I grew up in the southern United States deeply linked with the land, the wilds, the life in nature. My bedroom was like a nature sanctuary filled with every sort of plant and animal life; I couldn't bear to be far from what I encountered in the forest. It was ecstasy for me in that moment when I discovered a new patch of woodlands to explore. Nature was a means through which I accessed a source of benevolence that was in me all along. But at a fairly young age I turned away and began to look to the world of people to inform me of my worth. I would come to learn that this wasn't a wise course of action. Years later as an adult I returned to nature to find that lost sense of myself, a more authentic sense of me. I am still in process, still learning, still coming to an ever more compassionate view of myself and the world around me. So much of the unseen world around me is becoming apparent. I had ignored so much in arriving at mistaken conclusions over the course of my life. The truth is truly stranger than fiction - it is magnificent and magical. I am exploring this through the avenue of my book. I heartily invite you to join me.

As a young boy I was fascinated with the heroics of warfare. I began writing and illustrating my own war comic books while still in elementary school. The theme of the tragic hero rose to the top and found its way into short stories and novelettes that I wrote in high school. I had noticed that society depended heavily upon its heroes for hope and inspiration but I was bothered by the toll exacted upon the heroes themselves. I sensed that there was much more to this business of heroics than meets the eye. Without realizing this, I began looking for the missing elements that I sensed were inherent to the process of mastering life heroically. By this I refer to a person growing to maturity in such a way that it shows in the results they experience in and through their lives. I mean as well that they are able to demonstrate an 'everyone wins perspective' that is inspiring for some and confronting for others.

I came to realize that many of us bear unseen wounds; we've accepted misconceptions that limit us, that make us easily controlled; we strive to fit in while denying just how out of place we truly feel. We wander a wilderness of quiet desperation wondering at why we are here, at what we are meant for. We pretend so long and so hard that we even convince ourselves. We allow the misguided to lead us when we are meant to show the way to the truth of ourselves. We are so much more than we dare to imagine.

"Imagine," taught the sages of old, "that you are an eagle sent down among a flock of eagles who believe that they are turkeys, scratching about in the brambles for meager fare. Imagine how it must break your eagle heart to join them in their misconceptions instead of waking them to their potential to soar. Imagine how it must cause your heart to soar to unknown heights to remember what you are! You are the eagle who has no upward limits! You have seen what lowliness holds, now fly and experience yourself as you are meant to be!"

It is my hope that 'A Book Like No Other' will go beyond platitudes and pep talks. I hope to make this a journey for the reader into a realm of unfolding 'upliftment' into the heights of authentic experience of oneself.

Many of the people who changed the world for the better risked their lives to do so; many paid the ultimate sacrifice. What motivated them to do so? I sense that at our depths we are all meant for greatness. Wherever we find ourselves, we are capable of demonstrating an inspirational example in that role. If this is true, then what is stopping the majority of us who seem unwilling to rise above the status quo? Why are so many of us willing to leave leadership to someone else? Why does it seem true that the foolish of our society are running things and the truly capable and intelligent ones among us are paralyzed with self-doubt? There has to be a way to get past the self-sabotaging aspects of our psyche that render us unable to respond in wisdom. 'A Book Like No Other' is my way of exploring this possibility. What needs to happen in us to break us free of this paralysis? How might one go about actualizing the authentically empowered and altruistic person hiding within each one of us?

To be truthful, I came to feel that I might have something to say that someone else might want to hear. A process that began as a journey of self-discovery through writing morphed into the possibility of shared experience. Is this something others would be interested in exploring, this possibility of finding a sense of benevolent self-acceptance within oneself? And what happens to a person when they no longer look to others to substantiate themselves -- when all that they require is accessed within them? I guess a fan would be someone like me who finds these questions so compelling as to be worthy of personal exploration. I hope that my book can serve them in some small way as just such an avenue.

