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Dear twenty-year-old self,

If you’re reading this, it’s been exactly one year to the date that you were currently sitting up at nearly six in the morning writing a blog entry with the hope on recanting the past and just what has been going on in your life. While writing this, you wanted to secure a few promises to yourself of your hopes and dreams and, hopefully, as the work of the universe ordains, have seen at least some, if not all of them come true. Hopefully you’ve worked long and hard on bettering yourself not only as a person, but an artist, and have hopefully forgotten that you’ve ever written this blog entry in the hopes that, while reading this, you’re surprised by the content and therefore can recant on these issues without having to think back and remember just why you wrote that.

The journal entry goes something like this:

Dear twenty-year-old self,

Hopefully, over the course of the year, you have learned to manage your Bipolar Disorder and have come to live with the triumphs and consequences it entails in your life. Hopefully you’ll have learned that your manic phases are meant to be exploited, milked for all they offer and harvested in order to give yourself a better opportunity in life, and hopefully you’ve learned that the depressive phases will, eventually, go away, and can be pushed aside by looking at the small and little things around you. Life is much too short to be constantly worrying about one thing or another. Money, friends, safety, security, situation, lovers, haters, family, pets—these things all play a valuable role in your life but never should you allow them to get you down. Know that, as of reading this in 2012, you are probably a much stronger person than you were one year ago to this day, and for that you should congratulate yourself for persevering through yet another year.

Dear twenty-year-old self,

Hopefully you’ve managed to confront your anxiety around people and are no longer afraid to look at them straight in the eyes or smile at them for fear that you will somehow get rejected. The past is the past—elementary, middle and high school no longer rule the existence of your life—and for that you should realize that people are not usually biased or against you unless they have a problem with themself or the people around them. Learn to embrace the kindness of strangers, as in this life people are much kinder than you would have initially anticipated for oneself.

Dear twenty-year-old self,

Hopefully as of reading this you’ve managed to have a stable relationship; or two, or three. You know it’s been hard having to deal with the complications of being lonely and not wanting to give up your art in order to share your life with another person. It’s scary—really, really fucking scary—to think that things can come and then they can go just as easily as a flick of a switch. As of writing this, you should have enough confidence in yourself to know that you’re perfectly capable of doing whatever it is you want to do, with or without someone. Please, try to open your heart to someone, even though life and happenstance has left you weak and sheltered from the arms of another, because if not, you are truly letting go of one of the greatest things you may ever possibly find within someone else. Maybe you’ll be living with someone come this time next year when you’re reading this letter, or maybe you’ve just broken up with someone whom you considered may have been the love of your life. Either way, know that, in this very moment, you are strong. ‘In this very moment I’m king; in this very moment I’ve slain Goliath with the sling.’

Dear twenty-year-old self,

I hoped you’ve amassed your work to the public and therefore have become successful with it, or have at least improved your art and managed to get a few books out by the time you’ve read this. Maybe The Brotherhood will have been completed and the fourth or fifth book will have or are going to be published soon. Hopefully you’ve written Wraethworld, Breathe Air, possibly even Lamia or Maddie, but if not, that’s ok, because in your heart you know that they will one day be written as time is all but present for you. At the very least, maybe you’ve managed to amass enough of a savings to keep yourself healthy and happy for a series of months. For all the shit you’ve gone through over this past year, in 2010, or even in 2009, you deserve all the success the world has to offer you.

Dear twenty-year-old self,

I hope that you’re living on your own, possibly with a lover or even friends, have your own series of pets, are stable in your life and have either made enough money from your writing or from some other job to make yourself stable. You should have never had to worry about money in the past, about whether or not you could buy the food to sustain you or if you can afford medication to help keep yourself in check. You’ve always been one of the most independent people possible, and for that I hope you’ve managed to attain some form of comfort in order to allow yourself all the space and time in your own private sanctuary you could possibly need.

Dear twenty-year-old self,

You may have moved back to Idaho at this point. You may still live in Austin, or you could have migrated with your roommates south to San Antonio. Whatever the case is, the choice you have made over the past year has led you to whatever position you are in. If you happen to be at home, know that you did whatever you could in order to keep yourself happy, stable and secure. If you’re not at home, then you most obviously must have done something great in order to keep yourself stable. Pat yourself on the back for that, because it takes a lot of work and effort to do whatever you’ve done in order to keep yourself sustained.

Dear twenty-year-old self,

Hopefully you’re happier or at least more comfortable with your body image. You might not have changed a bit. You may have lost more weight and are now ‘fabulous,’ or you may have gained a few more pounds (but hopefully not.) Either way, know that there is always a person out there who will accept you no matter who you are, what you look like or how you may be presented to the world. You know you are a good-looking, attractive person, and have probably become moreso over the course of a year. Either way, hopefully you know this to be true, and hold it carefully-guarded within your heart.

So… twenty-year-old self… I hope, while reading this blog, as unexpected or expected as it may be, you’re happy, safe, healthy, maybe with a boyfriend and with some pets, and hopefully you’ve managed to obtain the things that you’ve so desperately pursued over the past year.

Yours truly,

- Your nineteen-year-old self

Hello everyone,

Kody here. This is just a quick note to let you know that the second Brotherhood book, Sword, is now available on Amazon Kindle for $2.99. It is forthcoming to paperbacks and should be available possibly sometime next week.

Here’s the synopsis:

In The Brotherhood: Blood, Odin began his dream of becoming a knight and journeyed as a squire across many lands in service to his king.

In Sword, Odin returns to the capital to participate in the knighting initiation ceremonies. He is confident that he will triumph in his final test where victory is determined by first blood drawn. After Odin wins, he is unexpectedly denied the title of knight.  Ejected from the army and devastated by the loss of his dream, Odin prepares for his journey home.

But he has found favor with his ruler and is made the king’s champion.  Odin then becomes the king’s right hand, traveling across the kingdom and setting right what is wrong.

After a shocking attempt on the king’s life, it is discovered that dark forces are amassing in the dead lands just beyond the edge of the kingdom.

Only Odin and his party of heroes can the save the kingdom…

You can buy Sword on Amazon.com for $2.99 by clicking here.

Hey everyone,

Just posting a blog to let you know that Ashley over at The Bookish Brunette is doing a giveaway for my zombie novel Sunrise for Zombie Craze. All you have to do to enter is go on over to the blog, read my guest post, then leave a comment. After you enter the Rafflecopter giveaway, you’ll then be entered to win either an eBook of Sunrise or a paperback copy (though at this point there is only one, so it’s basically the ultimate prize.)

Click on this string of text to visit The Bookish Brunette and enter to win a copy of my novel!

Thanks again for your interest,

- Kody