Do You Believe In Legend?
As he waited for the final word on his medical fitness, Randy asked, "Jo, do you believe in legend?"
I nodded, "How can I not, when Im surrounded by its wonder and power?"
"Good, because believing in Legend is the first step in making it Reality," he replied. "And remember, just as your belief is important, so is its depth. Without your strongest commitment to action, based on unfaltering conviction, I, nor my timeline, will exist."
-Do You Believe In Legend?
On November 11, 1987, I, then a full-time college student, set out to write a story about my two favorite characters that I had seen on television for several years. I already had another story finished called Tiberius that dealt with my own characters and storyline, but had gone no where in the publishing world. For some strange reason, I felt that the fan fiction had more of a chance of doing something.
By December 1991, Reality had hit me square in the face, and I wasn't sure if I believed in Legend anymore. I'm not just talking about the story here, I'm talking my whole life as a dreamer, a writer, an artist, and a creative soul. You see, I had been betrayed by a close friend who stole a credit card from another friend and then threatened to kill me and himself when I confronted him about it. For four years, this person had been my partner and a close confidant who helped me through some pretty hard emotional times. Yet, even as he was helping me, people were warning me that I needed to get and stay as far away from him as possible. On occasion, even my own instincts told me that something was wrong.
I didn't listen. And for not listening, I paid a heavy price.
I wasn't sure that I could trust any one and I sure as hell couldn't trust my feelings about anything. Especially anything that had to do with the person who betrayed me. That included something very near and dear to me, my writing. And we weren't talking just two books any more. By now, Tiberius and Legend had been joined by another completed novel, The Spirit of the Lone Horse, and about ten or twelve other ideas in various stages of completion.
A glass that I had specially made in 1989 taught me there was more to Legend than just being a piece of fan fiction. The glass had a Phoenix within a circle and triangle engraved into it with the words "Phoenix CSA Team" around the logo. I had bought the glass to give me something tangible to hold onto until I had a published book in my hand. On the day that I had bought the glass, I made a solemn promise that I would not drink out of the glass until I had made Legend a Reality by turning it into a published book and a movie.
When Reality hit in the unexpected way, I had seriously considered smashing the glass against a wall. But, as I held the glass in my hand, I stared at the logo and remembered another legend. I thought that if the mythical Phoenix could rise from ashes, couldn't a story, and, more importantly, a series that I had put so much of myself into, do the same thing? I started reworking Legend, but I wasn't sure if I lieved in the changes. I went to bed with these doubts and questions on my mind.
When I awakened the next morning, a voice in the back of my head asked, "Do you believe in Legend?"
Not wanting to argue with myself, I replied, "Yes."
"Good," the voice replied, "because believing in Legend is the first step in making it reality."
With those words, Legend (both the book and the dream) and I were reborn from the ashes of our beguilement. I was still hurt and would remain so for several years afterwards. In fact, today, I'm still struggling with a conservative "need to know and plan everything in great detail so I don't get hurt again" attitude.
With guidance, sometimes very heavy handed, from me, the new story shaped and formed itself. Do You Believe In Legend? was finished and copyrighted in 1995. The story reflects my struggle with my own dreams in the words and actions of my own characters and storyline.
I'm not as obsessive about my writing as I once was, so I'm not working on the series as hard or as long as I did in the past. In fact, right now, I'm just concentrating on getting Legend ready for publication and letting the other books rest on the side. Tiberius and Spirit will eventually need to be rewritten before they can even be considered for pi>i>ublication. Then the rest of the books need to be completed. The series will probably be a life long journey for me, but at least it is still around and not gathering dust on my computer.
The Phoenix glass is still around as well. It has survived several moves and a part of me still believes that I will fulfill the promise to make Legend into a published book and movie, so that I can drink out of it.
