Thirty-one months.
  That's how long it's been since I last updated this page.
  THIRTY-ONE.
  I went back and read my last update, where I apologized for taking nine months to say hello.
  Nine months.
  HAH! What an amateur.
  Seriously, folks, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you hanging. Life has a funny way of taking your plans, folding them into a paper airplane, and launching them out the nearest window.
  The GOOD news is that I'm still here, still writing, still creating, and having more fun with the Wanted Hero Universe than I ever imagined possible.
  A LOT has happened.
  So grab something to drink, find a comfortable chair, and let's catch up. I've got stories to tell you.
  (...and yes, I'll TRY to keep this short. Stop laughing.)
 

First, the Family Stuff

Last time I wrote, I shared the wonderful news that I was cancer-free. I know many of you were praying for me, cheering me on, and sending encouragement. I've never forgotten that.
  So you know, my health is a lot like a rollercoaster, which I hate, but I have more good days than bad ones. Medications have me stable, I'm working on getting stronger, exercising and eating right(ish). This is the cost of making bad choices when I was younger and, well, the bills keep coming due.
  Kathilynn and I have now been married for 36 years.
THIRTY-SIX YEARS.
That wonderful woman deserves some kind of international recognition for putting up with me this long. We have 13 children, 35 grandchildren (at last count), and a household that seems permanently incapable of being quiet.
  Three of the kids are still at home, but the married ones and our grandkids keep showing up. That means the refrigerator is still perpetually empty, someone is always looking for something, and I suspect our laundry room has developed its own gravitational field.
  Wouldn't trade it for anything.
  I'm a blessed man, folks. Truly.
  Oh, and this past March, Wanted Hero celebrated its SEVENTH anniversary on World Anvil!
[...insert fireworks and a marching band here...]
That's seven years of adding lore, characters, history, cultures, magic, mysteries, and things that probably should have remained safely inside my imagination.
  And then something extraordinary happened.
  One of my readers purchased an Eternal Sage account for me, making WantedHero.com's home on World Anvil permanent.
  I still get emotional thinking about that.
  Someone believed in what I'm building enough to do something like that.
  Thank you.
  ...which brings me to what I've actually been BUILDING all this time.
 

Wendell Has Taken Over the Story

Remember when I told you I was rewriting the Chronicles of a Hero series?
  Well, I had a little idea.
  Instead of telling Wendell's story ABOUT him, why not let the kid tell it himself?
  After all, he's the one getting chased, threatened, beaten up, embarrassed, and repeatedly placed in situations no sane person would willingly endure.
  Seems only fair to let him complain about it.
  So that's what I did.
  The Chronicles are now written primarily from Wendell's point of view, and the difference has been incredible. You get to hear what he's thinking. What he's afraid of. What he thinks he understands...and how gloriously WRONG he can be. You also get to experience the world through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old boy who never asked to be a hero in the first place.
  And THAT, my friends, is where the heart of Wanted Hero has always been.
  We've now completed SEVEN seasons of the serial, more than a hundred chapters of adventure!
  CHOICES, the first three-book collection is available, while I'm preparing these individual books for print. Season Eight, Howling Shadows, has begun as well. And believe me, Wendell has NO idea what's coming.
  (...which is probably a good thing. The kid worries enough.)
  You can follow the entire adventure over at LifeOfFiction.com.
 

So What Does a Normal Week Look Like?

Normal?
Sorry. Wrong author.
  But I've managed to put together a schedule so you can find something new from the Wanted Hero Universe throughout the week.
  MONDAY: Morning Coffee with Jaime Buckley. Just you, me, and a conversation about life, creativity, family, and whatever else has been rattling around inside my skull. Usually recorded before the sun comes up, because apparently I enjoy suffering.
  TUESDAY: New writing and early looks at what's happening behind the scenes, including chapters for those helping support the work.
  WEDNESDAY: ART! Characters, places, strange creatures, and illustrations from across the Wanted Hero Universe.
  THURSDAY: The podcast. More on THAT in a second.
  FRIDAY: At 5 PM, it's STORY TIME! New chapters of the Chronicles when the main serial is running, with other adventures and surprises filling the gaps.
  The best part?
  The stories and the essential content are completely FREE. As in no charge, no tricks, just show up and enjoy yourself in your own time. I ask people to become free subscribers so I can send them the notifications for free, that's all. Delivered right to your inbox...
  Yes, you can become a paid supporter, and those wonderful people help me keep the lights on and the stories flowing. There are extra goodies for supporters, too. But I've always wanted people to enjoy what I create, regardless of what's in their wallet.
  Stories should bring us together.
Not separate us.
 

The Podcast Has a NEW Home!

Oh, you're gonna love this.
  The original Life of Fiction podcast ran for 64 episodes. Then I decided to change things.
  (...because leaving well enough alone has NEVER been one of my strengths.)
  I've created a new show called: Life of Fiction: Tales from the Roadkill Tavern
  Now, if you've read the Chronicles, you already know the Roadkill Tavern. It's located in the Black Market, and it's one of my favorite places in the entire Wanted Hero Universe. Imagine sitting at a wooden table near a warm fire, surrounded by interesting people, with food, laughter, music, and an endless supply of stories.
  Every Thursday, I invite you to take a seat, then I tell you a story. A BRAND NEW story, written specifically for the podcast and read aloud by yours truly. One week it might be a cozy adventure. Another, a mystery. Sometimes something funny. Occasionally a darker tale that might make you check the locks before going to bed.
  (Don't worry. I'll warn you about those.)
  Each episode is its own complete experience. You don't need to read the novels. You don't need to know the characters. You don't even need to understand the world. Just show up.
  I'll save you a chair.
  And if you decide to stay a while? Well...we've got an entire universe you can explore.
 

