The Creative Cycle

Cre­ativ­ity is a cycle. An artist, be it a paint­er, a sculptor, an act­or, a musi­cian, a writer… cre­ates a piece that ori­gin­ated in their mind, in their heart and soul, really. It expresses some­thing with­in them that is urgently try­ing to get out. The pro­cess of cre­ation is com­pleted by the audi­ence. It isn’t enough to write a play, it’s a little bit bet­ter to write a play and have it put togeth­er and rehearsed by a group of act­ors, but it isn’t com­plete until it is per­formed in front of an audi­ence, where with­in that col­lect­ive exper­i­ence emo­tions are felt, ideas shared, even les­sons learned. That reac­tion from the audi­ence is what makes a piece whole.

Over twenty years ago I star­ted the pro­cess of cre­at­ing the story of Kyer. Twenty years… crazy. It has been through a lot of evolution!

Over a year ago I decided to start my pod­cast and bring my work to life. I have also pub­lished the audiobook ver­sions without all the inter­rup­tions. I have received so many com­ments and reac­tions to my story because of hav­ing shared it in this medi­um. At the end of each epis­ode I thank you, my listen­ers, my audi­ence. As this book, Gate­keep­er­’s Decep­tion, draws to a close and I am forced to leave you all hanging while I com­plete the final part of the story, I want to thank you. Even though you’re listen­ing as indi­vidu­als, you are part of a unique group of won­der­ful people who have stayed with me for all these weeks and months, some of whom have shared your reac­tions to the story with me, and some of whom simply con­tin­ue to listen.

Sin­cerely, thank you for being my audi­ence and com­plet­ing that cycle of cre­ativ­ity, and shar­ing that col­lect­ive emo­tion­al experience.

Thank you to all the people who helped me with this book, in par­tic­u­lar Myst DeVana, Jonath­an Lys­ter, Brenda Carre, Colleen Con­dit, Eliza­beth Strick­er, Stu­art Hol­lett, Andrea Howe, and the late John Pitts. Spe­cial thanks to the Ori­gin­al Six, to Bri­an Rath­bone, and to Peter Ander­sen for the ser­pent photo on the cover.

And of course, thank you to my fam­ily: Matt, Dav­id and Heath­er, and Maggie