Oh Great! Another Nice Thing Happened

Don't you hate it when nice things happen to other people. Also, is it insane to write a fantasy novel based on 80s metal?

Dear Clever Reader,

Don't you hate it when other people do well?

Apparently, that's a normal feeling to feel. Why is that person on Facebook eating a better meal than me? Why does their dog do cuter things? How come their mullet looks more hip than mine?

But you know what else is normal? Freudenfreude.

No, I didn't just swear at you in German. I'm not that rude. And the only German swear word I know is dummkopf. Which, as you all know, means "stupid head." I won't tell you who was calling me that.

Anyway, back to freudenfreude. It means 'cultivating joy for other people’s success.' I do have to work on this. I usually am happy for other people's successes, as long as I like those people and they didn't just win a book award that I was competing for (don't worry, I've practiced my I'm so happy for you hope a comet doesn't hit you face for years). But I am going to try and be more consciously happy when other people do well. I'll send them a congrats note. Or chocolates. Or, maybe, and I really, really like this idea--I'll eat chocolates on their behalf.

I'll be freudenfreuding all day long.

I have another german word: Heavy-Metal-Verrückter. It means heavy metal maniac.

You see I finally have a title for my heavy-metal-fantasy-dungeons-and-dragons-inspired-weren't-the-80s-the-greatest-novel: Metaloria: Highway to Hades. And Yes, you're right, it's all about a group of people who are sent to the world of Metaloria after being electrocuted at an Iron Maiden concert.

How did you guess that?

Here's a snippet of my map of the world (I used a website called Inkarnate to design it). I will be getting a real artist to make it really rock.

I honestly can't decide if this is the silliest thing I've created or the craziest. It certainly is the longest, so far, and I still haven't figured out the ending (Yes, I work that way). On top of the map and the writing, I've also been developing a gaming system that is part of the story. So I've been channeling my inner dungeon master from my high school years. Turns out he was always there.

Anyway, this is still months away from completion. Maybe it'll go over like a "lead zeppelin."

Yeah, that's right. When Jimmy Page told Keith Moon (of the Who) about his new band, Moon said, "well, mate, that'll go over like a lead balloon." So they called their band Led Zeppelin, in response. And it was a stairway to heaven and riches from then on. These are the kinds of things that rattle around in my brain.

I am still working on I, Brax, the novel from Brax the dragon's point of view. He keeps yelling at me to leave the heavy metal stuff alone and finish it. Dragons can be very hard to ignore. Soon, Brax. Soon.

And speaking of dragons, I'd like to wish my mother a happy birthday.

Uh, I better point out she really is nothing like a dragon. It was a joke! It was! I can see my brothers firing up their 4x4 trucks and speeding my way, right now. Time to get out the squirt guns.

Mom is the personification of freudenfreude. And tomorrow she will turn 80 years old. Here she is being kind enough to attend a book awards with me several years ago:

Had enough of freudenfreuding? Well, I hope something celebratory has happened in your life recently. It doesn't have to be anything big. Even just getting a good cup of coffee counts. Or waking up! I raise a chocolate to you.

Thanks for being a reader!

Art

P.S. I suppose I'll leave a link to my books. I keep forgetting about the whole "buy my books" part of this. https://readerlinks.com/slade