The Midnight Vault II

FOREWORD
by Alexander Poirier, Vice President of Blackwing

I grew up an only child, so I was no stranger to worlds of make-believe. My grandma instilled a love for reading in me at an early age—she fed me the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, books left over from when my mom and her two brothers were kids. I read them, but they felt too grounded. I needed something more.

I found that something in the form of video games. Games like EarthBound and Chrono Trigger showed me that stories can be epic in scale while still giving their characters room to breathe and grow—intimate moments living inside a tale that spans time and space.

It wasn’t until I discovered the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books at my school library that I started to find my niche. These were books about journeying to the center of the earth or piloting a ship to outer space, and they followed the same rules as a video game. I could get into that.

I read through all the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books I could find and soon moved on to other sci-fi and fantasy pulp. Without the video game elements, I was still hanging on every word. Even assigned reading like The Giver and Brave New World kept my attention.

And then, as suddenly as the flame was ignited, it was extinguished. As a teenager, I had better things to do than waste my time playing video games and reading about elves and aliens. So it goes.

Thankfully, I found my way back by following in the footsteps of Roland Deschain of Midworld. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” This line—the opening to Stephen King’s The Gunslinger—set me down the path I continue to walk to this day.

It was the fall of 2004, and I was a junior in high school. A friend at a punk show I’d gone to the week prior recommended the book to me. One of his favorite bands wrote all their songs from the perspective of its characters.

That opening line hooked me so completely, took such deep root in my soul, that I read through all seven books in the series in a matter of weeks. After an early adolescence filled with rebellion and angst, I was falling in love with stories again.

I’d go on to study literature and film in college. I found poetry—both written and visual—and started my own journey as a writer and filmmaker.

After I graduated, I couldn’t resist the draw of the Blackwing pencil and its history, filled with names like John Steinbeck, Truman Capote, and Chuck Jones.

Could this be my medium? Can you tell stories with a pencil as your canvas?

It turns out the answer is yes. My journey is far from over, but I’ve found my guiding Beam.

I’m honored to play a small part in the second edition of The Midnight Vault. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without authors like the ones who contributed to this collection filling my head with their weird, wondrous, and wicked tales. I’m constantly learning and growing - as a reader, as a writer, and as a person - and that growth is fueled by new stories and new voices like the ones housed within these pages.

In the immortal words of Stephen King, “Go then, there are other worlds than these.” Enjoy them.

Alexander Poirier
Vice President, Blackwing