Wanderer's Tales #12 - Gratitude
Welcome to Issue 12 of Wanderer’s Tales. In this issue is Ancient Roads, an original song.
Welcome to Issue 12 of Wanderer’s Tales, the newsletter of Ancient Roads. Here you will find fantasy fiction set in ancient worlds, where music makes magic, and the road ahead is always uncertain. Wanderers welcome.
In this newsletter is Ancient Roads, a song I wrote in 2011 about the imaginative process of fiction writing. A character emerges from the mist of the author's imagination, and the author asks questions about the character's motives and values as the story proceeds from one verse to the next. It ends by asking the listener about their values. This song inspired the name of this website.
Chris Struble
I’ve also updated Chapter Nine of Shield of the Goddess, the adult fantasy novel I am releasing here as a web serial. I recommend reading this chapter again even if you already read it. I have made changes in every scene, and added a new scene.
Chris Struble
This month’s theme is gratitude.
Gratitude is an emotion that gets a lot of attention this time of year. But gratitude isn’t just about being thankful for a weekend around a single federal holiday. It’s an emotion that was well known to ancient humans, prehistoric humans, other species of hominid, and even our primate ancestors and cousins. Gratitude seems to be an essential part of the human journey.
In Wanderer’s Tales #10 I mentioned the concept of “gift economy”. It’s hard to imagine how gift economy could work without gratitude. It isn’t enough to remember the kindness that another person did for us. We have to feel something about it. Without that feeling, there is no motive to pay it back or pay it forward.
This month, a major life event happened to me that forced me to consider what I am grateful for. I was laid off. The company where I worked the past seven years had a major reduction in staff. In a few months I will be unemployed.
I have a lot to be grateful for from my time there. The commute was the best I had in twenty years. I got to work with talented software engineers every day. I felt empowered to be creative in my job. Three years ago, I applied for and was hired as an engineering manager. I learned a lot in that role, and got to work with more amazing people in different ways. I had a good work life balance, even as a manager. Finally, I am grateful that I will have some time to figure out next steps.
One thing that won’t change is that I will continue to share my creative work here on Ancient Roads. It brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction to do this work.
What are you grateful for? Please share in the comments below.
I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If you’re already a subscriber, remember you can always visit my Books, Music, and Reviews pages to see the ever growing organized lists of everything I have published here to date.
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See you on the road!
Chris Struble