was off, reading every good story that I could possibly lay my hands on. Ultimately, my favorite ended up being the ‘Harry Potter’ series by J.K. Rowling, quite basic for my generation, I am aware.

This ability to read aided me whilst my family continued to move up and down the east coast of the capitalist capital of the world, when eventually, everything changed.

European Fantasy Land

When I was about to turn twelve, in the year 2006, my family decided to once again hop the pond that is the Atlantic. And I have to say, I couldn’t have been more excited, after all, I was moving to the land that basically invented the quintessential fantasy castle.

The plane ended up landing itself in the city if Vienna, my most favorite place on planet Earth. And it was here that I was exposed to the most interesting story of all time, actual politics. Yes, I know, this sounds crazy, some might even say stupidly boring. But to them I say, you are incorrect. Especially since as a half American and half English kid I apparently live in a world where both Brexit and Trump get to happen simultaneously.

I had the absolute privilege to attend the Vienna International School while living there, which also happened to be the school for United Nations children. Which would make more sense If I had told you about the UN headquarters in Vienna before saying that, but I did warn you that this would be a stream of consciousness so deal with it. It is here that I got to meet people from every corner of the world while also meeting the person who would become my best friend for life/ basically brother, Jakob, the only person who seems to travel as much as I do.

While in Europe I experienced some of the most fantastical things that I will probably ever experience. Mountain huts where they rotisserie whole chickens by the dozen while selling hot chocolate, palatial gardens with more confusing layouts than this blog post, and castles, and I mean lots of castles. But all good things come to an end and so did my stay in Vienna.

Cairo / Boarding School Era

My parents had decided that it was time to go from the Alpine wonderland that is Austria and basically move to the desert. Cairo was an interesting experience while also being the most difficult period of my life to explain. I drove by the pyramids of Giza every day on my three-hour commute to and from school, and yes this managed to make them incredibly boring for me now. And even more disappointing was the sphinx, since it is literally situated in a very large hole in the ground which rather takes away from any imposing or wondrous aura it may have had otherwise, it also happens to be far smaller than I expected. It was here that I was exposed to the most extreme poverty I have ever seen in my life, but we’ll keep it light for this initial blog post and move rapidly on wards through this life story of mine.

And once again, the ever interesting politics of the world struck my life, but this time in the form of a revolution. And so off to boarding school I was whisked at the tender age of sixteen.

Boarding school proved to be the most English experience I have ever had since I basically attended Hogwarts. It met all the criteria; it had a central courtyard, it was on a hill, it had a bell that chimed every hour, and it even had the towers. Unfortunately, I must inform the reader of this that there were no wands or flying brooms, but that did not take away from the fantastical aura of the place. However, I have to say, I will never miss the obligatory chapel sessions every week.

This was the first place I ever started thinking of fantasy novels and those who write them. I am ashamed to admit it, but until this point I didn’t really care about authors or why they wrote what they wrote. Like most people I read the story and then just daydreamed about it obsessively until I found the next story to immerse myself in, or, as an afterthought, this could just be a me thing. Prayer sessions were the place I most often fantasized about Gimli son of Gloin hitting an Uruk-hai in the nuts with a battleaxe. I began to wonder how in the world did any of these worlds come from the mind of a single person, they had to be super-human, or just smarter than me.

Anyways, I ended up graduating with acceptable grades and went on to suddenly be called an adult, when it came to laws and alcohol, but still called a kid whenever I did anything somewhat stupid, which was frequent.

University

Now, I am not going to bore you with the details of all of my incredibly badly though out escapades at University, as the details get somewhat blurry for rather obvious reasons. But it is here that I seemingly Unleashed my inner nerd upon the world. I found friends who managed to be interested in the same things I was and also introduce me to whole new worlds that I had never experienced before. There are two people in particular who stick out as my partners in crime during this period, my Vietnamese roommate Sony and the enigma that is Billy.

Billy introduced me to Warhammer as well as giving me a partner with which to play Magic: The Gathering. While Sony was always willing to go out and provide me with some of the most ridiculous stories on the planet, not that Billy falls far behind in that regard, if at all.

When it comes to even thinking of writing a novel, these two were most probably the first ones who told me that I should pursue it, unfortunately, I kinda ignored them. The farthest I got was writing down a few notes and realizing someone had already written that exact book that I was thinking of writing myself. So, I quit. This resulted in me going through university studying politics and international relations with absolutely no idea of what I wanted to do with my life. So as one could imagine, I graduated and proceeded to coast into a year that I can only describe as soul crushing.

USA… Again – Present Day

After graduation it was time to return to the east coast once again, but this time a bit further south to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. Never heard of it? Neither had I until I got there. It is here that I somehow got myself into the sales industry. And when I mean sales, I mean the guy who stands in Sam’s Club or Costco trying to sell you an overpriced pillow, because apparently that’s all a degree will get you nowadays. The upside was that I got to yell at burly men to, “Give it a squeeze!” The downside was that some of those men had guns, which contributed greatly to my urgency to leave after only one year.

One thing managed to keep my imagination alive during the monotony that is the life of a salesperson, and that is fantasizing about the stories I had read. After I had finished fantasizing about being a character in the stories that had already been written, I started to make up my own stories. After a while I learned that it was the only thing I actually enjoyed doing. So, I began to write my ideas down, mostly in list format. But even with this creative outlet, I knew that I could no longer be a salesperson. But I also refused to be the stereotypical starving artist.

So, after a while, I decided to go and apply to law school back in the UK. I had always been interested in the law but afraid to pursue it due to the horror stories, which all turned out to be true. It is here that I learned to write in the dreaded, ‘plain English’, that lawyers use speak and write in. No flourishes and absolutely no frills… it was incredibly boring. Rather than finding something I truly loved I just found myself escaping more and more into my own imaginary world than ever before. That did not mean I didn’t enjoy studying law. It was interesting and challenged me in ways I hope to never be challenged in again. In the end I emerged victorious, with the grades necessary to earn another few bits of paper that stated how educated I was, but only warranted a voucher for a frame rather than the actual frame itself. However, I have to say that I will always be proud that I passed law school, as most do not.

And now I find myself in the same position as after my first degree. Unemployed and applying to jobs that do not really interest me. So instead I started this blog… smart, right? I actuality I’ve decided that the corporate world is not for me and began applying to the civil service because politics is by far the best ongoing story line of all time. I’ve also decided to take this writing thing somewhat seriously, and this blog is meant to be me manifesting that into reality in some way… hopefully.

Conclusion

So long story short, there is absolutely no reason you should read this blog. I have no experience and no idea what I’m talking about in any way, shape, or form. Truth be told it is just nice to be able to write without a word limit or the ghostly voice of every professor ever telling not to waffle. By the way, why is it called waffle if you write off topic? I reckon that may warrant a Google from me.

Back on topic, this blog is going to be me learning how to actually write a book. There will be mistakes, so keep in mind this not a tutorial or a walk-through on how to do things the right way, as this will most certainly not be the right way. So, most posts will be my stream of conscious in digital form. So, get ready for some waffle.

Finally, I’m writing this in the hope someone will enjoy it, because stories don’t get told if no one writes anything down, and that would suck.

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