Beyond the Pale

Imagination has its limits. Much of them are self-imposed. We fret whether an idea is “ridiculous” or “blasphemous” or “hateful” or “indecent” or whatever else. We are proud and want our thoughts to be intelligent. We are social creatures and hesitant to even imagine what is socially unacceptable.

I write fiction. My craft is all about imagination. I provide it. When people read my books, they are daydreaming what I imagined for them.

My stories are supposedly ridiculous, blasphemous, hateful and indecent.

1^st EXAMPLE:

My novel Sorcerer of the Realm is “ridiculous” because it is an alternate history with magic and the names of places are unfamiliar. It is “blasphemous” because it suffers witches to live. It is “hateful” because the title character is a sympathetic though genocidal Nazi. It is “indecent” because his teenage daughter is in love with him.

2^nd EXAMPLE:

My novella The Black Death of White Women is “ridiculous” because it is about black women who casually murder white women in broad daylight… and get away with it. It is “blasphemous” because the killers go to church and thank God for the endless supply of victims. It is “hateful” because the killings are racially motivated and "indecent" because they are sexually gratifying.

3^rd EXAMPLE:

My novel The Wayward School for Girls is “ridiculous” because it is entirely dreamlike. It is “blasphemous” because mainstream religion in the story is satanic. It is “hateful” because the institutions of the world are vilified. It is “indecent” because the villains rape and murder children. The foot soldiers of villainy are children and they are slaughtered in droves by the protagonists.

My work is imaginative… because I bother to imagine. I do not narrow my thoughts to keep them “sensible” or “clean” or any other such common insincerity. I mean what I write. The stories are not to trick you into believing anything untrue or to turn you against God or society or to vilify anyone real or to pervert or disgust you. They are dreams to be dreamt… for whatever mysterious reason we dream at all.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Death-White-Women-ebook/dp/B0C14VBGPP/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2I1Z5L6CKG6A&keywords=shawn+o%27toole&qid=1680400033&s=books&sprefix=shawn+o%27toole%2Cstripbooks%2C112&sr=1-8

The Glory of Fiction

If our reality was a fictional universe, it would not be as it is shown in our actual fiction. The wars would not be good against evil. The heroes would not be heroic. There would never be last minute justice in the courtroom.

Things would not be as bad as it often is in fiction, either. Tragedies would rarely be as tragic. Evil would never triumph, despite it countless victories.

Our reality is not as we perceive it. Even when our views are correct, things are never quite the way we assume. We never fully know those whom we know. We never quite understand ourselves, either.

Our reality is the first fiction. God wrote it. When he said “Let there be light” he illustrated it. The story began and shall end. It is already written. We have only to wait for God to finish reading what he wrote. He is editing as he goes along. The final edition shall be the new heaven and the new earth.

I write fiction. I create universes and populate them with characters. I finish writing stories then read what I wrote, editing as I go along.

Humanity was made in the image and likeness of God. We can write and illustrate fiction because of this. We are capable of an insight beyond the otherwise superior perception of the angels. Like our Father in Heaven, we can edit our reality. This is why our sins can be forgiven.

Jesus is the Word of God. It is because of him that I can imagine and create. I write books and illustrate the covers. I create the title fonts. I love what I do. I love what I make. His father, your Father in Heaven is love. My fiction is divine accordingly.

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

Pending Stories of a Weird World

I write books and illustrate the covers… or I illustrate covers then write the books.

My novel THE WAYWARD SCHOOL FOR GIRLS was a short story that became a novel. It was set in a new universe and creating universes is my thing… so I illustrated a cover for the book TALES OF A WEIRD WORLD, to give the universe a name. I then wrote the book, using some older stories in the beginning.

Nameless baddies are my specialty as a writer and illustrator. I consider Wayward Sentry Girls among my best. Not only do I love their look, but they are naturally born conscripts. I generally favor cheap and easily mass-produced clones, but I do fancy the naturally born… if they are indoctrinated normal people, not reprobate hirelings.

I illustrated the cover for the pending book STORIES OF A WEIRD WORLD. I have already begun writing stories for it. The entire project is because nameless baddies are my favorite characters in all fiction. I created my own and these girls are excellent… as incompetent foot soldiers of villainy.

