To Create
“It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creation.” -Gustave Flaubert.
All my life, I have been a reader. I love Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and Suspense. There is nothing better than a well-told story filled with dynamic characters and the adventure of a lifetime. It brings about a sense of nostalgia for me. Even today, part of my 9-5 job allows me to listen to Audible. My media library is equally as impressive as my actual library. It’s filled with books I have read and fallen in love with, new books that are “in progress,” and a never-ending stack of “must haves” that I will get to eventually.
But the nostalgia does not end there. Listening and reading takes me back to my youth when those stories and books were so much more. They were my lifeblood, my adventures. I helped Frodo carry the ring to Mordor, I was there when Hazel and BigWig fought to claim their new home in Watership Down, and I helped the unnamed narrator escape the Martians, their tripods, and deathrays in the War of the Worlds. Those are only a few of my adventures.
When I finished these stories, I was sad that my adventure was over, but I claimed those adventures and those victories for myself. But they were not mine. I was only one boy experiencing those adventures in a world where boys and girls before me had experienced them, and many more after me would go on those journeys and experience them for themselves.
My adventures would start once after the story was finished. I would constantly ponder and daydream about those characters and their experiences. But it was never as fulfilling as reading it for the first time. Then, one day, the daydreams changed. It was not the same old friends from stories read and re-read over and over again. It was new friends. Wonderful friends whose languages I had to learn and home worlds I had to investigate. So that is what I did. I created them, and they were there.
Somewhere along the line, it got complicated. There were so many languages, people, creatures, and places that I started making notes. I don’t know why I made the notes or daydreamed the way I did. I was now a young man in his twenties, and these ideas kept coming. Talking rats that moved and went on door-kicking missions like the navy seals, valleys collapsed into total darkness when an evil entity consumed its light source, and a last human outpost manned by four soldiers on a beach on a faraway planet loaded with hostile inhabitants.
One day, it all made sense. I had been making these notes and saving these ideas for one purpose. To write them and share them. So, that’s what I did. I wrote them out, filled the empty spaces, and stretched the truth. I loved every minute of it. Instead of reading about other people’s adventures, I wrote my own. I would send some adventure-hungry person on the adventure they had been searching for. The daydreams and ideas never stopped coming, but now they had a purpose. To be read aloud, alone, shared, or kept secret. It did not matter to me.
I write Science-Fiction and Fantasy for young readers. I write for them, hoping that my stories and characters will move in them and take a place in their hearts and imaginations, like so many great authors and theirs did for me. I write to create action and adventure.
Above in this post, I mentioned the daydreams of the talking rats. This story will be shared with the world on September 3rd,2024! This story began to take shape in my mind over a decade ago. “Freedom Through the Narrow Gate” follows the story of Jacob, a young mouse yearning for adventure. Along the way, he uncovers a deep family secret, makes new friends, and understands the meaning of hope, forgiveness, and redemption. It is an adventure that I am proud to share with you all! It is the perfect story for readers of all ages and appeals to fans of some of the beloved classics mentioned above. I hope it becomes for you what so many stories have done for me.
Mark David Pullen combines his love of science fiction/ fantasy and action/adventure to create dynamic stories the whole family will love. He is the author of the award-winning series, “The Oasis Chronicles”. His debut novel, “The Oasis King: The Oasis Chronicles,” received the Pencraft Literary Award for Excellence and an Honorable Mention in the New York State Book Festival. The second book in the series, “Freedom Through the Narrow Gate,” will be released in September of this year. Stir your creativity and spark your imagination as you prepare to enter the adventures of The Oasis.