The World That Will Be - Wizard of Flatbush Avenue
It's September 1st and I've decided to get back to writing. Well I never actually stopped but my drive for publishing dropped off the past few months. Many reasons - which I won't go through here - but as September has always been a time for new starts for me I'm making a fresh start on publishing today. There's something about September. Beyond being the start of the school year - which I feel for parents always is time of new beginnings - September is when I became a dad, September is the lead up to my birthday in the beginning of October. My birthday has always been the time when I make commitements for the next year so this time in September is my time of reflection. Time for change.
So begininning to lean into next chapter. I've put my hat in to do a reading at an creative event based in Prospect Lefferts Gardens where I grew up on the 17th. Seemed appropriate to start from my home neighborhood - place of strength. I'm going to read the two poems I read earlier this year and I think an excerpt from one of my short story concepts I've been working on. I am not going to publish every day like last I started last September - but I think I will post weekly. And definitely trying to focus on working towards goals like this September reading. Hoping to produce at least one show in the Fall/Winter and finish one of my short stories. Those seem like solid goals for the next few months... I was thinking today of going back to this idea I had for a website of creative ideas - which maybe could turn into my first set of short stories - The World That Will Be . I have an idea I was playing around with that might well be the first short story. I wrote some content on my own and then had AI write a summary of my idea and create some images. So adding to the collection ideas I present : The Wizard of Flatbush Avenue
Wizard Of Flatbush Avenue
Frederick Thomas James is not your typical wizard. At forty-nine, he’s a middle-aged African American father juggling PTA meetings, subway commutes, and the ceaseless demands of raising a 13-year-old daughter in Brooklyn. But beneath the ordinary grind lies the extraordinary: Frederick is one of the few wizards left trying to keep the balance between the magical world and the increasingly authoritarian human one.
In a year that begins with back-to-school paperwork and ends with high school graduation, Frederick must navigate wizard duels in back alleys, dark alliances between rogue spellcasters and white supremacist politicians, and the constant threat of being exposed to the very community he’s sworn to protect. With equal parts comedy, satire, and heart, the novel paints a picture of resistance, fatherhood, and the magic of survival in a country on the brink.
It’s a story about what it means to fight evil not with grandeur or destiny, but with love, humor, and a stubborn refusal to give up—even if summer vacation feels like the only real promised land.
Apparently Midjourney now has a animation function! I'm going to do some more writing in prep for my reading. Excited to share more in coming weeks!!