Welcome to Tales of Fascination

Cover for novel DEED
Cover for the novel DEED

<– Pre-Order my next novel, Forlorn Harbor (publishes May 2026): https://books2read.com/u/bokJk1

Purchase my newest novel, DEED, and read more about! –>

Lastest anthology I’ve been published in is Once Bitten (A Dracula Anthology).

My name is Jim Doran and I’m a writer of genre fiction. My blog is composed of short stories, reflections on writing, and shameless plugs for my novels.

Rowan Prose Publishing will be publishing my YA horror novel, Forlorn Harbor, in May, 2026 (full page on Forlorn Harbor) I’ve also written several fairytale / urban fantasy novels and short stories. I’ve also been included in several anthologies of all genres.

The easiest way to find all my novels is to go to my author site on Amazon: Jim Doran on Amazon. There you will find:

Below is my gallery for my novels and anthologies. Scroll to see the covers

  • Cover for novel DEED
  • Cover for Kiingdom's Advent

Contact me at: jim.doran.author@gmail.com, @jdoran711 (twitter), @jimdoranauthor (Instagram).

I’ve published over twenty short stories in various online publications, including Havok and Every Day Fiction.

Learn more about Kingdom, read more stories, and enjoy art inspired by the world by visiting Kingdom Fantasy.

Read more about Kingdom Come here: What type of novel is Kingdom Come?

Special pages for my published novels:

Forlorn Harbor – A YA Horror Novel (coming in 2026)

DEED – – Novel. An clean urban fantasy of a spy who protects mythological creatures

Kingdom Come – First Kingdom Fantasy Novel

On Earth As It Is – Second Kingdom Fantasy Novel

Deliver Us – Third Kingdom Fantasy Novel

Will Be Done – Fourth Kingdom Fantasy Novel

Kingdom’s Advent – First book of short stories set in Kingdom

Kingdom’s Ascension – Second book of short stories set in Kingdom

I have a section of free short stories in case you want to “read before you buy.” I also break down the stories I’ve published elsewhere. Select Sample Story Overview for free stories, or Published Stories to read about my tales that superstar publishers have published in anthologies or online.

Or scroll down to enjoy the latest blog posts.

Review of Swish

Cover of Swish

Swish by Tom Carter is a paranormal romance (PNR) for young adult readers. Adopted by her uncle, Abigail Lewis is bullied at high school. With only one friend, Abby suffers mean-spirited pranks at school and physical abuse at home. Her life seems bleak until she meets a new neighborhood boy, Mike, who takes an interest in her. Handsome and confident Mike could easily join the social elite at school, but sticks steadily at Abby’s side. Her life is starting to look up until a school party on a beach. That night, Mike and Abby come face to face with a menacing, supernatural presence.

Swish leans into certain religious legends in a massive way. The novel injects fun into the idea that the high school outsider might be the savior of the world (always a welcome trope). It explores the concepts of good, evil, and conversion. The book also paints an accurate picture of abuse that, sadly, is reflective of our times. All of this is wrapped in a supernatural action and romance.

As mentioned above, the novel sets up Abby to the point where only the most hard-hearted reader wouldn’t be invested in her. The reader wants to see a relationship develop between Mike and Abby, but also see Abby grow on her own. The novel pays off its premise with explosive action sequences and a forbidden romance, all the elements that readers are looking for in a PNR.

The writing is engaging and keeps the pace going. A few minor mistakes took this reviewer out of the moment, yet the plot was tight and the characters consistent.

YA readers love series, could this one continue? The novel wraps up the events, but it leaves the premise open for sequels.

If you enjoy a solid PNR but are tired of the darkness of vampires or werewolves, Swish is the book for you. Action, romance, and heart combine to make this a memorable book in this genre.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DTJ9HTX7

Retelling Little Known Princesses Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are retold every year into success fantasy novels. Cinderella and her friends receive the most attention. I have an entire page devoted to Snow White retellings: The Snow White Read-Off. Alas, what about those princesses who aren’t well-known! Are they cheated out of retellings? Fear not. Below is a list of little known fairy tales, where to find them, and if I’ve read them, a review.

