Evolution Takes Time

It’s 7:00 p.m. Thursday, March 8, 2018, and I’m putting the finishing touches on a presentation I’m scheduled to give tomorrow to students involved in the reading program my brother and I created called “Maven’s Milestones.” It’s the largest program we operate through Impossible Possibilities, the education nonprofit we cofounded more than a decade ago, and one that incorporates the main character of my book—Maven the Raven—as its official mascot.

More than 1,100 students at three elementary schools read books, take online quizzes, earn points, receive prizes, and move up Maven’s totem pole. Each totem represents a different level of achievement: Ascent, Afterburner, Approach, and Call Sign Maven. The word maven means “one who is dazzlingly skilled,” and those students who make it all the way to the top level receive their very own maven certificate recognizing them as such.

It's my responsibility to come up with informative student engagements, which I do by creating 30-minute presentations that combine pictures of my travels with fascinating topics aimed at keeping the attention of my elementary-aged audience. For example, my next presentation will introduce the students to my newest character, a woodpecker named Wahoo, who was inspired by an extinct species of woodpecker known as the Imperial.

Wahoo’s character will provide a great example of a lost species and will also help me transition into a broader discussion on threatened and endangered animals. According to the Living Planet Index, a measure of the state of the world’s biological diversity, the world’s population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles has declined by nearly 60% since 1970. Some scientists believe the earth is experiencing a mass extinction, the sixth of its kind, and the biggest since the dinosaurs.

There's one variable that exists today that didn’t in the five previous mass extinctions: human activity. Species of animals that have lived for thousands of years are currently at risk of being wiped out. It’s a theme I intend to hammer home to the students because there’s a good chance many of the animals I show them—rhinos, elephants, giraffes—will be long gone by the time they graduate high school.

While I was working on this presentation, I couldn’t help but draw some interesting parallels to the characters of my book and how each of them is relying on me to keep them alive. More than a decade has passed since I stumbled across the word “maven” in an online thesaurus. I fell in love with the word and knew immediately I would use it for the name of a future character.

The phrase “Maven the Raven” popped into my mind, but I was quick to shoo it away. I had no interest in birds and no intention of writing my first novel on a subject I was not passionate about. However, every time I went for a jog, I found myself paying closer attention to the birds perched in the trees and those flying overhead. My personal curiosity eventually led me to pick up my first book on ravens, and from that day forward my mind was opened to the possibility of writing a story using only birds as characters.  

Everything I read about ravens fascinated me. They were mysterious, intellectual, curious, resourceful, playful, spiritual and mythological creatures all rolled up into one. Forty chapters later, I still find it hard to believe that this most unlikely of stories has evolved from one single word. It goes to show you that for anything to survive—even an idea—it has to adapt and overcome.

Evolution takes time, a lot of it. Characters need time to grow, stories need time to develop and writers needs time to improve their skills. My ability as a writer will ultimately determine whether my characters will have a long life or if they, like the endangered species in my presentation, will eventually fall victim to extinction. It's why I decided to attend a seminar called “Getting Your Novel Done” at the end of January with guest instructor David Eric Tomlinson, author of the crime novel “The Midnight Man.”

It took Tomlinson almost a decade to finish his first novel. He discussed the steep learning curve all authors experience when writing their first books and said the ones who succeed are those who refuse to give up. The key was to designate at least one hour out of each day for reading and another hour for writing.

Forcing myself to sit down and write has always been the most challenging aspect of the writing process, especially when there is so much vying for my attention throughout the week. I can’t keep using my busy schedule as an excuse though, so I’m making a concerted effort to follow Tomlinson’s instruction.

I have a personal responsibility to give the characters of my book the best chance of survival. The only way for me to do that is by writing the best story I possibly can, no matter how long it takes. Even if their real-life counterparts were to one-day go extinct, at least I will know I did my part to keep Maven and company living inside the imaginations of readers for generations to come.

And if that’s not enough, I have also decided to go the extra mile, literally, by registering for the third annual TCU Rhino Run 5K in Fort Worth. All proceeds will go to the TCU Rhino Initiative, which is helping save the lives of endangered rhinos in South Africa. If anyone is in a race against time, it’s them. (Sudan, the world's last northern male white rhino, died on Wednesday, March 20, 2018).

Follow me on Instagram at @Joshua_Maven or @HonchotheVan, on Twitter @MaventheRaven or Facebook at Facebook/TheLastImperial.