Once Upon a Times and Happily Ever Afters

I’ve always been enamored by fairy tales.They draw me in from the moment I hear “Once upon a time,” and don’t let go of me until I hear “Happily ever after.” There’s something so innocent and beautiful in the magical world of a fantasy story. Although I often find myself wishing I could be apart of a true fantasy world, I’m satisfied with reading and writing this genre. I love that there are no rules laid out. Anything can happen. Anything is possible. Fantasy knows no bounds. It is free to be whatever story it wants to be.

As I continue working on my fantasy fiction novel, I revel in the fact that I picked a genre that is so free from constraints. I can create whole new worlds, languages, species, magical abilities; and no one can tell me I’m wrong. It’s completely my world. I’ll never have to hear, “Wait, that’s not realistic at all!” Fantasy isn’t realistic, and that’s what makes it so beautiful. It draws us away from this world and carries us into our imagination world. The world that is the most fun. The world that takes you back to your childhood and conjures up those old, dusty dreams you used to have of being a great hero.

I often think of J. R. R. Tolkien when I think of an author who did fantasy the greatest justice of all. He literally created an entire elvish language that any one of us could speak if we chose to study it. That to me is brilliance at its best! It shows me Tolkien was deep, insightful, intellectual, and he knew how to dream. I want to be like that. I want to impress, surprise, amaze, astonish, astound, thrill, mystify my readers. I desire to follow in the footsteps of a Tolkien or a C.S. Lewis. I want to create my own world. I want people to read my books and find freedom from the mundane day-to-day tasks. I want them to be able to escape from all the rampant evil of the world through my books.

I don’t want to write about zombies and vampires or all the other regurgitated stories out there. I want something all my own. Something crazy unique and phenomenal that will carry my book long into the future. At the end of my life, I want to be able to look back to my past and smile because I made it. I worked hard, paid my dues and I made it.

So you know that book that’s super amazing that no one can put down? Yeah, that’s going to be mine in a few years. So watch out for me 😉