This here is KB6-INT: Legacy! The first in a long series of sci-fi romance novels that I plan to write throughout my life. This one started with an adolescent fantasy for a girl I met in second grade, but never had the courage to confess to. After my family moved 1200 miles away, I found myself caught in a vice of, at the very least perceived, poverty. Our family of 5 was living in two Bounder R.V’s on the back of a family friend’s property. It took a few months for my step-dad (Love you pops!) to get hired at his friend’s work, and until that point, and even a while after, it was very stressful being in such cramped circumstances. As a 15-16 year old boy who’d already graduated but didn’t yet have a license, I wasn’t sure what I could do to help my family out of the situation we’d found ourselves in. I used a verizon hotspot, 10 gb/month at a time, to download the entire series of ‘Bleach”(Forgive me for being a pirate, aaarrrggh). I watched my anime, played Borderlands 2 with my younger brother, and wrote this novel nonstop for atleast six months fueled by: bacon and pepperoni cooked on a plug-in skillet. Folgers coffee-bags steeped in bottled water, and (for about 3 weeks) adderall and prozac.

Anytime i go back and read my pre-pub copy, I enjoy it. I enjoy the memory of the work. I enjoy the memory of that time together with my brother, that may be the closest we ever were, and I envy that old me for having those moments, and i sometimes wish they’d never ended. I remember the depression I sat in, unmoving. I remember the sleepless nights. I remember every tear i cried out of fear and frustration and teenage hormonal ups and downs.

I remember hiking up the north face of the Sleeping Ute mountain. I remember running back down it full speed with my brother. I remember leaping onto a rock i thought was sturdy only for it to start splitting away from the cliff and barely catching the edge as I jumped back to solid footing, the rock i’d landed on crashing down 15 feet below me.

I remember sitting on the precipice listening to the birds flirting and dancing in the sky watching the sun set inside sand canyon.

I love this book, and I hope you will too.