It's been awhile

Hey everyone!

It's been a while since I've posted here, and I KNOW you all have been eager for a new post. Since it has been such a long time, I'm gonna kind of throw a couple of things together here.

I wrote a book!

A lot of you probably already know this and it's not like "new" news, but I wrote a book this past year, and I'm still excited about it. It's a short book... like 28 pages. But, that's not so bad, since it is a kid's book. Its called "I love you too, Little Monster" because "I love you, Little Monster" was already taken. 

I got my inspiration from our daughter, who refuses to go to bed. I'm not really much of an artist, but after reading some of the books that my kids have, I thought "well, I can draw better than this", so I took a crack at it. Plus, I'm drawing monsters... so it doesn't really matter what they look like. What're you going to say... "That monster doesn't look real!!"...? 

The story revolves around a Little Monster who does anything she can to avoid going to bed. Snack, bath, brushing teeth, singing a song, etc.. Here's a preview of the first couple pages:

And the pattern repeats until Little Monster finally falls asleep. It was a fun book to write and draw. I published it through CreateSpace, who made it pretty easy through the whole process. It's nice to publish stuff through them too because once its published, you choose a price and they sell it on Amazon.com for you. It's not a bad gig. I didn't really make it to sell, more just as a fun book to read to our kids, and our kids love it. I also really enjoy hearing from other people that their kids enjoyed it as well :) So, if you're thinking of writing a book, I would say to use CreateSpace, and if you're thinking of buying a book, I would say buy mine here! 😀 

And, if you want a book to read....

Something Worth Reading
If you're looking for an exciting new series to read, you gotta check out the Red Rising trilogy. If you haven't read these books, I really do feel bad for you!

Up until this point in my life, they have to be the best books I've ever read. Well, maybe I should say they are the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I'm not a huge book reader, but I couldn't get enough of these books.... just ask my wife (our marriage relationship may have suffered slightly). 

I guess I would classify these as a Sci-Fi Thriller, but I hate to put that kind of label on it because that kind of categorization will definitely limit the people who read these books. It does take place in the future, like most good books as of late, it seems. It's slightly reminiscent of The Hunger Games, in the fact that there is a group of oppressed people rising against the elite. 

Without giving too much away, the main character, Darrow, is a miner (on Mars) collecting Helium-3 to make the planet of Mars inhabitable for the overflow of people living on the resource-lacking Earth. His ancestors have been working for many years in the mines with the hopes that one day they can have enough to terraform the planet into a livable planet and then they will be praised for their many years of work and toil, and will be held in high regard among the people living on Mars. BUT, unbeknownst unto the miners of Mars, the planet is completely inhabited and the elite race of Golds keep their existence hidden from the low class of Reds (miners), so that the Golds have slaves to do the hard, dirty, dangerous work.

Of course, Darrow finds this out. It then becomes his mission to upset the corrupt system and free his people of oppression. But, it proves harder to do than he ever expected.

When I first was told about this book, I wasn't that interested in it because it sounded like a Hunger Games wannabe. But, once I got a few chapters in to the first book, I could already tell it was going to be way different. So, why did I actually like the book? I would say because it is about two things: fighting for something you love and that it's not about who you are but rather about what you do. The book deals with a lot of race inequality issues, and it's interesting to relate them to real life and think about how, even though in the book the issues seem extremely exaggerated, that we as humans could actually end up in a similar state, if we're not careful. I also like it because there's a ton of action, thrill, suspense, futuristic stuff, and a cool main character.

But, for more information... just read the book. Or listen to it on Audible. It would be a sweet one to listen to I think. If you need 'em, lemme know.... I can lend them to ya. 

Anyway

So, thats just a little update for ya. Somehow its November and this is my first post this year.... not sure how that happened. I hope to be more diligent about posting going forward. I recently got a certain smart watch that I believe will merit a little review, so stay tuned for that. 

Otherwise, family is good, work is good, and God is good.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!

-Ryan