What If? August 30, 2024
Dear Reader,
Here are the week's musings collected in one spot. Browse and review the topics which interest you most. Thank you for stopping by the dream and spending some of your weekend here. Even if it's only the fringes behind-the-scenes of the dream, your support brightens my week.
Never Too Old To Learn
As many of you know, I teach advanced courses in history and geography at the local highschool. I have a Bachelor's Degree in History and Geography with minors in education and cultural studies. (Yes, I double majored. I don't recommend it.)
Research has been a grand love affair for many decades. It will come as no surprise that I enjoy documentaries in my spare time and get lost down the rabbit hole every time I come across an obscure reference. The folktales, fairy stories, myths, legends, religions of antiquity, beliefs, and superstitions which abound in human history intrigue me. You may have noticed the influences in the Draoithe Saga.
I also listen to podcasts and YouTube channels concerned with self publishing and the indie author world. Often, the topic includes nonfiction. While this isn't something I desire to write, as I'm attempting to escape that realm with my fiction, I still listen in case I learn something new which might apply to what I'm doing.
Even if I'm a half a century old, I still love an excellent story. I want to make the dream better for all who choose to visit it. When I came across a comment about nonfiction books written in response to problems or questions for which people desire the answer, I wondered how the idea might apply to fiction stories.
I have questions. Can fiction supply a response to a quote-unquote problem, whether it be a genuine problem or simply the answer to a question no one but me ever had? What might the problem or question be? Does the Draoithe Saga seek to resolve any issues?
Stay tuned to discover if I found any answers.
A Perspective on the Problem:Marketing Fiction Vs. Nonfiction
After wondering about questions and problems, I started researching. This is a fragment of what I discovered. And I bet this isn't where you thought this line of reasoning led.
Marketing nonfiction appears to require the author to understand the audience's issue and explain how their book addresses that problem. For fiction, that isn't as easy to do. There is no pain-point-topic per se.
(I feel it necessary to note: This is a gross oversimplification, and I am not an expert in marketing anything. This is merely the ramblings of a tired fiction author attempting to make sense of how things work from the wrong perspective.)
If the fiction, of analysis, is a social commentary, it still lands squarely in the realm of speculative, and therefore, the primary purpose should be to entertain, even though we know the author subverted the entertainment to send their message. The Twilight Zone is an excellent example. Although some scenes may be outdated, the speculative fiction is beyond excellent and still worthy of review.
Many of the great fiction pieces live in this hazy realm of blurred lines between fiction and nonfiction. I think it's easier to sell social commentary style speculative fiction (examples: Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1984, A Christmas Carol, etc), as it has a perceived social ill and may offer, if not an actual solution, food for thought, much like a hypothetical example which offers students an opportunity to pose their own solutions to a real-world problem.
When there's no social commentary involved, the escapism feels harder to sell. It's easy to explain why a person would spend hours reading a book, taking notes, and maybe practicing what they discover about healthy eating habits or how compound interest aids in wealth building. It's quite another to explain why a reader would spend hours immersed in an alternate world, following the exploits of nonexistent characters, knowing the upset when the book ends and their imaginary friends quit speaking to them once the characters have saved the world, rescued the girl, or slain the dragon, etc.
The Draoithe Saga isn't a social commentary. So why would anyone feel compelled to read it, or even parts of it? I love it. I'm still writing it and escaping into the dream daily. But what about other readers?
Do the stories in the dream have a problem they intend to solve? If so, is it a singular colossal problem which requires an entire saga to address? Or might there be many smaller issues requiring a response in each miniseries or even title? What seems to be the question(s) my stories seek to resolve?
If I discover what they might be, would that somehow inform the marketing I struggle with? I don't know, but I intend to find out.
What if?
The Draoithe Saga is a series of interrelated and connected tales set in the dream. It fits into the urban fantasy genre and has heavy paranormal romance elements, including fated mates. Perhaps it's romantasy, just heavier on the fantasy than the romance in the author's humble opinion.
