Teenagers, cryptids, and a helping of hope.

I was stuck in greater Los Angeles traffic yesterday and rather than let the creeping rage monster overwhelm my better nature, I went to my happy place...the world of THE UNSEEN.  I geek out on world building, I get way too excited about something that Maeve is going to do in a book that I haven't finished yet (#2) and I get goose bumps thinking about all the Big Damn Heroics in #2 and #3.  

After my talking car helpfully informed me, "TRAFFIC AHEAD, CHOOSE ALTERNATE ROUTE" (seriously, we are living in the future) for the 87th time, my mind wandered to why cryptids and YAs?  THE UNSEEN is relatively new on the scene for me, I've had the kernel of a hard(ish) sci-fi novel floating around in my brain since my mid-twenties, so why didn't I write that first?

Because equal parts cryptids and teenagers.

I've been lucky enough to spend almost all of my career (there was a year that I didn't see the sun while working for a bank) working with 13 to 21 year olds.  My first time teaching was in a community college, where I received a question that still haunts me to this day, "How are you qualified to teach this class?".  No idea what my answer was other than heavy sweating and desperately hoping that a black hole would appear, sucking me into another dimension whereby I could leave a complicated code to my former self in order to call in sick that day.  Outside of that particular moment, it's been pretty great.  There is so much potential, belief, excitement, nerves and hope in the teenage years.  They don't think they can change the world, they KNOW they can change the world.  The world is open and the possibilities are endless.  I've taught them, cried with them, advised them, coached them, laughed with them, been made fun of by them (this is a theme!), played with them, traveled with them and learned from them.  I've sat through the absolute best moments and the crushingly awful moments as well, but through it all, my job has been to help them see that their future, indeed our future, is still unwritten.  

How are teenagers connected to mythical beasts, legendary creatures and mythological animals around the world?  Well, anyone who works with teenagers will read that one way and laugh but more importantly, it's less so the creatures and more the people that they attract.  I love that there are large numbers of adults, all over the world, who spend their own time and money in the search for these creatures.  Their belief, their hope is the same that I see in my students.  They haven't been ground down to a nub of their younger selves, the world is still open and fresh with possibility.  It's beautiful really.

I'm excited to learn more about this community, connect with the people in it and hopefully go out on a few expeditions myself.

So if the Census would consider you an adult, take a moment and remember yourself at 15.  Who were you?  Who did you want to be?  Think and then take heart friends, it's never too late to become that person, to stand up and claim who you're supposed to be.  It might be scary, it might be difficult but your dreams are worth it.

Have a good day friends. 

Together

I've read, seen and heard a lot of difficult news in the last 48 hours.  In the end, all we have is each other.  In times of trouble, I know how important it was to talk to, hear from, feel and see a community around me.  I just need you to know one simple thing:  

We're with you.  

This was actually a main motivating factor for writing The Unseen.  It's for all of us, for that hurting and scared kid who hungers for home, connection and community.  That once you find your people, anything is possible.  

We are the heroes we've been waiting for.  

You are surrounded by people who love you.  Maybe you don't know them but they are there, waiting for you.  If you are scared, hurting, alone or something else, reach out.  Then reach out again if need be.  

We can do this together.

Hope, love and light.

Tattoos, the power of words and Ratatouille

I have four tattoos, all of which are words.  I waited until I was thirty-four for my first one, initially it was a single line, "Do not go gentle".  I've now added to that and completed half of the last stanza from Dylan Thomas's poem "Do not go gentle into that good night".  

Initially, I got that first line for two reasons. First, it was for me, it was a reminder to not give up, to leave a mark, however small, in the world. It was also a reminder to be myself, to strive for the things that I wanted and the things I wanted to do, it was a reminder that I wanted to write. Second, it was for my father. It was a visual reminder of my connection to him and my love for him. If I can be a shadow of the person he is, I will have lived a full and good life.

My second tattoo came from "Ulysses" by Lord Alfred Tennyson. Initially I wanted "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.", and I still might get that (don't tell my wife, she thinks I have a problem...I might actually) but that was too much real estate.  I wanted to have them in places that I could see, but that could be hidden if needed. So I went with "of heroic hearts". 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' 

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

That resonated with me. I read that as our hearts, the core of what we are is still strong, anything we set our minds to we can do and that, our will, our humanity, can carry us forward. Now an English major would probably argue all of that, but that's what it meant to me, especially at the time I got it.

The next two were the continuation of my first one:

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I finished the end of the last stanza for personal reasons. Suffice to say, I read them multiple times each day as a reminder of fate, hope and the physical power of love.

Finally out of love of, respect for and connection to all those that came before me, I got the Farrell family motto, "Prodesse Non Nocere "(To do good, not to do evil) added as well.  

While these words mean so much to so many, they are also mine. They are daily(and sometimes moment to moment) reminders of who I am and who I strive to be. I got them tattooed on my body so I could keep them close, so they would forever be a visual connection to what's important to me.  

Why ratatouille you might ask? Well, in looking at the picture above, you'll see my one year old son, riding my shoulders, fistfuls of my hair in each of his tiny, yet incredibly Hulk like, hands. This is the only picture I have of all four tattoos at one time, so in a very tangential way, Johnny was controlling me to get this blog done.

Thanks buddy.

Have a good night friends.