Ten years are a long time for anything. That time can seem like a blink of an eye.

I will say I still have no idea what the real day is, at some point I decided April 10th, was a good choice. I mean, it could have been in May, but April seemed right, like it gave me enough time to get where I was.

April 10, 2007 was where I say when a major change happened in my life. It gave me my direction, my dream. I started to work on my novel.

I know I did a post two years ago. But honestly with how much time has passed since then, I may see the change in my writing, but wow, that post really was me just starting out here. I think it was the first time I focused on talking about my story too. I know I wanted to talk about it then, since it was important to me. I want to talk about it now for that reason too.

So, before this day happened, I did write another story. Yet, nothing came of that. I stopped sometime in fifth grade after about not even a full year of writing it. Oddly enough I was really inspired by the fourth series of Digimon to write it.

What makes the story I started in 2007 different from that one, simple, I still work on it.

Back then I did not think much. I just wanted to write. I would get home from school and just do it. Yet, it was only for a short time. My mind may have been full of ideas, but I stopped once summer started.

In eighth grade, I did not work on it. But I had ideas. I scrapped the original plot, kept most of the key concepts. I got rid of the idea for a trilogy. The ideas just continued and on the entire eight grade year. My boredom in class only gave me time to daydream and plan, not just the first book, but the first three.

It was not until ninth grade where I started to write again, this was all by hand too, I did not have a computer. Thus, the series continued to change as I wrote. My birthday I finished the first book and started writing the second. I even finished that by the summer to start the third. Come the end of tenth grade I wrote the first four.

Since then I have not continued. I still plan for eight books in the series. I wanted to stop, to work on others, as well as aim to be published. I mean I tried several times to work on the fifth, but since getting my computer, rewriting the first four took priority, and still do. Changes in the plot happened too in the rewrites.

Since getting my laptop I was able to rewrite the first four books. But the first one did not feel ready once I hit college. So, I rewrote it again.

It took me a lot longer, classes, rewriting the other books, but I was able to do it last year, around this time too.

Now, I aim to publish it. I feel confident.

I need to backtrack for a bit. This is my dream. I am not sure when it started, but once I started to write, eventually the dream just happened. I may have doubt some days.

Doubt, even in your dreams are natural. I think you need that doubt, when it helps push you forward and keep yourself grounded from dreaming too much. It helps you be cautious, think more, plan more, and dream more. But it can destroy your dreams. I may doubt myself, I may question if I am on the right path. I look back at all the years and think that, if I am really on the right path. But my dream is still there.

I believe working hard can make your dreams a reality. You need to be persistent and not give up.

Currently I am working on finding an agent. I will admit I have been slacking. I try my best. I want to try more. This is sort of why I been worrying about my writing lately. Blog and work taking up time away from it. It is not just that. I have been rejected by all the agents, that responded back to me so far. I think it is fear.

Fear is holding me back. That fear of the unknown and not being able to go beyond this. I do not know what will happen when I can get an agent, or how long will it take to get it to be published. When it is published, what will people think. Where do I go from there once I achieve that dream?

Even with that fear, there is something else that has always been pushing me forward. It is not just myself and trying to find issues when there may not be, or something I can improve on. Since I am like that here too, look at my outro on my posts. But it is the support. It is the support of others.

I have met so many people over the years, family, friends, teachers, and even strangers. Whenever they hear about my loving to write and want to publish my book, they cheer for me. A part of me did at a time worry if I was only pushing myself forward to not let them down. But it is not just that. I aim for this dream because it is something I love and wish to share it with others.

The characters I write about push me forward too. It may sound strange, but since it deals with trying to make ones dream a reality, how could it not be?

I think it is only fair to say the plot of my book. I did some rewording since the last time. So, Hero Sage Book One: Birth of Heroes:

The day of his fifteenth birthday James Davids is told of his extraordinary abilities. He is a Power, and with a world full of these people with abilities, he wants nothing more than to be the hero like his dreams.

When he learns of his fate, an unwanted future awaits. That dream he clings onto is only a nightmare waiting.

To change the future is a lot harder than he thinks when his own worst enemy is more than just himself of the present.

I do not know when the day will come when my book is published. Until then my dreams are simply my dreams. But not matter what, I want to continue this path I started ten years ago to make those dreams a reality.

Of course I hope you achieve your dreams too.

– Joe