Hidden in the Pages

Lazy Mondays

Coffee was one of the few things that Emmett needed in the world. Food, not so much. Water? Meh. Coffee? Oh yes. His mind was completely foggy, but it was well worth it. He had been working for who knew how long. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he had left his office.

He had created something, he wasn't sure exactly what he would do with this. But Calder was someone he thought he bonded with. Cal was special. Cal fought against the standard expectations of the rich and the poor. He was quick witted but spent most of his time working.

There were few things his main character feared, and one of them was his greedy, abusive father, which Emmett had just introduced in the third chapter.

Honestly, he was surprised by how easy it was to write someone like Calder. He has been expecting problems when it came to adapt the mindset he would need to be in, but that wasn't the case in the slightest. Emmett was proud of himself for his project but knew better than to mention it to anyone else just yet.

For a little while, he wanted to keep Calder to himself. And that was fine. Writing was something extremely personal to him. Publishing was the most terrifying decision he had ever made. It wasn't something he had wanted to do, asking people to judge his characters, and himself. But, even if it made his skin crawl, he had managed it.

Emmett hadn't even thought about regretting it since. He had made up his mind that this was what he wanted to do with his life. Did he regret it? Did he regret severing himself from society and locking himself away for days and weeks at a time?

No, he did not.

Emmett did, at times, wish that he had waited a bit longer to publish his first novel, or maybe he should have waited until he had finished Zale's series before sending them out. Maybe he would have been able to become someone else. Maybe he could have had friends and a better relationship with his family.

That said, he had made his choices, and living in regret wouldn't change that he had already lived through it. He couldn't regret his decisions because that meant he regretted what he had done since. All of the characters he had created and the stories he had told only existed because of him. Zale Murdock, Ethan Turner, Septimus Bookman, and Calder Muninn were just a few of the family he had created for himself.

He had kept himself cut off from the world, true, but he had made a splash in the mystery writers world. Emmett had been one of the few people who was lucky enough to find his calling as a teenager. He didn't have to wonder who he was, or what he was going to do with the rest of his life. He already knew.

If his novels continued to sell as they were, he wouldn't have a problem retiring in the next ten years. If he somehow wanted to find another passion, or wanted to go back to school, he could. This part of the world was his for the taking, he thought as he sipped his coffee.

He cared little about what his family thought, or what his public thought. There were always going to be people who hated and loved him for his works. There would always be people who thought he was an idiot for killing off one the main character Septimus Bookman at the end of his second series. There would always be people who judged him for the choices he made, both with his stories and with his life.

If his family practically kicked him out the day he turned eighteen, it hardly mattered. He could take care of himself. If his fraternal twin Garrett hated him, then his twin could suck it up, or leave him alone. If the rest of the school he graduated from wanted him dead, then so what? They were small minded and didn't care about trying to understand him. So, what if he became a millionaire before graduating high school. He never bothered throwing it in the faces of his peers.