This Is Who I Am, and Why These Stories Exist

I didn’t start writing fiction to escape the world.
I started writing because I didn’t want to lose myself OR lose my own family in it.
From the outside, stories look like entertainment.
Fun.
Fantasy.
Distraction.

But for as long as I can remember, fiction has been the place where I worked out what mattered… when real life felt confusing, loud, unfair or dangerous.
I grew up watching people being overwhelmed by life. Situations, relationships, and dealing with daily pressures that strangled hope and crushed any hint of resolve causing even the strongest knees to buckle.
All around me were good, kind people…quietly giving up on who they were meant to be.

Not dramatically.
Not all at once.
Just a little at a time.
They stopped believing they could change.
Stopped believing their choices mattered.
Stopped believing they mattered.
Stopped believing they were more than what the world told them they were.

That scared me.
So I started asking questions that fiction is uniquely good at asking:

What if you’re wrong about yourself?
What if failure isn’t proof of weakness, but the beginning of becoming?
What if courage isn’t loud… but chosen quietly, again and again?
That’s the soil my stories grow out of.

What I Believe Stories Are For

I don’t believe fiction exists just to entertain.
I believe it exists to train the heart.

Stories give us rehearsal space for real life.
They let us feel consequences safely.
They let us test courage before we need it.
They let us sit inside another person’s skin long enough to grow empathy.

Good stories don’t tell you what to think.
They help you see yourself more clearly.

That’s why I write fantasy.

Fantasy strips away the noise.
It removes the labels.
It lets us talk about fear, hope, faith, and failure without defenses going up.

When the world is imaginary, the truth gets through.

The Conviction Behind My Fiction

Here is the belief underneath everything I write:

You are MORE than you THINK you are.

Not in a motivational-poster way.
In a hard-earned, tested, sometimes painful way.

You are more than your worst moment.
More than your fear.
More than the story you’ve been telling yourself about why you can’t change.
You…yes you…have intrinsic value.

Parents need to teach that to their kids.
Children need to understand that about their parents.
Teachers need to align their hearts with this truth.

You don’t have to be smart, popular, good looking or talented to have value.
It doesn’t matter where you live, or how much money you make.
It doesn’t matter what religion you believe or to which political party you align with.
You have value simply because you exist.

But becoming that “more” costs something.

Choice always does.

That’s why my stories don’t promise easy victories.
They promise meaningful ones.

Why My Heroes Look the Way They Do

I don’t write perfect heroes.

I write reluctant ones.
Awkward ones.
Sarcastic ones.
Ones who would really prefer to be anywhere else.

Wendell P. Dipmier — the heart of the Chronicles of a Hero — isn’t special because he’s powerful.
He’s special because he keeps choosing forward when he’d rather retreat.

That’s the kind of hero most of us actually are.

My worlds are filled with magic, danger, absurd humor, and epic stakes…
but the real battle is always internal.

Who will you be when things cost more than you expected?
What will you choose when there’s no perfect option left?
What will you do when no one is looking or keeping score?
And who are you when everything familiar is stripped away?

The Emotional Promise I Make to Readers

If you spend time in my stories, here’s what I promise you:

I won’t mock hope.
I won’t pretend evil is harmless.
I won’t tell you that identity is shallow or accidental.

I will make you laugh.
I will make you uncomfortable sometimes.
I will let characters fail honestly.

And I will always leave room for grace.

Not because everything works out…
but because meaning survives even when it doesn’t.

Why Life of Fiction Exists

Life of Fiction isn’t just a place where I publish stories.

It’s where I slow things down long enough to remember why stories matter at all.

It’s a campfire for readers who still believe imagination shapes character.
A forge for creators who care about substance, not noise.
A place to tell stories that respect the reader’s intelligence and heart.
A home where honest, hungry readers can meet and interact with a writer who loves the process of discovering the best version of ourselves through adventures that resonate.

If that sounds like the kind of fiction you’ve been looking for…

you’re in the right place.

This is who I am.
This is what shaped me.
And this is why my fiction takes the form it does.

The rest of the story unfolds from here.

— Jaime Buckley

Jaime Buckley is the author of the Chronicles of a Hero series, published through Life of Fiction.