Here we go again. Welcome to the blog blast of the section that I call The Kingdom from the book Reality of the Unreal Mind, Vol. 3: The Keep. The Kingdom is an explanation of the work itself. You can’t understand any writer unless you know their work. So today we begin at 6 p.m. and I will release one blog every two hours and fifteen minutes. That means we’ll finish the story of my work and its future, my work and its past, at 7:30 on Sunday evening. There are some crazy things in here. Some setbacks we never could have made it past without the people who care about me. There are some crazy things in here. Plans that I have and things that I’m doing that, simply put, are impossible. But everything’s impossible until it’s finished, until it’s been done or accomplished. There are some crazy things in here. Dreams so wild and so immense that to think they’re within reach you have to be a little unhinged. And while reading this small collection of blog posts, you’ll hear the rantings of the Lunatic of Fantasy. You’ll find in these posts the past, present, and future of the writing of Jesse Teller.
When I was little, I saw a movie. Can’t tell you what the movie was titled. Can’t tell you much about it at all except it was a fantasy, and that on the king’s finger was a signet ring. A seal, the seal of his family. And with it, he pressed his crest into wax to let his people know a message was from him.
That is when it started, I think. At least for me. Artist saw that and was all in.
Shadow watched a lot of gangster movies. Way too many when he was too young, and then again all those same movies when he was older. From a young age it was the ring he was obsessed with. The other members of the gang would get down on their knees and kiss the Don’s ring. From that moment, Shadow was all in.
Servant was devout. He was not Catholic but knew a lot about them, and when he saw a congregant kiss the ring of a Cardinal, he was all in.
And like that, the ring and what it symbolized became important to every one of us. Signet Rings, Gangster Rings, Holy Rings, even Super Bowl Rings. All became a sign of status. A sign that you had made it. And that is when we all started noticing the rings men wore.
We got a class ring when we were a junior. My mother vowed she would not buy me one because I was a romantic and I would just end up giving it to a girl. The real reason was she didn’t want me graduating and didn’t want me getting any of the trappings of graduation. But Grandma had her eye on her grandson being the first in the family to graduate high school, and she wanted to cement that into a reality.
She brought me a catalogue and told me to get anything I wanted. I chose an onyx stone, the name of the school ringing the stone. The theater of Pain masks on one side. And a Tiger’s face on the other, the tiger being the mascot for the school. I got it and it was beautiful.
If you remember Writers Club from Teardrop Road, when I called meetings to order with this ring, you will see that even back then, I saw it as a status symbol. I wore it everywhere and it was my favorite item. The plan was to keep it forever but somewhere during Guardian’s War we lost it.
Well when Burg was entering his senior year, he turned 18 and his father gave him his family ring. This is where I was lit on fire.
Burg’s father had a ring designed. He was a bit of a fantasy buff too, and he had one crafted. It was gold with an onyx stone and a golden B in the middle. It was simple. It was unassuming. It was beautiful. I instantly envied this ring and everything it symbolized. It was the sign of belonging in a family, the sign of manhood to his family.
Burg’s dad had one made for the grandfather. All three living men of the family had one. And Burg’s dad bought the mold. It would be a family heirloom for all time handed down from father to son.
Well, when I changed my name to Jesse Teller and started my family I was starting a new line.
No more would we be associated with the family I had left behind.
When Teller came to me, it was a fresh start. A new life. And I was so ready for that. I had survived Guardian’s War. Had lost Wrath for good. I had fought my way free of Siren. And had finally won my soulmate. Changing my name to Teller was a shining moment.
Bekah’s aunt had asked Patron if I could take the Lynch name and he had agreed. I assume begrudgingly, because the man simply did not like me. Or he knew he only had one grandson with the Lynch name, and he thought maybe if I bore the Lynch name, and me and Bekah had sons, maybe… But I’m an asshole for saying that. I don’t really know. I don’t know what Patron was thinking when he agreed to let me take his last name. But I can see his face, know the look on his face when he did. I could be wrong, but I’m sure he wasn’t smiling. I think K had a lot to do with that decision.
The thing is though, by that time, we knew.
I was a Teller. And Bekah was a Teller, too. She always had been. She was just born in a different family. The same was true for me. We had always been Tellers. We were just waiting to get it all together and make it official.
I had changed my name by the time we married. We were the first of our family line. But not the last.
I decided that one day, I would get a ring made. A ring designed for me and any heirs that might come down the line.
But designing a ring is very expensive. Pouring one and fastening stone upon it even more so. I decided how we would pay for it.
When the books caught on and I was making real book money, we would make my ring. We would design it and make it a feature in our future as paid for by our future.
It will be white gold, just like the wedding ring I designed for Bekah. On one side will be a lotus flower. The other a wolf paw print. It will have a Lapis Lazuli stone. It will be crowned with a white gold T and there will be four diamond chips set into the T.
The ring is waiting. I know who I will choose to design it and I’ll know, when I pay for it, that my work bought my great ring. It is my mind and my fantasy that will bring me the symbol for my family.
This chapter is from Reality of the Unreal Mind, Vol. 3: The Keep, available on Amazon.
Jesse Teller 