Today was not a good day for me (still at work also). Fortunately for me, the worst days often inspire my best poems. I hope you will enjoy this dark poem.


Life, Money, Death
By Jeremy Gernhaelder


First comes Life,
So full of promise; so full of wonder,
Free from the limitations that come later,
We encourage our children to explore,
To find themselves; be themselves,
To figure out how they wish to spend this Life,
And how to become valued members of our society.


Innocent Life knows nothing of Money,
They have simple desires,
They seek to have these desires fulfilled,
And dutiful and loving adults oblige.
They know not of restrictions and pain,
For the adults long to shelter them from this,
Until their time comes.


Then comes Money,
Money is cruel; Money is heartless,
It cares not for circumstance or difference,
It seeks only to establish its reign,
To take away Life's wonder and promise,
And bind it in chains,
Serving its true master.


Money dictates how Life is lived,
It tells us when to rise; when to eat,
Sets out the limitations of what we are capable of achieving,
It tells us where to go; who to be seen with,
An ever steady presence,
Money watches over Life's every move,
Certain to punish should it stray from its master's will.


Money is more cruel than any Life could be,
It divides us; pits us against one another,
It chooses some of us to give the gift of comfort,
Knowing we won't complain for the sake of the others,
Too afraid to lose what we have
Too afraid of what happens when there is no Money,
And Death comes for us.


Crueler still, Money chooses a select few,
To give the gift of the Life we were promised as children,
Free from worry; free from the fear of loss,
Setting them upon golden pedestal,
And encouraging us to worship them
While it starves the rest of us to pay the cost,
And leaves Death to settle the accounts owing.


Then comes Death,
Caring not for Life or the false god, Money,
It is the great equalizer,
Those who have, fear it,
Clinging desperately to their Money as it pulls them under.
Those who have not, embrace it,
For Death is a friend who has at last come to relieve them from the pain of Life.

Good day to you all. I wish to start this blog post off by offering my sincere thanks to all of the people who took the time since my post on Sunday to read and give me feedback on my poem about Queen Elizabeth II. Learning of her passing, especially right before I had to go into work Thursday afternoon, has been really challenging for me to cope with. Taking the time to sit down and write out those emotions helped me a lot, and I hope that reading my thoughts will have helped any of you who were struggling with this as well.

With that said, the reason you are all here is for my super special surprise that I have been promising to put out for the past couple of weeks. I wanted to make sure I gave you something really special, so I was torn between possibly leaking a small piece of text from the next book or perhaps creating a biography for/interview with my main character, Jenny Maysure, from the Drifter. Ultimately though, I thought what might be really special for you is if I were to give you a sneak peek into the writing process that I use to create the stories for the Small Town Slashers Series.

I joined Twitter a couple of months back, as part of my efforts to market my series of books (click the link for direct access to my account). One topic that often seems to come up amongst the authors I am following are questions concerning other authors writing needs and processes. I have seen everything from "Do you plan your stories or just write?" to "Do you write your chapters sequentially or start with the end?" All of this had me thinking about similar questions that I often wondered about as a reader when diving into the works of my favourite authors. It is my hope that people who have read my first book might have similar questions about the sources of my creativity and the process by which I developed my story. As such, I thought it would be a nice treat for you all, if I shared with you a blank copy of my writing organizer. It is my hope that published and aspiring authors alike will make use of this tool in their own creative process. I likewise hope that sharing this with you will allow you to feel closer to me. I want to get to know the fans of my work and build a community of followers who are excited to discuss serial killers (both fictional and true crime oriented), thrillers/suspense (my books, others work, films, etc.) and mental wellness and neural divergence in society as well. I am slowly saving up to create a newsletter and fan group for my Small Town Slashers Series, and it is my sincere dream that you will all wish to be a part of this. So, with all of this said, and without further adieu, please feel free to click on the document I have embedded into this post, so that you can get your copy of my writing planner for your own creative needs.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Peace and love to you and yours.

I wish to first apologize to all of you for not posting a blog last week. I will be making another post, in addition to this one, on Tuesday. The special surprise I mentioned last time will be in that post. For now, I wanted to share something personal with my readers. I had a lot of respect, love and admiration for Queen Elizabeth II. Learning of her death this week has hit me a lot harder than I expected it to. As such, whenever my emotions become too much for me, I decided to take a step back this morning, reflect on my thoughts of Her, and to write the following poem. I hope you will all enjoy it. With Peace and Love.

P.S. I took the two photos out of this beautiful article from the New York Times.
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​For Thy Country
Written, with love, for Queen Elizabeth II
By Jeremy Gernhaelder


In your homeland they say,
"For God, For Queen, and For Country",
A heavy burden for any individual,
And one you were not destined to bear,
But you did so with a smile.


Born to privilege and to duty,
Part of a noble heritage,
One regarded with reverence and distain alike,
Yet I cannot help to wonder,
Is this what you really wanted?


I see photos of your youth,
Innocent pictures with your pets
Family stills of a different time,
A different life,
One not yet bound to the crown.


So easy it would be,
For many to scorn you,
To look upon your life with envious and bitter eyes,
But I wonder how many could have stepped into your shoes?
How many people could have shoulder such a heavy burden?


You alone had to strength and courage,
To wear the crown,
To honour your people,
To lead them through joy and strife,
And now you are gone.


Will the world ever know of your fortitude?
Will there ever be another to rule as you did?
To show compassion for the people,
To navigate them through the journey to this modern world and beyond it,
Will we ever know another Queen with the greatness of Elizabeth II?


In your homeland they said,
"For God, For Queen, and For Country",
You have served your people faithfully,
You have honoured your God,
And now it is time for you to rest and for your people to mourn.


May God bless and protect the Queen.
And may all hail Elizabeth II one final time,
For long has she reigned.
A burden she accepted with a smile,
For a country and a world that she loved.