I ask myself questions and the answers come to me in writing. As the story unfolds, I meet characters who surprise me in the choices they make, in the character traits they are able to demonstrate. I gain insights into internal resources that I was not aware of. I am inspired to consider that my life can be very different if I make different choices that will help me to see me in a different light -- different choices in the way I think and believe and feel inside -- a genuinely new choice that will instill real hope; not that 'pink cloud of hope' that wafts me along to leave me feeling stranded and betrayed, not that 'pipe-dream hope' that sets me up for a fall down the road.

I feel re-connected to a source of hope that I dare to trust; I take it for a trial and it proves itself, because I give it a fair shake, a real chance, instead of using it to prove my misconceptions correct. All that I believed me to be is at risk -- it is a threat to this wounded sense of me -- it sees through my false facades to humiliate me into seeing myself through new eyes. The pain of shame is not the character of this humiliation. Instead, I find within me that instillation of hope that will not betray, abandon, or reject. It shows me that there is a way through the pain of my past into magnificent new possibility. I take that hand of feeling arising deep within me and I learn to not give up and not give into the old me of discouragement and complacency. I learn to hang on. I learn that it is leading me into a new strength of compassion for all that exists....including me.

Writing is a creative process that wells up in me as a subtlety of feeling. Typically I will come to feel inspired to sit down and write. Generally I have a vague impression of what I'd like to write about and the initial words are something of a struggle to produce. As I overcome my own internal resistance, a flow ensues and the words come more easily.

The flow tends to wax and wane; there is a surge and then a pause and I wait until the next series comes to me. Sometimes I have trouble going where the feelings want to take me - the events take an unanticipated turn and I am wondrously surprised by the place inside me to which I've been led. As long as I'm willing to go where the creative experience takes me in feeling, I do not experience a block in the flow.

Over time, I have learned to focus my attention upon a benevolent voice within - the voice of my heart core, I call it. I have learned to translate feeling into words, writing until I have the basic story fleshed out. I revisit my writing often, feeling where it takes me, noticing at times, a discrepancy in how the moment truly feels, the moment that is being communicated to me, and the words I've used to describe it. I'll make adjustments until it feels as close as I can write it. I feel as if I'm being communicated with internally in a process that increases the more it is nurtured. It impacts me where I live -- inside me -- and changes me a bit for the better with each engagement.

I had to overcome a lot of fear, a lot of internal resistance to get where I am today in this process. It has revealed capacities in me that I did not believe present -- I don't refer to an ability to write, although this has improved, so much as to a general capacity for treating myself and others more compassionately. I believe writing, like everything else in life, can be the path we lose ourselves upon...and it can be the path of our deliverance. Either way, we are never so lost that we cannot turn about and begin living our lives differently.

I designed the cover from an idea meant to convey a relationship between the relativity of time (pictured as a watch materializing out of a light beam) and an energetic capacity within the space/time matrix for recording history (pictured as a book). I began in Photoshop with a fairly vague idea and through trial and error I gradually arrived at a result that was pleasing and that felt congruent to all that I hoped to express. I typically do not clearly see where I am going with any creative process. I follow a very positive feeling. I just hang in there and keep the faith that it will make sense when I arrive. And when I trust myself to not give up, I usually learn something. I come to see something that I wasn't aware of before, in some large or small sense. It is this opening up within me that makes it so worth the challenge of creativity.

Artists speak of the agony and ecstasy of creativity, of how it destroys them to rebuild them anew; just as we see in the seasons of nature, as autumn destroys and spring rebuilds. What we may not realize is that when left to its own impetus, each spring is an improvement upon the one previous. If we allow in the benevolence that underpins all of existence, we will be torn down and rebuilt -- our perspective will change and the life we can live can shift in a more compassionate direction. We hold ourselves in a new compassion that is as nurturing as it is empowering. Accepting ourselves, we find a greater capacity for accepting others. Life becomes an instructional coach instead of a demanding task master. We embrace challenge, feeling its loving intention, rather than running away, rather than believing ourselves doomed to be proved a failure.

