Category: Magic

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What if books could control your mind? Could you resist?

I thought I’d give you a question to puzzle over, in this blog… if books could control your mind, could you resist?

A recap… what forms the worlds of the Word Guardians

In What are the Worlds of the Word Guardians I talked about word magic and how it forms the worlds, or realms, that the characters visit.

When reading, a scene forms in the mind’s eye of readers and the story plays out. This is not just imagination; it takes shape in a magical realm. It’s like a stage, where props and actors are formed from the magic and play out the scene. Many readers can unconsciously collaborate, witnessing and shaping the scene in the mind’s eye, and the realm responds, changing what’s presented to match the collective imagination of the readers.

How the Controllers control

In Introducing the Controllers, the Word Guardians ‘bad guys’, I described how this process of imagination can be influenced. Controllers can visit and change the scene in the realm using word magic. This can then be ‘seen’ by readers and influence their imagination. It can be mundane, or more impactful and that’s where the battle between the Controllers and the Guardians starts to play out. It’s a battle for control versus free will.

On a visit to Victorian London, Yas learns that most readers ignore things that don’t make sense. But subtlety is the key here. The Controllers make changes that readers accept as a seed and then that can be expanded upon to greater effect. It influences the thoughts of readers, placing suggestions of fake news, or as we see with Book 3 The Shadow Readers, readers can be incited to action to further the Controllers’ goals.

So if this happened to you, how would you know?

If someone was subtly influencing your thoughts, would you recognize the signs?  With so much influence in general in the world already, what ways can we safeguard our minds?

Like the Shadow Readers in book 3, if we’re being controlled and taking uncharacteristic actions, or performing unhealthy habits we hope that family and friends would challenge us. That would be one call back to reality.

If it’s more subtle though, as we’re influenced by stories, it could change our beliefs over time. Perhaps we might express those views, but other than that, there may be no external signs.

What about if a Controller influences us to say or do something that conflicts with our own values (see Waking up to core values in a time of crisis)? Would we become caught up in it or would it jar internally and cause us to pause for a moment?

Could you resist?

Ultimately, we must question what we read, see and hear and I’ve touched on this from the Guardians perspective in How do the Word Guardians determine the truth. We should ask who has presented a story and why now? What might benefit whom from the way in which it has been portrayed? Only then can we start to know our own thoughts and form our own beliefs, versus trusting what comes to us.

So, what do you think? If a book started to control your mind, would you notice? Could you resist? I’d be interested to hear what you think.

And, to learn more about how mind control happens in the series, you’ll have to read the series. Click the button below to view the books in your usual Amazon store (all the books in the series are available in paperback and kindle editions).

The Word Guardians book series

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What makes a villain a villain? Who is Orfeo?

Continuing the theme of Who are your favourite characters in books? and What makes a hero?, it’s time to look at what makes a villain a villain.

What is it that sets a villain apart from an antagonist?

Who are the villains in the Word Guardians series?

Well, the villains of the series are the Controllers. They want to influence the minds of readers so that they can achieve their goal, control. To avoid plot spoilers, you’ll have to read the books to identify and understand all the villains in the series. There are some characters that act as antagonists but aren’t, and vice versa. And they seem to be this way because they are either protecting themselves while they figure out who they can trust or just acting out an agenda and haven’t yet revealed their cards. I can however share the name of one of the major villains of the series though, and that’s Orfeo, the vampire with a grand plan.

Who is Orfeo?

When you first meet Orfeo, he’s busy manipulating Detective Wheeler (who I’ve talked about in Waking up to core values in a time of crisis. Wheeler tells him what is going on within the police force, so that Orfeo can gain control of the Police Commissioner, as we see in Book 2.

Why does he want to do this? Like all good villains he wants control the story, in this case both inside and out of the magical realms. He uses a form of telepathic control, and uses some readers to incite all sorts of outcomes, none of which are pleasant.  Orfeo claims all the trouble is from a small faction of insurgents called the Word Guardians. And he does this to justify a crackdown from the police.  Ultimately, he wants the Word Guardians captured.

