It's important to believe in yourself. I know I don't, most of the time.

I'm sure some of you don't either. It's a battle we fight daily. We look at the task before us, be it writing a book or signing up for classes or talking to a cute guy, and we say "I'm not pretty/smart/funny/strong/good enough." But you know what? We're wrong. We are all of those things, or at least we should be. If to nobody else but ourselves. You have to believe in you and chase after your dreams, because if you don't you're going to end up stuffing that dream into an envelope and then ripping it up year after year, like this guy...

Keeping talent hidden away all those years for fear of failure? It's a god damn travesty.

Okay, so we can't all sing like that...but that's not the point. The point is this man listened to the voices telling him that he couldn't do it, be it from friends or family or the ones inside his own head. He allowed that fear of failure to keep him from even trying.

Don't let that be you. Try to do the things you've been afraid of doing because you were worried that you would fail. Go back to school. Talk to that girl you've been crushing on for months. Start a business. Write that damn book. Put yourself out there, whatever. Just do it.

Maybe it won't work out. Maybe you'll make a fool of yourself in the process. But you know what? The world will move on, as will you. Should you succeed, however, the world will stop, if only for a moment, and take notice. And that's something that can never be taken away from you. More importantly, you won't waste five years of your life wondering what could have been.

"Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can pick ourselves back up." -- Thomas Wayne

In case you didn't know, it's October 22nd. As in, almost November. What the hell! I swear yesterday was July and then I blinked and now it's friggin October!! How does that happen? (TIME TRAVEL, DUH!!)

So what have I been up to, aside from NOT finishing I, Dark Lord and putting it out there for what I can only assume to be your rabid consumption. Well, for starters, I updated my website. See? I copied over my old blog posts (all eleven of them...) but lost the comments in the process. Sorry about that! Also, you're welcome!

What else? Let's see...oh, here's something that's kind of a big deal. I quit my job. After working for seven years as a member of the fun police I just felt like it was time to do something else. And so, with the support of my loving wife I threw away a lot of money and amazing benefits and a badass retirement so that I could become a broke college student and stay-at-home dad. Dumb, I know. But also incredibly awesome, because life is far too short to spend 40+ hours a week someplace you don't want to be.

"Great!" you're saying. "You should have more time to write now, yes? So why isn't Dark Lord finished?"  Funny you should ask! Surprisingly, I find myself with even LESS free time than I did when I was away from home for ten+ hours a day. How is that even possible? (TIME TRAVEL, DUH!!!) I'm not really sure, but there it is. Throw in the fact that we're now responsible for two more (great) kids and the recent sudden death of my dog and let's just say that my head has not been in the game.

BUT GUESS WHAT!?! NOW IT IS!!! YAAAAAYAYAAYA!! COMMENCE WITH THE LIBATIONS!!

I was actually up until 1:30AM last night writing a kick-ass chapter for I, Dark Lord that was definitely missing from the beginning of the story. I plan on writing my ass off for the next eight days and finally finishing this book before the end of the month. I owe that not only to you guys but to myself. After that, it's NaNoWriMo, during which I intend to finish I, Champion in 30 days or less, alongside continuing to ace all my classes and clean the house and take care of four children and...and..and...and...

That's all for now. Later, minions!!