Fuel and Fire Release Week: Fear is a Superpower
Everybody has a fear. I happen to have several. Anxiety is the gift that keeps on giving, and my brain has come up with several reasons to worry. Before I started taking anti-anxiety medicine, those fears played in loops in my head, and made me jumpy and paranoid. Even after my medication, I can easily name my top three biggest fears.
Those fears?
Burning in a fire.
Not being strong enough. (This comes in many versions - to save someone, to defend myself, etc.)
Not knowing how others see me (the judgment of others, the idea that someone may misconstrue something I say).
The other day, I had a shower thought and it led to the birth of this blog post. Somewhere between shampooing, rinsing, and repeating, I thought of an eerie thing you might believe I did on purpose, but trust me, I did not do this on purpose. There is a lot I can accurately claim to have done on purpose in the Keys & Guardians series. But this one floated into my brain when I was about three chapters away from ending the series completely.
As of the release of Fuel & Fire, the series’ prequel novella, I will have introduced a third point of view character to the series. Fuel & Fire follows Raymond Madison as we learn how his actions as a teen led to the series proper. With Fuel & Fire, I completed the trifecta of weirdness.
Ray is a man with super strength. Cool cool…that’s fear number two that my point of view character will never have to worry about.
The main series begins from the point of view of his daughter, Jacklyn Madison with The Order of the Key. Jacklyn has inherited Ray’s strength, but also possesses her mother’s ability to control fire. And there’s fear number one.
Book two, The Skeleton Key, has a split point of view. There’s Jacklyn, but there’s also her love interest from The Order of the Key, Kyp Franklin. Kyp’s ability? He can read and control minds.
That’s right. Apparently, I’d chosen characters that could easily overcome my greatest fears. It was a bizarre discovery. Weirder still is that Fuel and Fire follows Raymond’s relationships with Jacklyn’s mother, Jaina, and Kyp’s mother, Lavinia. Meaning all three fears are all represented in that one novella.
So why am I sharing this? Well, one, I just thought it was strange how the subconscious mind works. I did this with no realization of it, but it worked out rather brilliantly for me. And more importantly, it led me to a realization.
Fear is a superpower. It’s a glorious thing, and though it may drive you wild, it reveals the things that are important to you. We can use our fears, we can challenge them, we can explore them, and we can create something that feels like release.
You never know where your dreams will take you and apparently, you don’t know where your fears will take you either.