Villain or just antagonist?

So, knowing a little more about him, is Orfeo a villain or just an antagonist? To answer the question, we need to look at definitions of each.

A dictionary definition of an antagonist is that of someone opposing another. This doesn’t necessarily have to be evil or criminal in nature, but typically is someone opposing a protagonist within a story.

In contrast, the dictionary definition of a villain is that of someone blamed for evil or difficulty. It’s antagonistic in nature, but it indicates a deeper level. It’s likely criminal, wants to see the downfall or deposing of protagonists and is often dishonest and immoral in nature.

Based on these, Orfeo doesn’t sound like just an antagonist, does he? He’s wanting to expose the Word Guardians and while doing that he’s seeding and growing hatred of their cause, for his gain. It’s immoral and points to a wider evil, that of control of people’s imaginations so that they can do his bidding.

But who prevails?

Be honest, you want to know who wins, right? The Word Guardians or Orfeo?

And of course, I can’t tell you here. You’re going to have to read books 1 and 2 to find out. What I can tell you though is that you’ll also learn a little more about his background, his relationship with his number one, Raelinn, (who I’ve also talked about in The good and bad sides of loyalty), and some of his motivations for his dastardly deeds.

So, click the button below to view the books in your usual Amazon store (all the books in the series are available in paperback and kindle editions).

The Word Guardians book series

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New Year, old beginnings, here we go again

It’s the New Year, a time for hopes and plans for the coming year, new beginnings. But be honest, how many of us have had that thought of ‘here we go again’? That sense of old beginnings and we’ve tried this before, what will be different this time?

Whether it’s a new diet and exercise regime, to have more time with the family, or plan some bigger ticket items like travelling, it’s like we felt as though we had clarity during the holidays but now (for many of us) as the normal working weeks resume, the motivation and drive become lost.

With this in mind, I thought I’d share an excerpt for a character from Book 4 Lost Beginnings who had this exact same feeling.

Mira’s drive to work

The next morning, Mira Cornwalth was driving to work, listening to the radio. It was depressing, like the weather. Rain hammered the windows of her old SUV, par for the course really in the temperate rainforest of Vancouver’s North Shore. She mused to herself, as she did often, why she was here.

She slowed, approaching a red light at an intersection. She knew the logical train of events leading up to now, but there always seemed to be something that she’d missed in her story. Perhaps it was the rain and greyness of the day that soured her mood. She was also late, again, and wanting to get through the traffic faster.

The lights changed and she grew impatient with the car in front not moving.

“Come on,” she moaned. She ‘bipped’ her car horn “It’s green!”

The man in the car in front gestured angrily out of the window.

Mira lowered the window in response and shouted back. “Really!” She got a spatter of driving rain in response, and quickly closed it again.

The car started moving and Mira took the opportunity to move into the left lane, hoping to get past the driver.

She turned up the radio, as the traffic report started. She’d already been caught up in one slow line because of a flooded lane. She was hoping to avoid another delay. Her boss would not be happy with her tardiness again, and she was fed up with making the same excuse.

She pulled up at another red light, this time turning right and at the head of the line. Fortunately, no-one was crossing but her fifteen-year-old SUV decided to sputter and die on her.

“No, no,” Mira complained. “Come on,” she urged, gripping the wheel with one hand while trying the ignition again.

A car horn behind her bipped.

“Yeah, well, I deserved that,” she said to herself, seeing the irony of the situation. “Come on,” she urged the car again.

She closed her eyes, rubbed her hands and placed them on the steering wheel.

There was a flash of words running around the rim and then down the steering column and into the ignition. The car sparked into life as a second car horn beeped her from behind.

“Yeah, yeah,” Mira replied, gesturing her irritation with her hands. She shifted the car into gear and started to make the turn. “Jeez.”The next morning, Mira Cornwalth was driving to work, listening to the radio. It was depressing, like the weather. Rain hammered the windows of her old SUV, par for the course really in the temperate rainforest of Vancouver’s North Shore. She mused to herself, as she did often, why she was here.

