Guest Post from Gregory G. Allen, Author of "Well with My Soul"

About Gregory G. Allen

Gregory AllenGregory G. Allen moved from Texas to New York in the late 80s and has been in the entertainment business for over twenty years as an actor, director, producer, songwriter, playwright and author. He's had over ten shows that he has written produced on stage, been the recipient of musical grants from BMI, ASCAP and the Watershed Foundation, and has had short stories and poetry published in Off The Rocks, Muscadine Lines: A Southern Journal, The Oddville Press, Perpetual Magazine, Loch Raven Review, Word Catalyst Magazine, and Rancor'd Type.

He is a member of ASCAP, The Dramatist Guild, and the Theatre Communications Group. He now lives in the suburbs of New Jersey and for the past five years he's managed an arts center on a college campus. Proud Pants: An Unconventional Memoir was published this summer and is available as a digital download on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This is his first novel.

For more information on Gregory, visit his website at www.ggallen.net orhttp://www.facebook.com/author.gregory.g.allen.

Obsession: Good or Bad?

You say the word and people think of something wrong. Fatal Attraction. Compulsion with drinking/drugging/gambling/eating. Driving oneself to the brink of destruction. But I know it was my obsession with theatre - Broadway - that brought an 18 year old kid to New York City to study the arts. Substitute the word 'passion' and it's not such a bad thing. Perhaps I didn't end up performing on the Great White Way, but I've had a wonderful life and have enjoyed the ride. And now at 42 years old, my obsession with theatre continues in my day job as I manage an arts center and still go into New York to enjoy a show now and again.

I also become obsessed and listen to cast albums over and over and replay how it appeared when I saw it. I suppose that is a metaphor for my life as I know I've often done that with real-life situations too. If only I had done "X" - perhaps I could have changed the outcome. Maybe reliving it, something will change this time. (But we all know that doesn't happen.)

As I do the mental inventory about my life I can see where obsession (let's substitute 'passion' again) has dictated so many choices I've made. I fervently worked hard at becoming an actor...making my way on to television and tours. I wanted to write the Great American Musical and found myself in the BMI Musical Theatre workshop striving for that goal. I grew tired of my Corporate America job and walked away to end back up in the creative arts. And the past few years, it has all gone back to writing. Only this time, the musical score stays in my brain and novels and short stories come out on the paper.

Creative Obsession? I suppose you could say that.

I was interviewed once by a college journalism class; the students had studied up on my life (from my website), asked questions about my writing, my career, and my work as the managing director of the arts center on our campus. One question stuck out: "what do you feel has been your biggest accomplishment?" Naturally, I became obsessed with the question. At forty two, should I already have had my 'biggest accomplishment"? My life has been full of many bends and turns along the road - not unlike most people who believe they are setting out to achieve one thing and find that something else is a much better fit for their lives. I think if asked that question again, I'll say my passion for life - my obsession for reaching for something new - makes me answer with "it's still out there - waiting!"

Well With My SoulWell with My Soul introduces two brothers who, although close in childhood, have drifted away from each other and closed the door to engagement and emotional connection. The older brother, Jacob, flees his small Tennessee hometown to seek a new life in New York, where he imagines he will overcome his self-hatred and growing sexuality as a homosexual. The younger brother, Noah, stays behind and feels trapped by his role as caretaker for his aging mother. As they grow apart, both brothers go through a series of traumatic events that irrevocably alter their lives: while Noah, shackled by familial duties, finds courage in the sorrow of the past, Jacob's frenzied search for freedom leads him into a labyrinth of fear and doubt which alienates him from his true identity and wreaks havoc in the lives of those closest to him. Covering the wild times of the 1970s and the restraint of the Reagan years and told through the perspective of both brothers, Well with My Soulis about the families we inherit and the families we build. It is an unflinching exploration of the way that we deal with what most unsettles us, at times using it for the highest form of inspiration, and at other times letting it confine us in previously unimaginable ways.