Periphery Stowe 20th-Anniversary Edition

Twenty years ago I decided to write a book about a world in which the book I was writing played a part. This “book-within-itself” would tell its own story and be essential to its own plot. I wasn’t sure what would happen from there.

I was in India when I got the idea, and I ended up writing most of the first draft in Mumbai. When I got home, the first thing did was try to learn more about the country I’d just spent six weeks wandering around in. At the time, I knew little to nothing about Hindu mythology, so I started there. Among my first discoveries were uncanny similarities between Periphery Stowe’s story and the popular tales of Vishnu. Here was a god sleeping and dreaming the world. Within his dream he would manifest as another form—the form of an “avatar” or hero destined to rescue reality from itself. These very same layers and loops occur inside the parallel and overlapping adventures of Periphery Stowe and Riggs Bombay.

Cover art by Freedom Drudge

Had the narrative fabric of India somehow come up through the earth to wriggle into my subconscious? Had my desire to create a story which would so unabashedly fold in on itself somehow attracted a tangled connection between my life and the mythologies of my environment? Were these just the egotistical, mystified ravings of a foolish author?

Either way, it’s been twenty years and I still hold Stowe’s story and the story of its emergence dear to my heart. I hope the little fellow finds his way into yours.

Paperback

eBook

Son of a Rainbow

Two weeks ago I was given the gift of a conversation with my dear friend Amelia, who produces an incredible podcast about people and stories. She offered me an opportunity to talk about my mom, my writing, and last year’s horrible and heartbreaking events.

It was both agonizing and healing to be able to tell the story of my experience.

Ever since I can remember I’ve always been fascinated by travel, getting to meet people along the way and learning their stories. For me, these people are like gems that I get to collect each time I’m on a new adventure. In 2015, I spent the year on a series of whirlwind trips, and one of the gems that crossed my path that year was the fantastical Josh Wagner.

As a novelist and playwright, Josh is no stranger to the power of a story, how it can be used for entertainment, to document, to heal, and even for survival. Without it, our world would be so boring and definitely less magical. In his interview, Josh reminds us that life is unpredictable and sometimes inconceivable… yet, if we can hold on and trust the story, we might find the ending to be more extraordinary than we could have ever imagined. ✨

Thank you, Josh, and especially to your mama, who totally had a hand in choosing the title for this episode. 🌈 ☺️”

Listen in at ShapingSapiens.com
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2TnRGKU
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/shapingsapiens
and iTunes: http://apple.co/27kLANw

Summer 2019: the Horizon

Just finished final classes for my Masters here at the University of Edinburgh. With all the free time coming up I should be relaxing, but I have zero restraint for projects and will be focusing on production for a lot of exciting stuff this summer.

As The Changing Things continues to materialize, I’m spending my off-hours revisiting a few old projects, and I will be launching new media for several of them:

  1. The Adventures of the Imagination of Periphery Stowe: 2019 is the 20-year anniversary of my first novel’s first draft. I’ll be rereleasing the book with a new cover and launching a Kickstarter to fund a Graphic Novel version and an RPG. Updates on this very soon.
  2. Deadwind Sea: Novel #2 is also getting a facelift, along with some foundational revisions. It’s too much to delve into now, but it’s going to be interesting.
  3. Smashing Laptops: My third novel also has a new cover. This will be unveiled along with the release of the audiobook… hopefully toward the end of the year.
  4. Mystery Mark: A new Midlife Dragon related release is in the works. More on this by mid-summer.

Thanks for checking in! It’s been a year on the grindstone, but there will be treasures to show for it soon.

Meanwhile, I recently visited Fairy Glen in the Isle of Skye. Here’s the proof…

Oops, Invasion!

Earlier I posted: “Accidentally broke into a castle today.” This was a lie. Sort of. I fabricated the statement to increase my crime score while dodging total responsibility for trespassing. Two whopping exaggerations.

The break-in wasn’t actually all that nefarious, and it was totally intentional.

But the post is true in how accurately it describes the way I felt at the time.

In practice “not exactly accidentally not quite breaking into” a castle feels way more like “accidentally breaking into a castle” than anything else. Subjective experience-wise, these are the only words for the job. An inside job. A siege and heist of zero consequence. Something mischievous.

North Berwick is my soul. I have somehow been around since September without taking the 30 minute train to this wild rocky shore, whose beach you can follow for a couple hours to reach not one, but TWO fortresses. There’s the castle itself, but before getting there you’ll also come across a barbwire fenced-in concrete compound, which I think is either a power station of some kind or a bunker from WWII.

Whatever it is, it’s not on Google maps. And, while penetrable, they take their fencing seriously. I did not get any good pictures of this fortress because I am a bad person. Here’s a pretty beach instead.

I chose the modern fortress as my point of ascension because I wanted to see it up close. But also because coastal walks and mountain hikes temporarily cure my diabetes and I was going crazy low crazy fast. Not the sort of conditions under which I want to skirt a narrow shore where the sticky fingers of ten foot waves obliterate themselves against slippery boulders.

Plus, scaling Scotland hills is the BEST. It’s like climbing up sponge cake. Sleeping on this grass would be comfy as any fine bed.

Anyway.

Up top I found the fenced-off fortress surrounded by farmland. A low stone wall wrapped along the cliffside as far as I could see. So I could either turn back and go a half hour out of my way, or hop the wall and cut across country.

This brings us to the “accidentally” part. I hadn’t intended to break into the castle, but I was too medically concerned (with the crazy lows and all) to waste more time. Also lazy. Fine. True. By the time I reached the castle I was already two walls and a fence into my siege, so why stop there?

However, I can’t claim full crime-score on this because I also have a membership card that would have admitted me for free had I gone around to the gate.

In conclusion, I present my case before the mercy of the court, who neither cares whether or not I fling around dramatic figurative language, nor requires any excuse for sneaking into a place they’d have let me in anyway.

New year, new site!

2019 marks the 15th anniversary of the release of my first book, The Adventures of the Imagination of Periphery Stowe. I have more projects in development and on deck than I have in years, and I’m getting my masters in Edinburgh. To celebrate, why not build a new website?

Humans are weird. Thanks for stopping by!