World War of Another World

As of March 11, 2025, my novels Sorcerer of the Realm and Blood of the Sorcerer are perhaps my best work yet. They are military science fiction.

The world is very much like our own… yet quite different. Speech was never confounded into languages. Contagions are unheard of. Weapons of mass destruction are obsolete.

The history is very much like our own… yet quite different. The continents are named after the sons of Noah. The Confederacy won the War Between the States and became the Empire of the Golden Circle. Adolf Hitler is Adolphus Wolf and takes over the European Union in a 1930s that are the modern day.

The universe of the fiction is White Empires. The world is ruled by six powers, five of them of the race of Japheth, white people. The sixth is Japanese as the Empire of Dawn.

Britain is Albion. The United States and Confederate States are of New Japheth. The Soviet Union is still the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The European Union as the 3^rd Reich is the Great Realm of Japheth.

I love strategy games, especially as world conquest scenarios. Though I created White Empires as a setting for prose, I did have such games in mind.

The Sorcerer books are pre-war stories about covert operations and counter-insurgencies. The inevitable war shall be between the Axis and Allies. The Axis powers shall be the Great Realm of Japheth, the Empire of Dawn and the Confederate States of New Japheth. The Allies shall be the Albish Empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of New Japheth.

The Axis shall be outnumbered and outgunned. Its only advantage shall be taking the initiative. Once is makes its move it must win quickly. It cannot conquer the Allied empires, mind you. The Axis can be conquered by them, however, though not easily.

The Realm invades the Soviet Union from the west and the Empire of Dawn invades from the east. The Albish Empire and the United States declare war on the Realm and the Empire of Dawn. The Confederacy invades the Midwest region of the United States. The Axis hopes to conquer the Soviet Union quickly then sue for peace. The Confederacy shall relinquish its gains for recognition by the United States of Missouri and Kentucky as Confederate states.

If the Axis wins…

The Soviet Union is divided into new regions of the Great Realm of Japheth and the Empire of Dawn. The United States normalizes diplomacy and trade with the Confederacy.

If the Allies win…

The Empire of Dawn falls and Dawn is reduced to a vassal state. The Realm and the Confederacy are dissolved, their states small and weak divided and kept that way.

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.