Imagine how life could be, seen through eyes that trust the benevolence, the nurturing-strengthening intention of life. Imagine life lived with a heart opened to feeling-experiencing this possibility. No longer running blind, the heart is open and the feelings confirm just how completely and unreservedly cherished you are to the source of all existence.

Lord of the Rings, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Help, and A Christmas Carol -- all my favorites because they are inspirational; they describe ordinary people finding within themselves the capacity for an extraordinary life; they are magic books of transformation claiming that people can change at such fundamental levels as to be no longer recognizable by the people that knew them before. These are books, in my mind, that point us to the truth of ourselves, the truth that the great majority of us have not even begun to meet our inherent potential for living lives of fulfillment and joy.

What if the current state of dis-empowerment is self-imposed? What if the negativity of words like shame and sinner and fallen and failure are all simply symptoms of that dis-empowerment? They feel true, but what if they are merely warning signals of a mind used in misconception? "I believe this way and I feel in this wounded way and my feelings confirm that my beliefs about me are true. I am broken." What if this is misconception? What if there is a better way to choose to think? "I believe this way and it causes me to feel this pain and suffering and therefore my feelings are telling me that my beliefs about me are erroneous. I am so much more than this." There is hope in knowing that we cause our beliefs and since we are the cause then we can cause new beliefs. We can train our mind to think differently, more accurately, more authentically, more in line with the ultimate truth of ourselves.

'A Book Like No Other' is an adventure in feeling, in daring to experience oneself more authentically, in finding the courage to make the internal choices that bring on a new and more accurate self-perspective. Only the false self is at risk of being lost through accepting this quest. There is a fearless place within us all where unbridled love is known for all that it is. The path, the journey and the destination are within each of us. Our lives are simply a reflection of that inner journey.

My fans are people that I gratefully acknowledge for their wisdom in sharing a moment with me, in accepting the parts that are of benefit and passing on the stuff that isn't. I consider my position to be a place of trust for those who would frequent the halls of my written expression - I do not take this responsibility lightly. I have agonized in moments over what I find me saying. I could be nuts. So please yourself. How does this possibility feel to you? Could this book be a pathway to experiencing a new you? Or is it just another jaunt down memory lane into the same old status quo? I suggest you have a bit of 'listening in' to your heart of hearts....and respond accordingly.

I'll be posting volumes two and three soon. My sense is that these first three books are preparatory for amazing things to come in the lives of the main characters.

There was a time when I didn't particularly look forward to the morning (unless it was a weekend). My turn at the wheel of fortune, at the pursuit of wealth, influence and popularity, had left me feeling unfulfilled. I had achieved a high enough level to see that it was taking me nowhere. My best intentions had not served me all that well and for several years I felt a bit lost. I knew well that which didn't work -- every great idea now fell flat in a feeling that said, "that's just another variation of the old and pointless." My life needed a radical change in trajectory into a brand new learning curve. Did I have the courage to risk exploring a realm of possibility that was completely unknown to me? The person I thought myself to be did not have what it took. Frankly I had backed myself against a wall, turned to read the writing there upon its cold hard surface, and come to realize that I only knew how to make my life the same....or worse. I would need new guidance. I'd need to learn how to discern a trustworthy guide. I had proved I wasn't so trustworthy. Could I prove the opposite? My hope lay in this possibility -- that I could cause a very different experience of myself.

I guess this book is for those who have reached this place in themselves, a place where more of the intangibles is desired, more peace, more self-assurance, more courage and acceptance....more of a sense that I am okay right here, right now without having to struggle to be something I'm not.

Imagine the relief in letting go and simply beginning to allow the truth of you to shine through into your awareness. How does it feel to stop pushing back inside...against the tide of all that you are...to release the fear of who you are and simply hold a posture of allowance: "Okay, I won't fight you any longer. Show me how to be accepting of who I am, just as I am, warts and all, past mistakes and....what's that, you say? Well, I never truly entertained that possibility; no not really. I might have tried to fool others into thinking that I might be that....but I never really believed it. I was afraid to believe it. I was afraid of how it would change my world and make things......magnificent. And magnificent feels so....out of control....like sooner or later I'll succeed up the ladder until I have to fail, because that where I'm destined to end up eventually....isn't it?"

