Through the End of Time: A first draft journey

"Travel far enough, you meet yourself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Take a journey with me, if you will, back to October of the year 2000. Meet the Parents starring Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller topped the box office. Creed and 3 Doors Down were rockin' the Billboard charts. The Chicago Cubs defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-9 in the final baseball game at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The 100th Space Shuttle mission is flown. And on television, The Gilmore Girls debuted on the WB.

Also happening: the first pages of a novel, scrawled out during a college class in which I should have been no doubt paying more attention. This was a gigantic idea of a grand novel, testing the waters of Dante's Inferno, swirling in religion and mythology, and setting the whole thing across Paradise.

A grand undertaking that, after darn near 26 years, finally saw the completion of a first draft.

The first draft clocks in at approximately 150k words, consisting of two parts and characters galore. Written in fits and spurts, in which years would pass with no tangible progress, then overtaken in which daily progress occurred and momentum shifted. Memory fails me, but one year I even wrote chunks of it (not 50,000 words, though) during National November Writing Month.

The last two years, progress really picked up. In between finishing plays, self-publishing a new middle grade book, creating a poetry chapbook, and writing about sports and pop culture, pages of Through the End of Time rolled out. Glorious words happened at a quick page in 2025 and into 2026, leading to the date (1/29/26) pictured above.

Along the way, I have also edited and wrote other drafts, so I am not too far off from owning a finished product. Well, almost finished. This book is going to be a beast to edit, which I will start while also going on the more traditional route of trying to find an agent and/or publisher.

I suppose that is one thing about a journey. Just when you think it is ending, or closure is about to be had, a whole new world awaits, continuing the journey anew.

Thanks for stopping by. Be bold. Be kind.

Through the End of Time: A synopsis

Rock bottom is only one misstep away for addict Chris Wright. Los Angeles, CA is far from sunny for this broken man, who was once a lawyer with a family and all the success in the world.

Now penniless, searching for his next score and in no hurry to repair his broken life, Chris embarks on a journey for the ages, all stemming from a fight gone wrong.

Tossed into an unfamiliar land, Chris is thrust on not only a road of redemption but tasked with the unthinkable: saving existence as we know it.

Together with a crew of guardians, Gods, and friends, Chris faces down demons – literal and internal – on a journey in Paradise, racing to reach Saint Peter’s Gate before a gathering mass of evil breaks through and causes Heaven, Hell, and existence to come crashing down in utter chaos.