The Goose Girl: The Goose Girl and the Artificial

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KX7DHM7

The Water at World’s End (A Frog Prince variant): The Fairest and the Frog (Dreaming Princesss #2) by C. Rae D’Arc

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT4KCZ6H

Review: Review Fairest and the Frog

Thumbelina: Snapdragon (A Garden of Fairy Tales Series) by Sarah Beran

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2N6H9FK

The Princess and the Pea: Little Red and the Lumpy Bed (Dreaming Princesses #3) by C. Rae D’Arc

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKWFTRZD

Review: Review of Little Red and the Lumpy Bed

The Princess and the Pea: Peaflower (A Garden of Fairy Tales Series) by Jessica Tanner.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5P4XBPM/

Review: Review of Peaflower

The Plain Princess: Lilac (A Garden of Fairy Tales Series) by Madysin Carlin

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQVDC31G

The Miller’s Daughter (aka Rumplestilskin): Golden Locks and Riddles (Dreaming Princesses #4) by C. Rae D’Arc

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DT5QYCT3

Review: Review of Golden Locks and Riddles

Vasilisa: Vasilisa by M. L. Farb

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082VKVMJB

The Princess Who Never Laughed: Heartless Hette by M. L. Farb

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099YWX9VT

Unchampioned: Helga and Penta

When I was researching my first fairytale novel, Kingdom Come, I wanted a mix of traditional and untraditional princesses. I chose five: two traditional (Cinderella, Snow White), one known but not known as a fairytale princess (The Little Match Girl), and two untraditional. The untraditional choices were Penta, the Handless Princess; and Helga, The Marsh King’s Daughter.

Penta is an Italian fairytale. The tale starts with an incestuous desire, self-injury, and a treacherous fisherwoman. Penta doesn’t sound like someone to build a novel on. Not only that, Penta is the oldest and wisest of queens in Kingdom Come. Why did I choose her?

Let me say up front I’m not fond of the incestuous undertone (and struck it from my novel) and self-maiming aspect. I based my Penta on Grimm’s The Maiden Without Hands more than the traditional tale. In it, the Devil tricks a miller for his daughter, and she keeps her virtue by chopping off her hands. Again, not thrilled with the self-injury aspects, but I kept it.

Why Penta? She makes the decision to have her father remove her hands. She chooses to leave him to find another home. From the fairytale Penta, I had my Penta “travel” to a foreign land (you’ll have to read the book to find out where she went). And yet, she overcomes this trial and returns, stronger than ever. This was not only a princess I wanted to write about, but I could see the leadership in her humble demeanor. Penta remains one of my favorite characters to write about, and she’s been prominent in all the books of Kingdom Come series.

How about Helga?

Helga is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Marsh King’s Daughter. Helga is cruel but beautiful during the day, and virtuous but a frog during the night. I liked the role reversal of the princess being the frog instead of a prince. She’s also a wild one, raised by Vikings, and skilled with a knife. She’s the darling adopted daughter of her Viking Chief father. It’s not hard to see her as a warrior princess. I knew putting together the story that I had to have one of the princesses have some battle skills. This role was suited to Helga.

A Christian theme dominates the end of the tale. Instead of having Helga be a kick-ass princess (done so many times before), I wanted to distinguish her somehow. Her belief system, then, is one where she would rather not fight. She’s not the barbarian, fight-first character so often portrayed, but the skilled general who knows the best battle is the one no one engages in. She’s more Aragorn than Red Sonja.

Read more about Helga and Penta in Kingdom Come: .

The Less Known Fairytale Princesses

A post for Tell A Fairy Tale Day 2026.