She slowed, approaching a red light at an intersection. She knew the logical train of events leading up to now, but there always seemed to be something that she’d missed in her story. Perhaps it was the rain and greyness of the day that soured her mood. She was also late, again, and wanting to get through the traffic faster.

The lights changed and she grew impatient with the car in front not moving.

“Come on,” she moaned. She ‘bipped’ her car horn “It’s green!”

The man in the car in front gestured angrily out of the window.

Mira lowered the window in response and shouted back. “Really!” She got a spatter of driving rain in response, and quickly closed it again.

The car started moving and Mira took the opportunity to move into the left lane, hoping to get past the driver.

She turned up the radio, as the traffic report started. She’d already been caught up in one slow line because of a flooded lane. She was hoping to avoid another delay. Her boss would not be happy with her tardiness again, and she was fed up with making the same excuse.

She pulled up at another red light, this time turning right and at the head of the line. Fortunately, no-one was crossing but her fifteen-year-old SUV decided to sputter and die on her.

“No, no,” Mira complained. “Come on,” she urged, gripping the wheel with one hand while trying the ignition again.

A car horn behind her bipped.

“Yeah, well, I deserved that,” she said to herself, seeing the irony of the situation. “Come on,” she urged the car again.

She closed her eyes, rubbed her hands and placed them on the steering wheel.

There was a flash of words running around the rim and then down the steering column and into the ignition. The car sparked into life as a second car horn beeped her from behind.

“Yeah, yeah,” Mira replied, gesturing her irritation with her hands. She shifted the car into gear and started to make the turn. “Jeez.”

Hopes and dreams can get lost in the day to day

When we need to focus on the detail of our day-to-day activities, we lose sight of bigger picture dreams and plans. We don’t have the time or energy to get to them. Before we know it, tomorrow becomes a week and we catch ourselves self berating when we have a moment of space and stillness.

Typically, our working life involves our rational, logical, right side of the brain. Even if our occupation is creative in nature, there’s planning and organising, and that’s without considering all the other tasks in life as parents, adults, homeowners etc. It takes time and energy and can become overwhelming quickly, preventing us from getting to that extra thing that’s for us. We lose grip of our plans despite our best efforts.

Making it sustainable

From my own life, I know that letting go of a goal but having a sustainable practice is key to moving forwards with any dream and plan. With my own writing, I started out with setting aside an hour a week, typically on a Sunday morning. I didn’t set a goal for how much I needed to achieve each session, nor how long I might take to write a novel. I just sat and wrote. I found that I enjoyed the practice, it fit into my life, and I was rewarded with what I was able to create over time. These three things have not only enabled me to sustain it and make it a habit, but I find it’s something I look forward to each week, and it’s something that I continue with today.

Ultimately, dreams and plans don’t have to get lost in the day to day if you can find even some small way to include them in your week.

How will you make your dreams and plans sustainable in 2026?

Now turning it over to you, what plans and dreams do you have for 2026? And how will you make time for a sustainable practice in your week to start to progress towards these? Feel free to share in the comments below.

And, to learn more about Mira’s adventures in the realms, buy and read Book 4 The Lost Beginnings. P.S. You’ll want to read books 1 to 3 too as that helps give the background for the other characters. All the books are available on Amazon in paperback and kindle editions. Click the button below to go to your country’s Amazon store.

The Word Guardians book series

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The magic of the season, and how do we find it?

It’s the last month of the year, and for many cultures and faiths it marks a time of preparation leading up to the holidays. It also evokes a lot of memories, dreams and feelings too, so let’s talk a little about the magic of the season.

Memories, dreams and feelings

I don’t know about you, but I find myself thinking back to past holiday seasons, especially those as a child. The overriding feelings and memories is a sense that so much was possible.

