What is the connection between artistic expression and the joy of living? How can one best live a literary life? This book is a collection of small word-projects. Each examines a book, a moment, a story that helps to deepen the author's literary adv...
One night Daniel is visited in his dreams by his middle school crush Natalie and his childhood teddy bear Gragery and told that he is the key to saving the future. Natalie and Gragery are ministry agents from the future where a figment of Daniel's imagination has become real and is threatening the fabric of existence.
Agent Natalie has been trained to resemble Daniel's middle school crush but with adult features. Thus, she is only "playing her part" by being this character. Gragery is a bear but is also a tactical combat robot. He has the attributes of many of Daniel's friends but is also programmed to deal with any dangerous situations that might arise.
To save the future, Daniel must dig deep into his past to understand where and when he created this monster. The novel takes him through his early childhood, into his college years, into the depths of his imagination, sends him to alternative realities, and eventually on a path to meet his older self.
In the background is the threatening presence of Noculus, a mad titan who wishes to save the world by undoing realities and holding the world hostage through a deadly nuclear-armed spaceship known as the Leviathan. Only Daniel, Natalie, Gragery, and other versions of Daniel can save the universe.
Comfort
It's 2017. I'm 35 years of age. I live in Sendai, Japan. And I've found comfort. It must be April or May, September or October. Those cool weather months I walk from my apartment 15 minutes to the Literary Museum of Sendai, across the footbridge that takes me over a wide pond to the main building. Before I enter, I always stop by the Koi pond to pay my respects to the large and majestic fish. I hope some part of their brains finds comfort in my existence.
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I'm probably listening to Mr. Suicide Sheep on my MP3 player. I don't own an iPod. I live a decade behind everyone else. No smartphone. I'm hoping to save money. I'm hoping some beautiful girl will appear like a magic pixie and ease my suffering. Years later I wonder about my time in Dainohara and whether anything was settled. But I am still in the Literary Museum. I'm on the second floor, a circular construct where I can look out on the Japanese Garden on a spring or summer day. A place of comfort on a rainy or snowy day. Imagine the beauty of watching snowfall on a Japanese garden from the second floor. My coffee: I buy it from a vending machine for 100 yen. Treasure. A paperback in my backpack purchased from the local Book Off reminds me of the simplicity of my youth. There were some good books in the lot, but also some I'd rather forget. Still, I'll always remember the gems: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Tender is the Night.
