Weird World

I started writing Weird World on February 15, 2024. It began with a short story that became the novel The Wayward School for Girls. The universe was named in the title of the second book, the collection Tales of a Weird World.

Since childhood, I am fascinated by the surreal and scary. My favorite thing to imagine is the easy killing of clueless guards by the bare hands of someone bigger and stronger. I created Weird World to express these interests.

A fantasy can be a simple idea imagined as one scenario. It can be written as a short story. That is how Weird World began. It became a novel as the very idea inspired more ideas. Other interests were incorporated.

Immersion requires context... and context requires depth and consistency.

A universe is limited if merely the setting of one story and its cast of characters. Tales of a Weird World had nothing to do with The Wayward School for Girls... except that the villain was a villain in other stories with different heroes.

The novel The Wayward Monster Girl is the third Weird World book written, followed by the collection Stories of a Weird World. The universe expanded into a setting distinct from its protagonists. The villains became suitable baddies for countless stories with new heroes.

Book on Amazon

Impersonally Intimate

I write fiction. My Weird Word universe is a dreamlike horror setting. Characters are children or elderly because of their state of mind, not actual age. The same character can go from one to the other then back again, but not by will. It happens naturally.

The villains are typically adults. They use children as cheap labor and cannon-fodder.

Not every character is human. These Other Folk are what they are from the beginning and indefinitely.

The novel The Wayward Monster Girl is about a little girl turned into a monster by adults meaning to use her as a weapon. She is bitten by her vampiric doppelganger and seemingly dies. Alas, the blood is the life of the body... and the girl becomes the doppelganger. The human becomes a monster without losing her humanity.

The victim becomes the hero. Girls turned into killers by mind control are sent to kill her... only to be slaughtered in droves. Monsters are sent after her... only to be slain by their intended prey.

The protagonist becomes a hero by becoming a monster. She enjoys killing girls like herself with pathetic ease... and is a monster accordingly. She only kills armed hostiles, however, never the innocent... and is human accordingly.

The monstrous heroine prefers the easy killing of humans to the challenge of killing other monsters. When asked about it, she explains, “Easy is fun. You can do something and relax at the same time.”

The heroine is whimsical. She does not think about her motives unless asked. Her answer is always immediate and flippant, though sincere. It is not merely the ease that makes the killing of humans fun. It is her own humanity. She can relate to her victims, though they are strangers. The violence is impersonally intimate accordingly.

Book on Amazon

Dramatically Happy

I am a storyteller as a writer of fiction. As such, I am mindful that it is easier to make a story dramatic by making it tragic. Simply craft a character according to what is obviously sympathetic and then kill him or his dearest loved one.

I do better than what is easy.

My most dramatic work is the Sorcerer series of my White Empires universe. Its most endearing character is its villain, a genocidal war criminal. His specialty is mass-murdering children. He recruits his teenage daughter to assist him. The reader wants him to be defeated... yet is likely to weep when he is. His archenemy, the sympathetic mother of his daughter prevails, so the story is not a tragedy.

A story that makes you weep by its happy ending is greater than any tragedy. Unlike a sad ending, it inspires you. It gives you hope rather than makes you cynical.

I do write tragedies. It is not to easily evoke strong emotions. It is to convey something meaningful. The doom of the protagonist is spiritual before physical, thus justified.

We yearn for goodness in a world of evil. You are the evil... though you are not alone. Despite your desperate wickedness, you intuitively understand that there is no satisfaction without justice. There is only gratification at best... and you become numb and restless whether gratified or not.

Even fiction ultimately fails to satisfy unless justice prevails, for better or worse. A tragedy is ultimately pathetic even as make-believe unless its victim deserves his grim fate. The innocent victims must be avenged... or the story is lacking.

Books on Amazon

A Weird World to Read, Watch or Play

I write fiction... as novels or short stories. I create universes by doing so. Each universe is with a particular genre in mind, though stories can be of any genre so long as they are consistent with established lore.

I write the prose with the idea that it can be converted into any other medium of fiction. The books lend themselves to being turned into comic books, shows, movies, tabletop role-playing games or video games.

My Weird World universe is already four books, as two novels and two collections of short stories. The genre is dark fantasy as survival horror. Children are usually the heroes. They are often characters of classical literature re-imagined into new characters with the surnames of the original authors.

The strangeness of Weird World would make it visually amazing as comic books. The stories emphasize dialog, which would make a show dramatic. The action lends itself to movies.

The protagonists usually seem like normal children... but prove superhuman. They have special skills and powers, which are not always obvious at first.

Weird World is the lore of many heroes. They travel to various and exotic locales while adventuring. They find various items and treasures. They encounter many creatures, some of them helpful but others hostile. The universe is ideal for role-playing games.

Heroes are most interesting as the slayers of monsters and baddies. Weird World has many monsters and baddies. The lore itself provides plenty of enemies for players to fight.