Without adult responsibilities, there was a freer sense of curiosity, wonder and magic. I think as adults it’s something we try to recapture for ourselves. It’s a way of going back to that innocence of the inner child.

Thinking about the characters in the Word Guardians stories, for Yas it relates to her sense of curiosity and wonder when falling into her first realm in The Battle for the Peacekeepers. So here’s an excerpt of her realising she’s somewhere magical. (To set the scene, feel free to re-read the excerpt in When Yas discovers magic).

When Yas first fell into a realm

After landing on the forest floor, mentally she checked through her body for any signs of pain. There were none. A forest scene came into focus around her. Looking up, she saw the branches of a tree between her and a blue, partly cloudy, sky. A huge trunk was at the top of her vision, behind her. It seemed so tall that she couldn’t tell where the tree ended and the sky began. There were other trees around her, but not as tall or as full of leaves in their canopies. They let in wider shafts of sunlight. Remnants of leaves she had crashed through floated down through the beams of light along with twigs, branches, nuts, and flies that had been disturbed. The tree’s limbs swished and swayed back to their original positions. As the scene stilled around her, she noticed other sounds and smells. In the distance, there was bird song. She could smell a freshness she associated with morning dew, along with damp bark and soil. The whole scene reminded her of a forest she had once visited as a child on a school trip to England. The New Forest, she remembered it being called. And this place looked so neat and tidy, as if it was new.

She chanced movement into a sitting position, incredulous that she was where she was. One minute the shop, now a forest. She figured she must have taken a bump on the head and that the world was going on around her unconscious body. Soon she’d be waking up in a hospital with her worried parents onlooking.

“Wake up,” she commanded herself. “Come on!” She tried hitting herself on the arm. It didn’t work, so she figured that she’d need to deal with wherever she was.

She heard a light rustling nearby. Its lightness suggested a small creature searching through the leaves for food. She moved her head slowly, so that she didn’t frighten it. There was still no pain. That was a good sign. From what she remembered of the view above her, it was probable that she had fallen a very long way indeed and she should have been injured. Looking to her side, she glanced movement. About ten metres away was a small grey squirrel, searching.

“Where did I put it?”

That surprised Yas. A talking squirrel. It immediately triggered thoughts that challenged her perception of reality. What was she was experiencing right now? She was clearly concussed, she figured, but what state was she in physically back at the shop? Had McVale arrived back yet from her chores? Maybe she had tried to wake her up and failed? That was a worrying thought. She’d call the paramedics, Yas reasoned. They’ll be picking me up and carting me off to hospital. That’s what would be happening now. This was her mind’s way of keeping her from the shock of serious injury. Then another line of reasoning caught up. Hold on, I only fell from a kick-step. How bad could it be?

Marrying dreams and reality

As for Yas in the above excerpt, the challenge is in allowing dreams not to be closed off in our thinking. It’s all too easy to shutdown what seems to be unlikely or impossible, based on our experience and conditioning of the world around us.

But does that mean that the magic isn’t there?

The message is all around us

The message the magic of the season is all around us. We see it in movies, adverts, books and more. At this time of year, it’s pretty much everywhere and impossible to avoid.

So, if it’s there, why don’t we see it? Often, we’re too busy performing all that we have to do in our daily lives and in preparing for the holidays that we don’t find it.

The magic of the season

So, the question is, how do you find the magic of the season? Does that curiosity and good feeling arise from watching a movie, spending time with family and friends, seeing holiday lights, or something else?

Feel free to share below what evokes the magic of the season for you, and please accept this as a gentle nudge to take some time this season to do it.

And as always, to learn more about Yas’s adventures in the realms and how her wonder and sense of magic develop, buy and read Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers. It’s available on Amazon in paperback and kindle editions. Click the link below to go to your usual Amazon store.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season.

The Word Guardians book series

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What trust is and why it is important to us

Welcome to this week’s blog.  I thought, this time I’d raise the question of what trust is and why it is important.

How do we trust someone else? What impact does it have on us when we do or do not have it?

