Awaiting the Spotlight

The greatness of art and fiction is decided by very few. When influential people tout something, everyone is interested. When the influential few lose interest, so does everyone else.

I write books and illustrate the covers. My work is not yet noticed by the influential few. If it is, it must interest them… or my work shall languish in obscurity.

I think my fiction is among the best ever written. Whether it is or not, it is not yet popular. It is unknown to those who could tout it to greatness.

Who are these influential few? They can be authors, publishers, critics, actors, producers, politicians, singers, scholars, editorialists, internet influencers or whatever else. They are either famous and influence the public directly or important among those who are famous.

Is my fiction among the best ever written? I think so… but I am not among the influential few. Ultimately, it is for them to decide.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Shawn-OToole/author/B07C28S75Z?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Apocalypse

The true horror of nuclear weapons is not their destructive power… but rather their lack of it. Though they can kill by the millions in an instant, millions more are left to die slowly. Victims shall languish in agony from burns or they shall starve to death.

People flippantly remark that we should nuke other people. Not everyone is serious when they say such a thing. Everyone who does mean it is evil, regardless of their self-righteous indignation. They are stupid, confident that they can terrorize the world into submission.

A limited nuclear war? Wars do not escalate anymore? Seriously? The mindless brutes are mindless indeed. Their sophistries of apocalypse without consequences demonstrate what Jesus meant when he said, “professing themselves wise, they became fools.”

There shall be a nuclear war. It shall not end the world in an instant. It shall wage for years, the most horrible years ever. There shall never be a worse year afterwards. Humanity shall have its hell on earth… and in vain.

Tightrope Writing

My art and fiction are too extreme for the mainstream… but too tame for the undercurrent of the mainstream. The sexuality and violence are the problem either way.

I write books and illustrate the covers. The stories are usually about comely girls uniformed in alluring costumes as the easy victims of heroic violence. The illustrations are usually these girls.

People dislike that female characters are killed, and by the heroes. Other people are disappointed that the violence does not include sexual assault.

I write and render what I fancy, to be clear. My art, as words and pictures is what I want it to be. I am always trying to share the fun I have daydreaming. The fiction and illustrations are refined versions of my whimsical fantasies.

The sexuality and violence of my art and fiction is how I imagine it for my own pleasure. It is as extreme or tame as I personally prefer.

I am sensitive to the sensibilities of the mainstream. I am mindful of the fancies of the undercurrent. Alas, to oblige the one is to exclude the other and vice versa. I am uninspired lest true to myself, regardless.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Shawn-OToole/author/B07C28S75Z?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Books Grow on Trees

I have been drawing pictures since my childhood in the 1970s and writing stories since my adolescence in the 1980s. In the 2020s I write books and illustrate the covers, doing both things of my youth as the same project. Then again, I did likewise though differently in the 1980s, when I wrote, drew and colored pages of comic books I never finished.

My reason for creativity is what it was from the beginning. My interests have not changed, though they have matured.

I am supremely confident as an artist. My work is never perfect. On the contrary: It is sometimes inarguably ridiculous. My inspirations are likewise, however. I have yet to read a book or comic book, watch a show or movie or play a video game that cannot be complained about ad nauseam. I have yet to love something not hated by other people.

I do wonder if my work is good or not. Of course some of it is better than others. I create what I want to create and how I want it, but art must inspire other people to be good. I can daydream without writing or rendering what I imagine, so there is no point in writing books and illustrating the covers for me alone.

I have a strong sense that my work is not only good… but very good. My fiction is better than the classics and its covers shall be appreciated as the true vision of the author.

Like Abraham, I grow old waiting for my wish to come true. Likewise, it seems unlikely. My hope is unrealistic and I am deemed a fool for hoping. I believe in myself and my belief is scoffed as a delusion of grandeur.

Judge the tree by the fruit it bears. I am fruitful in my life as a mortal man. I write books and illustrate the covers. I create the title fonts. I have product to show for all my hard work. Getting it to market is difficult, especially since there is no market for what I offer quite yet. My work is different than what the world expects. The difference shall make all the difference, however.

I am a man of the spirit, not a man of the flesh. Though as mortal and only human as anyone else, I am immortal and supernatural at heart. My stories are parables, as they were when Jesus was a storyteller. The themes are worldly but the message is divine.

