In the beginning…

I would like to welcome everyone visiting my website and reading my first blog post. For this first post, I wanted to get into the genesis of my writing journey. I was born in Greece a few thousand years ago, but I can’t give you the exact date, because I don’t know. I mean, no one knows exactly when Jesus was born, but they still play along and celebrate his birthday. So, let’s pretend I was born in October because fall is, by far, my favorite season. The cool breeze invigorates me and the eclectic palette of colors among the leaves inspires me when I look outside my window, contemplating my next "spiel".

I grew up on a farm, harvesting plants with my twenty brothers and sisters, and to be honest, during that time, it was a respectable income. My real name is Brodino Papachristodoulopoulos, and I’m the nineteenth child of a large family (I lost count). My dad had many wives, a privilege only men had at the time and still have among certain communities. My Italian mom chose my first name, Brodino, which means "light soup" in Italian. She named me Brodino because her “light soup” healed so many of my brothers and sisters when they were ill, so she wanted to bless me by giving me that name, and I have never been sick a day in my life. My dad only cared about our family name and always reminded me it was sacred and meant we were destined to serve the Gods. (At that time, people worshiped many Gods, but most of them didn’t like the wages or the working conditions, so they retired, and that’s why today, we’re left with only one God. I guess life in heaven isn’t all it’s cracked up to be). I must admit, the idea of becoming a "glorified peddler" didn’t appeal to me at the time, because I wanted to be a writer like Homer and Virgil. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would never have to experience the calculated and nefarious chaos of the Gods, because I was about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

It happened one morning, when I was walking one of our many horses through the forest. An angel appeared to me and asked me to carefully listen to its instructions. You probably don’t believe me, but over sixteen million Mormons believe Joseph Smith met an angel in the forest that handed him gold plates with a message from God. At least I left out the gold plates. The entity told me it was non-binary and went by the name "they", and that was how I had to address it, I mean, "they." "They" handed me a magical elixir, informing me it was filled with all the information I needed to become a prolific writer, which would allow me to reveal important information to the world, but the elixir was missing three important ingredients. "They" told me to seek out two witches named Andronika and Mapia who lived in the Dadia forest among the vultures, to get one of the ingredients and a map with instructions so I could reach my goal. "They" also advised me not to contradict the witches, because they had a short fuse and could put a spell on me at any time if I vexed them, especially Andronika, the feisty one.

So, I traveled to the Dadia forest in northeastern Greece by my lonesome self. As I walked deeper into the forest, and the sun was setting, I began to feel the presence of nasty vultures eyeing me, making sure I was the one and not some imposter intruding into the witch’s domain. They were expecting me, and I felt it. Suddenly, a giant vulture landed in front of me and showed me the way, pointing to a large abandoned house. The door of the cabin opened, and a voice asked if it was me. I paused for a moment and entered the cabin with a feeling of trepidation. In other words, I was scared shitless…

TO BE CONTINUED…