I’m not selling any books today. I want to connect with you heart-to-heart.
Fun fact: I used to teach yin and restorative yoga (also: the root yoke of yoga means ‘to connect’). No, I’m not wearing my yoga pants today. And yes, I’m wearing pants…it’s way too cold in my office right now!
Okay, let’s get serious. I want to talk with you about a recent release of mine and why I took the risk of putting it out there, even though it’s decidedly off-brand and NOT FUNNY.
Ready for it?
Author Confessional Time
At the heart of any story is character.
And what drives stories forward is the idea that characters have agency to make meaningful choices that impact both their internal world and the world around them.
I started writing stories five years ago because I wanted to explore what drives people and to find hope by imagining that ordinary people can enact extraordinary change.
The landscape of fiction and memoir is littered with ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances, forced to make difficult decisions. And sometimes, we read and watch stories of extraordinary people forced to make ordinary decisions. You’ll often see this with the more lighthearted of the superhero movies.
In Starship Ass, we blend the ordinary and extraordinary together and get often unpredictable and surprising results.
At the heart of all these stories is the human heart.
The idea that we are drifting away from each other (villains, antagonists, first act protagonists), or coming together as we shed common misconceptions about ourselves or the world around us. And either our heroes find acceptance…or blow everything up. And the audience applauds.
Some readers crave escape from a reality that isn’t so simple. Others seek to further understand the human condition and find solace in nuance and multiple perspectives.
As an author, it’s not either-or. I’m writing to explore ideas…and more importantly, the essence of the human heart. I’m writing to find hope in the human condition or to tear down and satirize the harmful narratives that drive a wedge between human beings and even ourselves.
I found solace writing from the perspective of a naive talking donkey, perhaps because I felt like that was me growing up and early in my corporate career. Seeing the best in others and seeking harmony, all the while being completely blindsided by the evils of indifference and complicit behavior.
Good people make bad choices, but seldom in isolation (we call those people villains).
We’re rewarded when we plug into a system that slowly drives wedges between us at all levels, and we’re ostracized and “othered” when we choose to unplug or actively own our decisions. That’s one reason why creating meaningful change in our lives is so difficult. We find comfort and safety in making the “safe bet” because we find identity and safety in community.
When I was climbing the corporate ladder, I discovered not only that people often make active choices to do harm or create disharmony, but that they know it’s wrong. So why do they participate? Why aren’t they changing the system from the inside? If I peel this onion, the list of questions becomes unending. And once I saw the parallels between corporate behavior and politics at every scale, I realized that I’d reached my own decision point.
I chose to write stories and explore these questions, but also to cope with feeling disconnected from others by our own self-oppression. But first I tried teaching yoga and becoming a life coach. Would you like some essential oils for what ails you, my friend? 🙂
All this is to say, while I enjoy writing lighthearted satires and being playful, I also need to explore the shadow side of human nature.
That means exploring the psyche of people whose behaviors I don’t agree with. I find hope in the idea the people actively doing harm to others aren’t “bad people” or disposable, but that they are capable of change. That they are capable of exerting agency over their own lives and unplugging from that system that divides us. I’m not going to lie…some of these people are doing abhorrent things that are anything but funny.
I recently released a new short story that does just this—I haven’t even promoted it to my readers—but if you’re an Amazon customer, you’ll know that Amazon pushes my new releases to you all the same. Some of my readers are pretty damned surprised (and disappointed) to find the very things they’ve been escaping in my lighthearted books.
I’m doing what I can to accurately label the material, but apparently I’ve earned your blind trust. I don’t want to abuse that trust you’ve put in me, which is why I’m blathering away to you in this email. I’m going to keep writing my lighthearted comedies, but I’m also going to write about antiheroes and “bad people.” I’m not going to avoid the elephant in the room, even if that costs me sales or makes my work less commercially viable.
Why?
Because we’re living in divisive times with a planet that’s literally on fire. Potable water will soon replace oil as our scarcest resource, right up there with food and breathable air. And I’m worried. And stressed. And scared for my daughter’s future.
The clock is ticking. Magical thinking isn’t going to save the planet.
(“yeah yeah, but neither will your books”-That Guy)
I don’t care who you voted for so much as I care that you feel supported in making choices that lead to you and your community truly thriving. We can’t outsource our personal decision-making power, no matter what we’ve been raised to believe about ourselves. Heroes learn this lesson in the books we read all the time…because it’s true!
We can choose to deconstruct and understand the systems that are dividing and literally killing us. We can choose to achieve a paradox—seeing the world as it is AND finding a way to be compassionate with our friends and neighbors and members of the community who are actively contributing to our demise and worsening health.
I’m writing because I’m seeking answers. It’s my form of catharsis. In my stories, I want difficult people to make the easy choice. For once. To walk away from the systems that don’t value harmony, inclusion, equality, and abundance. That’s where I find peace. Naming things as they are and reminding readers that we always have a choice.
OLD HOUND isn’t escapist fiction. It’s a mirror into the psyche of a flawed human being complicit in a system of thinking doing real harm. And my HOPE is that someone that reads that story will see themselves in it…and make the choice to walk away.
My birthday is this week.
The best present I could possibly have (besides a permanent tropical vacation) is knowing that my stories have had an impact on someone out there. Also, a talking donkey wouldn’t be so bad, would it?
With Gratitude,
Ethan
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