A World Away

As I say on my home page, this website is a “deviant” from my usual kind of writing. For several years now my own original characters and stories have been set in real world contemporary Earth. Stories that revolve around the lives of Conservative people – preppers, patriots, and country folk – and stories that revolve around the lives of paranormal investigators and the things that haunt them. As of late those two genres have really started to converge and overlap one another. But a different genre entirely has pretty much eclipsed them over the past couple of years, as I will now get into.

In summer 2021 I wrote a blog for my private writer website – a blog I titled “Escape to Fantasy” – which led to the creation of this website.

Truthfully, I guess I’ve always been prone to escaping to some version of fantasy, even if it was just ordinary people in our “normal” world. Immersing myself in the lives of imaginary characters has always been my escape, especially the ones I create in my own mind. But 2021 was the start of me really wanting to go beyond that. I wanted to escape to another world. I wanted to see the heroes and the actions that I wasn’t seeing here on Earth. I wanted to see Good conquering Evil. I wanted to see an older, more natural and traditional world. I wanted to see battles and victory and challenges overcome. I wanted to see men – truly good, masculine, honorable men – fighting for who and what they love.

Naturally, I turned to fiction. So back in February 2021 I started playing Neverwinter – a MMO set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. Or “multiverse” I guess I should say. I had been pretty out of the loop regarding MMOs for a while, so I had never even heard of the game before I started playing it. While it completely lacks in variety of starting locations, it’s definitely upgraded in graphics compared to games like WoW, and has a much better and more detailed character creator. That’s probably what hooked me right there, because the first original character I made on Neverwinter would spawn several developing story ideas and ignite my curiosity for Dungeons & Dragons, as well as unearth my buried interest in the medieval fantasy genre in general.

It’s actually kind of strange how long it’s taken me to get into this. I admit I had been somewhat turned off by fantasy for the past several years. Maybe I just lost interest after a sour experience on Warcraft, but I think it also has to do with the stigma of being a writer. It seems like everyone else out there is writing fantasy or sci-fi or supernatural fantasy. Or vampires, which falls under the latter. I guess I got sick of the idea that that’s what it means to write fiction. I think I also avoided fantasy because I had never been big on stuff with magic. And I say that as someone who was into Harry Potter for a few years. Albeit I never really got into the whole wizarding world. Truthfully I find that stories and films with magic are often cheesy. They just tend to feel lame and foolish, like I’m watching a really bad movie. But I do believe it can be done in a way that doesn’t come across like that. I may struggle a bit to take magic more seriously, but I know magic and sorcery are an integral part of the genre, and I really would like to embrace the idea of a more magical life, especially with my own.

Honestly, I do feel that the medieval fantasy genre was meant to resurface in my life and become a much bigger part of it. I’ve shown interest in it in the past, even if I didn’t exactly realize back then how it all connected. I know I’ve always loved weapons and blades – swords, daggers and all that. I’ve always been drawn to knights and archers. I’ve always loved combat and fighting. I’ve always loved adventure, journeys, and quests. Always been into treasure-hunting. Always loved castles and cottages and little villages. And I’ve always liked mythical creatures. I even had a dragon phase in my early teen years. That connection I felt back then is coming back to me now.

So, I know the elements that draw me to fantasy have always been there. And I think I understand the attraction to it a lot more now. Even more so for people who have become so over and sick of our real world. With everything that’s going on these days, I really needed something away from our reality, something with righteous violence and people willing to fight and go to war to defeat Evil. And the more repulsed I become by our modern society, the more I appreciate the traditional, old world charm of the medieval age, specifically the architecture, weapons, clothes, and natural beauty.

What probably draws me more to it than anything, however, are the epic, romanticized themes of action, adventure, love, chivalry, righteous war, and heroism. Especially as an escape from our increasingly ugly, modernized, urbanized, warped, cowardly and degenerate world.

I’ve come to realize that so much of the medieval age appeals to me, that I actually want a dream home and life that incorporates a lot of its old world looks, style, and ways of doing things. Not everything, obviously, but suiting enough that it goes well with the concept of a simpler, slower-paced, off grid homesteader lifestyle. That’s the dream anyway. It’s gonna take some magical, miraculous means to achieve it. And that will be a blog worth writing about.

In the meantime, I’d really like to get more into writing for my fantasy characters and stories. I admit I’ve gotten pretty rusty with my writing over the years. The words basically just drip slowly onto the screen. It’s rare that I get sentences flowing. Especially action. I’ve indulged too much in writing out dialogue and lazily never adding the actions to go with it. I have a really bad habit of just watching my stories in my head and not typing it down. Which might actually make me the slowest writer in existence. Not something I’m proud of, I assure you. I suppose I usually need something to spark my muse. Something that really gets me in the writer zone. Not just ideas but a propelling drive to put down sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph.

I will say that my writing style has changed over time. I used to write more prose, past-tense and more novel-like. But as I’ve gotten into screenwriting and roleplay I’ve developed a habit of present-tense and not going into the characters’ heads or anything that can’t be conveyed externally. It’s very based on visuals, body language, tone and expression. I’m still kind of figuring out how I want this style to work. It’s like I’m trying to write more screen-like but in a novel way. It’s a bit of an odd transition, I know. Makes me feel like my writing is going to be even more challenging. I just hope it’s something I can get right and feel it’s good enough to share.

What I do think would help though, is some inspiration. Some reading material that would really get me back into writing action. I’d really like to start reading medieval fantasy novels again. I’m so picky about novels though, mainly because I’m so picky about characters. I want good, heroic characters and stories of true love. I want honorable, faithful men – men who are warriors, men who are courageous and adventurous, men who are righteous and chivalrous, and men whose body, heart, and soul belongs to one woman. And I want to read good, strong-minded women that are worth such devotion and share many of those same qualities as well. I’m fine with anti-hero types, as long as they are good and true heroes underneath. I’m fine with those who have fallen into a darker place. Hell, all of that is often more interesting actually. I just don’t want main characters that are whores, scumbags, and degenerates. Or any other greedy, lusty, self-serving pieces of shit. What happened to admirable, noble-hearted protagonists? Our modern society has lowered the bar so much for what it means to be a hero or a good person, or even a decent person. I’d like to see that bar set high again.

The question is, where do I find such novels? Where do I look for authors that reflect my morals and values? In my reading experience, I tend to prefer female writers. I just think they have more heart in their writing and in their characters. So I’ll most likely search for novels written by women. However I’m definitely open to stories written by men, as long as they have the themes and elements I’m looking for.

I can say what I’m NOT looking for are the erotic romance kind of novels that have been popularized by women. I want to read romance, but not exactly in that kind of way. I want the focus of the books to be action and adventure. I want all the things that draw me to the medieval fantasy genre. Yes I want novels that have a love story at their core, but they need to be made up of journeys and quests, combat and conflict, monsters and danger – everything a thrilling epic adventure should have.

I’m also thinking I might have to search for novels that were written before 2013-ish. I don’t want any third wave feminism and Leftist woke bullshit. I get irritated and disgusted enough seeing that crap in DnD content, and from every other major company and franchise. It’s warped, spineless and pathetic. I mean seriously, there’s a reason I’m looking for characters and stories that are A WORLD AWAY.

Anyway, I think that about wraps up this blog. Thanks for reading and taking an interest in my site. If anyone who reads this has any good book (or online reading) recommendations for me I’d love to hear them.