+ I apologize in advance if this post is rather long


Before the Tower of Parlen Min Virtual Blog Tour begins, before I tell you just about everything I know about Ves so far and how he and I got here, I'd like to tell you about a dream I had back in 2006 ... no a nightmare really. A nightmare that changed my life and gave rise to the ideas of what is to become the six volume opus about the boy who would be the High-Master and Patriarch of Orem and the world Everlon ... The Narrow Escapes of Ves Asirin.

In September of that year I, Kabengele Kapepula (that real name you'll busting my balls about for eons to come) was 18 and at the height of my teenage-angst thing ... an Emo, a loner and an introvert that hated everything and everyone for no good reason at all. The Bitter End by Placebo was my theme song (it's still my favourite song of all time though). I was nothing at all like my imaginary alter-ego, Matt Xell. Whereas he was a great artist, a great writer, a great film and video game producer ... a visionary, a genius, a legend that future generations would look up too, I was nothing more than a failure.

I'd failed at everything in my life so far really. I'd failed at school, I'd failed at art, I'd failed at love, I'd failed to be a great friend, I'd failed to be good brother and I'd failed to be a good son ... the only thing I was good at (or at least I believed so) was writing ...

Writing always came naturally to me for some reason ... and I hated that. First and foremost, I was an artist. I'd tell myself that and anyone who would ask me (still do). What I wrote at the time were merely plots, concepts and scripts for my future art pieces, comics and video games, I'd say. But deep down, I couldn't deny it ... writing was and will always be my greatest talent and joy. I never felt better than when I wrote ... story-telling and idealising had always been an addition for me, and writing was the ultimate drug.

That said and praised, doesn't mean that my writing was great. Oh, God, no, those first few stories were terrible. Forget correct grammar and spelling. Forget plots, themes and settings. Forget three-dimensional, characters, motives and roles. Forget Point-of Views and tenses. Forget insightful dialogue and moral lessons.The stories I wrote were more or less like the scripts of B action and pulp movies ... and Oh, yeah, I didn't even follow scripting rules coz i didn't know they were any, I wrote in novel prose.

But my brother, the young and naive future Red Plus, loved those stories. He was my first and only fan then. He read and re-read that stuff just as much as he did the Harry Potter novels. Personally, I never gave my work a second read because I was afraid of critiquing it and hating it -- it was pretty much a write and go thing.

That summer, I was working on the last of the scripts (more like novellas now -- over 500 pages) for a mini-series called A Day Dreamer's Odyssey and Darker Destiny featuring Ryan Thompson ( that one kid that can manipulate matter and energy -- nah, you don't know him yet). The story was a mess sci-fi and fantasy elements and themes, lots plagiarized bits and pieces from a lot of my major infleunces, anime type dialogue and a tonne of The Matrix vs Dragon Ball Z vs Final Fantasy VII: Advents Children type action scenes. I would be done with it by December and it would be a satisfying ending (with lots of holes and unresolved events though).

I didn't know what I would be writing about in 2007, all I knew was that after six years of writing about Ryan, he and I were sick of each other. I didn't want to write about anything with powers and mutants (or Altered Beings as I called mine) and he pretty much wanted to have a normal life -- playing video-games, reading comics, rocking out to Linkin Park and The Lost Prophets, and pretty much just slacking off ... he was 12 years-old after all. After saving the universe that one time, he was ready to give up the role of  the chosen one and his mantle, The Day Dreamer. He wanted an early retirement or at least a long vacation.

Strangely ... the universe heard the plea and prayer of a fictional character taking up space in my mind ... God would be sending Ves Asirin to replace him soon ...

TBC