Living: the ultimate team sport

Life Gets Lifey

Posted on July 12, 2021 Updated on July 11, 2021

Boy oh boy, does life get lifey. As you are well-aware, who we are now was most likely shaped by who we were as a child, a teenager, a young adult, and so on.

I confess, I have blamed some of my not-so-stellar behavior on anything and everything that wasn’t me. Each time I did that, however, I was wrong. My life experiences definitely molded and shaped me, but they didn’t have to define me.

That was the case for Gretchen Marks, a prominent character in my novel, A Jagged Journey. From the very first time you meet her, you’ll find it quite easy to judge her for the behavior she exhibits, and when you read this novel, you’re more than welcome to do so. Quite frankly, it would be extraordinarily unusual for you not to.

Gretchen had a history that shaped her character, and she had the choice to fall back on that history or adjust her perspective as an independent adult. What did she do? Did Gretchen take responsibility for the way she responded to her distant past, or did she choose the easy – yet infinitely more difficult – route of assigning blame to her demons, rendering her blameless?

Gretchen may prove to be the fictional character you love to hate, especially compared to the extraordinary characters found within the pages of this novel. And I figure you’ll hate her either because her mere existence is an insult to your general sense of compassion for human kind, or your Gretchen-hatred will feel far too close for comfort.

Either way, I feel assured you will find hope and redemption with my latest fictional release. A Jagged Journey tells a story about you and me. I hope you conclude it does so in a fair and truthful manner.