The Author

Biography

Hi, my name is Alex Smith. I was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. I went to Heights High School, class of 1993. I grew up like Huckleberry Finn, swimming in the river, and following the train tracks as far as I could walk. When the sun went down, I loved staring up at the stars and letting my imagination run wild.

Now I live in sunny Southern California. The years between are the part of the story you might expect: military service, college, career, family, the usual accumulation—for all of which I am deeply grateful, but none of it is why you are here.

I’ve drawn inspiration from a Zen master, an Austrian economist, a Persian poet from the 13th century, and an Italian plumber who rescues a princess. For a long time I gathered up scraps and pieces of good ideas without fully understanding how they would fit together. Notes, arguments, observations, passages I kept coming back to—curating a glorious stockpile of seemingly unrelated things that I’d sort out someday.

Then, in 2025, someday became now. Something powerful grabbed hold of me and would not let go—an urgent compulsion to write this book. It felt like my life depended on it. I cannot offer a logical explanation, but I can tell you what I did. I put pen to paper, and poured my heart and soul into every sentence. Sometimes I wrote all night. Entire weekends went missing. I stopped noticing.

Although, to be fair, it was not only work. I also had a great time! It’s fun to wrestle with words and play with prose and verse, as inspiration flows. I like to think my 7th grade English teacher would blink a solitary tear of pride if she ever read this. Shout out to Mrs. Henderson. I hope you find the book interesting and useful. But most importantly … I hope it stretches your mind toward new horizons and takes you to places you’ve never been before.