I think I'm supposed to remember something... (#IWSG November 5th 2025)

I kinda, maybe, sorta finished something this week? It's VERY rough, but it's something I've been tinkering with for ages, between Gale Harbour books, and it's nice that I've finished something. Maybe I'll even get around to cleaning it up and making it something presentable.

NOVEMBER QUESTION

When you began writing, what did you imagine your life as a writer would be like? Were you right, or has this experience presented you with some surprises along the way? 

I've told this story before but I like it and I'm getting old, so I can keep telling it if I want to.

I decided I wanted to be a writer when I was about 10 years old. My teachers and classmates loved the stories I wrote in English class, even though most of them were gruesome horror tales about my classmates being murdered (there were a couple of calls home to my parents). I thought it would be great to keep telling stories and have people enjoy them.

I dressed up as a writer for grade 4 career day. I had no idea what a writer "looked like," so I just carried a typewriter and handed out business cards. I joke now that, had I my time back, I would have worn a bathrobe and carried a mug full of Jack Daniels. The following year, having already realized the futility of the dream of being a writer, I dressed as a wizard. For career day.

When I was 11 years old I realized that being a fucking wizard was a more reasonable career path than being a writer.

As for now, thirty-odd years later, when I actually am a "writer?" My expectations are a lot lower. I know this will never be a full-time job. I know I will never be on any best seller lists (though I did - briefly - reach #3 on the horror comedy/satire category of Amazon Canada). I will likely never get one of my books turned into a crappy, low-budget movie a la Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. I do still have a dream that one day I'll see a stranger reading my book somewhere and I'll lean over and say "that book is terrible."

Honestly these days the best surprise I get is when someone leaves a positive review on Amazon or Goodreads. I'm just happy people are still out there enjoying my work.

***

It feels remiss to not mention that my father-in-law passed away last week after a very long battle with cancer. It's a testament to his tenacity and stubbornness that the doctors told him he had five years at the most and he lived thirteen. He was a skier, woodworker, mechanic, weightlifter, race car driver, and none of those were even his "real" job. He discovered a second career building movie sets, getting his first IMDB credit at 58 years old. He loved Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and read fantasy novels voraciously, though he could never remember enough of them to tell you a single plot. His grandkids adored him, and he taught them to run cross-country, to play chess, to play guitar, to ride a motorcycle. He was a central figure in our family, rough around the edges but with a soft and fiercely loyal heart.

To tie it into writing, he also gave me one of my favourite reviews ever: "It's not so bad, you know, if you got nothing better to read."

Here's a Funko Pop I made of him. He told me I gave him too much hair:

Good night, old man. I promise I'll take care of them.

Daniel Gary Gallant

March 4, 1953  -  October 25, 2025

“Home is behind, the world ahead,

and there are many paths to tread

through shadows to the edge of night,

until the stars are all alight.”