Everything about Weird World is what it is because of its rogue's gallery. The masterminds challenge the heroes to think. The monsters challenge the heroes to be brave. The foot soldiers of villainy set a standard by which the heroes can be objectively measured. The variety of baddies provides a challenge for every aspect of human nature. The universe is immersive accordingly. Its heroes are endearing accordingly... even if player characters in a story that is actually a game.

I do hope Weird World becomes more than prose. I want to see it in action. I am eager to play.

Book on Amazon

Two Novels Inspired by Two Movies

Since childhood, I have been fascinated by dreamlike survival horror stories. The interest was inspired by my interpretation of the movies Alice in Wonderland (1951) and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

I wrote novels that are mature expressions of my childhood fancy. I finished The Goddess of Self in 2017 and The Wayward School for Girls in 2024. They are very similar... yet very different.

The Goddess of Self is about a girl from our world who travels back and forth between reality and an alternate reality. What is normal to us is normal to her. What is weird to us is weird to her. She is our representative. The novel is very much like Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz in this regard.

The Wayward School for Girls is about girls native to an alternate reality. What is weird to us is normal to them. They are as strange as anything else in the story.

The protagonists of The Wayward School for Girls are “Alice” of Alice in Wonderland and “Dorothy” of The Wizard of Oz... but as girls in the modern day. They have special powers based on their strange abilities in their original fiction.

The Goddess of Self is my version of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. It is not fan-fiction, however. It is original.

Though the protagonists of The Wayward School for Girls were inspired by those of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, the story is not. It is my actual dreams, my nightmares specifically, but turned into fiction with “Alice” and “Dorothy” instead of myself as the main characters.

Books on Amazon

Heroic Nightmares

When I dream, the fantasy is reality. The weirdness is normal. None of it is strange until I fully awaken.

I write fiction, and have since childhood. I am inspired by my dreams. I crafted my Weird World universe to be a reality like the one I live in while asleep.

My favorite dreams are nightmares. Though terrible while I sleep, they prove inspiring when I awaken. My best fiction is because of them. Weird World is the horror genre accordingly.

My most inspiring dreams were during childhood. The best of these were nightmares, of course. The protagonists of Weird World are usually children accordingly. I relive the thrills of my childhood through them.

I do prefer a fight to running away. I remember in one dream when I heard the growling of a monster on the other side of a door. The unseen horror was coming after me. I was terrified. I thought I was doomed. “So be it,” my own voice told me. “Don't go down without a fight.” The monster came through the door and lunged at me. I hit it with a flurry of punches. Much to my surprise, I was winning.

Weird World is many stories. Protagonists are doomed in some of them. They are triumphant in others. Though the fiction is the horror genre, some of it is survival horror specifically.

My thematic specialty as a writer of fiction is the foot soldiers of villainy, female versions specifically. The very purpose of the archetype is to establish a standard of ordinary by which heroes can be measured. When the heroes are children... so are the foot soldiers of villainy.

As for the monsters...

They either eat the protagonist... or the child proves a hero and does what heroes do best... and slays the monster.

Deviantart

Morally Superior Storytelling

The HERO is a combatant. His excellence as such is why he is the hero. The FOOT SOLDIERS OF VILLAINY are combatants. Their ineffectiveness against him is why he is the hero. The VILLAIN is what he is whether a combatant or not. He is dangerous to the hero regardless.

The best villain is the smartest character in the story. It does not matter that his underlings are slaughtered in droves with pathetic ease. His agenda is never about them. He has a grand scheme and so long as it comes to fruition, he wins.

The most difficult part of creating the perfect villain is to plan his brilliant plan. He is a genius... and showing it requires the intelligence of the storyteller. That is a problem if the storyteller is not actually smart.

The ultimate villain is wasted unless against the ultimate hero... and vice versa. Each can thrive without the other but never at their best. They are the perfect match.

The hero does not outwit the villain. On the contrary, he is tricked. He is manipulated into serving the very agenda he is trying to thwart.

The ultimate hero is someone beyond the sum of his parts. He is stronger than his superhuman strength. He is the personification of an ideal. He is the very thing he fights for.

The struggle of good against evil is spiritual. Though fought physically, it is beyond the physics.

The struggles in reality are worldly more often than not. The propaganda claims good against evil... but insincerely.

Our best fiction is the ideal, not the reality. It is our spiritual yearning for the triumph of good against evil. The ultimate hero represents goodness, even if as an antihero. The ultimate villain represents evil, even if sympathetic.

MORAL SUPERIORITY!

The FOOT SOLDIERS OF VILLAINY are an archetype with the very specific role of establishing a standard of ordinary by which the HERO is measured. He proves how extraordinary he is in proportion to how many of them he can outmatch till overwhelmed. The excellence of the actual villain becomes obvious when unlike the nameless baddies, he proves formidable, one way or another.

In the ultimate BOSS FIGHT, the VILLAIN is about to win when the HERO defeats him. This is whether the fight is combat or otherwise. The excellence of the hero proves not good enough. His actual GOODNESS is the decisive factor. The very thing he fights for prevails.

My Books on Amazon