Where We Imagine

I bask in a fantastic yet believable setting. I favor sleek and futuristic or cyclopean and archaic. I love a deadly paradise, especially if overgrown ruins are to be found. A desert with ruins poking out of it is just as lovely. A ghost town is always interesting.

I write stories. The settings matter. They provide ambient context.

I do not provide elaborate descriptions. I instead imply things, to establish the gist. The ambiguity is to allow the reader to customize what they envision to their own preferences-- or to make it familiar by default.

A story is its characters. They are the actors. The world is their stage. The stage settings are the costumes of the world.

Sleek and futuristic is modernity as an ideal. Even if a story is dystopian, if the environment is utopian, it shall be appealing. The evil shall be sexy.

Cyclopean and archaic is the grandeur of myth and legend. Even if a story is grim, if the environment is awesome, we shall bask in its glory. The severity shall be thrilling.

Forests and deserts are wilderness. They are nature. Ruins within them are civilization as the artificial humbled by the natural. A ghost town is the loneliness typical of every society.

I am a tourist when I read a book or comic book or watch a show or movie or play a video game. I enjoy where the stories happen as much as what happens. I write and render my own fiction accordingly.

https://www.deviantart.com/yellowplasma

Full Circle

I grew up daydreaming entire stories. I do not mean about myself. I imagined scenarios involving characters I saw in shows or movies. I later, still as a child, imagined original characters. I crafted entire worlds of my own making.

I drew pictures during these early years. I started writing stories when I was in 6^th grade. I illustrated and colored my own comic book pages. As I matured, I focused on writing. I stopped drawing.

I did more than write and draw what I imagined. I also made costumes and toys. I painted and sculpted. Alas, I was eventually doing nothing but write.

Since childhood, context meant everything. An interesting picture was only interesting if it had a story. If it did not, I imagined one for it.

I still write. My stories are now books. I illustrate the covers. I create the title fonts. My creativity has come full circle.

https://www.deviantart.com/yellowplasma

In All Sincerity

I criticized people for assuming I am like them… only to realize I tend to assume they are like me. It is something we do actually have in common.

I am an artist. I always was. Since childhood, I fancy things from an artistic perspective. I drew pictures to express my strange insights. I now write books and compose music. I still draw pictures, but usually to illustrate the covers of my books.

Every sight, sound and feeling is with the idea of how it can all be shaped to optimize their various qualities. I cleanse my inspirations of their uninspiring aspects. I redesign the world to my preferences, and turn it all into stories.

Other people see and hear what suits them, for better or worse.

My idea of perfection is not idealism. Problems are not a problem if they are interesting. My art and fiction are not wishful thinking. They are matters of interest turned into toys of the mind.

Other people expect a perfection they do not expect of themselves. They judge hypocritically. They make excuses for useful idiots… so long as they are deemed useful.

I have perfect self-esteem. I am not proud… but I am not ashamed. I appreciate my strengths but acknowledge my weaknesses. I do not pretend to be someone I am not.

Other people lack self-esteem. Whether they are proud or humble, they are ashamed. They exaggerate their strengths and excuse their weaknesses. Their humility is virtue signaling. They pretend to be what they want to be or what they think others want them to be.

I am better than everyone else. I do forget this. I assume people are like me, and I like them accordingly. They are unlike me. They remind me with their flippant remarks, nasty actions and shameful inactions. I dislike them accordingly.

I admire myself. My admiration is not pride. I was tricked to be ashamed of myself only to admire what I did not know was referring to me. I judged myself unknowingly, and did not find myself wanting.

HE WHO JUDGES HIMSELF SHALL NOT BE JUDGED!

My sincerity availed me.

Sexy to Me

I am the member of a creative group, the Figments. We were together discussing my latest book, The Wayward School for Girls. It was written to be erotica. My friends laughed, telling me that it was not erotica. Its sexual themes were not the story. They were not explicit or gratuitous.

A friend explained that I was asexual. He did not mean that I can reproduce without a mate, of course. He was not saying that I was uninterested in sexuality. His claim was that I am uninterested in copulating… and he was right.