Style and Message

I write fiction. My style emphasizes dialog and generalizes descriptions. I illustrate the covers and create the title fonts.

My genre is weird fiction, usually as action-adventure. Much of my work is horror but most of this is survival horror.

My thematic specialty is the foot soldier of villainy archetype, female versions specifically. Their role in the stories is as unimportant characters, more often than not. The erotica is nuanced rather than overt, with few exceptions. The sexiness is generally that the nameless baddies are comely girls uniformed in alluring costumes. The heroes are typically female.

I strive to make my stories immersive. I do so mindful to match the pacing of the read with the experience of the characters. The dialog must be from the perspective of those speaking, even if at the expense of the reader knowing what is being talked about. The motives of the characters must be their own, regardless of the plot.

A good story has a moral and my fiction is never an exception. The meaning is always spiritual, and I do not mean as religious indoctrination. The social commentary is a matter of context, not the actual message. My fiction celebrates personal excellence at the expense of collective mediocrity.

SILENT HILL: Homecoming

Silent Hill is a survival horror franchise. It is video games, movies and comic books. Its style is ambient and its themes emotional, psychological and sexual. The first game, the beginning of the franchise, was inspired by Shadow over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft and Twin Peaks, among other things. The second game, the one that defined the franchise, was especially inspired by Twin Peaks.

I love Silent Hill. I loved Twin Peaks before playing, watching and reading Silent Hill. I write books and illustrate the covers. Much of my work is inspired by these two franchises.

My favorite Silent Hill is the games. The second game is inarguably the best… but my personal favorite is the first. My second favorite is typically hated by Silent Hill fans: Homecoming.

I love everything hated by those who hate Silent Hill: Homecoming. The protagonist is an excellent fighter rather than a normal person fighting desperately as a normal person. The Nurses are ubiquitous and highly sexualized.

People argue that Silent Hill is horror, so playing a warrior is inappropriate. They argue that the sexualized Nurses introduced in the second game were as they were symbolically, thus, without context in Homecoming.

The monsters must represent the psychology of the protagonist? What did the Numb Bodies or the Insane Cancers of Silent Hill 3 represent? What about the Split Heads, Mumblers and Air Screamers of the first game?

The protagonist must be a normal person? SPOILER ALERT: The protagonist of Homecoming was born and raised in a sect of the mysterious religion of Silent Hill. His family was charged with hunting and killing monsters that wandered into the real world from the Otherworld. His being a proficient warrior is given context appropriate to the lore!

Another complaint about Homecoming is that it is Western. Silent Hill is Japanese, though set in the United States of America. Japan already made four games. The franchise already has its Japanese flavor. What is so insufferably wrong about an American company making a game set in America?

The only thing I disliked about Silent Hill: Homecoming is that you cannot get the “good” ending unless you euthanize your mother. Other than that, the final act was much better than they were in previous games. There is a villain and the villainy makes grim sense. As strange as the universe is, it was wonderfully humanized.

My Fantastic Inspirations

The Wizard of Oz (1939) is the greatest movie ever made. No motion picture has had such a profound and lasting influence on culture, not even close.

I write fiction. My stories are books but the greatest movie ever made was based on a book. Though drastic changes were made, no book, no movie.

The Wizard of Oz was strange, adventurous and sometimes scary. Its plot was immersive and its characters endearing. The stakes were life and death. The protagonist was a heroine in the classical sense: She ventured into danger willingly and ultimately slew the villain.

Alice in Wonderland (1951) is inarguably a classic. It is a horror movie, despite its silliness. The protagonist is a little girl who falls into a fairyland of madness. The natives are maniacal and ramble nonsense. They eventually chase the girl, to chop off her head.

The movie was based on two books. I read them. Though the stories were as silly as that of the movie, they were not scary. There was never danger. Though the Queen of Hearts ordered beheadings, the condemned were always pardoned.

I grew up inspired by the adventure that was The Wizard of Oz (1939) and the scariness of Alice in Wonderland (1951). Their strangeness made it all the better. Though they were supposedly ridiculous, I took them seriously. I still do. My own work is better for it.

https://www.deviantart.com/yellowplasma/art/The-Wayward-School-for-Girls-full-cover-1043500403