And by way of example, I thought I’d share an excerpt from Book 2 The Twisting Tales…

Detective Wheeler and Raelinn in The Void

“What are you doing?” shouted Raelinn from the end of the carriage. She started to make her way down and was incensed. “Just let me go!”

“No!” he said, exhausted. “We’re just going in circles, repeating the same story!”

“You’re lying!”

The train was accelerating out of the station. The lights of the station moved behind them and it was pitch black outside. The windows reflected the interior of the carriage.

“Why would I?” retorted Wheeler. “Don’t you see? It’s the Void?”

‘The Void,’ Raelinn thought in her mind. That rang a bell. A distant memory of a battle. Then it faded and she saw the face of the man that had tricked her and brought her here. He needed to pay.

“Orfeo told me to keep an eye on you!” she seethed. “For Index! He said you were not to be trusted!”

“So, why don’t you hit me some more then. Fly at me in rage, like you usually do about now!”

Raelinn flew down the carriageway, arms extended, with her fangs bared. Wheeler knew what to do. He dropped down, catching her and rolling her over his head. He got back on his feet quickly.

“You said I was important,” Wheeler said, watching Raelinn and playing along with what he remembered having happened before, to see if it jogged her memory.

“Yes,” she replied, hissing. Then she stopped for the merest of moments and looked confused. “This?” she asked. “I remember something.”

“Yes,” Wheeler replied. “It’s taken you a while, but what do I know? As you said at the Battle for the Peacekeepers, I’m just a simpleton!”

His words seemed to jog a memory for Raelinn. She observed him for a moment.

“You’re messing with my head!” Raelinn shouted. She moved towards him firing word arrows.

Wheeler sighed and created a shield, deflecting the word arrows. They penetrated the walls of the carriage and it started to unknit.”

What happens when we don’t trust someone

The excerpt shows that when trust is missing in a relationship, pretty much everything that’s said or done is questioned. Why is the other person saying or doing that? What are they hoping to achieve? Does it also benefit me and others?

It also underpins what we take as read or not from other sources in our lives, and I touched on this in In Life, who decides what’s the right news?

In stressful moments if the trust is not there it can lead to disaster, as Raelinn and Wheeler found out. They are literally at each other’s throats, and it takes effort for Wheeler to convince Raelinn that they need to work together to escape The Void.

The flipside. How trust forms

Conversely, when we do trust someone, we are much happier to take what is said and done as read. We know from experience that the person will speak and act in line with a particular pattern of behaviour and over time we come to rely on that behaviour.

The Mirriam Webster dictionary definition of trust includes the phrase ‘reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something’. It also mentions ‘one in which confidence is placed’, so trust is an ability to rely on someone else to make decisions and take actions in line with a particular direction.

Turning it over to you

I’m conscious I’m no expert in this topic, but I wanted to prompt the questions as I think trust and how we build it is a valuable concept to reflect on. So, for you, what does trust mean and what does someone else have to show to earn yours?

And while you’re thinking about that, if you want to learn more about what happens to Raelinn and Wheeler’s opposition in The Void, buy and read Book 2 The Twisting Tales (you’ll have to read book 1 first to set the scene 😊). Both are available in paperback and kindle editions.

Happy reading.

The Word Guardians book series

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Excerpt from book 1 – Escape from Alexandria

I thought for this week blog I would share an excerpt from my first book The Battle for the Peacekeepers, Escape from Alexandria.

It’s just a small taster to whet your appetite.

Feel free to check out the other excerpts on this site too: When Yas discovers magic and A visit to Victorian London.

Escape from Ancient Alexandria

There was a ‘whoomph’ ahead of them and the doorway appeared. The creatures behind them had also spotted it.

“Sam,” urged Yas, looking behind her and seeing the creatures approaching. She threw another word ball, but this time the creatures just continued towards them, unimpeded.

