Crossing the Bridges: Introduction
I am something of a modern Renaissance Man.
First and foremost, I am a writer.
Almost five years ago I began Pathwalking. This is my personal philosophy on how to choose my own destiny, so that I might live the life I most desire to have.
I started Positivity more than two-and-a-half years ago. One Monday morning all I saw was lamentation for the new week, and a deluge of negative posts across social media. So I decided that I needed to share some positivity, and it became a weekly post to this blog.
Both Pathwalking and Positivity are personal. I write and share these because I need to explore how to walk my own path in this life, and because I need to remind myself to keep more positive than negative. They are a labor of love, and I continue to compose them because like many things in life, this is an ongoing process.
I wrote my first fifty page, illustrated sci-fi book when I was 9. It has been followed by numerous other stories and novels along the way. In 1998, I began what would become my Young Adult/Fantasy epic, The Source Chronicles. Now, eighteen years later, I have chosen to self-publish Book 1, Seeker, Book 2, Finder, and have completed but not-yet edited Book 3, Harbinger. The primary series will be five books total.
I sought an agent to represent me for a long, long time. With new technologies abounding, I decided it was time to self-publish. In addition to The Source Chronicles, I began a Steampunk series called The Vapor Rogues. Clouds of Authority – A Vapor Rogues Novel is the first, and Clouds of Destiny, the second, is finished but needs to be edited.
I have also self-published several other works. The first year of Pathwalking, my very short Five Easy Steps to Change the World for the Better, and an homage to Paulo Coelho, a fiction novelette called Vortex Pilgrimage.
Currently I am working on a sci-fi space opera. My love of sci-fi and fantasy began with Star Wars when I was five, and I have long wanted to compose my own space epic. I still have no title for it, however.
I have two very distinct identities as a writer. My first love, the sci-fi/fantasy/fiction world, and my more recent love of the holistic, self-actualization/self-help world. For a long time I have viewed these as separate, but equal aspects of myself. What I have been having difficulty in reconciling, however, is bridging them. I do not need to be two separate people – I am the writer at the center of all this.
I have some previous experience with this idea. I have been doing Medieval reenactment for twenty-five years now with the Society for Creative Anachronism. In the SCA I have a different name to go with my late 16th Century persona than my “mundane” self. For many years my SCAdian persona and my real self were different, until I concluded they should not be, and merged them into one.
As a writer I have created a 3rd persona for myself. MJ Blehart is an author with young adult/fantasy novels and stories, Steampunk, fiction, self-help, philosophy, holisitic ideas, magazine and internet journalism stories all under my belt.
That is a lot of different and varied things I have written. I’m not even getting into work I have done professionally for web content, business development, advertising and press releases.
As such, I see myself as having two distinct categories of work; fiction and non-fiction.
Most authors can be defined by writing in one category or the other. Fiction writers write fiction, non-fiction writers write non-fiction. This has been bothering me for a while, since I am writing both. Should I have created another identity, one for fiction and one for non-fiction?
As I have begun recently to work with a coach, one thing I have started to analyze is that two of the writers who most inspire me, Neil Gaiman and Paulo Coelho, also branch between fiction and non-fiction. They both blog and Tweet frequently, and they both are absolutely brilliant authors. So if they can do it, why can’t I?
This weekly blog will explore my circumnavigation of these two broad, different categories, and my work within them. Additionally, I will likely intersperse thoughts on my involvement with the SCA, as well as other professional commitments I have going on.
Why am I sharing this? Because I know I am not alone in trying to figure this life out. Everyone strives to know themselves better, and to be the best person they can be. As I struggle with this process, maybe when I share what I am doing it will inspire you, or at least help you not make similar mistakes and missteps along the way.
Thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me!
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