Revised edition

For want of a title to this entry, I thought of something I did today. I began anew a series that I have already read. Back in the days of having finished school when I had a lot of free time, I wasn't addicted to computer games - I read. I read so much that I was able to get through the average book in a day. These days I read a lot slower (and less frequently) but back then I read volume four of The Wheel of Time (1,001 pages) in a day and a half.

I picked up volume ten of the WoT a few months back - and despite the fact that it'd been years since I'd begun the series I thought I could dive in and pick up where I'd left off. However, not only did I have no idea what was going on or who was whom, but I found that I couldn't even bring myself to finish the book! Since I've only been reading books whilst at work, on my breaks, it stands to reason that getting through a lengthy read takes more than one library issue period.

I'd like to actually start the entire series over again but it will have to wait until I'm back into the flow of things and can devote myself to more than 45 mins of reading time a day. Even if I could concentrate properly in my work environment, that's still only ~45 pages per day, which makes reading any substantial novel quite a time consuming effort. I will strive to get in more reading time but it is something I will have to ease myself into once more. I'm not the reader, nor the writer, that I used to be, unfortunately. But I will publish a novel one day - of that I am certain!

I finished reading Frank Herbert's Dune for the first time yesterday. That in itself took me a couple of weeks at least. I really have not read at home anything but online stuff, quest information and manga, since I started playing WoW a year ago. Now, since quitting, I've found that all the spare time I've been granted really hasn't changed me much at all - I am not using my time as wisely, nor as effectively, as I could be.

But things are apt to change. As I move into this new season - with my sights on Japan and the call in my spirit to take up such a challenge as going to a pagan country where I am presented with all manner of physical, emotional and spiritual barriers - I will take up those things of the past that were good; and will leave those things that were not so good.

Magician. Raymond E. Feist's first Riftwar novel. A series that spawned other series' and basically set in stone the author's career as a professional novelist. In fact, I would like to complete my entire collection of novels that are related back to Midkemia in some way. I have some of the second-most recent series but he seems to keep writing more and so it is hard to keep up. Besides, I have forgotten a lot of the content of these novels, so it is a bit nostalgic almost to go back and read them over from the start. To recall the adventures is just like the revised edition of Magician itself. Revisiting old fictional characters whose lives you remember, though not in too great a detail; recalling events as you read about them and filling in the gaps that occur over time as you drift ever further from that point of building such a world as was created by such a gifted writer.

/tingle

I really must begin my own pursuit of releasing a published work. Short stories seem to go over well to kick some people off from being a casual writer to a professional author. But that's far too small for my ambition. If I were as dedicated to writing as I was to playing my hunter and mage over the past year, I would surely have a bestseller on my hands even now XD

Holy Spirit guides me and allows me to exercise my gift. Giving God the glory always - always - results in blessing. And so, my gifts cannot be utilised for anything but glorifying Him who breathed life into my very being. I seek not to stand apart and have people recognise my name as that of a bestselling author (though the thought of making a living doing what I love to do does have an appeal...). I only want to fulfil my destiny - and since we do choose our destiny and God is willing to bless us immensely if we are but faithful to Him; well, how can I decline an offer to simply put into practise what he has crafted me for?

The basic premise here is that I have not only made a decision to truly try and get to Japan to teach - and to spread the good news that there is a Saviour who cares for such a perverted and messed up culture - but that it is time I picked up my calling and began to act as mature as I should now be - in all regards. To have put my destiny on hold was perhaps a necessary part of the "desert experience" but to come out of that and into a new season only to procrastinate and allow the days to slip by without results - how is that faithful?

He emerges once more to take up the arduous task of rebuilding vocabulary banks, seeking direction and inspiration, and plotting a course with one destination and goal. The statement has been formed and presented in its purest form: "I will present to you a captivating tale of grandeur and original prose, set to outshine any works to date by collaborating all functions as an innovative, goal-oriented, Spirit-filled writer."

The revised edition is yet to come.

-Timotheos