Sam grabbed Yas and pulled her through the doorway just behind him. He made it through and landed on the carpet in the library but was jerked and pulled backwards. She stopped in mid-air, half in and half out of the portal. She screamed. One of the creatures had grabbed the back of her jacket in its mouth. The other, was trying to get its serpent head through the portal.

“Sam!” Yas screamed. She could see him moving about and trying to brace himself against the edges of the doorway, but her view kept switching between the two worlds.

“I’ve got you,” he shouted back. He grabbed her tightly, kicking the serpent head with one of his feet while pulling Yas as hard as he could. “Hold on!”

Yas kicked behind her, while also reaching her other hand for a better hold on Sam. She was able to push herself up on the sphinx’s head, and in return it lessened its grip. She felt the jacket rip.

“You little. . .!” she shouted angrily behind her, kicking furiously. She heard the creature whimper and then roar. Not wanting to see what it might do next; she looked forwards into the library.

“Sam!” she shouted again in alarm.

Sam continued to kick the other creature, while also defending them both against paw grabs from the first. It was tight for space, but he was able to pull Yas forwards a little at a time. If anything, her kicking against the creatures gave her the better leverage.

Suddenly, surprising them both, an arm appeared behind Sam. The creatures were pushed back sharply out of the doorway and Yas was pulled through. She fell onto the floor while Sam rolled to the side and stood up to see who had helped.

“Close the book!” said Janine Vickers sternly. She stood still, holding her hand out, palm up, uttering words that sounded foreign.

What happens next?

What a roller coaster of a ride! Well, you’ll have to buy the book to find out who Janine Vickers is and why she helped them escape.  Do Sam and Yas leap from the frying pan into the fire? Or not? Buy Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers on Amazon and find out.

The Word Guardians book series

Psst… it’s available in both paperback and kindle editions.

Ciao for now!

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Trying to put together your puzzle of life?

Do you ever have questions in your life that you just can’t seem to answer?

You’re desperately looking for a solution and everything you try leaves you feeling as though there’s still missing pieces in your puzzle of life?

You’re not alone. That was Yas, in Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers.

Yas’s puzzle of life

At the start of Book 1, Yas’s grandfather and adopted brother have been missing for two years and nobody seems to be looking for them. Worse, her parents won’t talk to her about it. She finds this frustrating and weird, but she figures you just get on with life. You graduate from school, go to college, get a job and live a life.

In Book 3 The Shadow Readers, we also learn that her father is dissatisfied with his work, and she thinks this is the way it’s supposed to be. What she’s learned is that life is not for living your dreams and that along the way, bad things can happen to anyone. She’s quite skeptical of life’s opportunities as a result and not surprisingly critical of her best friend‘s ideas about magical realms.

Yas also feels she’s being pulled by something, and she can’t figure out what. Deep down she knows there’s more, but her conditioning won’t let her see it. She’s curious about life, preferring to spend an afternoon in her passion of reading novels and learning about history from books.

They say opportunities arrive for those that attract them

Deep down, the opportunities that Yas attracts are focussed to the pieces of her life puzzle that she can’t yet put together. She works at a bookstore which gives her the opportunity to indulge in her passion. If asked she would probably tell you that she’d rather read history by those who have written it and put it up for review by the masses, than listen to schoolyard gossip and people’s opinions. Ultimately though, there’s more to her interests in stories.

Her best friend Sam is also not ‘popular’ at school, and is a bit weird, but that’s okay. He likes talking about magical realms and how his dad is lost in one. She wonders why she attracts the ‘odd’ ones. Then she literally falls into a realm, and it feels as though her life puzzle has exploded and sent all the pieces up into the air.

Direct experience is irrefutable

If you’ve ever experienced something deeply touching or moving, the paranormal maybe, you know that once you’ve experienced it there’s no going back. Your viewpoint on whatever it is has shifted forever and your puzzle of life now incorporates that.

This is what happens to Yas once she’s met the Great Oak and Red in the Forest Realm. After some convincing that it’s real, her puzzle of life shifts. She eventually realises that her grandfather and brother went missing because of a war between the Word Guardians and Controllers. Her parents refused to talk about it because they wanted to protect her. But only by seeing that picture could she fit all the pieces of her life’s puzzle together.

