Tiger and Jack-o-Lanterns

Happy Halloween! - October 31, 2025

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoy the evening. Haunted houses, trick-or-treating, and costume parties are grand fun. A word of caution: avoid eating too many sugary treats. The ugly crash from a sugar high is nauseating.

If you stepped into the dream to get behind the scenes, Halloween advice wasn't exactly what you came for, but the holiday put me in mind of the differences between dark fantasy and horror. For me as a writer, horror is too far, but I enjoy some elements of that genre, and a good dark scene often informs the other actions in a tale.

Take Fire Incarnate, for example. There's one horrific torture scene embedded in the book. Most of the denizens of Draoithe are unaware of what is happening in the little cabin. They didn't know that someone had found the breaker. Luke kept it a secret. He used other events, such as a stave duel, Scar's arrival to claim the Spark, Marchand's discovery of his mate, and the impending moving day to shield what he needed to happen.

Blaze and Griz did the dirty work, but they deserved that opportunity. It was dark justice in a bleak world. The heroes are flawed but mostly virtuous. Damaged the dream grows ever more dangerous as the Unlikely Kings prophecy plays out, but the Druid pack only has pieces of the story. Discovering how to connect the dots isn't so easy.

Other artists might have written a fantasy saga that had a bright world. But the dream mirrors my genuine life experience. I don't know it all and have spent my existence feeling my way through the dark, peeling back the layers of inevitable truth along the way, and my final destination remains unknown and fraught with difficulties I have yet to discover. And so the dream expands ever onward.

And now, it's time for a word from our sponsor, Ophelia Kee.

Shameless Self Promotion

The Draoithe Saga cover image

Steamy hot, wickedly delicious, noble dark urban fantasy with paranormal romance tales set in a dream to live for. Draoithe is a place where myths, legends, and fairytales walk among the strange and wonderful, where finding a life mate brings balance, and magic rules the dream! It’s more than a mere saga; it’s a reading experience.

Noble Dark, Urban Fantasy with Steamy Paranormal Romance Stories. Includes Fated Mates, 18+, NC! & HEA!

***Warning: Adult Themes, Fantasy Violence, and/or Explicit Sexual Situations. Intended for a Mature Audience.

What are you waiting for? Grab an excellent drink, curl up in your favorite reading nook, and escape into the dream with the Draoithe Saga and over 15 themed miniseries by Ophelia Kee. Get all the extra art, videos, audio files, and more. Read as I write, edit, and post the episodes. Welcome to the dream…

Behind the Scenes

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I've been thinking a lot about marketing lately. I'm not getting any younger, and the day job is less stable than it once was. Having multiple streams of income is the wiser approach to an unstable economic outlook. I ran Amazon ads for a while once to no avail. I'm not Amazon centric and the restrictions and pay-to-play structure of retailers have always rubbed my fur the wrong way.

I've had more success with social media ads and paid newsletters, but once again those things mostly drive traffic to retail platforms, and let's face it. I'm small potatoes, only adding filler to their enormous cauldron of soup. It's time for a mindset shift, or rather a return to an older idea I couldn't pull off when it first occurred to me.

I need to build my audience larger, so that means I must concentrate my efforts on growing my newsletter. But I work a day job and lack the time to learn about newsletter services. I needed an inexpensive way to add new friends of the dream. That was where Substack came in. People can follow and subscribe, and I don't have to worry about gaining too many people or having to delete people from the list because Substack doesn't charge me for the number of people on the list wanting to hear from an old tiger.

I also need to get focused on sales, and I need to maximize my small-potato efforts. Rather than being filler in someone else's cauldron, I must focus on OpheliaKee.com, which isn't anything new. Buying directly from an author has always meant a higher profit margin.

Advertising can get expensive, especially with low-ticket items like books. I write in a pretty small niche. Not everyone who reads wants to jump into an ever-expanding saga. While I may never sell millions of copies of my stories, I could sell higher ticket bundles and cause any paid advertisement to break even or earn a small profit. I might finally be close to the point of having enough bundled content and higher-priced items along with the Draoithe Saga subscription to make it work.

Before I spend a dime, I want to set up for success by updating my calls to action and improving my visibility on the platforms I enjoy working with the most. I intend to spend my upcoming vacation in November optimizing my platform. 2026 is coming, and I want to be ready. I hope you'll come along for the ride.

5 ways to help an author poster

I need to get back to vacuuming. My new rug is coming soon! Leave your comments and questions. I love to hear from you. If you found this post worthy, please share it. If you're listening on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe for more original stories and audio adventures! Special thanks to @OkMusicWriters for Enter The Dream. Thank you for stepping into the dream once more. I hope you have a lovely weekend and will discover a grand story. Please remember when you read, be kind and leave your reviews. Until my next post, welcome to the dream…

Be Careful!

Happy Reading,

Bye-Bye,

Ophelia Kee

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