I hope this post finds you all well and taking care of each other and just as importantly-taking care of yourself. This week we see signs of re-awakening as some restrictions are beginning to be relaxed. It feels like spring is arriving after a long hard winter.  But remember to be cautious, and take it a bit at a time. And that will still give you plenty of time to read. Which brings us to our guest author…

.    r. e. joyce writes Epic Fantasy and all books can be found through Draft2Digital worldwide

Stories by r.e.joyce
I write to express the joys and adventures I have found in this world.  Most come from the grace of being chosen to guide two beautiful souls through the adventure of growing up.  It is my children, Stephanie and Bill, who make this life worth living.  The grandbabies are a marvelous recreation of the joys I experienced without the diaper changes – such a fabulous gift!  Do you want to have a taste of the worlds my mind creates?  Come and Join in the fun: https://books2read.com/ap/KnAMpn/R-E-Joyce

Why Write?
They say that reading fosters the urge to write and experience chooses the genre.

As to the first, I can attest.  My world in the 1970s and 1980s consisted of work-centered travel.  My last job in New York was a one-hour-forty-minute commute into the Big Apple if all connections were properly made.  It gave me time to read and I ordered the Franklin Library Book of the Month Club Classics for the train ride, promising to read each one before I picked up a dime store novel.  Month after month I would struggle through Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain or Homer’s Iliad awaiting the day I could call it read and pick up Stephen R. Donaldson, Ursula K. LeGuin, David Eddings, Terry Brooks and of course C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien.  It was in the fantasy worlds of these great writers that I found a place for my mind to take flight.  For four-and-one-half years I clickety-clacked down the tracks and let these fantastic worlds open within my mind allowing me to become part of so many epic adventures.
Then the urge took hold.  I could write one of these epic fantasies!  The scolding of my English teachers and the wanton grades they scratched into my report cards could not deter the building desire to put words together and go on my own adventure.   The writing bug bit and I was destined for the torment and elation I never expected in life.  We will get back to the swings of emotion later.  For now, with pen in hand (soon turned to computer keyboard) I used the spare minutes of my life to write—catapulting me into the wonderful world of epic fantasty

Meanings
The explanation of my life is Grand Poobah-dum.  I have no timeless words of wisdom beyond those that guide my life.  Live to serve and serve until it feels good.  The world will be better for it.

• I, like Tevye, wish for a little wealth. I promise to pray more if…
• I, like Joseph, find strength in quiet support of family.
• I, like Don Quixote, always seek the windmill over the easy path.

It started as an urge and took root in the rich soil of familial love.  The experiential writings made spirituality all the more real for me and touched a life of one or two along the way.  The honing of skills hardened my resolve until I allowed myself to stand before all as I am.  The wayward critics seek to mold me in their image.  I choose the one that is God-given and life affirmed.
I am a story teller and if you have a moment I will share with you worlds that can enchant and even make you dream.  If you need proper grammar I have some teachers I can recommend.  If you want to touch life, I believe I have some ready for you.

Where do you get your inspiration?
There are experiences directly related to my feeble first attempts.  Stephanie came to me with skinned knee and turtle tears, clutching her pink unicorn.  Holding her, I whispered if she would allow me to clean her boo-boo, I would write her a story about a unicorn.
Oh, did I fail to mention that God graced me with two of the most beautiful gifts a man could ask for.  To give this justice, we would need to consider a longer story format.  For now, I will affirm their epic effect on my life.
Stephanie came into the world pink and beautiful and when the nurse placed her in my hands a fear, beyond anything ever imagined came over me.  How could a lumbering old fool like me ever care for such a precious princess?  She seemed to fit within the palm of my hands, and my trembling left others to wonder about my joy.  Nothing can ever exceed the gift I held that day and that I continue to embrace as she explores her own world.
Now Bill, having arrived three years later almost to the day, bounced out and the now trained hands of a father gathered him up, placing my hereditary standard on the boy with the quiet soul.  He has been more than and continues to amaze me with the deep-seated love he shows the world around him.
We will have an epitaph written or imagined at the end of our stay here on earth.  Mine will contain the blessing from God of these two souls.  If nothing else graces the journey of my life, I am fulfilled.

Back to the story…  The boo-boo healed and the little girl grew up and the scratching of a novice writer found its way to the page.

My mission in life:

To write is to place love in the hands of generations to come.
The rest of my day is giving to helping others…

Seven Stars of Midnight                         The Finding

 

You can connect with r.e. joyce at Vision Management Publishing and find his books at books2read.  

I leave you tonight with r.e.joyce’s beautiful covers to look at and be inspired…