Here we stand, and here we... Something... I forgot the rest

This interval of time's blog post is brought to you by the letter D, and in part by viewers like you!

In a way, I'm not lying at all.

My blog today comes in the form of a question that someone asked me. Now this person bought a copy of Rising Seas a few months... Well, almost a year back. (I can't believe it has been that long.) I ran into them yesterday when they came into my work place and their question to me was: "I was reading your book, and I LOVE it, but my brother borrowed it just before I finished. So... Uh... How does it end? I really want to know!"

My response? "Uh... Well, to be honest, I don't remember at all!"

Was I telling the truth? Not really, no. Absolutely not.
Why did I not spill the ending? That's simple. I didn't want to just be like "X blah blah Y blah blah X blah Z" and ruin it. I feel like there was more emotion in what I wrote than what comes out of my pie hole. (See "The Value of Words", my last blog, for an idea on that.)

It got me thinking back to a time when, last year, my girlfriend posed the question: "What would you do if someone asked you something about Rising Seas that you don't know or feel comfortable with?"

EASY.
Be truthful or lie like a politician.

I know one day I'll get a question like: "Was Vladimir's obsession with the Princess born out of a metaphysical manifestation of mankind's relationship with their need to wage warfare across time and space to prove their self-worth?" or something wild and crazy. Kind of like when anyone takes a Shakespearean class and you always get that one person who one-shots the metaphors and/or understands the literature on some kind of hyper level... That's not me for sure. Some of that stuff doesn't make sense to me. I'll admit that. It took me two and a half years to fully understand that the Nightwish song "Poet and the Pendulum" was the writer's parallel struggle with dying by time/old age or dying young by suicide. Took me a looooong time.

But I'll tell the truth and be honest with stranger questions. Do I think it's some kind of parallel commentary? Not really at all. Yes, many of the fantasy works people have read like Lord of the Rings, Sword of Truth, Narnia, Game of Thrones, etc all contain the author's viewpoints of what's broken in society at the time. However, I don't really think I see any of my views coming out any where in anything I write.

If I ever have to give a talk or sit at a panel and someone blatantly asks how Rising Seas or anything ends without reading it. I'll say I'm not telling. Why? See above about the whole emotional payoff part.

In part, that plays into experience. I mean, there are a lot of things people know already from famous movies and games that have lot their emotional value. Kane's last word, Rosebud, was his sled, the only thing that brought him joy (And in the words of Peter Griffin "I just saved you two long, boobless hours".), Aeris dies in Final Fantasy VII, etc. We know these things and accept them. Somethings we know, like Harry stops Voldemort, and we accept them, but we still can't appreciate the emotional pay off unless we experience the movie or books.

SO! Getting back on track. Read books, stay in school, take your vitamins, say your prays to whichever deity or god or goddess you prefer, and read the end of a book before watching the movie. (Unless it's Game of Thrones)