For One Day, Reality and the Paranormal Proection Society Got Too Close

The funny thing about writing is that the world happens while you’re doing it. Given that writing is not my full-time gig, even a 18-20,000-word novella like the Paranormal Protection Society can take weeks to write, then I have my editing pass, and then I send off to beta readers, editors, cover artists, etc.

I outlined what was Paranormal Protection Society Book 5 (now Paranormal Protection Society Book 6) in probably April and worked on it May and June. Outside my writing, time moved on. As a “low fantasy” series, PPS takes place in a world that except for a few details, is just like ours and on July 13, 2024 in our real world, someone took a shot at Donald Trump.

I’m not going to talk about politics in this article, but if you read Paranormal Protection Society, neither Vance nor I believe that killing is a solution to a problem. That is not a vote for or against any candidate. It’s not a pro or anti-gun sentiment. It is a statement about my respect for all life.

My Unsetting Realization

In Paranormal Protection Society 6, there is a line that I don’t really remember writing. It was part of a conversation added to add deeper insight into Vance’s personality, but as I read it on July 14, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. The conversation was about an attempt on Senator Mark Strong’s life (who you meet in Paranormal Protection Society Book 2 and is one of the series’ antagonists.)

And I knew in that moment that I could not publish that book until after the election passed. It was kind of surreal that the real world intruded into my little world of vampires and werewolves and grish-talking fairies.

I then did what any good author would do: I sent my main characters to Orlando for some fun in the amusement parks, but it has stayed with me how eerily similar my fiction and my world got for one moment.

Fiction Can Teach Lessons Without Being Didactic

I write fiction, not essays because I hope that I can make a point without being too blunt about it. Readers are more receptive to differing viewpoints when they are fictionalized rather than specific arguments either in written or spoken form. I hope my words make people think. And laugh. And maybe at the end of the day, they can brighten one little corner of the world at least for a little while.

Ultimately, Paranormal Protection Society Book 6 will come out, but I am waiting for a time when tensions might be a little less. It’s a good story. But for a time, it was a little too real.