I always remember first times, they pretty much always start a new chapter.
First kiss, first job, first apartment, first wedding, they’re locked in, for most of us.
I remember the more mundane firsts too, first 10 minute run for two years, first time remembering to think before I react, first time, just now actually, accepting my age, first time feeling something I haven’t felt before, first this and that and the other, and it feels like these firsts shape me, change me, but nothing has changed me more than writing my first book.
Actually, I think it was publishing it on Kindle that probably changed me more, facing so many fears of putting something I wrote out into the world, for the first time.
I just read the first chapter of the book, Twenty One Meetings, for the first time since I wrote it, and at first I liked it, then I thought of changes I could make and wondered if it was good enough, and thought about rewriting the whole book, with less stories and retitling it as Joe Violet’s Las Vegas Adventure, and then I remembered that I got the book done at a difficult time in my life, grinding it out sometimes, day after day, that writing it sort of saved me, and I thought I would just be glad I wrote it, and be glad it's up there to be read, and get on with writing something new.
If you haven't read it, here’s the first chapter, a letter from the lead character, Joe Violet.
WHAT CAN I TELL YOU?
What can I tell you?
Well, I am flat broke, holed up in Las Vegas, in an Emperor Suite in Caesar’s Palace. The suite is a ‘comp’, along with pretty much unlimited room service, for two weeks. I am hoping that is long enough to put my life back together.
It is a long time since I was broke, and alone, and both of them happened really fast, out of the blue, on the way to Vegas.
I have an espresso in a little china cup with a Caesar’s Place logo, and a Kent Ultra 100, and I’m sitting by the picture window, looking out along the Strip. I am trying to think, but end up just zoning, bewitched by the blur of Las Vegas light.
I feel utterly lost, that's the truth.
Deep inside, deeper than the shock of losing everything, I feel like a light has gone out. I know it hasn't really, but it is how it feels. I just don't know what matters to me anymore.
Then, from nowhere, a name flashes across my mind, and I scribble it down on a Caesar’s Palace notepad. Then another name, and another, and more. Twenty one names – Blind Jack, Big Cigar, French Nicole, High Wire Bob, and all the rest. All special people, every one of them, like we all are, I guess, in one way or another.
These twenty one people have been my guides along the way. Each of them told me something that I took seriously, that changed me. I heard each of their messages when I met them, but something made their voices fade. A lot of things, probably. Now I need to hear them again, loud and clear.
They made me feel special, in one way or another, and I need that feeling back.
It is time to remember. I need to remember more than the words, though. I need the feeling of love that came along with them.
I am guessing you found this book because you are looking for something. I hope you find it, somewhere in these pages, and somewhere in yourself.
Let me know how it works out for you, I am interested.
Good Fortune.
Joe Violet
Las Vegas, 2016
To read a sample, or buy this book, click on the link
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DJAXW3O
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