And then there were three

Dear Littlest Prince,

I believe you may be a surprise, certainly not to yourself – that will come later – but to some of my readers, to some of even the most faithful of the kingdomites. We didn’t plan on keeping you a secret and we didn’t mean for it to come to this, where you are here and there are still several people near and dear to us that likely didn’t even know you were coming, and yet here you are, here we all are. This year has been a strange one. Your arrival is most definitely one of the bright spots.

Your brothers, the Little Prince and the Littler Prince, already adore you and, of course, already want to know when you will be able to play. They stayed up late to see you, to say hello to you, literal seconds after you were born. The Little Prince helped cut the umbilical cord. They both made toys for you, each hoping you might grab on to the one they made first. They have helped pick out some of the outfits for your first days. They have watched and asked questions and been present in those days. Yes, they already adore you.

Oh, the magical years you have ahead of you. Three brothers, with worlds to conquer for and against each other. Three brothers with mischief to make and wrongs to right. Three brothers in a family that embraces adventure.

The Queen and I, the humble Jester, promised adventure in our vows to each other, and we have promised it to each of our sons in turn. The adventures won’t always be fun. The adventures won’t always be the ones you want to have. That isn’t the point. That isn’t what the promise is about.

You will see amazing things. You will travel. You will discover. You will learn and love and lose and live. Music will be a part of it. The mountains will be a part of it. The ocean will be a part of it. And you will help us find new paths to walk. We will walk them together, the five of us. For no matter what the adventures bring, we will see them through as a family. That is part of the promise as well.

So, my dear Littlest Prince, welcome to the family. You are loved more than this writer could attempt to capture with mere words. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings, and the day after that, and the day after that…

Love,

Daddy – Matticus – The Jester

The Information Broker

Revis and I (finally) got the sequel to The Erratic Sun published.

The paperback will be out as soon as it passes the review phase but the kindle version is ready now, now, now!  It’s called The Information Broker.  (I bet you already guessed that).  As with our previous stories, I’m sure games and other shenanigans related to this new work will be forthcoming.  For now…  I’m just going to leave this here…

Click Here for Link to Amazon

Ten.

Ten years ago we stood on the side of a mountain, in front of our friends and family, and promised adventure.  Yes, we promised to love and honor and cherish and all that too.  But mostly we promised adventure.  I believe we have kept that promise to each other.  They  haven’t always been glamorous.  They haven’t always been perfect.  But, there have been adventures aplenty and we have survived them, enjoyed them, struggled through them, planned them, been pulled into them, won hard-fought victories over them, and all side by side.  I wouldn’t want anyone else standing by me.

Ten years ago we stood on the side of a mountain, a mountain we have continued to go back to and enjoy, and little did we know what our lives would look like.  We could have guessed.  We probably would have gotten pretty close but we wouldn’t have known all the little things have that made each day an adventure of its own.  Job changes.  Cats.  Home projects.  Children.  Some of those have been easier than others.  All of them were great because we went through them together.

Ten years ago we stood on the side of a mountain, a mountain covered in snow, having already fallen in love with it and each other and we vowed to face all of our future adventures as one.  One force.  One team.  It was a brilliant day, blue skies from horizon to horizon and the warm spring sun made everything shine, and pretty much every day since has been brilliant as well.  We adventure together.  We shine together.  We are brilliant together.

On being six

Dear Little Prince,

Though you aren’t so little anymore, are you?  With six years behind you.  With most of Kindergarten behind you.  With all of the adventures you’ve had in the last year.  Piano lessons.  Archery lessons.  Snowboarding in Mammoth.  Snowboarding in Colorado.  Growing into the role of big brother, champion of and for the Littler Prince.  I don’t have the right words to tell you how proud I am of you, but that won’t stop me from trying.

I catch glimpses of the person you are becoming and have no doubt that you will change the world.  You are fiercely passionate and, while that can get you in trouble from time to time, that drive will see you take control of your environment and shape it into what it should be.  You are a leader and will have the charisma to inspire.  You still ask thousands of questions a day, and that curiosity about the world, that drive to understand, will also work for you.  It already is as you grasp new concepts and better yourself, gain knowledge.  You happily tackle new projects.  You want to over-achieve not because you want to be better than anyone else but because you genuinely are interested in things beyond what society has deemed appropriate for your age.  Your passion and your inquisitiveness will help you succeed in whatever you choose to with your life.

You love your brother and want to see him succeed as well.  That too can get you in trouble when you try to be a parent to him but the two of you will figure that out over the coming years and will be friends for life.  That friendship will be more valuable than you know.  You are putting in the hard work now to build that relationship when he is too young to understand more than it is fun to drive you crazy.  Stick with it and he will support you in everything you ever do.  As a younger brother myself, I know this to be true.

We have our rough moments, of course.  You still have so much to learn about being a part of this family and being a part of this world.  Every single day, though, you surprise me with how much you’ve already learned and sometimes that makes me forget how much you still need to learn.  I do my best to be patient and to give you the space and time you need to figure things out and I’m sorry that I sometimes fail you.  We’ll get there eventually.  We’ll figure this thing out together.  I have no doubts about that.  We are both too stubborn not to.

So, I’ll continue doing everything I can to help you become the best person you can be and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year brings for you.  New adventures.  New knowledge.  New wisdom.  I think your sixth year will be even more amazing than your fifth.

Love you,

Dad/Matticus/The Jester

answer

 

The waves glowed as they crested and crashed under the moonlit sky.  It had been a long time since I’d been to the beach in the dark.  I had forgotten the serene beauty of the water, sand and sky.  The constant churning of the ocean even seemed muted so as not to disturb the moment.  A couple planets watched on with the multitude of stars.  I stepped to the edge of the tide’s reach up the shore and waited for the last of the sun’s influence to slip away from the far horizon and decided it really should not be so long between nighttime visits to the coast.

I may speak often of my love for the mountains but there is magic in all wild places and that magic calls to me.  Have you ever watched the stars wink on the tide?  Have you ever seen the moon echo beyond the breakers?  Have you ever felt the memory of the day’s heat fading away in the soft sand between your toes?  What could any of these be but magic?  I hear the call of all the wild places.  It tugs at my heart and directs my eyes and ears.  As always, I must answer.