Spirit of Creativity

I am repetitive. I say the same things over and over again. I write fiction, often writing the same scenes for different stories. I have a habit of using the same word too often when I could either use a different word or omit it entirely.

My interests are very specific. Quite often, I am disinterested if even one aspect is not to my personal preferences.

I am an artist. My art is writing books and illustrating the covers. I create the title fonts. I compose music and voice act. I did make toys and costumes. I did design tabletop games.

I annoy people by saying the same things over and over again. I try to be taciturn, to avoid this problem, and when I forget, I am rudely reminded.

Fiction is written to be read. I must consider my readers. A good author does not write the same book over and over again. He minds his words to make them interesting.

The themes of my work are weird and extreme. The weirdness is meaningful. The extremes are thoughtful. Alas, the weirdness alienates those who prefer the familiar. The extremes offend the sanctimonious.

I make the effort to not write the same thing over and over again. I avoid overusing words. It is good that I bother. I am a better writer for it. I cannot write mundane and tame, however. My work must be weird. It must be extreme. I have tried to write realistic and tasteful. I lost interest entirely… until I listened to myself, becoming deaf to everyone else on the matter.

FREEDOM is the spirit of creativity!

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

Intellectual Property

The universes of mainstream fiction are dying. Their deaths are unnatural. They were corrupted into shameless propaganda. They were always tainted with the hypocrisy of the rich, but there was always an effort to actually entertain us. Now the de facto plutocracy would rather shame us… because the plutocrats have become overconfident and lazy, I suppose. The incompetence of the diversity hirelings does not help.

I am an artist. My specialty is writing books and illustrating the covers. I create the title fonts. My work is not fan fiction. I create universes.

My FANTASY is traditional… but believable. It has been called “science fiction” because though its characters are magical fairy folk, the stories are not airy fairy.

My SCIENCE FICTION is speculative… yet contrary to what is deemed scientific. The natural is decided by the spiritual.

My EROTICA is sexy… but not in a way that is obvious. There is explicit copulation. There is nudity or alluring costumes. All of these are supplementary, however. The actual sexiness is the impersonal slaying of insignificant people by unceremonious means.

My HORROR is scary… yet adventurous. The stories are about exploring the unknown or battling the mysterious, regardless of the fate of the protagonist.

My DYSTOPIAN work is cynical… yet hopeful. Though it acknowledges that there is no hope for the world, it shows individuals prevailing.

My work is languishing in the mainstream… but so is that of the corporations. I am not making money… but neither are they. Well, the rich have rigged the system to keep themselves rich, but their propaganda is failing. Their entertainment industry used to be a money mill… but now its needs subsidy… just to linger.

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

Fictional Morality

As a writer of fiction, I am mindful that my stories should be moral. I do not mean in the terms of reality, which do not apply.

My Black Death series is about black women who serial kill young white women… and get away with it. My Sorcerer trilogy is about a sympathetic Nazi who uses magic, technology and armed force to commit mass-murder. My novel The Wayward School for Girls uses little girls as nameless baddies… and they are slaughtered in droves.

The moral of Black Death is that if you are insignificant, your death shall be inconsequential. The moral of the Sorcerer trilogy is that “fired up for” or “cold against” are righteous in the eyes of the Lord. The moral of The Wayward School for Girls is that learning is not thinking.

The “racism” of Black Death and the “fascism” of the Sorcerer trilogy and the “pedophilia” of The Wayward School for Girls are disturbing, perhaps. I did not write them to be shocking or offensive. I wrote what I wrote in all sincerity, to tell stories as waking dreams.

As a society, we are obsessed with racism, politics and pedophilia… so those are what are on my mind when I write fiction. I sublimate the anxiety into inspiration.

Social commentary is propaganda. Certainty that your politics are inarguably right does not change this. On the contrary: It means your fiction is shameless propaganda, not a good thing.

My stories are waking dreams. I write them to learn from them. I articulate my thoughts and feelings. By doing so I bring order to the chaos. What was muddled becomes clear. I share what I write to inspire as I was inspired.

I am often snubbed because my themes are supposedly immoral… as if the evils of the world can be erased from reality by erasing them from the pages of fiction.

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

Eternal Dreams

The movie Raiders of the Lost Ark was an action-adventure set in 1936 about an American archaeologist trying to find the Ark of the Covenant in Egypt. The villains were the Nazis. The movie could have easily been set in 2016, the archaeologist is French and the Ark of the Covenant is in Syria. The villains are the Russians.

The movie Red Dawn was an action-adventure released in 1984 about the Soviet Union and Cuba invading the United States. The heroes are teenagers from an occupied town. The sympathetic antagonist was a Cuban officer. The movie could easily be released in 2024 about the United States and Germany invading Russia. The heroes would be teenagers from an occupied village. The sympathetic antagonist would be a German officer.

An American is to me what a Frenchman is to someone French. The Nazis are to us what NATO is to modern Russia.

The gist of a story is what it truly is. The particulars are costumes and set pieces, not the play itself. The names can be changed without changing anything.

My point is not politics or moral relativism. It is artistic. I am an artist, not a politician or activist. My specialty is writing books and illustrating the covers. I create the title fonts.

FICTION is the waking dreams we dream together, whether by reading, watching, hearing or playing the stories we make believe are real. The particulars customize the stories. The “enemy” of one culture may be “us” to another. The symbols of good or evil and great or common vary according to time and place.

The particulars of a fiction are important, but irrelevant if their context is meaningless. The story is the context. Bad storytelling renders it all bad, even the good parts. A good story is timeless and universal, not merely a product of its time and place. As a writer of fiction, I am mindful of this.

