Things happen… cycles repeat…
people continue to follow an identical pattern -
however, then a series of events
leads to point of chaos and confusion,
and what you thought was going to happen
doesn’t happen, and then there is a question
of who, or what, is in control?
Because, though most people wake up,
go to work, and know what they have to do, and when,
most of the time, there needs to be something,
or someone, to keep things going,
to keep things moving,
to make sense of the world around us,
to be a focal point, and to be the one
with all the answers to all the questions
that there always are,
and the one with solutions to the many problems
and challenges that often arise.
History is full of stories of people
who started out and originated
from the lowest levels of society,
but who when given the opportunity
to show their true colours
and the spark of their potential
they chose to embrace the moment
that presented itself to them
and in turn became legendary
in their own way because of how
they showed what they were
capable of doing and becoming
when a particular time needed them
to transition and transform.
Actors; Athletes; Parents;
Celebrities; Fighters; World leaders;
anyone who finds themselves thrust
into a state of responsibility,
when they have to make a judgment call
on not just themselves, but others as well -
including being a role model that people
look to for inspiration, guidance,
support, and motivation -
know what it is like to have
the attention of others fixed upon you,
because they need to know what they should do
and they want to emulate what they observe
in the words and in the actions of those
who they believe, like, and respect.
Whenever you have to be the one
whose voice matters most
and the one that carries farther
than all the others that may be talking,
when you have to become the one in charge,
and the leader of a group of people
with a common goal -
even if having to do so takes you out
of your comfort zone -
you have just got to take a breath,
believe in yourself, trust your instincts,
and you will find the courage, the strength,
the confidence, and the will that you need
whenever you have to take a step forward
at the same time that you choose
to take a “step up”.
Author: Mark Hastings
Vega – The Vampire King – republished
Get your copy of the new republished, hardback, version of my book ‘Vega – The Vampire King’!
Originally published in 2021, ‘Vega – The Vampire King’ is the backstory of Vega, “The Vampire King”, who was first introduced in my book ‘The Wolf in You’, and essentially tells the tale of his origin story: where he came from, who he was, what he has had to live through, and how he ultimately became the leader of all the vampires on Earth.
Within ‘Vega – The Vampire King’, you discover that Vega has been who and what he is for a long time, and over the centuries he has encountered several other supernatural individuals – including some characters who I have written about and who have connections to other characters within my other books, namely: Olivia Hunter.
‘Vega – The Vampire King’ is a prequel, a sequel, as well as somewhat of a parallel story to the events my book ‘The Wolf in You’ and gives Vega’s perspective on his relationship and his love of Olivia Hunter – what lead him to her, what he did to protect her, and how and why he fell in love with her.
‘Vega – The Vampire King’ is essential reading if you have read my book ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’ and you want to learn more about someone who is not like any other vampire you may have read about or heard of before – because, even to those who may have heard of him, Vega, in many ways, is an enigma and a mystery, as are the best and the most interesting of characters.
You can get your copy of the new hardcover version of ‘Vega – The Vampire King’, featuring a brand new cover artwork, on Amazon now!
My book ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’
Get your copy of my book ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’ – the new collection of my books ‘The Wolf in Me’ (originally published in 2017), ‘The Wolf in You’ (originally published in 2020), and ‘The Wolf in Us’ (originally published in 2022).
When I first began writing ‘The Wolf in You’, I started to imagine that the story that I was telling – starting from ‘The Wolf in Me’ – felt like it could one day become a trilogy of books; however, the more that I wrote, it became clear that I was creating a world of stories that I could expand upon in a variety of ways, and which would all be connected to each other and exist in the same continuity as one another: the supernatural world of werewolves, vampires, ghosts, gods, shape-shifters, and all the other interesting characters that populate many of the stories that I have written.
When I was given the opportunity to republish my books, when it came to republishing my books ‘The Wolf in Me’, ‘The Wolf in You’, and ‘The Wolf in Us’, I thought that this would be a golden opportunity to collect all three books of this trilogy of stories that I had written into one complete volume: ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’.
The books and the stories within ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’ are the tale of Olivia Hunter – a mother, a daughter, a teacher, a lover… a werewolf: the story of someone who has had to live through many different, and sometimes difficult, experiences throughout their life, but who has always overcome whatever, and whomever, they have had to face. This is also the chronicle of Vega – The Vampire King – and their love for Olivia Hunter, and what happened when two worlds collided and were forever intertwined with the destinies of The Wolf and The Vampire.
It gives me great pleasure to once again share the story of Olivia Hunter and Vega – The Vampire King – in this new 500-page hardcover collection, which allows anyone to read and experience the thrilling and epic love story of two supernatural individuals whose relationship and connection to one another would go on to have an impact upon the entire world.
You can get your copy of ‘The Wolf and The Vampire’ from Amazon now!
Playing God – republished
Get your copy of the new hardback version of my book ‘Playing God’!
