by Drew Avera
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great honor I bring these two couples together. It is a time honored-tradition for a man and woman to come together in marriage, which has gone back thousands of years. I am not one to question tradition, but I must say I don't understand why we need to wear uncomfortable clothes during the ceremony." Pontiff White's joke elicited more than a few chuckles from the crowd before he continued. "If you will please take your rings."
I pulled two rings from my pocket as Harris did the same. I handed Laurel the ring that would fit on my finger, while I held onto hers. My hands were sweating, and I thought of how embarrassing it would be to drop it between the cracks in the floor of the gazebo and into the water below. With that thought, I tightened my grip around it.
"If the men would place the ring on the brides’ fingers..." I gently pushed the ring onto Laurel's finger and held her hand. "This band is a symbol of trust. A man chooses his wife to complete him, and without her trust, he is never whole. A ring is eternal, just as love should be, and whenever your eyes should gaze upon it, you shall remember that person completes you."
I could hear people in the crowd making sounds, but I couldn't make any of the out. I was lost in the moment, staring into Laurel's eyes and knowing I would be there for the rest of my life.
"Now, if the women will place the ring on the men's fingers," Pontiff White said. Laurel shoved the ring onto my finger and it got stuck a little over the knuckle. I helped her push it the rest of the way with a small chuckle. "This band is a symbol of trust. A woman chooses her husband to complete her, and without that trust, she is never whole. A ring is eternal, just as love should be, and whenever your eyes should gaze upon it, you shall remember that person completes you. Congratulations! You may kiss your brides."
The crowd erupted in applause as I brought my lips to Laurel's. I never thought this day would come and I was so happy I had survived to see it. So many times I thought I would die, only to be blessed with another day and another breath. I didn't know what I had done to deserve such fortune, but if it was a gift from God, then I appreciated it more than anything else in life. Harris had asked me if I believed in God last night as we were preparing for the wedding. For the first time in my life I didn't hesitate and think of the bad things in my life. For the first time I said yes without thinking about anything. I didn't know if God existed, but I believed he or she did, and that was enough for me.
I pulled away from Laurel's kiss just long enough to breathe. And in that breath I tasted strawberries. It was my favorite flavor.
Thank you so much for reading The Dead Planet Series! I hope you enjoyed it and will leave a positive review to help encourage other people to read my books. Spreading the word is another great way to help people discover books you love. If you are not on my mailing list then you should consider joining today to stay up to date on new releases. All you have to do is click the image below.
About the Author
Drew Avera is an active duty navy veteran and science fiction author. Originally from Mississippi, he joined the navy at seventeen to become an Aviation Electrician’s Mate. Working on the F/A18 Hornet and F/A18 Super Hornet, he has deployed three times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Southern Watch. When not working for the navy or writing, you can find him playing guitar or watching TV with his wife and kids in Virginia.
What’s next? I have a brand new space opera series called The Alorian Wars. Broken Worlds is out now! Just click the image and you can grab it today.
Author's Note
Wow, this series has been an experience writing that I never expected. Before I explain why, let me tell you how I came to write it in the first place. When I was sixteen years old, I was a teen who didn't enjoy reading. I would read comic books for entertainment, and when it came to doing book reports in school, I sort of faked it and made a decent grade. I absolutely did not understand why anyone would pick up a book and waste all that time reading just to close the book and put it on a shelf to grab another one. That all changed one day at a supermarket.
The book was "The Incredible Hulk: What Savage Beast" by Peter David. Being the huge comic fan that I was I found myself immediately intrigued. The cover grabbed me. The synopsis on the back was interesting. The price was within my budget of saved lunch money that I used to buy comics with. As I stood there holding the book in my hand, I came to the realization that I could afford to own this marvelous looking book. If nothing else, it would look cool as a decoration on my shelf. I mean, it practically sold itself to me like a hooker on the Sunset Strip (note: that reference is based on 80's music videos and not personal experience).
On the way home I began reading the book and was hooked from the start. I continued reading during school, at any chance I had, and soon finished it. I decided two things once I closed the book for the last time. The first was that I wanted to write a book one day. The second was that I wanted to find something else to read, because I had finally enjoyed the experience of reading a book. I could list off several books I then read, but I'll spare you the long story and make it short.