In this world of the “Big Three” Princesses of Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, we forget how many other fairytale princesses/heroines exist. Sure, most remember Beauty, the Little Mermaid, Rapunzel or Red Riding Hood, but what about the others? Most won’t take a chance on some without knowing the original fairy tale. The champion of all fairytale princesses, Disney, has all but abandoned traditional storytelling.

I’m writing this post to fix this injustice!

As I started writing fairy tales, I was surprised at how many different fairytale princesses exist. This post will point you at the original fairytales. I will also have links to other posts, one will take a deeper dive into two I’ve championed in my novels (Penta and Helga).

So broaden your mind and imagination and give some time to other worthy plucky heroines of times past!

How about a princess who is what she claims to be – real. The Princess and the Pea: https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/ThePrincessOnThePea_e.html

A princess and a frog, but not the one you’re familiar with. The Well at the End of the World:

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/garg/2022/04/25/the-well-of-the-worlds-end-more-than-meets-the-eye

The tiniest of princesses but still resilient. Thumbelina:

https://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/Thumbelina_e.html

The Plain Princess by Phyllis McGinley (This one is still under copyright, not free)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Plain-Princess-Phyllis-McGinley/dp/0397301073

The girl who overcame treachery. The Goose Girl:

Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2591/pg2591-images.html#link2H_4_0015

The long story of an ugly princess who learns beauty isn’t at the center of virtue. The Green Serpent:

Link: https://surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=36&tale=886

The clever, intelligent miller’s daughter. Rumplestilskiin:

Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2591/pg2591-images.html#link2H_4_0027

The Princess and the Goblin, Princess Irene by George MacDonald:

Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/708/708-h/708-h.htm

Courageous while working one of the most evil of witches. Vasilisa the Fair:

Link: https://surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=124&tale=4070

Common Newbie Writer Mistakes

In a prior post, I wrote about following writing rules (then don’t). I referred to why you should follow the rules to avoid common mistakes. In this post, I’ll describe some of those mistakes and why they may diminish the writing. Indeed, I’ve made all these mistakes.

Prologues and Epilogues

The problem with most prologues is they tend to information dump, or hook you into a story with an exciting scene and then follow with a mundane chapter one. It’s almost as if the writer doesn’t trust their opening chapter. Information dumping should be avoided, and the vital plot points and history spread across the opening chapters. This is a good way to avoid the second problem (i.e. mundane first chapter). Create a sense of mystery about your character or plot, and use that in your first chapter. Examine your prologue and discern whether it’s actually your first chapter. Keep in mind a small group of readers skip prologues.

An epilogue’s problem is also a question of purpose. Are you trying to pack a last surprise into the epilogue? Or is it a selling point in the next novel in your series? An epilogue should be superfluous to your story, so if yours isn’t, then consider if this is your last chapter. Remember what I said about readers and prologues? It’s even more true with epilogues. Readers may assume this is the first chapter of your next book and stop at your last chapter.

Information Dumping

All writer’s information dump in early revisions. Even if writers plot out the story in detail, they discover new elements while writing and have to write all about this cool new thing in their story. That’s fine. In the revision process, it’s the writer’s job to spread these details among the narrative so the reader is discovering them in “real time.” Don’t put a commercial break in your story to explain the history of why these two nations don’t get along, bring it out in conversation, in attitude, even in setting (i.e. the map on the wall showed the original boundaries of country Vateria which included much of Herzog’s current land). The delight in discovering these details hits a pleasure spot with readers.

Multiple Points-of-View

Be careful with third-person omniscient. It’s a grenade that could go off in your hand where the writer knows exactly which character is having a thought but the reader is clueless. First-person point-of-view with multiple “I”s is also hard to follow unless you have a strong voice for your characters. If you’re going to choose to do it this way, keep the number of characters to a minimum and make sure the characters are vastly different.

Not Prose

A current trend in writing is to write in other styles. A lot of modern novels are written in epistolary form (i.e. as letters). It’s clever but also harder than it looks. In the end, interjecting letters or drama passages will take more time than writing in prose. You’ll spend more time in editing.

