About me

Just a guy with an imagination

“I speak in riddles cause in poems I can hide – hope they call it genius when I’m really terrified.”

from “Two Is Better Than None” by Joshua Rayburn

The story of

Joshua Rayburn

I wrote my first short story when I was eight years old. My first novel at 11. My first poem when I was 12. And my first screenplay in Junior year of high school. I loved writing. But exclusively as a pastime. At that time I had the perspective that if you made what you love your work, you would grow to hate it. So I was adamant about just writing for fun. I’d write a piece, finish it less than half the time, and move on.

But one story was different.

Separate Circle was a novel I wrote at 16, a fantasy tale about a prophesied savior. Like most pieces of my writing, it had been mostly made up as I went along, following the muse wherever it took me. The result was clunky but compelling, derivative but exciting, with moments equally nonsensical and wonderful. I loved it. And I knew, like an inexplicable instinct, that there was a core thread to this story worth exploring more.

But of course, just for fun. And only when the muse hit me.

What followed was almost a decade of toying with the story and slowly teasing out the universe. I began dozens of rewrites, prequals, and sequels, but none of them took. I filled journals with notes about the world, its characters, the histories, prophecies, dueling faiths, and more. On the worst days, it felt like consistent failure and a doomed idea that haunted me. On the best, I recognized the universe I had slowly been building, and refused to believe that I would quit on Separate Circle.

The first nudge came when I was 25 years old, working a part-time office job. A coworker and friend of mine, Keith English, wrote and published short stories (check his work out here). While chatting one day, I began to lament about how I was never sure how to begin writing Separate Circle, and he cut me off with a spark of determined encouragement in his eyes.

“Just write. Just start writing.”

And so I did.

It was a long and inefficient process of trying to force or even manufacture a muse at times, chipping slowly away page by page. Tedious progress, but I promised myself I would have it done before I was 30. And the day before my 30th birthday, I finished the tome that I considered to be Book One of Separate Circle (what I came to call Separate Circle: Draft One).

Amidst plenty of celebration there was still the lingering question: what now? I wasn’t confident how the rest of the series was meant to play out. I knew the first draft was an accomplishment but rife with flaws as well (the type that stubborn writers make, like a prologue that’s over 20-pages with five chapter breaks, and a 5-600 page book split across only 13 chapters). The manuscript was something I was proud of, but something I still knew could be made better.

Which was all starting to sound like work and dedication, the type I had rebelled against for so long.

I struggled at that impasse for a little over a year. And finally, against the doubts and fears that had long pestered me, I decided to bet on me, and build and polish my stories to share with the world. As soon as I made that choice, everything opened in my mind, and I was off…

That’s the story of how I got here. The slow-burn setup of what I hope will be a lifetime filled with getting the many stories in my imagination actualized and to the world. Please do check out my Fiction page for more info on Separate Circle Part One: The Sol Katim and my future writing goals. I hope also that you will consider joining me on this adventure by subscribing below and reading my work.

Thanks much for your time.