Twilight
is racing for the horizon to smother the day’s final fire as I write this, but
the sun has turned arsonist and is igniting everything it can. Who knew clouds
burned? That’s star power for you. Wait a minute, wait a minute! Somewhere
between extravagant crimson and the night’s indelible stain, I glimpse the rare
purples and lavenders of a truce just before it fades to black. Alas, time’s
relentless sorcery runs out the clock and rings down the curtain! Another day has
joined eternity, another season. Did you
give it your all, Sully – were you true to the core of your being? Emphatically
I did and I was. Speak, sweet memories...
Wind
and water and waving prairie grass were my highways in the adventurous summer
of 2014. There were discoveries, epiphanies, scintillating communications and
more than a little adrenaline (also 4-500 metric tons of black cherry ice
cream). How can it be over?!! My tracks will disappear, but the passion
invested gilds the serenity I carry away with me.
And
retracing those steps now is like slipping between the vibrant hues of a
rainbow. Each color blurs the border between idealism and reality. The latter
is palpable, but the former must come from within. I can do that now – merge
idealism and reality. Years of practice, you know. Well, not practice. I
actually live that blend of physical truth and romanticized perfection at
golden moments. It is quite possible, for instance, to feel what it’s like to
arc and wheel with a swarm of swallows in a thermal at sunset, or to see with
your mind at a subatomic level aglow with enchantment, or to know that a union
that never finalized would have been incredibly, magically deep and intense.
The achingly beautiful longing that comes with that last rapture is as binding as
the real thing. Haunting passions that sting with each beat of your heart and
burn in the aftermath are the best kind. Though they might seem to be only
echoes, they are really encores and presentiments that allow you to savor the
present and taste a future that could easily have been.
So
I want to thank the cast of this summer’s production – all the magical species
of fur, feather and fin who made an appearance, the towering trees and fragrant
meadows, the grinning gods of irony (I see you there peeking out between the
trembling leaves), with special thanks to the moon, the sun and the stars (not
necessarily in that order), and to the people. You know who you are.
A
thousand blessings on all who bought the box set PANDORA last month with my
novel THE WATER WOLF in it. Somewhere in approximately 25,000 sales there came
a week that put it on the USA Today Best-Seller List. In answer to inquiries,
downloads will be available for Apple soon. Check my website. And I’m most
excited that my epic new novel CASE WHITE is also closing in on a release date.
Below are this month’s photos, mostly from adventures right outside my door here in paradise: #1-3 biking from Rice Lake southwest with trail friend Mickey; #4-10 kayaking the same area (note #8 where I looked up to find a young eagle and a blue heron, a.k.a. pterodactyl, within 20 feet of each other on separate penthouse branches); #11 with Mickey starting out on a hike at Elm Creek; #12 my very own lad – The Boy – in a Blast-from-the-Past photo trying to ski on ice at a place in Michigan called Maybury.
Pssst!...tired of being a cog in a machine, a mindless ant in a colony? Wanna stop feeding honey to the larvae and survive the hive? Check out my new column just up on Storytellers Unplugged called ZOMBIES FOR LIFE: http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2014/09/15/thomas-sullivan-zombies-for-life/#respond
Last month I mentioned the computer disaster that wiped out thousands of addresses on this newsletter’s list and from which I had only partially recovered. This month I’m happy to say that along with the parts of that list that were restored, more than 700 people around the globe have already contacted me to reenter their addresses. I lost over 1000 emails as well, many that I would have answered, so please forgive. If you’re reading this on a mirror site and wondering why you didn’t receive last month’s newsletter, just let me know at mn333mn@earthlink.net and I’ll put you back on the list. Ditto new subscribers.In any case, thanks
for all the correspondence (anonymous included). You keep me growing and learning. And
sometimes – when I’m lucky – there’s a chance for me to give back, if only
through words. I like to think there are always workarounds to seemingly
insoluble problems – where there’s a will, there’s a way. If your dreams are
battered by yesterday storms, peer hard at the horizon for a safe harbor. The way
forward doesn’t have to be via the world’s well-worn shipping lanes. Somewhere there is a cove for you, a quiet
lagoon or a secret lane sheltered from the glare of the sun and the bluster of
the wind.
Thomas "Sully" Sullivan
You can see all my books in any format here on my webpage or follow me on Facebook: http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com