Non-linear timelines

Similar to multiple points-of-view. It’s easy to make a mistake, and you don’t want your readers taking notes.

Appendices / front or back matter

Front and back matter are fun, but many people skip it. You must write your novel as if it isn’t there. I love to include a Cast of Characters, but I realize I must properly introduce all the characters within the context of the story. I can’t count on anyone reading a Cast of Characters page. (One exception is if you’re in the middle of a series and you want to catch up a reader. If the readers skips the “Story so far” that’s on them if you clearly indicated this isn’t a standalone novel.)

I’d love to hear more common mistakes. Please email me your thoughts.

Review of The Tempting Voice

Cover of The Tempting Voice

Paula Chaffee Scardamalia’s The Tempting Voice is a romance about a hidden Greek mythological world that co-exists with ours. The novel explores the tropes of forbidden love, personal achievement, the positive and negative of family, and monstrous enemies.

The novel alternates point-of-view between two main characters – Nik and Marie Juliette (MJ). Nik is a financial planner/agent who assisted MJ’s grandmother’s career as a novelist, or so he says. He is actually a Greek immortal Voice, son of a Muse, who encourages humans to tap into their creative side. The humans who are successful buoy the Muses, keeping them healthy and young. MJ is a twenty-five-year-old woman who is writing her dissertation so that she can teach Women’s Literature in the university where her mother holds a post. MJ’s grandmother asks Nik to help MJ unleash her creative side when she dies. Nik agrees to take on the assignment and tells MJ that she must inhabit her grandmother’s seaside, expansive cottage for a summer to inherit it. MJ’s grandmother treated Nik like family, so he has a room there.

This scenario sets up a fascinating narrative of Nik attempting to sway MJ to pause her dissertation work and finish her grandmother’s romantic novel. MJ is resistant to Nik’s advice, if not his charms, and alternates between being in his arms and arguing with him. The first time she’s in his arms he has saved her life, but soon the two find themselves falling for each other. Naturally, a rule in the immortal realm is an immortal cannot fall in love with a mortal.

After the two acknowledge their affection for each other, the supernatural world starts intersecting with MJ’s normal world. The scenes with other mythological creatures and the ramifications of falling in love separate our two main characters. The questions of whether MJ will pursue a more creative path or Nik will accept the consequences of being with MJ make up the latter half of the book.

While MJ or Nik are never enemies, their adverse wills put them in conflict for much of the story. Their dynamic personalities and lively exchanges are some of the best scenes in the book. Though an immortal, Nik’s ability to influence MJ is stymied time and again. For her part, MJ reconnects and disconnects with her inner creative spirit through her grandmother’s legacy. The supernatural intersecting with our world, and watching people marvel at it, is always entertaining.

The Tempting Voice, a novel about unleashing your creative side, uses its own imagination to tell a delightful tale of two people looking for more out of life. At times exciting and swoon worthy, the novel sizzles with romantic drama.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F31LPLGR

Review of Grandfather’s Whispers

Cover Grandfather’s Whispers

Grandfather’s Whispers, a novel by Stacy N. Elliott, examines in prose the burden that some of us bear through life. The novel is a magical realism story about Sarah, a seventeen-year-old girl, and her grandfather, Ralph. A group of raucous boys start off Sarah’s day by running her off the road into a snow bank. After this event, Sarah finds herself in two places: as a patient in an emergency situation and underneath a magical tree and pond with her deceased maternal grandfather.

In Grandfather’s Whispers, each leaf on the supernatural tree is a happy memory, transferring Sarah to a time in her life when she felt safe and joyful. Some memories show her the times leading up to her birth. Sarah sees her parents come together, she experiences an unusual baseball game, and revisits a delightful encounter with Santa Claus. Her grandfather also directs her to a nearby pond. When she sees her reflection, Sarah relives a dour or dangerous moment in her short life. Given Sarah’s parent’s rocky relationship, her father’s inability to keep a job, and her paternal grandmother’s instability, her life has many alarming experiences.

