Once upon a time…..

all great epic stories start with once upon a time don’t they?  Of course I am not trying to say if it doesn’t start that way it isn’t epic or great, just I haven’t read a story starting with

Once upon a time …

oh wait… yes I have but whatever, I can come back to that some other time.

So where were we?  Oh yea..

Once upon a time in a blogosphere far far away, and still near here, there was a mixed up girl trying to make her way in a mixed up world, who found some direction in writing, blogging to be more specific.  She struggled with all kinds of things that she wasn’t sure she could ever overcome but once she began writing, she found she could better look at things and process them and decide how to relate to the world and the people who occupy it.

She found love and acceptance and support and some of the best people who, without the beauty of technology, she would have gone on, as they would have. and their paths, sadly, would never have crossed.   That would have been really sucky, to not have been able to find these people, for the girl, through a long journey of ups and downs and self discovery knows without a doubt, she would not be where she is without them.

She wrote what she felt and from her heart, at first hesitantly because she was testing the waters of being herself, but as the days wore on, she saw people were interested in what she had to say, thought she was a writer worthy of following and she began to really think this was something she was meant to do.

She thought long and hard about purpose because she believed  – still believes, things happen for a reason, we are put on a path and while we always have free will to choose whatever we want for out destiny, sometimes the best things come from what isn’t always apparent.

After some time, she found her voice, and her purpose and she set out to make it work and do something great.  Change the world.

Changing the world isn;t that easy you know.  It takes a buttload of concentrated power of will, something the girl was full of at times, but at other times, left her on a whim.

It was always a crapshoot, due to other issues that aren’t; usually included in Once upon a time stories….   and one of the key things about changing the world is to get people to consider ideas and different ways of doing things, to show them a better way, give them the option to change themselves.

Because we can’t really change anyone unless they want to change and the world works like that.  Nobody can make you do anything.  True Story.  Oh sure they can make it really uncomfortable if you don’t do whatever it is, and use tactics to try to make you feel something but really its all up to you.

Now don’t get ahead of yourself and think the girl was like, a witch or anything going around trying to change people cause that isn’t what is meant here by changing people.

She actually was truly accepting of people as they were (except bozos but that’s a different once  upon a time) she just thought there were a lot of people who didn’t realize they didn;t realize the things they did in their lives so its more about changing lives not people but that kind of sometimes goes hand in hand, but not in a condescending or judgemental way.

The girl saw one thing many people missed – how so many of us live on autopilot, doing things the way we do them without knowing why.

She became aware of her special blessedness, she was blessed you see, as all people are in one way or another.

Her special blessing was in the fact she was cracked, not broken, but the cracked are blessed for letting in the light, and bigger than that, for being the light.  Its true.

So there she was this girl with her light damn near blinding and not sure what to do with it when…

Enter the Heroine…

Oh yea, sorry the girl she isn’t the heroine and every story needs one, she is just a small bit player who got lucky today and got some play..uh..playtime, or exposure..

ok well ..enter the heroine..

(you know we gotta have some epic tale dramatic music cued right here right?  okay, making  sure)  

Our heroine lives in a shoe…no correction, she likes shoes.  A fact which bears noting only for the fact she kicks ass, in both sense of the phrase – (haven;t heard that one before have you?  Me either, I am not sure it is correct but on we go..)

She kicks ass in all ways and the shoes are important because our heroine is kind of small, in stature only, not in presence, don;t make the mistake of discounting our heroine, let’s call her …

Queen Red of the ..  …

Queen Red of Anythingshewantstobe Land,

And ‘ow do you know she’s a queen?

um..nevermind …

discounting her due to her smallish stature.

The thing about shoes is she kicks ass, and figuratively that’s all good, there never seemed to be a problem with being kick ass or whatever because she always kicked ass in some just way too cool shoes..

The problem was literally, because when she was kicking ass for real, she would sometimes lose a shoe, in said ass, so the Queen had a closet full of single shoes  – which made her cranky sometimes and it was a bit of a cycle because when she got cranky she kicked more ass and …  (this is another chapter of the story, in that part the girl is the heroine because she solved the Queen’s problem with the three shoe pair, so now when the queen kicks ass, she never loses use of a pair of shoes.  And she is much happier much to the relief of the people although they are not a repressed or oppressed people and they love their queen – the relief stems from knowing she is happy. Because deserves it.)

Ok I went tangential, of course and need to curve back around to the point at which I diverted and got away from the point and ..stuff.

The Queen was out and about one day and happened to find the girl wandering aimlessly mumbling to herself, looking a hot mess and all kinds of ..

