#015: A First Look at Courage in the Current

Just finished a manuscript of an allegorical fantasy narrative called Courage in the Current. Sounds cute, but the story cuts deep into the currents of life.

Before I made the determination to be more authentic and stop caring about the opinions of others, I never would have dared to write a book about a trout that finds his courage. To focus on something other than non-fiction—AI, technology, business, markets, the economy—has required a lot of willpower.

But here I am, I just completed the manuscript. I’ve always enjoyed writing stories. I grew up watching cartoons like X-Men and Animaniacs, and my favorite movies are Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Merlin and other fantasy books adapted for the big screen. So it makes total sense that writing in this genre is a perfect fit.

And it’s truly been exciting. When I started on this adventure about two years ago, I was staring at a blank page and thinking about a trout’s world underneath the water and what his life was like. Now you might be thinking that this is confirmation that I spend way too much time fly fishing and you're probably right. But as the protagonist in my story began to take shape I realized that I was writing more than just a cute book about a fish.

In essence, I've really been writing about life. Platte enters a chaotic river system, is thrown into reality and has to work his way through figuring out how to survive. He suffers the loss of his best friend to an enemy called Gash that haunts him his entire life. He is later adopted by his friend’s trout family—but a lacking sense of belonging always hangs over his identity.

So he grows up racing around the river and becomes very popular as a star athlete. But he also finds himself getting into trouble with his best friends—Joe and Mac. But one of his teachers notices that he has skills at writing and encourages him. Eventually, he graduates high school and enters the Cheesman Academy on a racing scholarship. While he's at the Academy, he meets a professor that teaches him about global river systems and he becomes fascinated by the Tiger River.

After he graduates from the Academy, he has given a chance to move to the Tiger River. When he moves to this new foreign river, he begins the adventure of a lifetime. He is in introduced to a group of other foreign trout that gather together weekly, and they become the loving family that he never had.

And he meets his future wife MeiYu, and they begin their life together after getting married. But many challenges surface and ultimately move back to Cheesman Canyon together. But this is when the real tests and adversity start to face them.

Platte’s entire family of origin has either died or become cold and distant. So they navigate their way around and find the ‘promised land’, which is way upriver. But before Platte is able to enter into this promised land, he has to fight through many enemies that surround and try to kill them.

And the loving couple eventually fight through together and make it to the promised land, Platte has a difficult time settling down because he is disturbed within himself. The wounds from his early years are beginning to surface again. And this is where he needs to find the greatest amount of courage in his entire life, and that is to take the journey inward and fight those inner demons.

I will leave it there. I don't want to spoil the entire book just in case you do pick it up after it's published, but I thought I would at least provide a preview of what's ahead.

As I mentioned, I just finished the manuscript which is 45,000 words, and I'm really excited about publishing this one. I’m likely going to publish it directly through Amazon KDP like I did with my last book.

I wrote this book to give inspiration and encouragement to the many people in the world that are born into tough beginnings, and then are forced to navigate their way through life without much guidance. In other words, I wrote this book for ‘the fatherless’. It’s for kids, teens, young adults, and yes, for you adults that need a fresh take on life at a later stage.

Many of us run around so fast that we seldom take a minute to reflect on our life story and figure out what’s going on inside. And more often than not, it’s what’s inside that’s really driving us. This book (and I hope future animated series) allows you permission to take a look within and for that process of ‘soul-work’ to take place in a safe and constructive way through the life of a courageous trout.

Anyway, I hope that if you're reading this that you will consider also reading the upcoming book—currently titled Courage in the Current. My goal is to have it published this summer. Stay tuned!

AI Disclaimer: The video and photo were created using Grok Imagine. No AI was used to write this.