Listening to the deeper knowing’s

Finally, Yas could recognise the deeper feelings that she’d had all along as ‘knowing’s’. And she could see that her puzzle of life had shifted. Instead of getting on with life, now, for her and Sam, it was about finding a job that honoured your dreams, embracing stories and standing up for the freedom of readers’ imaginations. And more opportunities were about to come their way (see Book 3 The Shadow Readers) that would enable this.

So, if you have questions you can’t answer, try to honour those deeper feelings and ‘knowing’s’. Find time to embrace your passions, even if a small amount here and there in your week. And if you want to learn more how life unfolds for Yas and Sam, read the books in the series. Buy Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers using the link below.

The Word Guardians book series

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Why can some characters wield magic in the outer world?

Is it a plot hole, if some characters can wield magic in the outer world?

Readers of the series might be wondering why some characters can wield magic in the outer world. After all, if magic is fueled by the imaginations of readers, then how is this possible? So, is this a plot hole in the Word Guardians series?

Who can wield word magic in the outer word?

In Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers, Janine Vickers first demonstrates the ability when she saves Yas and Sam from mythological lions with human heads attacking them in Ancient Alexandria. She’s able to tidy up the magic that’s dropped onto the library floor and push it back into the book that the words came from. There are other examples too, but for those of you who have not read all the books yet (please do 😊), I don’t want to spoil the fun. It will be worth your time!

How can word magic be wielded in the outer world?

The next question I hear you asking is how can magic be wielded in the outer world? Well, we know that when we read, we imagine the scene happening in our mind’s eye. And as I’ve written about in The Worlds of the Word Guardians, the imagination powers the magical ink that enables the creation of the realm, in which the reader then views the story playing out in their mind’s eye. But the magic doesn’t just stop there.

We know when we tell other people about a good book we’re reading, we see that book play out in our mind’s eye again. So, in the same way, the Word Guardians characters can ‘pull’ on the same magic in the outer world. It takes much more focus and effort, but for those practiced in wielding word magic in the realms, it’s possible and boy do they do it well.

So, is it a plot hole, or a twist then?

Well, yes, you got me, it’s not a plot hole. It was an intentional twist that I wanted to include because it’s unexpected. Magic should stay where it’s created right? In a realm. But is the magic there to be drawn on by the reader’s imagination or does the reader’s imagination create the magic? Ultimately, it’s both.

To see what I mean, you’re just going to have to read the books in the series. Buy Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers using the link below and start watching for the characters that can wield word magic in the outer world. It might surprise you who can and who can’t. Happy reading!

The Word Guardians book series

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Introducing the Controllers, the Word Guardians ‘bad guys’

In previous blogs, I’ve talked about the main protagonist characters of the Word Guardians, so I thought it’s about time I did the same for the ‘bad guys’, the Controllers.

Who are the Controllers? I hear you ask

In a nutshell, the ‘bad guys’ of the Word Guardians series who just want power. Their goal is to ultimately build the empire that they want, and their motivations are many.  In Book 4, Lost Beginnings, this includes righting something the main antagonist sees as a previous wrong. In the first trilogy of books, one of the antagonists wants to be seen, recognised and acknowledged. To reach their goal they will go to extremes and twist reality to suit the storyline to get what they want.

How do Controllers control?

Remember that readers form the realms from their mind’s eye, from the words on the page. Well, it turns out that there are other influences that can help form the realms and storylines too. Controllers hang out in the realms, to influence what readers see in their mind’s eye. In Book 1 excerpt, A visit to Victorian London, McVale tells Yas that readers typically ignore things that don’t make sense to the story that they are reading. And that’s true. But Controllers are clever. They tweak storylines and influence ideas just enough that it serves their agenda while not tripping this sense of what might be expected in the story.

