Preface
Chapter 1 – Jay
Chapter 2 – Transfixed
Chapter 3 – Drugs you should try it her
Chapter 4 – Eyes Wide Shut
Chapter 5 – The brink of forgiveness
Chapter 6 – Stoke the fire
Chapter 7 – So into you
Chapter 8 – Butterfly Effect
Chapter 9 – Chika
Chapter 10 – You had me at hey
Chapter 11 – Der Kampf (The struggle)
Chapter 12 – Over the Atlantic
Chapter 13 – Flatline
Chapter 14 – The absolute value of emotion
Chapter 15 – A cosy, familiar feeling
Chapter 16 – Hap or kismet?
Chapter 17 – Sweet October
Chapter 18 –Bad Overture, Bad Opera
Chapter 19 – 20/20 vision or hindsight
Chapter 20 – Lemonade
Acknowledgement
Glossary
Mini-chapter: Like Ivan
Preface
Is there some cosmically pre-determined reason for why things happen? you know, like fate, kismet, pre-destination, all that stuff? I really don't know, I have ruminated on this all my life and constantly teetered between stances - right now the only thing I'm sure of as regards this is that I don't know the answer. I really don't.
One thing I'm quite sure of though and I'd like to share with you is 'moments of inspiration' and the importance of seizing these moments. At certain points in our lives, there will come certain moments of deep inspiration, which if channelled towards a particular endeavour, will make us capable of achieving anything from above-average to great results in said endeavour, even if we do not possess natural talent in this area, are mediocre in this area, or have been heretofore clueless as to what to do.
I'll paraphrase for succinctness: there will be moments in your life when you will know exactly what to do and how to do it. Things will get so lucid and you will feel an overdose of compulsion to channel this into doing something - It could be something you have been contemplating doing or a decision you have been easing into.
It can happen any number of times throughout one's life, some will experience this more frequently than others, - but I'm certain that almost everyone will experience one such moment throughout their lifetime. Some of these moments will be of huge significance, others not so much.
Now here's the crux.
When this happens, when you feel this rush of certainty and crystal-clarity...
Act.
Don't overthink, don't stall, don't rationalize, just act.
Acting could range from writing something down, taking a voice note for a lyric in your head, sending an application to buying a ticket, making a phone call or saying yes.
I had one of such moments in 2018.
I acted, and what I got is this story.
Take a story in your life, one that you know is a good story – write it.
James Patterson – on finding a voice as a writer.
Before you begin, a couple of things;
First is that this story contains a lot of pop-culture references, so don't get offended.
I tell certain parts of this story in a non-linear way – which might be a little annoying but at the end it will all make sense.
As I write, I digress briefly into things – some very random, others not so much; you'd see totally random or not so random at the beginning of a segue indicating how relevant it is to the main theme; if you find these segues distracting or annoying, you can skip them.
Lastly, if you were born before 1980, you might want to have the Urban Dictionary on standby.