The Hero Within: YES, I Made a Roleplaying Game!

This one has been a dream of mine since I was a kid.
  I LOVE tabletop roleplaying games. I started playing when I was eight years old, back when Dungeons & Dragons was just...Dungeons & Dragons. No editions. No arguments about which version was superior. Just dice, friends, and a lot of imagination.
  For years I've wanted to create a game that families could sit down and enjoy together, using the Wanted Hero Universe. Something where storytelling mattered more than memorizing hundreds of rules.
  Where your choices mattered. Where being clever, kind, loyal, or courageous could be every bit as powerful as swinging a sword.
  So I built one.
  It's called The Hero Within.
  And the guiding principle is something I've believed my entire life:
You are MORE than you THINK you are.
  The game uses its own rules system, developed specifically for the kinds of stories I want families to experience. And yes, we use dice. Just not a d20.
  I KNOW! HERESY!
  We're using the other familiar dice, including percentile dice, and we've been putting the rules through their paces with actual players. My family, and eight others in my town, have been helping test it, which means I get immediate and very vocal feedback when something doesn't work.
  Nothing says "constructive criticism" quite like your own children explaining why your brilliant idea nearly got everyone killed.
  Good times.
  The rulebook is taking shape, the adventures are growing, and I'm designing everything to be affordable, easy to print, and fun to use. This isn't simply about making another game. It's about helping families make memories together.
  And THAT means something to me.
 

The Underlings: Little Heroes, BIG Adventures

I've also been creating stories for a much younger audience.
  They're called The Underlings.
  These adventures follow Ro and Ru, two tiny little characters living in a world much bigger and more dangerous than they understand.
  They're curious. They're frightened. They make mistakes. And they're being asked to do things that seem completely impossible.
  Sound familiar?
  There's a reason for that.
  I love stories about ordinary people discovering that they can do extraordinary things. Especially children. The Underlings began because I wanted to create something wonderful for my younger kids, the kind of stories families could read together at bedtime.
  We've already released adventures, including Awakening, and there's much more of this world to explore. There are mysteries, strange creatures, secrets, dangers, and connections to the larger Wanted Hero Universe.
  But at its heart, this is about children discovering courage, friendship, and the importance of doing what's right.
  Because being small doesn't mean you can't make a BIG difference.
 

Oh, and There's MORE.

Of course there's more.
Have we met?
My imagination has never understood the concept of a day off.
  I'm also working on coloring books, picture books, family read-aloud activities, mystery party games set in the Black Market, and more ways to enjoy these characters and their adventures. Then there's the MUSIC.
  Yes, music.
  The Wanted Hero Universe now has original songs, soundtracks, and fictional musical groups, with releases coming through Gnome-Tone Records.
  Because apparently writing about an imaginary world wasn't enough. I needed it to have its own MUSIC INDUSTRY.
  (...someone really should supervise me.)
  And behind ALL of this is Elämä itself. The cultures. Histories. Languages. Religion. Magic. Creatures. Cities. Politics. Wars. Trade. Technology. Thousands upon thousands of details I've been developing since 1990.
  I want the novels, games, music, mysteries, and everything else to feel like they belong to the SAME living, breathing world.
  So I keep records.
Lots of records.
An unreasonable number of records.
  Spreadsheets, reference pages, notes, maps, timelines, and enough lore to make a historian question his career choices. All so you can discover something in one story and recognize it in another. That's part of the fun.
  And I'm having the time of my LIFE building it.
 

But Here's What Really Matters to Me.

I've been creating Wanted Hero since 1990.
  That's 36 years of dreaming about a world that started with a single idea.
  A boy.
A hero.
Someone who didn't believe he was good enough.
  And somehow, after all these years, that little idea has grown into something that continues to surprise me. But the WORLD isn't why I keep doing this.
  You are.
  I love telling stories. I love making people laugh. I love giving someone a few minutes of relief when life gets hard. And I especially love helping people, young and old, realize they have more inside them than they might believe.
  More courage.
More strength.
More kindness.
More potential.
  Sometimes all a person needs is a story that reminds them of that.
  If I can give you one, I've done something worth doing. So if you've been following Wanted Hero for years, thank you for staying.
  If you're new, I'm grateful you found us.
  And if you've been wondering whether I fell off the edge of the world sometime in 2024...
  Nope.
Still here.
Still creating.
Still trying to figure out how to get more hours out of a twenty-four-hour day.
 

Come Join Me.

Everything is happening over at LifeOfFiction.com. Sign up for the FREE newsletter and you can enjoy the stories, artwork, videos, and podcasts as they're released.
  If you'd like to own some of the books, music, and other goodies, visit shop.lifeoffiction.com.
  And if you love what I'm creating, please tell someone.
  Seriously.
  Sharing a story with a friend is one of the greatest compliments you can give a storyteller.
  Thirty-one months is a ridiculous amount of time to go without saying hello. I'm grateful you're still here. I promise I'll try not to let that happen again.
  (...though if I suddenly disappear, check the Black Market first. Dax probably owes me money.)
  Until next time, my friends...
  You are MORE than you THINK you are.
  And don't EVER let anyone convince you otherwise.
  With love and gratitude,
  Jaime Buckley
  Creator of Wanted Hero
  P.S. If my next update appears in 2029, someone please send a search party. Bring snacks.