‘Playing God’ is a book of “Seven stories. Seven perspectives. Seven experiences. Seven morality tales of one immortal Rebel, Hero, Friend, Fan, Father, Son, Playing God” – which was originally published in 2018.
This new hardback version of ‘Playing God’ features a new front-cover artwork, depicting the main protagonist and character of each of the seven stories – the enigmatic “Man in Black”, and sometimes “Man in White”.
The stories of ‘Playing God’, and the character of the powerful and mysterious “Man in Black” and his interactions with those he meets, are some of the most compelling and inspiring tales I have written, and I often think about them and what they personally mean to me.
And I also have to mention that ‘Playing God’, its stories, and the character of the “Man in Black”, is dedicated to, and was inspired by, the late, great, David Bowie.
You can get your copy of the new hardcover version of ‘Playing God’ from Amazon now!
-Mark
My Poem “Homme en Noir”
Everyone repeats themselves…
everyone sometimes wears
the same things over and over again -
even heroes…
everyone has secrets…
everyone makes the same mistakes
over and over again…
everyone is different,
and yet unavoidably human…
everyone lies; everyone has goods days;
everyone has bad days;
everyone gets to a point
when all they want is a quiet life…
everyone sometimes gets ahead of themselves…
everyone sometimes slips back into old habits…
everyone sometimes flies high…
everyone sometimes falls deep…
everyone needs air to breathe…
everyone can sometimes feel
suffocated by the same old routines…
everyone has a destiny, a purpose, an identity,
a life that can never be lost -
even those of us who might have forgotten
that long ago we were told by someone
that some day we will be somebody
who will make a difference…
everyone who goes to war
returns changed by what they have experienced -
and the first enemy of every battle
that has to be fought and overcome
is always the fear of the one who is fighting…
everyone who has searched for the truth
about something or someone
knows how it feels to be given an answer;
everyone who has investigated a mystery
about why something happened
knows that when light is shined upon darkness
details emerge from the shadows;
everyone who has taken a leap in their life
in which they had no idea
what the outcome would be
knows that a sacrifice is sometimes asked to be made
so that the righteousness of their actions
can be rewarded by those
who are willing to do the right thing
for a greater good…
everyone is someone…
everyone has a future, as well as past -
even someone who spends their time
doing good for others, without asking
for anything back:
someone who has been through so much,
and who identifies themselves first and foremost
as a messenger of truth, justice, peace, and love,
who is only ever witnessed in passing
as a mysterious man in black.
Too Close To The Sun – republished
My short-story and poetry collection ‘Too Close To The Sun’ is once again available to buy from Amazon in its new hardcover edition – but now with a brand new cover, and including a never before published short-story called ‘Nora’.
The stories and poems within ‘Too Close To The Sun’ represent a shift, as well as an experimentation phase, in my journey as a writer and an author. When it was first published in 2016, I knew that ‘Too Close to the Sun’, was somewhat of a new beginning and a new direction for me – and the stories and poems within are symbolic of what kind of writer and storyteller I have grown to become, and what kind of stories I am interested in telling.
“A sad story about the end of the line for a lonely ghost girl. The thrilling tale about the devilish gift of a psychic psychopathic psychotherapist. A word of warning about the wicked “Witch in The Well”. A ray of hope in form of a story about a New York City bartender who discovers that there is more to life, and to death, than they could ever have imagined. A vision of another universe where a vengeful Vampire King finds love, but who must also embrace his fate. The tale of a dragon and a hero – who both discover they are not who they think they are.
Short-stories and poems of strange, magical, and extraordinary other realities that exist on the other side of doors that lead to other worlds and possibilities that can be found when you venture too close to the sun.”
Get your copy of the brand new hardback version of ‘Too Close To The Sun’ on Amazon now! 😎
The Dreamer and The Dream – republished
My fourth book, and my fourth poetry collection, ‘The Dreamer and The Dream’, is once again available to buy from Amazon in its new hardcover edition.
Originally published in 2015, my book ‘The Dreamer and The Dream’, contains some of my favourite poems that I have written – poems that tell you so much about what matters to me on a personal level, what drives me every day, why I am a poet, and also allowing me to express my feelings for those who mean the most to me, and who inspire me every second of every day.
‘The Dreamer and The Dream’, and its poems within, is the book, and the poetry of mine, that I have shared with more people than all others, because there is so much to discover about me within, as well as so much that I wanted to say. It’s also the book that, when I wrote and I published the poems within, made me realise who I was and who I always wanted to be: a poetry, a writer, not to mention a storyteller.
