It was 1992. I was living in a roach infested apartment off Riverside Drive in Austin. My brother had left the army and needed a place to stay. For about four months he was living with my roommate Jason and me.

We used to live in San Antonio so Sean started visiting his friend Rafael down there. Rafael was an Amway distributor. At the time, I had no clue what Amway was. But my brother was now sold on it. He and Rafael introduced it to me. Rafael was good. He explained the multi-level marketing aspects of the business, then he got me visualizing. "If you had $5000 a month, what would you do?" he asked.

At the time, I didn't really have any dreams or aspirations. I was stumbling along through college flipping from Computer Science to Communications to Undecided Liberal Arts. I had no clue what I wanted to be when I grew up. I had a gutiar and jammed on that now and then, but it didn't go far.

"Seriously, if you had the money... the freedom to do whatEver you like. What would it be? Want a nice sports car?"

I thought about it. Not really. I prefer something practical. "No."

"A huge house."

Yeah, one day, I'd like a house, but nothing grandiose. I just want a place to live. "No. Not really."

"Well, you lived in Italy. Would you like to visit there again?"

"Now that would be kinda cool," I thought. But I still wasn't that excited.

"So just imagine is there one thing you used to dream about when you were a kid. Fancy clothes, exotic yachts, something so big you never thought it was possible."

"Elvis," I said.

"Huh?"

"When I was a kid I used to pretend I was Elvis Presley."

Rafael shifted uneasily in his chair. Then he leaned forward, "Um, yeah, a musician. If you made thousands of dollars a month you could play music all around the world."

Rafael no more understood my dream than I did. Thirteen years later, I look at my calendar, and I have just one more week to go before that dream becomes a reality.

*sigh*


It's hard for me to imagine achieving a dream thirteen years after I started it. That sounds weird. It certainly has made me very patient and reflective.

I am very fortunate. There are many people who I have dragged along on my dream rollercoaster, but there are many others who never got the chance. Life took them in other directions. And I know many people who have no motivation. Or worse, people who don't have faith.

I always loved that song by George Michaels, "You Gotta Have Faith." When I heard that song, it was my faith in Jesus. But I am also a firm believer that you can't just sit around and wait for things to happen.

How does that story go? A man was at home watching TV when a warning came up on the TV saying a flood was coming. The man said, "I'll trust in God and everything will be alright."

The water rose and the man climbed safely to the roof of his house. A boat came by. "Climb in the boat and I'll row you to safety."

"I will be safe cuz I trust in God to save me."

Now the man climbed up on his chimney when a helicopter flew low and threw down a ladder. Over a speaker he heard them shout, "Quick, climb on the ladder and we'll take you to saftey."

The man shouted back, "No thanks. I will trust in God to save me."

Finally, the man died and went to Heaven. There he saw God and asked, "What happened? I was trusting in you to save me and you didn't."

God replied, "I sent you a TV warning, a boat and a helicopter, what more did you want?"


Faith is important to me. It has served me well these last thirteen years. There were times when I was miserable and depressed working in a dead end job praying I could quit it and do music full-time. And with time, that prayer was answered. Thank you too for all of your prayers.


Sorry to harp on on this, but it is extremely exciting for me. I am to finally find my way. A lot of this is from the kind support of my friends, like you, fellow musicians, and loved ones.

There's a massive number of things I've done to help me on this journey. Here are some of my many projects.

· Music with the Brobdingnagian Bards,
· my poetry book, Bella Filiocht,
· Celtic MP3s Music Magazine,
· Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine,
· My 2nd brilliantly-produced solo CD, Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers,
· my Cat Lovers Podcast,
· a Free Music Downloads Blog,
· fantasy art with my friend Jen Clower-Brown,
· Celtic CDs galore,
· my new podcast for Renaissance Festivals,
· and my NEWEST Podcast with Andrew, A Brobdingnagian Minute.

There's a lot of little things to be sure. And I expect a lot more. Here's some things I'm planning: several more CDs, comedy radio shows, acting in movies and on the stage, a music promotion book, another poetry book, more art from me and also from my step-mom who I will help promote very soon.

The list goes on and on, and I'm probably boring you. But I hope you will be a part of it. Thanks!

Mreow! *HUGS*

PS. I just got word that some of the Brobdingnagian Fairy Tales will be shipped tomorrow. That means they WILL be here in time for the CD release parties. YAY!