Lately, I've wondered if my fiction has a problem it seeks to resolve. What is the muse doing? Even as I write what she tells me, I still needed a large enough body of work to analyze what it meant. I now have well over twenty-five published titles and more unpublished tales. So I think I may have narrowed the questions my stories seek to answer to the following list of themes often followed in the stories set in the dream:
- What if parts of all the fairy tales, myths, folklore, legends, all religions, and all superstitions held a grain or more of pure truths? Only maybe humans misunderstand the history or parts have gone missing or suffered from mistranslation?
- What if things mortals once knew now lay lost to a long-forgotten past? Or concepts as old as time now gather dust after science proved the ideas obsolete? What if superstitions, monsters, legends, and myths actually exist in a world eerily similar to our own? Could shifters, wizards, and vampires be real?
- What if some of the conspiracy theories about unseen hands controlling the destiny of people were true? Perhaps gods, immensely wealthy elites, ancient codes of honor, etc. rule the universe through unseen cosmic forces.
- What if multiple dimensions of reality existed? And people could access them?
- What if immortality was achievable? Would humans want immortality if they could have it?
- What if people could wield magic, it actually functioned, and could do things as amazing as modern science and technology?
- What if a person could find a perfect love embodied in another person? Would they want it? Could it last forever? What would an eternal love affair look like?
And the biggest question of all: What if the dream was real?
What might the answers be? That requires more writing, more reading, and many more stories. Each tale is a unique fantasy experience interconnected with all the others. Should you wish to learn the answers, even as I have spent hours discovering the questions, allow me to extend the invitation. Escape for a while in stories which leave you feeling the experience.
Welcome to the dream...
Angry King Quote
His world narrowed to only her. She was soft and warm, asleep in his arms, and he lost himself in her. She was everything!
-Enyeto Locklear, grizzly bear shifter
This is a quote from Angry King, volume 4 in the Royal Council Miniseries. It's more than a story; it's an experience. Welcome to the dream...
Blast From The Past: Wendigo Research
This video resulted from research into the Wendigo legends during the writing of the Kings Wilde miniseries by Ophelia Kee. It was one of the first research videos I did. I've been writing in this miniseries for a long time.
Writing Urban Fantasy is harder than it looks. Blending elements of actual legends and myths into the weaving of a paranormal romance character is challenging, and it all begins with the research. In this case, it started with Nicklaus Wilde, a man who became a wendigo, or a hybrid zmey, vampire, demon. He's complicated, but the legends were as wild as he is.
Crafted to offer elements of folktales and not-so-common belief systems in a world eerily similar to our own, Kings Wilde is still a work in progress. Look for it to serialize on OpheliaKee.com, soon!
News From the Dream
In Serial Publishing and Ebooks:
Nephilim's Claim is currently publishing chapters to Valkyrie Riders. It is past the halfway point. I'm hoping to have the edits and all chapters posted before the Labor Day Weekend. Cross your fingers that I will have time to format and publish the book.
Dream Dark is currently posting chapters to Mystic Dark. It's posting slowly, as I'm also adding the edited chapters to Radish. If I get lucky, this book will publish before the holidays.
In Serial Publishing Audiobooks:
Druid Fox is currently posting chapters on YouTube and is over the halfway point. As I post, I'm adding the audio chapters to Kingdom Rising. The audiobook chapters from Google are the highest quality audio I have available, and for all who take a chance on the serials, I wish to offer them the best available.
I want to thank my readers. You make the dream more than it ever could be without you. The small things such as liking a post, purchasing a book, subscribing to my YouTube channel, or leaving a kind review when you read add up. You have my sincerest appreciation for supporting the work which goes into crafting the dream. It is a one tiger production, except for all my lovely readers.
That's the week in snippets. It's easier to write short bits at a time. Easier to post shorter videos. Thank you so much for reading in the dream, even if it's behind the scenes. I hope you're enjoying the new blog layout. May the rest of your weekend be wonderful. If you sneak in some reading, please be kind and leave your reviews. Welcome to the dream...
Be Careful!
Happy reading,
Ophelia Kee
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Thank you for your support! Welcome to the dream… Sincerely, -OK
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