And that’s not all. There’s Shadow Readers, telepaths and Controllers masquerading as Guardians too.

Enter the Shadow Readers

In Book 3, The Shadow Readers, Yas and Sam find the Police Commissioner acting under the influence of something magical. Created by a Controller and inserted into a reader’s imagination while reading, the Controllers found an additional way to assert control over people in authority, to shape the world to serve them and their desire for power.

The telepaths

The telepaths are impacted a little differently. In Book 2 The Twisting Tales and Book 3 The Shadow Readers, there’s Akoni, Yas’s adopted brother, who is urged by Controllers to go and influence others to cause civic unrest. He joins protests and encourages others to action so that the Police Commissioner can then stamp down and restore order. In Book 4 The Lost Beginnings, the main antagonist has a link to the minds of individuals through which he can influence others in the outer world, to create chaos that then he can swoop in and control.

Masquerading Controllers

The masquerading Controllers are a little difficult to spot. Yas, Sam and other Word Guardians must constantly question who they can trust, as I touched on in the blog How do Word Guardians determine the truth. As well as operating in the Shadows, Controllers operate in plain sight, playing games to earn trust and then seeking to gain what they want through that relationship.

Ultimately, Controllers must show their hand at some point and are unmasked. The question (as Vickers pointed out in Book 1 The Battle for the Peacekeepers) is you must determine how much you trust someone until you really know who they are.

So, who are the Controllers you’ll meet in the series?

You’ll meet Controllers who primarily operate from the shadows, through telepaths and those that are masquerading in plain sight and some who are a mixture of all three. Whichever mode they use, the motivation is the same: power and control. So, buy book 1 using the link below and watch for the red flags as to who might be a Controller or not.

The Word Guardians book series

I’d love to hear about your thoughts on Controllers in the series too, either by sending a comment below or by using the contact form. 

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Who can visit the realms of the Word Guardians series?

In my last blog, An excerpt from book 1 A Visit to Victorian London, Yas and her mentor McVale travelled to a realm that portrayed storylines and scenes from a period of history featured in many fictional books. You’ll have the read the book to see who opens the portal to the realm and how they did it, but I wanted to answer a question I’ve been asked a few times – can anyone travel to a realm?

Here’s my answer…

Through the tales of the Word Guardians series, there are three things that people must have to open doorways (or portals) into realms. First, they have to believe, second, they must have some magical ability and lastly, they need to have a key.

Belief is important

A visitor to a realm must believe that it’s possible. Think Alice in Wonderland and doing six impossible things before breakfast.

We see this in Book 1, The Battle for the Peacekeepers. Yas can’t open a portal to a realm until the idea is seeded in her mind. She’s closed minded and dismissive of the idea because of her upbringing and what she’s learnt in the world around her – ultimately her conditioning. Gradually though through her friendship with Sam, she becomes a little more open-minded, starts questioning things around her and that helps her discover a doorway to a realm.

Magical ability is a must have

The second part of visiting a realm is having the ability to open the magical doorway into a realm. What we learn from the books is that the magical ability can either be innate or learned. Ultimately, like anything, if it’s not practiced then it becomes harder to do. Again, we see this in, Excerpt from Book 1 When Yas discovers magic, Yas has an innate ability and with curiosity, a doorway opens for her.

Finally, a key is important

In Book 1, The Battle for the Peacekeepers, the keys are the individual dice pendants of Yas and Sam’s necklaces. Like runes, individual faces of the die open specific locks, hidden in books. To find a doorway relevant to a specific realm they must solve clues and find the book and page for the doorway to open. In later books of the series there are some variations but always along the same theme.

All together, visitors to the realms are like a secret club

You can think of visitors to realms being a secret club. First, these people have to be readers, because otherwise they can’t relate to what they see in their mind’s eye when they read. Books are key because without them readers wouldn’t be able to co-create realms, and finally the visitor has to possess magic and believe.

Want to learn more?

To learn more, please visit the link below to buy book 1 and start reading the series.

The Word Guardians book series

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