This past weekend the family and I took a trip to Gatlinburg for some nice time away and a chance to see the beautiful scenery with all the Christmas decorations put in place. I remember going as a child many times to both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge to visit Dollywood, the Aquarium, and many other museums and ventures. I must say it is exactly as I remembered only a bit less extravagant. Speaking in part on the Aquarium: the amount of money we had to pay to get in was not worth the amount of things you get to see and how long it takes you to go through the entirety of the exhibits. Granted we went at night when there was absolutely zero crowd what so ever, it was still a bit dull from what I remember. It seems that all the places I've visited from my childhood have been that way. The zoo being one of them. I guess when you're that small things seem a lot grander and more enticing if you will.
We spent most of our time on the main strip where all the shopping takes place. A few museums retrieved money from us simply because we were curious, but none of them seemed all that interesting to me. Mostly it was a lot of walking through a building and reading interesting facts off the wall that I could have found on the internet or in a book somewhere. I thought one particular place was quite laughable after thinking it would be a cool place about extraordinary illusions. However, as I walked through I was able to spot a lot of lights and mirrors, thus ruining the entire effect of it. I felt a right bit clever after exiting knowing that I was smarter than I thought before hand. I will admit that it was an experience and those are the types of things we as people like to tell stories about later. It's really the most awful experiences that are the best to tell about afterwards.
As for my "author duties", I did take extra note of my surroundings while I was there. The entire area of where we were staying was very secluded so I picked up on a few ideas for some future sequences. The end is still drawing near for the first book but I'm still finding it difficult to give it a complete close. There is just so much that I want to say and squeeze in there that I keep finding myself going back and rewriting over and over. There are things that have come up in the later books that I want to incorporate more in the first just so it can all tie together in the end. It is a constant struggle but I have complete motivation in myself and what I'm doing to see it to the end.
This has become my sole dedication and purpose. I have no interest in pursuing a certain type of education until I am fully aware of what I want to do in life and as of now that is writing my book. My job will sustain me until I figure myself out. At least I'm not a bum and quitting EVERYTHING. I am smart enough to know that I need money to support myself funnily enough. I will make sure I put as much effort into this as possible though because without this book I honestly have nothing in my life to work towards. These characters and this story will define who I am and what I am to be. If I succeed, which I pray to God that I do, I will be always in debt to my imagination for taking me to a place I had no clue how to find on my own.
I thank anyone who has supported me through this and I will try my hardest to make you all extremely proud.
M.