I did not understand myself until someone else explained me to me. I realized I am totally disinterested in plugging myself into other people. I am disgusted by the idea… though I am aroused by fantasies of monsters raping women. The monsters are not me, however. They are not my representatives. I am the unseen observer who delights in watching the worlds I create play out.

I have played tabletop role-playing games. They greatly inspired my writing of fiction. I never played a character based on an idealized version of myself. On the contrary: I chose to play characters very distinct from me. One of them, one of my best, was a coward. He was a loveable coward, however. I loved him and the other players loved him.

My fiction is not wishful thinking. My favorite thing is the easy killing of normal people… yet I do not enjoy the actual killing of real people, whether they deserve it or not. The victims in my work are the armed and uniformed foot soldiers of villainy. They are typically conscripts, however, not hirelings or followers. The villainy is not their own… and that aspect makes what happens to them especially gratifying.

Most of what is erotic to me is nothing of the sort to other people. The sexiest thing to me, ever, is three panels in a comic book. A big and hairy monster grabs a clueless sentry in full armor by the shoulder and over the top of his helm. The monster swings the masked face past the shoulder, snapping the man’s neck with pathetic ease. The sentry is left sprawled at his post, forgotten by the monster who killed him.

My imagination is sexual, but I think in ways unfamiliar to most everyone else. This is probably why my “erotica” is erotic to me but not as the genre.

Me, Myself and You

I wrote a short story that became a 66,266 word novel. I illustrated its cover in the meantime. Determined to write a short story, I decided to write a collection of such stories in the same imaginary universe. I illustrated its cover first. I am now writing the stories.

My creative genius is not in planning. On the contrary: I exceed what I intend as I go along. I create beyond what I first imagine.

It is good to plan. Though nothing goes according to plan, I still have an idea to work with. The plan is the clay I shape and without the clay, there is nothing to make.

I often design a book cover before I write the book. The illustration is for its own sake, as visual art. I then write a story to match it.

The unimaginative wonder why my work is weird. They typically suggest I write non-fiction or historical fiction instead, especially since I am so knowledgeable.

The sanctimonious are offended that I write and illustrate supposedly provocative things. No one who actually reads my books, from beginning to end, is ever so indignant.

I do not enjoy writing books and illustrating the covers. On the contrary: It is hard work upon hard work. I love having written a book and illustrated its cover. The product is my satisfaction. I am proud of what I have done… and that is why I flaunt it.

Forgive me.

Sweet Courage

The Wizard of Oz (1939) 

Dorothy Gale is one of the greatest heroes of all fiction. She is loving and gentle but stronger for it, not weak. She is fearful when threatened but fearless when others need help. She literally kills the wicked with kindness.

Judy Garland was perfectly cast for the role. Her performance made the character believable. We loved Dorothy Gale because of her.

Dorothy’s adventure is the legendary Hero’s Journey. Her quest to go home not only tests her character but fully develops it. She finds courage in the face of danger, hope when things are uncertain and she learns to appreciate the little things that mean everything. Her story is a lesson for us all.

The Wicked Witch

The Wizard of Oz (1939) 

The Wicked Witch of the West is among the greatest villains of all time. Not only does she have magical powers and a private army but she is crafty. Not only is she willing to kill but she delights in personalizing the doom of her victims. She is passionate yet always in control. Her hatred for the protagonist is arguably justified.

The Wicked Witch has the generic look of a wicked witch… yet it is very distinct. The actress who played her matched the look with such memorable gusto that she set the standard. Her character now defines the archetype.

The Wizard of Oz was a musical fantasy for general audiences. It was and is family friendly, suitable for children, yet its villain is scary. When she dashes the hopes of a young girl with a cruel trick of sadistic mockery, we are terrified. The scene is scarier than most in actual horror movies.

The greatness of the Wicked Witch of the West as a fictional character can be proven. Her movie was generations ago… yet you all know who am talking about by her nameless name alone.