Life Is Looking Up!

Photo by Franklin Hunting

Hey everybody!

Not long ago, I came out and talked about the difficulties I was facing, in both my home and professional life. It's been nearly a month since then, and I thought it was time to let you know how things have been since then.

Enormous Support From Fans & Friends

First of all, I need to acknowledge how amazing everyone has been. After posting that, people who I hardly talked to anymore reached out with words of kindness and support. There was so much love, so much kindness, and so much support that I couldn't help but feel uplifted. So to everyone who supported me after that, thank you so much!

As is always the case when posting something online, there were a few people with negative things to say. I expected that—in fact, fear of that very criticism is a big part of why people don't express their pain publicly. I'm proud to say that negative reaction didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Haters are gonna hate, but that was still nothing compared to the love I was feeling from so many others. 

And you know what else? Once I admitted my struggles... they started getting better. Life has been improving in so many ways. I can't help but feel like the universe has been working with me ever since then, instead of against me. 

Thriving Family Life

As you know by now, my family dynamic is not exactly typical. That's still true—and my situation still isn't easy—but over the last month it has really improved. Alex has been so much calmer. At first, it was strange—I figured he was sick and drained. And for awhile, yeah, he was definitely sick. But then he got better, and has still been so much more relaxed ever since. We still have our challenges with outbursts, but a much smaller portion of my day is filled with his screaming—and that's a win for both of us! Haha. My oldest son, Matthew, is doing good as well. 

My wife was recently offered a promotion at her job. Not only will that give her a bit of a pay raise, but it will also mean she won't be working third shift anymore! And that will be really nice. She doesn't start her new position until the end of October, but at least there's a definite date.

To top things off, I even started doing some freelance work, in and around my current projects and responsibilities. It's not a ton of hours, but the pay is nice and—most importantly—it gives me the feeling of contributing. After giving up on YouTube and out-of-the-house work to take care of your family, being able to earn an income is a serious morale boost. 

Obviously, things haven't been all peaches and rainbows. The flu rolled through the Crux house, and hit my wife particularly hard. That was rough. And some days, the old feeling of helplessness returns... but that is rare now. More often than not I get up with enthusiasm, ready and willing to do good work for the world.

Mothman's Return is FINISHED! (Mostly)

That's right—if you've been following me on social media, you'll have heard that I finally finished the writing for Mothman's Return!! 

This is a huge accomplishment in several ways. For one, this has been hanging over my head for a year and a half, and now I have finally finished it. It's almost like closure on this whole dark period of my life—and that's awesome.

It's also huge because, well, this book is huge! At 100,000 words, it's the longest book I've written yet. It's also the best, in my opinion, so that's 100,000 words I think you will really enjoy.

However, it's not entirely done yet. Now that the story itself is finished, I can go on to preparing the layout for the paperback, setting up the ebook, finalizing the cover, and all the other little things involved with releasing a book. That's alright—I've already made good progress on that, and everything is going smoothly. 

I don't want to jinx it, but Tale of the Mothman's Return will likely be available by the end of this month!

Overall, Life Is On The Right Track!

Things aren't perfect, but they are better. I've been reconnecting with friends I haven't spoken to in ages. I'm working again. The kids are becoming (a bit) more stable, haha. 

This is just the beginning. If I've learned anything (and maybe, if I've been able to teach anything by example), it's that conducting yourself with absolute honesty is good. It's scary as hell, especially at first, and there will be people looking to cut you down for it. But there's no greater freedom than being true to yourself. 

I've got more exciting things to come, and you'll hear about it soon. But for now, I just wanted everyone to know that I'm doing alright =)