by J.D. Selmser
note from the author
For a long time now I have thought that the world I grew up doesn’t exist anymore. I might be naïve, but I miss those simpler times and the security that I grew up with. Everything really bad that I can remember ever happening in my childhood happened far away. That was the beauty of growing up in a small town in Ontario Canada. Nothing really ever happened. Murders, suicides and every other terrible thing was a news report. There were a few accidents that killed people, but I think that most people I knew that died, in my childhood, were from a disease or old age. I look back at it now and think how great my childhood was.
I am 43 and oh how the world has changed. Murders, suicides and many other crimes happen not only a lot more in my country, but also in my city. In a lot of ways, I don’t like this modern world and the things that I hear are happening around me. I have been more or less a hypocrite and coward about it because I give a few bucks to a homeless man or complain about it, but I don’t really do anything to help or change it.
The truth is, I believe that we live in a beautiful world where anything is possible. I am proof of it in my way. No I am not that playboy billionaire who runs around at night saving people, but I am something those I grew up with never thought I would be. I was the first male member of my family to go to college, I have never been in trouble with the law, am considered successful career wise and I followed my dreams. These things might not make you think, ‘wow this guy is amazing’, but it has taken me a lifetime of hard work to get here.
I truly believe though that if we look past race, creed, color, religion, nationality and all these other things our world and its population make up a beautiful and special thing. Maybe it’s just the optimist in me, but I think as much as people are our world’s biggest problem, it can also be the thing that makes it special. I have traveled to a lot of countries and met countless people in my travels. The greatest thing I have learned is that no matter where people come from or what they believe, people are people. I can always find a commonality in them and differences. Sometimes the differences are the most amazing part and others a commonality built on a different outlook can literally be absolutely mind blowing.
Sometime ago I read about this teenager that committed suicide and thought that it was such a great waste. No I didn’t know her, but she was still a young and unique person. We all are in our own way. I read about her story and in my mind this girl needed that world I grew up in that doesn’t exist anymore. I thought then and still believe that one person could have changed and saved that young girls life. The biggest problem in my eyes is who is that one person. The idea of “One” came to me. One person can’t fix the world, but one person at a time can.
The idea that if we all give a little of ourselves, we can make the world a better place and probably new or mind blowing, but I think that if we can take a little more interest in the world around us those around us might not feel alone. I am not naïve enough to think it will be the cause of world peace, but I do think that we can benefit from it as well as those around us. What if just making someone smile on the bus makes their day a little brighter or telling someone that they have beautiful smile pushes back somebody else’s negative statement. The idea that we can change the world bit by bit, one person at a time, can be stronger. Something even more exciting is that we might meet an amazing person that we otherwise might not have ever met.
Now I have had this inspiration to write books based on a theme of something I don’t like about the world. I always have lots of inspiration and there’s never a shortage of things I would like to fix about the world. I don’t want to famous or rich from it, but I would like to think that if I give it away, one person might find inspiration from it or might not feel so alone. I had the idea, but never acted on it. I told myself that I was nobody and such an idea needed someone famous or rich to benefit the world. The idea didn’t leave though. Every year I join NaNoWriMo to see if I am up to the challenge. When the book is written I don’t do anything with it. It’s just a challenge for someone that likes challenges. This year I decided to write something meaningful and just give it to the world for free with the hopes that one person somewhere reads it and sees that possibility that their world can be better.
This book will be based on teenage suicide and bullying. I don’t know if I can change the world, but I don’t want to look back and say the world I grew up in doesn’t exist anymore. I want to share it with the hopes I can help somebody else see that it does still exist we just need to search for it or build it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
When J.D. Selmser is not too busy 'saving the world' or 'being awesome' he enjoys chasing sunsets and waterfalls. OK maybe he does not save the world, but he is always dreaming big and chasing those dreams wherever they might lead him. He is a hopeless romantic who traveled 1100 kilometer’s every weekend just to spend less than two days with the woman he is in love with until she was able to move to be with him.
Monday through Friday, he's an IT ninja, defending "the people and their computers" against nasty viruses and hackers. Wielding his mouse like a set of flaming nun chucks, causing most unwanted applications to shrivel back in shame. By night and weekends he is the king of scary monsters and romance sitting at his computer writing about endless love and those that grab hold of it and never let go, no matter.
Like most writers his goal is to put the pictures that are in his mind on paper and invite his readers on a heartfelt journey between heaven and earth and watch the war between Demons, Angels and a multitude of other creatures. As much as his readers tell him that his characters shock them so do his readers shock him too. The most evil characters are the ones he hears are the most interesting and some of the ones he thinks will be the most beloved characters are the most hated.