Sarah must live through them all, with hospital staff interrupting her peace. The narrative doesn’t make clear at first why Sarah is in the hospital, giving the present scenes and the tree visit encounters with her grandfather a sense of mystery. Sarah is allowed to view not only scenes of her own life, but her life’s effects on others. This novel idea brings home how important we are to other people, and how easily we forget this fact when we’re focused on ourselves.

Some passages are disorienting when we briefly jump to Ralph’s perspective, but overall the novel is written with skill, style, and much care. The narrative is immersive, and pages fly by as the reader is invested in Sarah and her future. This book is an ambitious undertaking for Elliott’s first novel.

Most fantasy offerings these days are urban fantasy or high fantasy, so it’s a delight to find a magical realism book like Grandfather’s Whispers. The story’s contrasts between real-life tragedies and an utopian, creative world blend seamlessly. This novel is recommended for people who enjoy the mix of hardcore reality with flights of fantasy.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DS533R7X

Review of Spirit of Suspense

Cover Spirit of Suspense

C. Rae D’Arc’s Dead and Back Again series chronicles the life of private investigator Aeron Spade, also known as Earl Aeron Fromm, the Haunted, of Margen. He lives in the magical world of Novel where each “land” represents a literary genre. For example, on the map “Fantasy” exists across the sea from “Contemporary Romance” and each time period represents its typical setting (e.g. Fantasy is in the past, SciFi is in the future, etc.).

Aeron is in line to become a duke one day, but instead he moved to the land of Mystery and became a private investigator. His partner, Nita Incog, has amnesia, leaving her with only muscle memory of top-notch battle skills. In a recent novella, Aeron and Nita discovered she has a connection to a mysterious organization known as Arrowhead, which is situated in the land of Special Ops, Thriller.

Spirit of Suspense starts with Aeron’s family calling him home. They feel he should forget his private eye job and take up his royal duties in his home world. First, Aeron uses his influence to get an appointment at Arrowhead, and that’s when the novel ratches up the action and tension.

Spirit of Suspense continues the delightful stories in Novel where, from chapter to chapter, the reader may encounter anything from talking bears to modern, gun-toting assassins. This series achieves the promises of the variety of a multiverse without the downsides of that tired stereotype. In this entry of the trilogy, the plot starts in Mystery, proceeds to Fantasy, and then to Thriller, jumping around those lands in the second half of the novel. A short novella at the end also introduces the continent of Romance.

This novel extends Aeron’s journey and reveals some of Nita’s past. The middle novel of a trilogy has the burden of carrying the first novel’s exciting premise and characters and building something new, yet not quite concluding the three-book arc. Usually, the second in a trilogy ends on an unsatisfying cliffhanger. Fortunately, Spirit of Suspense is a contained narrative and completes what it sets out to do. The characters’ stories aren’t resolved by the end, but the plot guides them to a logical place and leaves them there. Readers following this series should enjoy the conclusion.

Spirit of Suspense (per the author) is not recommended if you haven’t read the first novel in the series. Reading at least the third story in the novella, Visionary Investigations, will also aid in the entertainment. Your engagement in the novel will likely be measured by how much you enjoy thrillers of the James Bond nature. It has plenty of shadow organizations, car chases, and safe houses, all the events standard for this novel. Pairing espionage with candles that allow you to teleport, hats that reveal your deepest desires, and a royal / commoner romance treats the reader to something quite special.

Overall, Spirit of Suspense is an exciting read, stuffed with gadgets and magic galore. If the two prior Dead and Back Again offerings entertained you, this novel will continue the trend.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1961733129

Review of Nyssa Glass and the House of Mirrors

Cover of Nyssa Glass and the House of Mirrors

I’ve read several H.L. Burke’s novels before, including the excellent Heart of Curiosity, so I looked forward to her steampunk adventure of Nyssa Glass in the House of Mirrors. I had never read any of the other Nyssa Glass offerings and was intrigued by the title. This steampunk novella met my high expectations.

