Moments of Melancholy

In reading Oscar Wilde I've learned that, try as they may, the art can never be separated from the artist. No matter how much one might try they cannot escape the inner parts of their minds that prompt them to create and, therefore, are unable to rebuke that of themselves. Making it inevitable to appear in one's craft. A concept I feel is much forgotten in these days of consumption where one cares only about their ill-gotten gains after doing the mental gymnastics required to enjoy the problematic things they’ve come to love. 

There’s no need to name names or figures, either, as I’m sure there are feelings brewing in your mind right now as you think of all the excuses you’ve made in the name of the things of you partake in because an artist cannot seperate themselves from the art.

The wonderful thing about that, however, is that it’s human. 

Bringing me to the point of your being here. 

It would be impossible to craft a succinct synopsis of who I am because, much like you, I am not flat nor made to be digested through a screen. As a human being, I am made of complex, intrinsic synchronicities that allow me to appear in this life as I have come to do so. That means that, in such brevity, it would be impossible to encompass all that I would need to tell you for you to truly understand the artist behind this piece. 

That’s why I am presenting my work to you in such a fashion.

What you’re about to embark upon is the full-length presentation of my life’s work. Given to you in its roughly edited glory as I release it chapter by chapter, for free, until it’s all gone. In doing so I am offering you the chance to view humanity through a lens unlike any you’ve ever had to before: the human one. 

You see, being a human is a rich experience full of great joy and great sadness. It is full of rewards and mistakes, successes and failures, sunshine, and darkness. Everything about living peacefully as a human being is about restoring balance to the inner chaos that arises when you are consuming too much of one side or the other of anything. 

Afterall, you cannot chase the night, expecting to outrun the dawn. 

All you can do is live. 

As centered as you can, knowing that the sun rises every day without your permission whether you like it or not (except for one time in Canada where the sun didn’t rise at all, but, that is beside the point).  

What is easily said has very little to do with what actually happens as life finds a way of humbling us all. In these darker times, we find that making decisions is harder than ever because every decision is the wrong one. Leading to people getting hurt and those aches echo through a lifetime. Shaping us into who we are; into who we will become. 

In the coming days, I will be telling you the very human story of Fletcher Birch, an agent of the undead tasked with saving the world one heartbreak at a time. It is about the endurance of the human condition and what people are capable of when they try just a little bit harder than they’d planned to. It’s a realistic view of romance and what it looks like in the midst of war, paired with a dazzling sprinkle of comedic gold. "The Death of a Bachelor," is unlike any story you’ve ever read before, but feels exactly like coming home. It’s a world you can’t help but want to live in.

Perhaps if only because you've lived there before.

When the release is completed you will have had the opportunity to enjoy four completed books. All of them have already been written to completion. This is not a joke. Four books, multiple chapters a book. Every page, first to last. You’re welcome.

Now… You might ask me why, if I have gone to such lengths to create such an expansive world of content, that I am giving this to you for free and I will tell you that you are not alone in this. 

Many around me have made sure to check in with me to make sure I know what I’m doing but, if there’s one thing that’s for sure, I don’t. Doing this opens me up to great risk as this truly is my life’s work, something I will never be able to recreate again, and in a world of pirates it will now be ripe for the taking! But the momentary gain is not why I’m doing this. It never has been. I cannot stop fate from doing what it will once this is over, I can only do this for the reasons I want to. 

I’m doing this because Fletcher's story is one that demands to be told.

As you read you’ll find that you might feel an urge to be mad at me, to feel repulsed by what you’ve taken in, and I encourage you to lean into that feeling. Ask yourself why it makes you feel so uncomfortable and if you must, you can let me know. However, in my time on this Earth, I have come to understand that discomfort is more of that inner chaos that comes with the misalignment of the soul. The themes of this story are graphic. There will be murder, there will be violence and drugs, there will be agony and ableism, there will be suicide, there will be suffering. There are hate crimes, there is homophobia, there is everything wrong with this world all wrapped up into a neat little package. 

And you’re supposed to be mad at them.

But I will remind you: the way you initially react is a definition of who YOU are, not who I am. Your rash judgments of these scenarios you’re about to witness scream of the imbalances in YOUR soul, and before you make me carry that for you, I hope that you’re able to sit down with yourself and just feel it out. 

Then come talk to me. 

There are things in this life that you see that are supposed to make you feel bad. They’re supposed to make you feel wrong. And you, as a human, are responsible for understanding why. As a duty to your species, before anything else.

So, as you look at life as I have described it for you with nothing more than the perspective of Fletcher Birch to guide you through it, I want to tell you this: 

Mortality and all its meaning are in the interpretation of the beholder, therefore, there is no prose to be spun that could accurately translate all that is to be felt between lines of text that lie here for you to enjoy. Do not read this work in an effort to understand who I am as a person but instead, focus your sights on feeling the emotions that I’ve felt so completely consumed with, that I had no other choice than to pen them down and share them with you.