Prosperity: a story for my kids

If you’d ask why I decided to self-publish my novel, Prosperity, I’d give you a simple answer. My kids asked.

In the summer of 2019, while sitting at a bonfire with my kids, my son asked me if I would ever publish one of my novels. At the time, I had written seven manuscripts, all of which were unedited drafts saved in a folder on my laptop. The first was written in 2009 and the final one I completed in 2016.

For three years, I set down the passion of writing for the business of daily life – raising a family, building a career, caring for aging parents. By the summer of 2019, my kids thought of my writing as legend, just stories I told about stories I’d written, often while sitting at a summer bonfire. The night my son asked me if I would publish them, I sort of laughed it off, but a new perspective settled in. If I kept the stories as they were, they would always be myth, a part of me that they would never know, like it never really existed at all.

Then, in the fall of 2019, I was sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco after spending the day at a technology conference. I thought of Prosperity. A portion of the novel is set in the greater San Francisco area. I decided to open the file on my laptop. I started reading. Then editing. By the time the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, I was filling my nights and weekends learning the process of self-publishing.

I chose to self-publish Prosperity, not because I think of it as my best work, but because it is the story that I wanted to share with my children.

 If you open the first page, you will see a dedication that reads:

Children,

You asked for a story. Here is one. I wrote about the place where the mud came up between my toes in my formative years. That is to say, I put myself into it. In this story, you will find good things and bad things; growth and destruction; death and redemption. In here, I put all that I could. Somehow, there will always be things left untold, and spaces left to be filled. If nothing else, I hope in here there is a compass. May you find it. May you find your answers. Better yet, may you find new questions and new places to explore.

Always,

Dad

Prosperity was published in the summer of 2021. It is an all-original work. The writing, editing, formatting, and cover art are mine, and I launched the book on Amazon using self-publishing tools provide by Kindle Direct Publishing.

The cover shot, which is posted above, captures the last cherry blossom at Chateau Chantel, an Old Mission Peninsula winery. Once a cherry farm, Chateau Chantel was converted to a vineyard in the 1980’s and became one of the first Old Mission Peninsula wineries in the 1990’s. The photo was taken in May of 2021. Two months later, the last of the original cherry trees were gone, removed to make way for another row of grapevines.

The agricultural evolution on the Old Mission Peninsula from cherry farms to vineyards is a narrative I watched unfold as I came of age. It is also a critical theme for Prosperity. The novel’s two main characters, Robert Littleton and Andrew Douglas, represent the pursuit of prosperity that many have sought while cultivating the lands of the Old Mission Peninsula.

The goal for Prosperity was to write a sweeping novel, a story that captures all the lessons found in one’s formative years. A folk narrative meant to read as if being told by your favorite aunt or uncle, I took inspiration from the stories and lands that helped shape my youth.

I wrote the original draft of Prosperity by lamp light during the winter of 2013.

It was a trying time in my life filled with existential questions. I was twenty-eight and had just finished writing my fourth manuscript. I had two kids under the age of five, parents with health complications, and I was cutting my teeth in my professional life, working a noon to

8pm shift as a call center supervisor.

At the time, my mom’s cancer had taken a turn for the worse, and she was too weak to transfer my dad, a quadriplegic, into bed at night. After arriving home from work, eating a late dinner, and spending a few minutes with my kids, I would drive to my parents to help with bedtime. When I returned home on those nights, the house was quiet. Sitting down at my small desk to write, I often thought of this one word: prosperity.

In my youth, the idea of a prosperous life meant: success, status, wealth, and material possessions. But on those drives to and from my parent’s house during the winter of 2013, I wondered: what does it really mean to be prosperous?

One of my favorite lines from Prosperity is between Andrew Douglas and his father-in-law.  Andrew is in his early-twenty's, ambitious and looking to establish himself. After pitching a business plan to his father-in-law, Andrew proposes a cheers to prosperity. To this his father-in-law tells him:

“This prosperity, eh, you know, I’ve always felt it is a complicated word. Seems to mean something different to everyone. Like a mirror, it only shows you a reflection of yourself.”

How do we define prosperity in our lives? The novel explores this question. By the end of the story, the two main characters, Robert Littleton and Andrew Douglas are young men, and the question of prosperity defines the plot between them.

I spent fourteen months writing the first draft of Prosperity. By the spring of 2014, I decided to set it down, a partially edited draft, and start into my next project. And there it sat until that summer night in 2019, when the curiosity of my ten-year-old son changed my perspective.

Self-publishing Prosperity rekindled my passion for writing and photography. Since then, I have been working. Writing. Shooting. Editing. A lot of editing.

In 2025, I plan to publish my most recent work, The Way of Cain. I am also editing a manuscript, Willie, originally written in 2014, which I also plan to share in 2025.

You can follow me here to learn more about these projects.