Alabama, Arkansas, I Sure Love My Maw and Pa...

And so, for the first time in over four months, the post will originate from the left side of the Atlantic.

I headed home early. 

What a trip it was. What a time. 

I've only faced it a few times, but when I'm asked, I revert to the tried-and-true: "It was fantastic."

"Spectacular."

"Incredible."

It's strange, I wasn't expecting to be unable to describe my 2012 like this.

I've gone through "re-entry", I've done this before. Besides, it'll be easier for me to recount my trip because I was partially leading it.

Wrong.

It's more difficult for me to describe all this than 2009 was. 

Meh. You see, that's not a big deal. Why? Because I'm home.

Entering the US again was like exhaling the largest sigh that your lungs are capable of holding. It was as though weight was being sloughed off my shoulders with every step. It's not that I disliked what I had done, or felt burdened by it at all. It was just time to come home.

Man is only capable of living out of a backpack for so long.

Beautifully, and ironically, the Wanderlust eventually turns on its head. It still says "GO!", but it just adds another word:

Go home.

Yes. Please.

A Change, A Refresh, and An Update...

Well... Things have certainly changed around here.

It was time.

I decided to do away with the barrenly simple, and replace it with a more complicated simple. The layout is relatively unchanged, but the site is a little more pleasing to the eye and definitely more compartmentalized, which was sorely needed.

Now... About these recent postings.

I've always adored writing. The passion for fiction and stories was buried as I grew up. I guess I was just too busy reading everybody else to remember to play to my passions. Writing in general flooded back into my life when I headed across the pond, and how welcome it was to simply let myself appear on a page again. Then, suddenly, and rather surprisingly, fiction entered life again too. I've done creative writing since middle school, and frankly, it's my favorite. It's too much fun.

Maybe I just like playing God and shaping characters in a world that I can manipulate. Maybe I am just a sucker for a good story. I like to think it's the latter.

So this story came bursting forth into my head, and onto three of four notebooks, my computer, and then eventually here. What's the point of putting it here? Feedback and edits.

I want help with this story.

It is a complicated mess of complicated characters with complicated pasts, futures, motivations, fears, and loves.

It needs all the guidance it can get, so I'd love your comments.

Right now, this story is simply characters. It's simply development. I'm trying to fall in love with these characters. So I'm exploring them and their reaction to an event. As for these updates, these are small and simply how each character hears of the event. There are still a few more to introduce, and then we'll go from there.

But until it progresses, I love your feedback and edits, and I'll leave with the seed that started it all...