Ready for the “Next Level”?

I had a wonderful time at Norwescon this last weekend. I’ve been going for 40 years, and the last couple of Plague Years were difficult. The hotel contract forced them to do a convention last year, but I sure wasn’t going. This year, with things easing and a solid vaccination and mask policy in place, it felt like a great idea.

Sunday, I was having lunch with an old and dear friend who asked me how I was. Without thinking I said “Next Level.”

We were both delighted by that spontaneous response, and she asked me to explain.

Well…if I looked at the three major arenas of my life, in all of them I’ve finished major “Hero’s Journey” cycles that place me in new and unexplored territory.

FAMILY: My son has graduated high school and is no longer a big kid. He is now a very young but very real MAN, with an actual business. And that is different territory. T and I are doing great.

My MARTIAL ARTS training has finished an entire cycle of seeking rank or validation. Now, I am looking forward to going to Manila in ’24, just for the sheer pleasure of fulfilling a childhood dream: training martial arts in Asia.

My CAREER has changed. Novels are now for fun more than career. And we have our feet firmly on the lower steps of the next “flight of stairs” — while simultaneously realizing I have no interest in trying to “get to the top.” Get into the top 10%? Sure! The top .001? I think not. Those are people either more monomaniacally focused, have put far…