Writing Revolution

This is a nice little riff on Dungeons & Dragons, so I couldn’t not save and repost everywhere, but more importantly, it sums up the point of this post. Everyone can do something to support The Resistance — not everyone has to be Princess Leia or Luthen Rael. One of the characters above is the Bard, who spreads “the word and helps members of the other classes keep up their spirits and mental health.” And while I’ll go ahead and admit to taking on a couple of these roles, the one I cherish the most is the Bard.

Why? Because for my part, I’m a writer, so I’m writing. And it’s not articles, which you find on Substack left and right, but fiction — adventure fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery/noir and even erotica. And it just so happens that I’m writing two lengthy serials that align with the current political ongoings. One of these tales was intentional, and the other is entirely a coincidence.

Gulliver’s Travels: The Broligarchy

When this whole political changeover happened after the 2024 elections, the writing on the wall was obvious. So, I thought about how I could respond, and so, I looked backward to past writing.

Gulliver’s Travels was the first thing that came to mind — what if the main character found themselves in this amazingly absurd new land, in this case, a futuristic, fascist technostate? The original story was written in 1726 by Jonathan Swift. Later, Milo Manara, an author and artist, rewrote the story from an erotic perspective in 1996, so I was hooked.

In Gulliver’s Travels: The Broligarchy, I lean into the now and link the idea to the current political narrative with a different protagonist washing up on shore in a future America where techno-fascism has won.

Samantha Gulliver is a smart, savvy reporter who was only supposed to visit Gigaland for the day while on a cruise, but when the cruise ship mysteriously goes down and she washes ashore with no ID, no passport, and no understanding how this dystopian megastate really works, she might be in big, big trouble.

Episodes come out every Saturday, and we’re only about ten episodes in now, so there’s still time to catch up!

Dorothy: Locked & Loaded

When I first started writing this dark fantasy Return to Oz with several other author friends 15ish years ago, we had no idea what we were trying to accomplish other than to write a fun story that readers would like. Who didn’t love The Wizard of Oz, right? And later, Wicked — in its novel or musical form? What the combination of the two gave us as writers was a lot of material to work with. So, we worked.

Here’s a fun Honest Trailers vs Dorothy: Locked & Loaded trailer that sums it the full story a bit!

DLL leans into the narrative of Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" novel, the persecution of the Animals by the Wizard and the betrayal of Elphaba, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. It also leans on the ending of The Wizard of Oz, leaving the Scarecrow on the throne with his two companions by his side. But, fifty years have passed, and when Dot, Dorothy Gale’s granddaughter, returns to Oz, shit has happened.

And among all the things that have taken place is the real center of the story — Glinda’s ascension to the throne in the Emerald City through magic and mayhem and the creation of a tiny tiktok army, setting the stage for a full rebellion by Oz’s persecuted citizens.

I couldn’t have timed republishing and updating this story better if I’d tried. It was simply a coincidence. And, in Episode 38, we finally get the first real taste of that resistance movement in Ordinal Jones, a completely new Oz character.

We’re almost at episode 40 now, but we’ve still got easily 110 episodes to go. Dot, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion have quite the journey ahead of them, as do all the other characters we meet along the way. And the Wicked Witch? Well, you’ll have to wait and see.

So, now what?

So no, I’m not leading marches or staging walkouts. I’m telling stories. Because stories matter. They reveal the absurd, preserve the truth, and remind us we’re not alone. In a time when reality feels stranger than fiction, I’m leaning into fiction to fight back — with satire, fantasy, darkness, and hope. Every story doesn’t have a happy ending, and I love a good tragedy, but sometimes we just need to ride along with someone else on our journey and keep an eye out for the sunrise.

Maybe you’re a Bard too. Maybe you’re something else entirely. Whatever your class, your voice matters in this campaign.

And you know what they say about all those characters in a writer’s head? We have friends everywhere.