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

Man in the Low Castle

The Confederate States of America was evil because of slavery and the 3^rd Reich was evil because of the Holocaust. These two countries lost their wars, and were conquered. Their history was written by the conquerors.

The United States of America was evil because of tyranny and the Final Solution was necessary because the Jews were turning the world into a global plutocracy. Such would be the claims of the Confederacy and 3^rd Reich if they won their wars. They could not conquer their enemies, so history as we know it would still be written.

The Confederacy would reconsider its stance on slavery, in the hope of easing diplomacy and fostering trade. Agitators would cause problems. The world would side with these troublemakers. The Confederacy would not only return to its old ways, but with a murderous vengeance.

The 3^rd Reich would deny the Holocaust… but the evidence would prove overwhelming. The Nazis would eventually admit their crimes, but as an argument against their victims. The admission would make them more comfortable doing such things.

In our real history, had the Confederate States of America won the War Between the States and maintained its independence, it would radicalize rather than reform.

In our real history, if the 3^rd Reich was able to secure its Living Space, it would turn Germany into a bigger and stronger country. Foreigners in their realm would be enslaved, exterminated or assimilated. The availability of land would encourage “Aryans” from abroad to immigrate.

Both the Confederate States of America and the Greater German Realm would be white supremacist military powers. The Confederates would champion most people of European decent, accepting the whites of Latin America as brethren. The Nazis would favor Germanic peoples, but the need for population was already broadening their sense of race.

The United States of America would be weaker than in our reality… but still stronger than the Confederacy. The British Empire would still be powerful had it not exhausted itself trying to defeat Hitler. The Confederates and the Nazis would never be able to conquer the world, even if they joined forces. The Yankees and the Brits would still have the strength to conquer them, though with much more difficulty.

I did not forget about the Soviet Union! A Confederate States victory would mean a weakened United States. Without the vast amount of supplies and weapons shipped to Russia, the USSR falls and quickly. It may linger in Siberia for a while… or indefinitely… but Russia west of the Urals becomes Germany.

I think about our world as it is today. I imagine what it would be like if the Confederate States of America and the Thousand-Year Realm were still around. I am amused to consider that the me of this other world would write about them being conquered instead.

Better than the Best

My novel Agents of the Eye and Ear is medieval fantasy. The characters are elves, dwarves, orcs, gnomes, goblins, trolls and ogres. There are also humans and a half-elf. The weapons are swords, daggers, bows and arrows. Magic is common.

It can be assumed that Agents of the Eye and Ear is just another fantasy novel, an inferior derivative of The Lord of the Rings. By the sum of its parts, it is.

My Strange Galaxy stories are science fiction fantasy. The characters are humans, space aliens and androids. The weapons are guns and swords. The technology is advanced but there is also magic.

It can be assumed that Strange Galaxy is just another “space opera” series, an inferior derivative of Star Wars. By the sum of its parts, it is.

***************

Agents of the Eye and Ear is better than The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien’s elves have their own languages, but how does that distinguish them from human cultures? Aragorn, a human being learned their language. He learned their ways. My fairy folk are not human beings. They are different species, distinct by nature. Their language is speech, not their own gibberish. Their ways are natural, their cultures primal accordingly, no matter their sophistication.

My fairy folk are otherworldly. Tolkien’s are exotic, but as… humans.

Strange Galaxy is better than Star Wars. Lucas’ space aliens look weird and ramble in strange gibberish, but not as people. Chewbacca is a character more like the hero’s dog or horse than his actual friend. Lucas’s politics are the morality of the universe. My space aliens are very alien, but as people, though strangely so. The morality of my universe is seemingly ambiguous, since I sympathize with every side in a struggle.

My galaxy is a world that defines itself. The galaxy far, far away is defined by whimsy and politics.

*************** 

I love The Lord of the Rings. I love Star Wars. They inspired me. They were inspired by things before them. My work is not inferior. I dare say it is better. I do so in all sincerity.

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

Wisely Ridiculous

I write books, illustrate the covers and create the title fonts. My latest project is one I have been working on for years. I have already written tens of thousands of words, illustrated the covers and created the font. I am close to finishing the first and second book.

The settings of my fiction are imaginary. I prefer a universe I customize to the uninspiring reality we live in.

The pending books are about an SS officer and his teenage daughter as the villains. The girl’s mother and half-sister are the heroes.

The Nazis are the baddies but so are the Confederates. They are contemporaries as thriving empires. The setting is the 1930s but as the modern day. Speech was never confounded into languages and weapons of mass-destruction are obsolete.

I could have set the stories in authentic history. It would be easy to substitute the Confederacy with the Empire of Japan. The adventures in Latin America would be in East Asia instead, no problem. The characters would speak whatever languages they were required to know. The 1930s would be as they actually were, no problem. The atomic bomb was not ready until the 1940s, so there is nothing for me to change about that.

The SS officer is a sorcerer. His daughter is an enchantress. The girl’s mother and half-sister are both psychic. I could tell their stories without including magic and psychic powers. They still use guns, knives and technology, so no problem.

I could easily have written these pending books as historical fiction. They could be entirely realistic without changing much. Still, I would be uninterested. I want the supposedly ridiculous aspects. The reality is uninteresting to me without it.

If my preferences are faulty then stories better than mine prove it, especially if better for the very things I dislike. Alas, countless realistic stories have been written. Endless volumes of authentic history have been written. How would my work be better for being what we already have ad nauseam?

https://www.deviantart.com/yellowplasma/journal/Worlds-of-My-Making-2-1060632082