Morning in Chicago

A view from my walk in Chicago

I start with my body crouched and my head up – facing forward.  

The wind tests me, trying to push me back with force and the malice of her chill.

What my legs lack in spring, they more than make up for in determination and my heart pumps hot red blood with conviction.  

The wind is no match for me.

My feet navigate the cracks in the pavement - steady and sure.  They have learned through blisters how to keep me upright, even if it means I’m on my knees. 

I know better now than to wish the road was even or smooth.  Wishing doesn’t make it so and this is my path, nonetheless.

I endeavor to keep a pace that moves with the urgency that life deserves, while still noticing everything.  

I’m no longer in a rush.   

This is my life. 

In every hard won step and easy stumble.  I hurry when I have to and take in all I can from the rest of time that is mine.

It will not last forever.  But as long as I am here, it is mine and I will claim it with the pounding of my feet.

If you're out there, thanks for reading!

~ Cerece

Why I Posted Order of the Seers as Fan-Fiction First

I try to follow my instincts as often as I can and today something told me that I needed to answer the question of how Order of the Seers got its debut as fan fiction.   For the people who might read this story, have read it or are considering doing so, I want to be as honest and open as I can.  Most of you will not care about this, but some do.  This answer is for anyone who wants to know. 

My fanfic name is LittleWing2, from the Jimi Hendrix song, which I love.

 

As I have said in various videos and interviews, when the idea for Order of the Seers came to me, I had never written a story based on my own ideas.  I wasn’t sure if I even had the ability to write the story that was in my head.  I just knew that I would try.  My only experience writing anything longer than a few pages was a Twilight fan-fiction short-story that I wrote called Spirit to Flesh that was based on a Hallmark Movie called The Love Letter and The Twilight Saga Series.  I’ve been reading fan-fiction since The X-files days and I am a true admirer of the enormous talent that resides there. 

About 2 hours after I had my first images of Marcus Akida and the general themes for Order of the Seers, I told my husband about it.  His reaction, after “sounds cool,” was to ask me how I planned to “get it out there”.  Publishing was the farthest thing from my mind.  I JUST got the idea a couple hours earlier and while I was committed to trying to write the story, I didn’t know if I could or if it would be any good once I  finished.  

I immediately thought of posting it as a twilight fan fiction piece for three reasons.  First, I had been reading Twilight fan fiction for almost 2 years and it was the only reader/writer community with which I was engaged.  Second, the Twilight fan fiction community is the community that inspired me to write my first poem in 5 years, not because of the Twilight Series itself (which is awesome) but because of the creativity of the writers in the fandom.  I wanted to share this new idea with the community that had inspired me to start writing stories in the first place.  If it was going to be any good, I wanted to share it with that community first.  Third, I wanted to get honest feedback.  These are all people who don’t know me and have no reason to say they like or understand my story if they don’t.  I thought it would be an excellent place to find out if the story made sense to anyone else but me. 

A couple weeks later, when I first told my friends Jessica and Shawna about Order of the Seers, they asked if the story was going to be a Twilight fan fiction piece.  I told them it had nothing to do with Twilight, but I was going to post it as a fan fiction piece anyway to get some exposure and feedback.  I spent the next 10 months developing, outlining and writing the story.  I completed the first draft of Order of the Seers in February 2011 and posted the first chapter of the fan fiction version shortly after.  It was a wonderful and extremely helpful experience in refining the story into what would ultimately become the published novel. It also gave me the courage to try and find a wider audience for this story.  

As always, if you’re out there, thanks for reading!

~Cerece