Heya! I’m Jaime Buckley.
Storyteller, cartoonist & family man, who’s building personal relationships with my close-knit community of friends [a.k.a. readers].
It’s about the heart, not the herd.
I create the kind of content I wish I had when I was a kid.
Life of Fiction is the magical hub where I write stories from the Wanted Hero world. I write for…everyone. Oh, I’m sure there’s some demographic, or age, or SOMEthing I’m supposed to pay attention to, but I have no clue what that is.
I only care about you.
That also means I have enough confidence in you to decide for yourself if what I make is right for you. So if you enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, humor, or you’re interested in storytelling yourself, you’re likely to find something to sink your teeth into.
Plus, you might enjoy hanging out with me.
You never know…we’d probably become friends.
Building this fictional world is a flawed, honest, heart-felt passion, which I start at 4am, six days a week.
It’s overflowing with comical, intelligent, and oftentimes odd and/or questionable beings who have a habit of talking back. There are times when the voices in my head are so loud, my wife will stop and ask, “Did you say something, dear?”
Yeah, it’s that bad.
It’s not always the wizards, dragons, demons, or the 1.5 billion gnomes that I worry about. You can toss most of them a doughnut, put on a pot of coffee, or shoot them a memo to keep them happy. It’s the characters who insist on engaging readers in the comment sections that I have a hard time controlling.
Please be patient. They’re excited you’re here.
Why Subscribe you ask? I’ll tell you…
I write stories to entertain people & spend time visiting with my readers.
That’s it.
*GASP!*
Odd, right?
I give you a break from the every-day rat race, stress, social barf that punches everyone in the face. My goal is to get you to laugh, ponder, daydream, have awesome adventures…and if I’m lucky…close that generational gap by providing fun experiences you just might want to share with your friends & family.
The Schedule
Mondays is ‘Morning Coffee’, a personal video from me.
Tuesdays is The Underlings [paid], a fantasy serial for kids ages 5+ and their parents. An audio narration is provided with each episode, so you can listen with your kids at bedtime if you like!
Wednesdays I share artwork, development sketches to speed drawings, and everything in between.
Thursdays is the Life of Fiction podcast (including bonuses) which you can listen to through the Substack website/app OR any podcast platform you like (Apple, Spotify, even YouTube, etc.).
Chronicles of a Hero [paid] will be sent out Fridays…just in time for the weekend.
I scheduled your exclusive content on Fridays afternoons so you can read by the pool, by the fire with a hot cup of tea / coffee / coco, or on the couch snuggled under that amazing comforter Aunt May quilted for your birthday.
Read at your leisure.
…and you get a direct connection to me. Yay!
My “WHY” (microwave version)
Ever since I created my first fantasy comic book and shared it online as a PDF, I knew I’d tell stories for the rest of my life. That was over 20 years and a million downloads ago. Wanted Hero is my love. It is my passion. It is my obsession. Characters and creatures still scratch at the back of my mind, bubbling up from my inkwell, trying to escape. Thousands of personalities and accidental heroes, seamlessly interwoven across adventures,…and I’d like to share them all with you.
Especially Wendell, the 17 year old accidental hero.
The world of WANTED HERO has held a special place in the lives of my family. Stories started at bedtime, shared by candlelight. Once turned into comics, this experience was eagerly consumed by nieces and nephews, neighbors and friends. When strangers asked for them, I built a website and sold them online. As my kids got older, the stories transformed into novels, games, podcasts, uplifting merchandise and a growing fan base.
In 2022, something inside me just,…broke. Corporations and platforms kept taking the lion’s share of the profits, which meant I was forced to focus on my day job instead of my readers. Hackers kept redirecting links and infesting my websites with malware. Marketing was a nightmare, outmatched by larger wallets (Google, I hope you choke on your bottom line). I didn’t want to create ‘click bait’, or a Splash Page, Lead Page, Capture Page, Landing Page, Opt-In Page…and now I think they call them ‘Squeeze Pages’.
Worst of all, I compromised the original story to run after trends.
The decision was simple: start over with the original plan. If I was going to struggle financially, then why not do it the way I’d always wanted to?
Ignore trends. Forget social media. Reach out directly to readers. Build relationships. Offer early & behind the scene access to stories, and direct access to me along the way. In that decision, I found my original voice and started writing again.
Genuine. Whole. Unapologetic.
Dang, it feels good to be me again.
If you’re interested in the whole (unabridged) story of how I got here, you can read:
My Readers Come First.
You make doing what I love possible.
Subscriptions allow me to create more and better experiences for everyone. That goes for both FREE and paid subscriptions. By having a space where we can enjoy a direct connection on the internet, I can put you first and shape the future of Life of Fiction together.
Thank you for being a part of my new story.
If you like what you see, make sure to tell a friend.
Look forward to getting to know you better =)