Nyssa Glass is a former thief, attempting to make amends for her past by working in a repair shop of steampunk inventions. The book starts quickly when a menacing customer comes for a visit and demands Nyssa help him break into a house. After a series of tragic events, Nyssa agrees to the job. She’s left at an abandoned mansion with only a thief’s tools. However, the house she must break into isn’t a regular house but the mirrored mansion of a genius inventor. Nyssa must find a way to escape the house’s traps and unlock its secrets.

Clever, imaginative, and thrilling all describe Nyssa Glass in the House of Mirrors. Through the course of events, Nyssa meets a computer companion. They grow closer, giving the story some much-needed gravitas. Just when the reader thinks this is a light-hearted romp, the narrative turns darker and the stakes are raised. Nyssa begins to worry about the outcome of a companion character as she progresses deeper into the mansion. The invested reader will be equally nervous.

The writing brings alive the exciting narrative. The descriptions of the mansion in disrepair paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. Nyssa Glass and the House of Mirrors is everything a steampunk fan could want in a 150-page novella.

So, spend a few hours in a world both familiar and foreign. Follow the adventures of a reformed thief in this initial book of an exciting series.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BZRI4Z4

Review of Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone

Cover of Everyone Killed

Benjamin Stevenson wins the award for most eye-catching title in recent memory for Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone. Admit that pairing this wordy title with a murder mystery has to intrigue mystery bibliophiles everywhere. But what’s in a name, or title? Does this book hold up beyond its moniker and deliver a cracker of a whodunnit?

You have read this plot before. A group of people inhabit a ski lodge only to be snowed-in when a murder occurs. Except in a Christie or Christie-adjacent novel, usually some connective thread exists between the people (see Ruth Gordon’s One by One, as an example). In this case, the bond is family.

Ernest (Ern) Cunningham arrives at the lodge for a family reunion and explains, throughout the book, how each one of his family has killed someone in the past. In this novel, the official narrative is that someone has killed a stranger outside the lodge the night Ern arrives. No one knows the victim. The murdered person’s method of death is also unusual. Who is he, why was he murdered, and why has the local policeman (also snowed in) arrested one of the Cunninghams with so little evidence?

If you checked the title, you know the answer to the last question. The authorities have just released Ern’s brother, Michael, from jail in time for the reunion. Michael lied, however, and was released earlier. So did he arrive at the lodge earlier and murder again? It’s up to Ern to set the record straight.

Ern’s full-time job is writing “How To” guides for writing mysteries. The reader is treated with a list of rules from the Golden Age at the start, and Ern swears he won’t break any during the book. He bends a few but holds to his promise. Being a mystery-writer coach, Ern’s perspective on mysteries often puts a hilarious spin on the plot. He points out cliches, reassures the reader when he’s not lying, and tells the reader in what chapters you will encounter a murder. This is the most unique voice of a mystery novel I’ve ever read, and I really enjoyed it. (Note: I’m not sure I would continue to love it in a series, but for one novel, it works.)

Given all the trappings, the story must still do the yeoman’s work of delivering an exciting and fair mystery. Does it? The story is solid even without provocative titles and a meta-narrator. The method of death is fascinating, if a bit over the top. The mystery of the suspect is always welcome and not too over-used in modern times. Yet, mysteries live or die by their ending. Everyone has a satisfying ending. I especially enjoyed the Ellery Queen “Address to the Reader,” listing the clues that lead to the ending. The novel pulls out an all-too-common trope with the murderer. Given the elevated writing and plot, I was slightly disappointed with “the reveal” along with a few coincidences that were hard to swallow. I’m surprised the narrator didn’t take a jab at his own ending. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and it should satisfy most mystery fans.

Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone is a worthy addition to your list if you like a little meta in your mystery and a little wit in your detecting. The novel is certainly worth telling everyone in your family about it, even if they aren’t a killer.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Y94K74X