So how does it feel to let in the light of self-forgiveness and to let go of the familiar certainty of always knowing what to expect of yourself, even it it's kind of stale, even if it kind of sucks? How does it feel to open a crack and let in just enough to begin to feel supported like you never have felt before? How does that hand feel on your shoulder that will never lift off even if you think you may have disappointed, even when you can't feel its support anymore, until you let go of that old certainty once again, and there it is, that supportive nurturing hand, because you realize it never went away; you realize that for a moment you chose to fear all the magnificence that it wanted to make true of you, crazy as that sounds, insane as that seems....?

I believe that hand led me to write 'A Book Like No Other' so that maybe you could spend some time with it....if that's what you want. If that's what you feel you need. What have you got to lose? The first few chapters won't cost you a dime.

"The Hero's Journey," a term coined by Joseph Campbell to identify this pattern of inner transformation is described in many stories written down through time, some more completely embracing the pattern than others. Such stories are meant to symbolize the inner journey of confronting and transcending the false perspectives through which we view ourselves and the world around us. "We see through lenses of belief created by our minds," the sages tell us. Changing our perspective means confronting our inner fears and insecurities and letting go of beliefs we trusted to help us cope in times when we felt we could not endure our circumstances. Our formative years of very early childhood see the great majority of these patterns installed within the psyche and running -- by the age of four we have already decided for ourselves who we are and what everything means. Most all of this misconception is buried beneath subsequent layers of denial of the ramification of these false conclusions. It is indeed a tangled web we weave.

As we allow a particular misconception to rise into our conscious awareness we experience this as a renewal of fear. Such an aspect was deemed quite fearsome at the age of repression -- a monster driven under the bed. "I'll deal with this later," we promised ourselves, when things are different, when I'm older and more capable. We felt significant relief then as a child in this promise to one day rise to our own rescue believing now wasn't appropriate but eventually the day would come.

'Eventually I shall resolve this, but not now' became the ingrained mode of operation for all situations challenging and judged unsolvable. Snap judgment was the knee-jerk reaction. "This sucks! I now feel that old insecurity inside me! Can't deal with this now! I'll deal with this unacceptable business later!" And it piles up inside us until our inner world is a junkyard filled with sleeping dogs best not wakened. And we suffer in an insecure world within us as we go along blaming the outside world for how it just keeps triggering all our unresolved baggage.

Saint George rises within each of us, metaphorically speaking, when we put away our resentments toward life and accept the responsibility we've avoided, for who knows how long. We allow the sleeping dragons to emerge, one-by-one, from beneath our beds (from our subconsciousness) and we face them. They are terrible at first, but then our core capacity for healing surges into our consciousnesses as we make new choices to allow this more authentic expression of ourselves to take precedence. The slaying of the dragon symbolizes the death of the old mistaken sense of self.

Most of the old stories stop here but the journey is far from over. Who are we now that this fear-based sense is dead? The confusion of lost identity brings up new challenges. The Hero's Journey continues as the traveler discovers how to respond to life rather than to react. New dragons emerge from within and St. George so fiercely accepts the dragon as to love the dragon into the new state of self. The old self is recreated and integrated into the expanding new self. Resentment and blaming fall away into an ability to see oneself in everything around them and to encourage restoration rather than the old patterns of abandonment, rejection and betrayal.

The mind will not be able to reconcile the above. "That's all theoretical nicety with no real application to my world," must give way to "I feel the promise underlying these words and I want that for myself; I want that feeling to be real in my awareness." Such a sincerity of desire arises from our depths to guide us more deeply into the truth of which we are a part. We learn to recognize that trustworthy guiding feeling; we learn to feed its expansion with our attention.

You decide. Perhaps engaging with 'A Book Like No Other' is a worthy means for feeding the flame of love within you.