Writing for my Life: Why I decided to Write my Novel, "Mage Hunter"

Hello faithful viewers!
I wanted to first mention an issue I unfortunately discovered with Substack. The previous email had links that were broken. I apologies, there’s nothing I could do about it!
To proceed to the article, you will need to click the title link. The links in the main article web page DO work though. So if you want to check out previous week’s work, you’ll need to go into the main article, OR, navigate directly to the publication page.

Pardon the confusion!!!

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In 2022, I’ve prayed to God, “Lord, this job is exhausting. My spirit feels defeated. Please, please free me from this job in a way that I may still sustain my livelihood.”
And loh, he answered (at least partially.) I was let go from the bank I worked at, with a decent severance to boot. This isn’t meant to be a jab at the company. Overall it wasn’t a bad job, but the rising circumstances within the business, as well as some disagreeable management and executive decisions, cause a lot of headaches and disenfranchisement. Even though our team served as the critical backbone of the corporate infrastructure, I felt we were often ignored and overworked.
I was lost for a while when I left. I was unsure what I should be doing now I no longer worked. The severance lasted three months as I took the time to do some much needed soul searching. I then began to apply for work. Month after month, I was met with either silence or false promises. To this day, the job market has been unforgiveable.

By the later half of the first three months, I found my inspiration. I decided to pursue my creative career once again. This time, I decided to focus solely on the literary talent I was blessed with, as opposed to comic books and other overly ambitious tech projects. I’ve failed many times in the past, but one thing is different now: I now follow Jesus.

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Mage Hunter was inspired by a mangle of swimming thoughts coming together like a particle collider. The general idea is of a hero who nullifies the god-like powers of different villains, and forces them to face him on an equal ground. Many elements were borrowed from a tabletop game I used to play years ago. Bundle that up with my general love for fantasy, and you have an epic tale of a workaholic arcane hunter striving to save his homeland. Over the course of a year, when my time wasn’t spent on the food delivery services I was compelled to work for, as no other income stream was readily available, I finally have the final draft ready to go.

Fast forward to today. I’ve endured and experienced a lot of hardships and misfortunes. Some were out of my control, even though my heart feels I could have changed something. Some were caused by my bad judgement. Some were part of God’s grand design.

I chose not to publish it yet, as I want to gather a following before I commit to bringing my novel forth. This is all new to me, and the important thing I need is a solid foundation. I originally slated to start publishing it this November, but we may have to consider that tentative now.

I know not where this journey will lead me. I know not the end results of this. But I am thankful for the newfound guidance I was able to discover, and I will commit to turning this “gig” into a full time job.

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