Get your copy of ‘The Dreamer and The Dream’ from Amazon now and here! 😊
My Poem “Remake”
Usually, I am not a fan of redoing
something that has already been done…
typically, I do not like the thought of
attempting to capture something again
that has already been defined…
I have repeatedly stated that
the original of anything is always superior
to the sequel of something,
or any instance at trying to reinvent
what worked and why from the start…
however, as time has gone by,
as things have happened,
as I have witnessed numerous beginnings,
endings, rebirths, and renewals –
both literal and metaphorical –
I have become convinced that
there is a reason why we, sometimes, need
“to go back to the well”, so to speak,
and see what we can make
of what remains of what was.
Someone once said:
“Destruction is a form of creation” –
meaning: the act of destroying something
is also the act of creating something in its place…
I am not someone who likes to destroy anything,
and I never enjoy watching someone’s life
fall to pieces around them
because of the mistakes that they may have made…
I believe that no one has a right to judge
anything or anyone until you find out
more about them and why they are
who and what they are,
and who and what helped to make them a certain way…
I never thought I would see the day
when something that I created
was destroyed and came to an end –
love, art, relationships, partnerships –
but no one can ever truly imagine something
happening before it happens.
All things end – even the things that feel
as if there is no way they could ever
stop being what they have always been,
and would always be forever…
nothing can remain the same –
people, places, even things can change over time,
and sometimes some things can be destroyed
before your very eyes and you can’t do anything to stop it,
and you could not have done anything to prevent it…
stars, planets, civilisations, people, stories,
go through a period of life, death,
and then, eventually, they find themselves
in a state, in place, at a time that they could
never have foreseen themselves in before
they arrived and became aware that
the end of something is not what people think it is –
because, most of the time, there is an opportunity
to start over again with the same mindset as before,
perhaps with the same method –
but slightly, or substantially, different than before…
even the most hardened and stoic of people
would give anything to be able to go back
and revisit a time from their lives
when things were the best that they have ever been,
because, as time goes by, even the best of things
can deteriorate into the worst of things –
but we can only return to somewhere in the past
very briefly and not as substantially as we would hope to,
and in such a way to change things
that we wish we could do-over.
However, sometimes, if we care about something,
or if we can’t let go of the feelings that we have
which are associated with someone in particular –
so deeply and so profoundly –
then we might all choose the route of resurrection
to bring something, or someone, back to life –
but, in doing so, we might have to face to fact
that when something, or someone, returns
they might somehow be a different version of themselves
than they used to be,
because they have been reborn, revived, rekindled,
reinvented, rewritten, recreated, and remade.
The Eternal Boy – republished
Get your copy of the republished version (hardcover version) of my third book, and my third poetry collection, ‘The Eternal Boy’, which was originally published in 2015.
‘The Eternal Boy’ symbolises another step upon my journey as a poet, as a writer, and as an author – as well as me attempting to capture the change and the evolution in myself that I felt I was going through at the time, and also my exploration of some of the many states that we all sometimes have to live through at different and varied stages in our lives.
There are poems within ‘The Eternal Boy’ that I think about all the time, and which I think perfectly capture who I am and who I always want to be.
Get the new hardcover version of ‘The Eternal Boy’ here!
-Mark
My Poem “Return to the Beginning”
Life can sometimes be
like being on a fairground ride,
like being on a rollercoaster -
because so much of our time
is spent doing the same things
in a repeating cycle;
however, no matter how much nostalgia
we feel for a time, or for a place, in the past,
if and when we attempt to go backwards
and in reverse then we may only find
heartbreak waiting for us -
especially when we realise that
we can only stay where we used to be
for a short time before returning
to the present, to the now, to who we are,
to the knowledge of what happened, what changed,
and who we have lost along the way.
Returning to the past can be difficult;
returning to the past can be challenging;
returning to the past can be painful;
returning to what was can sometimes
shine a light upon what was pushed
into the shadows of your mind for a reason
that you may have forgotten about;
returning to the path of memory lane
can make you realise where, when, why,
and how things changed for the best,
as well as for the worse.
Life can sometimes feel like a constant uphill struggle;
life can sometimes feel like a Summer’s kiss;
life can sometimes feel like a fever dream;
life can sometimes feel like something is happening
that you can’t control or understand,
but you have to make the best of it;
life can sometimes feel like a constant
storm of emotions and feelings
that you have to overcome;
life can sometimes feel like
it has been a long time coming
since things were simple and made sense.
Returning to the origins of a story;
returning to the muse of inspiration;
returning to the flash that started
the tidal wave of creativity;
returning to the source of rejuvenation;
returning to that which opened doors to other places,
which lead to meeting other people,
in sometimes new, interesting, and unexpected ways,
can remind us of why we are all, mostly,
hopeful of a better world,
and optimistic of what possibilities
the future of tomorrow might bring;
however, though it is nice to find things
and to see things that we haven’t
seen in some time,
and though it is initially good to see
people we may not have been
in the presence of for sometime,
there is always a cost to be paid,
to be taken, and to be made,
if you ever want, if you ever need,
or if you ever feel like you must go back
and return to the beginning.
markthepoet.me 