My background to be a digital artist and author reaches into that very concept of discovering something about life—if played like music, it creates its own symphony, sometimes rewarding, sometimes not. Not everyone was born with a talent. I wanted to create drawings, but was terrible at it. I didn’t like to read or write. Not until I joined the U.S. Navy did I study books on how to draw. Hard work paid off. Shipmates came to me to draw pictures of their girlfriends and pets. I created the ship’s first newspaper. After my honorable discharge, I enrolled in Atlanta’s graphic art classes. After moving to Chicago and getting married, I used after working hours to enroll in classes for Portraits in Pastel, water coloring, and graphic arts. I created a small art business called Fantastic Fantasies that included illustrated stories. The meaning of my life was about to expand beyond my wildest dreams in the next crossroads ahead. One of the most outstanding experiences of my life involved my wife, Donna, encouraging me and getting me to be an actor on stage with her. I not only helped create some of the sets for the musical Lil’ Abner, but also performed in other musicals on stage such as: Man of La Mancha, Camelot, How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, and the list goes on. I only decided to mention these to let you know that life offers many opportunities, but, of course, you have to work hard to achieve them. I must admit that my best was not always good enough. However, I’m glad I told myself, “To hell with failure, full speed ahead.” Upon retirement, I taught myself how to use pastel chalk on illustration board to create Halloween scenes. I photographed it and sent a copy to a website called: Killer Pumpkins, by John Pelico. It turns out that he was also an artist for Walt Disney. He gave me a phone call, we talked for hours, and he introduced me to the world of digital art (like photoshop). However, I use GIMP—it’s free. It took me a month to learn it. Afterwards, I joined other websites to sell my digital art and then created my own website, you guessed it: twilightartzone.com Eight hours a day, seven days a week, for eleven years I worked at researching and creating art. What I am about to tell you is a prime example of the subconscious directing a person to opportunities that match one’s positive thoughts. One night I perceived a revelation telling me to refrain from anything that would impair my thoughts so I could have a clear mind to write a novel. My crossroads. I decided to take that road. Heavenly angels didn’t say it would be easy, I figured that anyway, so I poured myself into studying hundreds of tutorials on writing stories, showing stories, punctuation, grammar, how to use quotations marks, reading books, writing, writing, and yes, more writing until that revelation started to become a reality. My characters came to life for me to write the story.—Now, we can read it.