My Questionable Themes

My Black Death series of books is about black women serial killing young white women. My White Empires books are about a white man committing the mass murder of the disabled, homosexuals and other races.

The black women committing murder are the heroines of their story. The white man committing mass murder is arguably the hero of his.

If I was judged by the fiction I wrote, it could be argued that I am hateful. The argument would be sophistry, however.

My characters are not my avatars in the fiction I write. They are their own people. Yes, I craft their dialog and actions, but as an outsider. Their world is not my own.

My stories are not wishful thinking as prose. I am uninterested in reality, except as the place where I can write fiction. I do enjoy illustrating covers and creating title fonts, but for my own work. The three endeavors are the same projects.

The joy of storytelling is the fun I have daydreaming fantasies. I share the fun. When people comment on what they read, I see what I fantasize from new perspectives. My own imagination expands accordingly.

Why the questionable themes?

Why not? How is keeping our imagination tame a good thing?

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

Described as the Mainstream

I write books and illustrate the covers. My work is my own, but people are unfamiliar with it until they read it. They need a basis of comparison to have an idea what my fiction is like.

Using the mainstream…

My novel Agents of the Eye and Ear can be described as The Lord of the Rings as a spy thriller written by Tom Clancy.

My Strange Galaxy series of books can be described as Mass Effect co-written by H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard.

My Black Death series can be described as the movie Natural Born Killers written as a book by William S. Burroughs if he was heterosexual.

My novel The Wayward School for Girls can be described as The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland as a movie directed by David Lynch based on a book written by Roald Dahl.

My novel Sorcerer of the Realm can be described as Wolfenstein and Arcane as the same story co-written by Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick.

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

Life is but a Dream

I write fiction. My stories are weird. They are violent and sexual but the violence is seldom gruesome and the sex rarely explicit. There is nuance in the weirdness.

My fiction is like dreams to me. It is the turning of thoughts and feelings into symbols and scenarios. Writing the stories focuses my thoughts and tempers the feelings. I am confused at first but understand after finishing.

Readers are shocked by my themes. My Black Death series is about black women serial killing young white women. My Weird World series has children as the nameless baddies, and they are slaughtered in droves. My White Empires books are about Nazis and Confederates as sympathetic antagonists.

If my fiction is political, then the politics are contradictory. Why would black women be heroes killing white women then Nazis and Confederates be sympathetic for killing black people?

The social commentary in my stories is not propaganda. It is me dreaming about things that affect me in my real life. My society frets racism and fascism and I am made to fret accordingly. I sublimate my anxiety into stories written to be enjoyed.

I imagined little boys as cannibalistic savages and little girls as brainwashed conscripts. I am not worried about little boys eating me or little girls shooting me.

Children are human nature before it is tempered by maturity. In reality I am more likely to be murdered by a man than a woman and a woman is more likely to hate me over politics. These distinctions are exaggerated in my novel The Wayward School for Girls to emphasize them, as if enlarging a picture to make it easier to see.

My fiction is typically weird because they are my waking dreams, quite literally. Like the dreams of my sleep, they make more sense as nonsense.

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

Art or Merchandise

Fiction is art… but as publishing it is a business. As art, it is whatever the writer wants to write. As business it is the making of a product that can be sold.

I am an artist. I write fiction. I illustrate the covers and create the title fonts. I sell books but so few my self-publishing cannot be claimed as a business.

If I, by some miracle, became a published author, it is extremely unlikely that my covers or fonts would be used. As an employee, I would have no say in the matter. If my books sold, I would be glad for the money. The income would make my life easier.

I work in fast food and retail. The income pays my bills and gives me spending money. The hours are long and the labor exhausting, but so is the writing of books and the illustrating of covers.

I would rather write books entirely my own way, using the covers I illustrate myself. It is what I am doing already.

I would love to be rich writing books and illustrating the covers… so long as my art is the priority. That can only happen if I am the only one who has a say… and that is not how business works in this world. Then again, the world is uninterested in my work as of yet. Time shall tell what we can only guess.

I shall be busy as an artist in the meantime.

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