It might be a bit much but it IS and epic tale right?  I mean it is getting there.  I don’t get to do these epic things all too often so can I have my moment?  Epics, odes and ..sagas.  I like them, they take a lot out of me but they are fun so …

It turns out the queen and the girl, are twins but see that epic tale has been done too so never mind forget I mentioned it.

Queen Red said to the girl something and asked her a bunch of questions and then the girl snapped out of it and quit mumbling drooling and wandering aimlessly.. at which point she told the queen she had applied for a job of lying in a pond and handing out swords to strange men who thought they should be king.

The queen was quite amused and told the girl

The only reason there was a job opening is because I kicked the last lady of the pond’s ass…did you not see the shoe lodged firmly in place?  I loved those shoes.

She did it for sending some dufus because she was tired of laying ..(or lying..?*) um waiting in cold ass water for the real king to get off his ass and come to the pond and claim his own shit…sorry stuff..sword.  Yes.. it’s a herring but not a shrubbery and there was some spanking involved at some point but I am pretty sure that was before the girl came along and now she was just grateful she did not get chosen to replace the lady in the lake and be in a story similar to the Epic Tale of the Holy Grail.

So the real important part of this story is that Queen Red had decided she was going to change the world too.  Shake things up.  Help others see their dreams come true.

Writers to be exact.  She talked to the girl and told her of her dreams and vision and told her to write her book.  the one the girl didn;t know she was going to write but did not think it odd when the queen said

Write thy book!  For I have a dream of a place for authors to come and work with others to be able to have their work published and offered to the public.  I also see the gap between the Indie authors and the publishing world being bridged with the standards I have in mind, for they will be high and they will be tough but it is necessary.  You are more suited for this life Girl,

(she doesn’t really call her girl, I forgot to tell the girl’s name although you will all know it and speak it soon enough..or we can suggest anyways…) 

then you are for lying (laying ?) in ponds handing out swords.

The queen gathered a group of authors and together they built from the ground up an empire.  Not the kind that strikes back, the kind that is reminiscent of a utopia of sorts. with a commune kind of working, a cooperative.  All the authors helped each other and the queen worked the hardest of all bent on making sure her loyal and trusting authors would see their dreams come true.

For that is what the queen was really all about.  Finding a way to bring happiness to others and that is what truly made her happy.  She gave them the chance to be who they always thought they could be.  And their happiness and success was what she loved to see more than anything else in the whole entire kingdom – er queendom.

The girl wrote the book, the one maybe never to be seen if not for the queen, and she also did artsy fartsy things, covers for the other authors and pictures for the queen, a logo for the company.

After hours and days and months (although considering where she started that isn’t long. Just saying. ) the queen unveiled one day the fruits of all theirs and hers, hard work.

The authors rejoiced and cried HUZA!  To this end, we could end this story and say they lived happily ever after but that is premature, although not unlikely.

The company became a powerhouse, a publishing empire where authors formerly repressed, or is it oppressed, well anyways flocked to be one of the fortunate ones.  Helping with every step, and having their work given to the world in four formats at least, paperback, Kindle, ePub and PDF.

And it will, I have no doubt, with the good queen leading the way.

The End,

Except it is never the end, and you can see the results of the hard work and enjoy their offerings, in many different places.

Start with the page at the top menu bar,

A Month of Mental Moments 

(because that is the book the girl wrote and this story is being told on her blog so ya know its only right)

All the books available are listed there.  Click any of the links to get to the bookstore.  All the authors have contributed their best work, some more than one book and there is an awesome fractal book too!

And to go see the empire where it lies in the kindg..queendom of the blogosphere far far aways yet oh so near, click the pretty lady.

The girl, to show her thanks, found the queen a place to buy shoes with three in a pair.. uh yea.. you know what I mean and now the queen with her empire (does that make her an empress?) is happy too for she no longer has to worry about what shoes she has on when she need to kick ass (literally).

*it should be noted here the question of laying or lying is the shortcoming of this narrator, not the queen who if this narrator had any guts, would ask the fair and benevolent queen and she would surely know the proper verbiage as she was quite skilled in this area, as well as many others.  For example, commas.  Oh and nevermind it is just a note of foot for this tale…not important.. much.  

**it should also be noted, that no asses were kicked, unless they truly deserved it and there was no other way. This narrator would like to not have the public opinion of the queen to be of an asskicker all the time, she is a good fair and benevolent queen, a woman of integrity and vision.  And a most excellent friend.  Don’t get the idea the Queen just went about kicking asses for no reason ..literally although she did kick ass at everything she did.. it is possible she ..well never mind we will see how the story unfolds from here… 

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