I’ve heard it said that everything old is new again. I pray that is not true of men’s bellbottom jeans. However, given the flamboyant costumes that pass for men’s fashion today, I’m confident that I won’t see that happen in my lifetime. I’ve seen some great new things in the last sixty years though. (I don’t remember that many changes in my first ten.) I’m not a change for the sake of change kind of guy. I’m more of an if it ain’t broke don’t fix it type. Except for software updates, I’ve welcomed most of the changes I’ve seen.
But I digress. This week an old manuscript from the dawn of my writing days made it into print. The idea for the book, more of a vision really, dates back years before any writing began. I had this picture of a winged creature moving through the trees of a tropical rainforest toward a shining city crowned by a golden dome. You’d think I could make something of that, but I never did.
Then, my grandson left a story he wrote at school on my desk. I say he wrote it at school, but I don’t think it was what he was supposed to be doing at the time. I don’t know where he got that trait from. Anyway, he left it on my desk, I read it, and the story I visualized sprang to life. It took me 62 weeks to write it after which, it sat in a drawer and then a file for years.
The old fantasy story is new again. The celebration is on hold, however. Every book launch carries with it the real prospect that the book will crash and burn. At least that’s the case for guys like me. I have seen some well-known authors launch a smoldering wreck and have it make the bestseller list.
After all the horror novels, releasing a fantasy book may not be a good strategy. Only time and readers will tell, but it does feel good to see the old story test its wings. It also gives me hope the stories that suffered similar fates might one day live again.
