A Long Road Through New Eleusis

​It's been a while since I've written a blog post.

The past year has been consumed by rebuilding my life in the United States, developing my YouTube channel, and, above all else, writing--writing—writing. Balancing those three things has been a challenge in itself, especially under less-than-ideal circumstances. Every day has become an exercise in deciding what absolutely has to get done.
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One thing I've learned is that the creative life rarely waits for perfect conditions. If you wait until everything is comfortable and stable, you may never create anything at all. As the old saying goes, the show must go on.

The Long Road

​The last time I wrote about the novel, I had just completed the first draft.

A lot has changed since then.

I'm now roughly halfway through the fifth draft, and the manuscript has transformed in ways I never could have predicted. There is far too much to explain in a single blog post—each draft has had its own purpose, discoveries, and frustrations—but I can honestly say that I feel better about New Eleusis than I ever have.

The story is becoming what I hoped it could be and more.
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There is still an enormous amount of work ahead, but for the first time I can clearly see where everything is going.

Unexpected Influences

​One of the most enjoyable surprises during this process has been discovering book and film influences that arrived at exactly the right moment (synchronicities too!).

Sometimes a single chapter or scene has unlocked a problem I'd been wrestling with for months.

Several books, in particular, have become indispensable companions:
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• Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire by Manly P. Hall
• Myth, Sacred History, and Philosophy by Cornelius Loew
• The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics by Jean Doresse (an extraordinary work)
• The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospels--Annotated & Explained by Stevan Davies

Each of these has deepened my understanding of the mysteries, symbolism, and philosophical currents that lie beneath New Eleusis. They haven't dictated the novel, but they've helped clarify ideas that had been hovering just beyond my grasp.

My process has always been simple:

I read.

I think.

I let the ideas settle.
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Then I write.

Creating Weekly YouTube Videos

​Alongside the novel, I've continued producing videos for my YouTube channel, and that has become almost a second full-time creative project.

It reminds me of being back in college, where another assignment was always due the following week.

Every video begins with a question worth exploring. From there comes the research—often across philosophy, religion, history, psychology, literature, and film—followed by trying to distill all of that into something coherent and engaging.

Then comes scriptwriting.

Filming.

Editing.

Finding images.

Producing.

Building thumbnails.

Writing titles, descriptions, keywords, hashtags, and handling all the SEO work that nobody really thinks about when they watch a finished video.

It's a tremendous amount of work.

There have been times when that schedule has made progress on the novel much slower than I'd like. At the same time, it's been one of the greatest educational experiences I've ever had. Researching these subjects every week has sharpened my thinking and, in many ways, enriched the novel itself. It's become a dissertation in some ways, and the two projects have begun feeding each other.

Emerging From the Hardest Drafts

​I finally feel like I'm coming out of the darkest part of the New Eleusis journey.

My goal is to finish what I think of as the Character Draft by the end of August 2026. This stage has been about solving problems—understanding who these people truly are, finding their voices, tightening motivations, eliminating contradictions, and making sure every scene serves the larger tale.

It hasn't been glamorous work.

In fact, it's probably been the most difficult writing I've ever done.

I've written several books over the years, but none has demanded this level of sustained thought and revision. There have been long stretches where progress felt almost invisible, where every page raised three new problems to solve.

But those problems are finally beginning to disappear (others will replace them, I'm sure).

Once this draft is complete, I can move into the stages of writing that I enjoy most: restructuring scenes, strengthening emotional beats, refining dialogue, enhancing symbolism, expanding themes, and making creative decisions instead of constantly solving technical ones.

The fun part.

For the first time in a long while, I can actually see the finish line.

Or perhaps more appropriately...

I can finally see the light at the end of the darkness.
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And with each passing week, it grows a little brighter.

Following the Journey

​If you're interested in the nuts and bolts of this process—the successes, frustrations, revisions, discoveries, and occasional moments of despair—you can follow my writing-process playlist on YouTube.

The series has now grown to 41 videos, documenting much of this journey in real time. It has become something of a creative journal, recording the winding road that has led me to where New Eleusis stands today.

Thank you to everyone who's followed along. I hope the next update brings me one step closer to sharing the finished book with you.