My Excuse to Write

It all started back in 2006. Our eldest was a little over a year out from her college graduation, and it occurred to me that I had no good ideas for her as a gift. With a seven-second audit of our finances, I was able to determine that we had exactly no money available to work with, so I plunged into "Plan B."

"Plan B" was to write her a family history. It seemed like an innocuous enough plan. Only, my pen did not cooperate. Not even a little. Every time I put the ballpoint close to the paper, that mischievous pen would signal my brain to write something else.

A story idea kept slipping into my mind about a profound, horrifying self-sacrifice by someone to save the life of another. So I set about writing that story. Only, I never got to the aforementioned part in that first book. As it turned out, Blood Trail of the Falcon (Book 1) set off a series of four books written as college graduation gifts for each of my kids.

This past week, we celebrated Josiah's college graduation from Visible Music College. As you can see by the gold tassels, he graduated with honors, and you can also see he received his book, Wrath of the Falcon.

At long last, my story-inspiring event has been put into print. It only took me four books to get it there.

For fun, scroll down and watch the video Josiah made as his graduation self-introduction. Turn up the sound and enjoy the action and the word play.

What Kind of Parents Let Their Kids Do That?

Conspicuously skipping daughter number three is not an omission, but rather strategic timing. Stand-by …

Meanwhile, I have written very little about our youngest, Josiah, who is our only boy. That is by no means due to a lack of material.

Josiah is entering his senior year at Visible Music College, in Memphis, Tennessee. As you may have guessed by his school of choice, he is a musician preparing for a career in the Christian music field. You may have also surmised, by his genetic heritage, there is nothing normal about him either.

As a musician, Josiah plays acoustic and electric guitars, keys, violin, drums, and I may be missing something here. Naturally, he is a vocal major. He composes scores and does a lot of other music nerdy things that I don't understand even more so than everything else I have outlined.

His book is about halfway written and will be ready for his college graduation next spring. (No pressure!) No, I am not releasing that title yet. I have some entertainment for you of a different variety today.

What does a musician do when he wants to unwind? Evidently, he plays with fire … fire poi, that is.

CAUTION! This is real fire and it is really hot! DO NOT TRY THIS unless you have mastered the bolas! You WILL hurt yourself badly!

If you liked that, there is more. This video is featured on our son-in-law's YouTube channel, where there is also a multicam fire poi video.

http://www.manatthegate.com/