I am going to be very tired at work tomorrow...

because it's approaching 2am and I am still not asleep.

I go to bed at 10pm... sometimes 9pm... sometimes 7pm (when I'm really tired)

This is new in a very old way. But since I'm up, let me tell you about the exciting going ons of my life. There's work and there's my story.

My latest branding of the book I'm writing is "new age folklore" and there's several reasons behind it.

• Readers are encouraged to listen.

One of the biggest traditions we have lost is the oral tradition. Due to this, a child's imagination is not allowed to explore the vast and magical places of the mind. Everything is fed to us and there's no room for discovery. We see pictures and we know exactly what something looks like. We read descriptions, and they leave no room for error. When you listen to a story someone is telling you, the experience is different. You create the crazy taxi in your mind or the obnoxious baker. That experience is far more interesting for me to help facilitate. I have been asked several times why I am writing a book instead of a graphic novel. This is the reason. Yes, I have my world and my rules. But it is important for my readers to find themselves in this world. That is what made my childhood magical - finding myself in the great creations of others.

• Depth and Simplicity
  

When I was a kid, I used to have stories orated to me by my parents and older siblings. As a kid, I understood the basic things. I was scared or happy. Things seemed cool, other things didn't. I was fascinated though that as I grew older and began to hear the same stories I noticed the darker themes and the adult oriented undertones. Very dark stuff. Classic literature and even quality children movies are often double layered. They offer quality emotions that fundamentally works on several levels. The biggest culprit are traditional folk stories/folklore. They are particularly dark and particularly violent. My story won't have the violence of very traditional folklore, but will carry that same darkness. I guess where the "new" comes in is this emotional darkness. The stories will have a lot to do with that, but will be told in a very light hearted and whimsical fashion.

• The lesson learned

All good folklore teach us good lessons. In this story each chapter will offer a moral and a lesson to be learned. These are standard for any folklore and will be standard here. You will also see other elements that are standard for folklores. These include familiar archetypes, personification, specific numbers (i.e. 3 kings, 9 brothers, etc). By the same token, things will go in widely different directions. Patterns will purposely be broken. Archetypes will be turned on their heels. Shades of gray will be prominent and by the end of the story, there will be no villain. Some of the valuable lessons that I have learned is that life infused with magic can truly take us places. In traditional folklore, magic is set and life has no place. I am curious to see where my story will go if it is magic infused with life.

That's it for now. I'll come back with more soon. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking. Very excited for this story. In terms of everyday stuff, working, so you think you can dance is back on!!, upset about chuck and heroes splitting the season but at least they got renewed, playing infamous (kinda clunky, but not terrible), obsessing over patapon 2, and discovering the awesomeness of twitter.

Life is good.