Fast forward fourteen years later, and I was thirty years old. I wasn't going through a mid-life crisis, but I was doing a mental assessment of what I had accomplished so far from a list of dream jobs. Comic book artist? Nope. Rock star? Nope. Won the lottery? Nope. Write a book? Nope. Essentially, when I joined the navy at seventeen, I let every whimsical dream pass, and I had nothing to really show for it. Don't get me wrong, I have a wife and two awesome kids, but when you look at unfulfilled dreams, you are left wondering why you didn't pursue them. Out of those four things, there was only one I could really control and act on while still active duty navy. And that brings up to The Dead Planet Series.
I started a book called "Woe is the Fallen" which was going to be an epic fantasy. What it ended up being was 15,000 words of incomplete ideas and nowhere else to go that excited me. Like any aspiration that was too hard in life, I was ready to throw in the towel, but I was going to be damned if I went another decade without making myself finish something that I started. Yes, writing is hard, but it isn't impossible. So, I started doing research on writing books and discovered National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo has you write 50,000 words in 30 days in order to win. That's it! Write the words and you win. In the list of prizes that all winners received was the chance to get five paperback copies of your book for free from Create Space. That was it—I had the chance to hold a complete book in my hand, and all it was going to cost me was time!
I was off. The first day, I wrote over 3,000 words and I went beast mode, writing every day, so I could finish before Thanksgiving 2012. The only tool I used to do this, believe it or not, was my iPhone. That's right. I wrote a whole book on my iPhone. It was the only way I could cram in the writing time in a convenient way. It worked pretty well, too, considering that book was "The Dead Planet Series: Book One Exodus". Long title, I know, but after reading "The Hunger Games" I really wanted a series with a trilogy.
Once I finished the book, I did everything I knew how to do to self-publish it, and I soon found out that I had become infected with a virus. That virus was the bug that makes every creatively minded person continue despite everything to do what they love to do. I go without sleep and have given up a large number of television programs in order to carve out writing time while I work in the navy. Was it worth it? You bet it was. I identify myself as a writer now. I have several published works and a network of people whom I share ideas with and all of it is splendid. I finally found myself in writing, where before, I struggled with who I really was all that time.
The story changed from the way I initially envisioned it. Serus was modeled after an actor named Drew Roy from Falling Skies, and he was just going to be a badass hero saving the planet. The thing is, I started struggling with faith and everything became a question. My motives behind certain things were causing me to want to flesh out what I believed, or ask the ques
tions in a way that helped me come to terms with how I was feeling. You might notice the religious references in The Dead Planet Series and how it ultimately ends with his making a decision about what he believes. This story is just as much the journey of a hero conquering the enemy with help from his friends as it is a story of finding faith in hopeless situations. I don't want the book to preach, but if you challenge yourself by asking what it is you believe, then I'll take that all day. You see, I think we should all believe in something, because it gives us hope, and with hope we can do anything. That became the theme of the series for me, but like most things, it is open to interpretation, and that's OK. I didn't want people to see the theme in any singular way; I want the story to speak to you in a way that you need it to, and I hope it does that. If nothing else, I hope you are entertained for a little while.
It is now Thanksgiving 2014 as I'm writing this. You might be wondering why I would write this on a holiday, but the answer is simple. This series was born two years ago and I am currently 5,000 words from completing the last book in the trilogy. It seems appropriate in some way to mark this occasion on the anniversary of finishing the first draft of Exodus. So here we are, not to brag or pat myself on the back, though. No, that is a cheap thing to do, and not in line with all I've learned by being a self-published author. Ours is a community of passing it on, paying it forward. And that is what I'd like to do now. If you have a goal and it seems out of reach, don't give up. Set a smaller goal that will be like the rung of a ladder helping you reach your final goal. It might sound simple, but that's because it is.
The truth is this: simple things aren't easy, but if you want it bad enough, then you owe it to yourself to make it happen. No one else can do it but you. And I know you can do it, because I did. I was the quitter when things got hard. I had coffee with an old band mate last month and he told me he wanted to start writing. During that discussion, where I encouraged him to pursue it, he told me something I hadn't realized. He said, "Drew, you really have a lot of confidence now. It's like you're a different, better person now." Those words put a smile to my face because that is the change that happens when you are doing something that brings you great joy. I would love to see that smile and confidence in everyone that I meet. I want that for you, too.
Thank you for reading!
