Short Stories With Matt

     So I'm going to undertake a side quest in my epic journey towards publication. Don't worry, Alduin, I'll still slay you, I'm just going to take some time to help out this poor guard who took an arrow to the knee five years ago. Skyrim reference. Move along, move along.

     I'm going to write some short stories. These will be related to the main story of my books. They will enhance your understanding of events, but they will not be necessary to understanding the plot. I'm not going to cause Continuity Lockout, at least, I hope not.

     These stories will center around a few characters, some of whom surface in the main books, some of whom do not. The story will be centered around events mentioned in the book, namely the war in Benfor, and the Wilderness War between the Pathkeepers and the Karad.

     Yes, I'm name dropping to get you a little curious about what happens in my books.

     I'm going to be working on outline work for these stories for now, so you can expect an update on that around Thanksgiving time. Each short story will be about 10,000-30,000 words. I hope they'll be something you can enjoy reading.

That Girl, or, Why I Wasted a Year of My Life and You Don't Have To

     Listen up, it's past midnight, and so I'm liable to talk a little crazy. I've been ruminating over details of my life, and I realized for the first time ever that there is actually something I regret doing.

     Everything you do creates a path that leads you to this moment in time, that makes you who you are today. If you like who you are today, that's a good thing. And I do like who I am today. But there is a very large event in my not-too-distant past that I have taken issue with as of late.

     If you're just starting high school, and have any sort of romantic leanings, let me explain something to you. Sometime over the next four-ish years, you are going to meet an absolutely amazing girl(or guy). It will be love at first sight, and when you actually do summon the balls to ask them out, you will fall head-over-heels for them. 'I love you' will be said far, far, far too early into the relationship. You will get wrapped up in each other. You will be convinced that they are 'the one'.

     You're throwing your life away, your prime years. Run as far away from that person as you can, they are trouble for you. 'The one' does not exist. 'The one' is a delusional fantasy created so that you would bind yourself to a person and become dangerously co-dependent upon them. If you get in a relationship with That Girl, you are going to waste over a year of high school. For me, it was most of my junior year and the very start of my senior year.

     That Girl was bad for me. I couldn't see it because I was so 'in love' with her, but because of her, I allowed my talents and my gifts to stagnate for almost one full year.

     The worst part? From the beginning of the relationship, I heard God tell me to leave her, to break up with her. I heard God say that he had something better. I now know that my foolishness ruined a year of my life. Yeah, I had one heck of a dopamine and oxytocin high, but I allowed this girl to wrap me around her finger, I allowed her to take my focus from God and the use of my talents.

     I sit here and realize I threw a year of the time I was supposed to use to prepare for life straight into the trashcan.

     Don't do that. Long-term relationships have no place in high school. Period. High school years are supposed to be a term of preparation for the real world, not a time to prance around and play house with some chick or some dude who makes you feel fuzzy inside. Grow up.

     Furthermore: high school ruins things. Suppose you do meet someone you are insanely compatible with, shares your faith, and wants the same number of kids you do(ladies, I want none, keep that in mind when trying to get my attention); do you really want to have to endure high school together? If there's one thing that being a minor, having a job that barely pays a thousand a month, and having a buttload of schoolwork to do relationships, it's ruin them. This is only magnified by the fact that most people don't even know who they are yet.

     Young relationships are not a bad thing. Far from it. The Bible is constantly saying 'the wife of your youth'. And youth back then was really young. But if you just look at that phrase, you're missing another point, another key verse. Genesis 2:24- "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Hey, guess what? You can't leave your father and mother in high school, you nimrod.

     "But, Matt," you say. "I'm so in love I feel sparkles in my happy place when she/he's around."

     If you're a guy, come a little closer so I can smack you across the face. Love is not a feeling. Get that through your head! Attraction is a feeling. Infatuation is a feeling. Love is the highest commitment to a person that you will place their needs and desires above yours, even unto the ending of your own life. Again, read Genesis 2:24. That's God's description of how dating is supposed to go. Are you a Christian? Are you in high school? Are you in a high school relationship? You're sinning. Get out of that relationship and stop screwing around with your life.

     It's called tough love, deal with it. Stop crying and get over yourself, you'll be a better person for it.

This random late-night post has been brought to you by Monster, the unofficial drink of writers everywhere.

Light

     Light pricked the darkness.

     No legend knows how long that single spot of light shined out of nowhere, no legend tells whether it was bright or whether it was dim.

     The light vanished, for a time. The darkness that had become worlds continued to exist, unsettled by the existence of the light, for the light was a sign of life—that which the darkness had outlasted, that which the darkness had destroyed. The darkness continued to wait, swirling on itself, violent in its stillness.

     Light shone again, this time brighter. As the universe spirals downwards, so it must begin again once it has reached bottom. The darkness shuddered as the light continued to shine brighter and brighter until almost nothing existed save the light.

     The light vanished still again.

     The darkness was disturbed now. It knew that its existence wasn’t forever, that an end to void would soon come. The darkness could do nothing but wait, tensed to smother the light. The darkness heard, as no ear had heard in many thousands of ages, a sound. The sound of a single word, spoken against the void of chaos. In tongues of ages past, that word was known as “death”.

     And so the darkness died, its place now taken by eternal light. Unending, blinding, the light became the universe, shone until nothing save the purest white existed. Energy pulsed in the light, radiating in all directions from everywhere and nowhere at once. Infinite light in every part of the universe. Where once had been the Earth, there was light, where once had been Orion’s Belt, there was light. Black holes that had been swallowed by the darkness were now replaced with the energy of light. Light was all that existed.

     

It was from here that the universe would yet again begin a downward spiral.