So it begins...

Wow.  The first blog entry on the new site!  As you might have already seen, there are two blogs that you can read here on the Leviathan website.  This blog, Christof’s Blog, deals with news and thoughts related to me personally while the Leviathan blog will cover more issues related to podcasting, new media, and behind-the-scenes news about The Leviathan Chronicles.  You can Subscribe to either by clicking the button in the upper left corner.

So it all starts in Hawaii.  At least, it has for me several times now.  Today, begins Leviathan 2.0.  It’s a big step forward as I hope you can see from the revised website and new creative and commercial initiatives I’m unveiling.  I hope you’ll support me in making this next phase of The Leviathan Chronicles a success.

As some of you know might know, I am currently (at the time of this writing) in Maui right now finishing up the site and drafting upcoming chapters for the Interim Season.  For me, traveling and new environments have always been the impetus that has jumpstarted my creativity.  Some people need booze, muses or remote log cabins.  I need airports and new destinations.  Really.

And Maui is great place to begin this second phase of The Leviathan Chronicles that has been so long in the making.  That’s because Maui was the first destination on my around-the-world trip when I left the world of Investment Banking.  I had never been to Hawaii before and was immediately struck by the awe inspiring mountains and volcanoes that came right up to the powdery sand beaches to enter the deep blue sea.  Everything here seems intimidatingly massive and I love it.  The clouds.  The landscape.  The sense of forever when looking out over the ocean in all directions.  Maui has an amazing way of making one feel very small as a human.  And I find this mindset to be a great place to start when writing about immortals.

One of my favorite things about Maui is a ritual that I started for myself when I first arrived here several years ago.  Around 5 p.m., I grab a beach chair and cigar (usually Davidoff, my favorite) and a couple of beers (usually Bikini Beach Blonde Lager, a local brew) and watch the sunset for an hour.  I cannot tell you how restorative it is to sit and attend an event as beautiful as watching the fading sun fall into the ocean, and have no agenda whatsoever.  Those are some of my favorite hours during the entire year.  Now, this all probably sounds like trite bit of travelogue, but my hope is to touch on something deeper in the writing process.

Jerry Seinfield once said that in preparing for stand-up, he would schedule at least an hour each day to do nothing else but sit on a park bench or in a coffee shop and just observe people.  He did this to gather material and get ideas for sketches that would go on to be comedic gold (to steal a phrase).  Sitting watching the sun set may sound very zen (and it is), but what’s important is scheduling time for inspiration to strike.  To make sure you have time to daydream.  I absolutely believe that is equally as important as scheduling time in front of the keyboard to write.  So many of the ideas for Acheron, Leviathan, the Hei Ten Shi have come from those hours just staring at an ocean that seems limitless with possibility and mystery.

I often try to imagine what a citizen of Leviathan must see as they watch the waves break onto the sand.  I think his or her first thought would be safety.  That the ocean represents instant sanctuary from the never-ending squabble of life among mortal men.  To be hidden and removed from all mortal sight.  That if he or she just took a few steps forward to disappear under the surface that all of this mortal world would just fade away as well.  And that life here on the surface is the dreamtime while the important work of solving life’s questions was really going on deeper in the ocean.  In Leviathan.