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Many would disagree. They tell me a movie is a better rendition of imagination. I find that to be pure BS. A movie is one person’s version of a book or script crafted by a writer. Sometimes the director is the writer, and it is their version we see. And yet, we lose something in the translation.

When I read a book I “see” the story from my perspective. And let me tell you, my perspective is different form anyone around me. As it should be. Our imaginations are colored by our upbringings, our own experiences, and our outlook on life. 

In no way, shape, or form is my imagination the same as Yvonne’s or the guy next door or the woman up the street. When I read Huckleberry Finn, I get something entirely different out of it than the person sitting next to me on the train. When I read The Shining, I couldn’t put it down. When I saw the movie, I yawned. I didn’t like any of the versions of The Shining or most of Stephen King’s horror books made into movies.

They lost so much in translation. Misery was the exception.

It is hard to bring a book to life on the stage or screen. Each person views a story differently. As we age, we do the same thing. I have read and reread many books in my life. Each time I read it I do so through the lens of who I am at that period in my life. 

When I first read The Drifters by James Michener, I was a teenager. He published the book in 1971 about a group of young people in their late teens and early twenties who were thrown together in Europe by life. 

The major theme was centered around the Vietnam War which was raging at the time. I was too young for Vietnam, but I knew so many who had gone. Vietnam was an interesting time in America and the fall out among those who chose not to serve is heavily vested in this work.

The narrator is an older man who interacts with each character independently and as they come together. When I read it as a teen I empathized with the younger characters. As I got older my viewpoints changed and so did the way I saw the characters and their travels. The same thing goes for now. Now I see their story through the eyes of the narrator. All with my own imagination.

Imagination is the greatest gift God gave us. Einstein said he had to imagine what it was like to travel as a beam of light to create his theory of relativity. The imagination of Nikola Tesla was so far above my own that even with someone explaining his ideas to me I still can’t conceive of what Tesla wanted to create and yet most of the present-day cell phone technology is based upon this man’s imagination put to paper.  

I adore the idea that I see something different in the Tale of Peter Rabbit now than when I read it as a child. Imagination is one of our greatest gifts and if you write, it is the sole basis for your creation.

Let me explain. We are working on a new series titled Fannie Mae Bergstrom – Psychic Detective. The title alone is enough to get your imaginations started. Add to it I asked the author to take the normal everyday world and change it to match the needs of her main character. 

When she asked me what I meant, I told her to imagine a vampire. Vampires play a huge part in the supernatural genre of today’s market. All of which can be traced back to the book Dracula. In the movies, Dracula is portrayed as a sensual gift to women whose very bite brings on orgasmic delights as their life is drained from them.

The book and movies have spawned a million versions of the vampire. In all of them, vampires are smarter, sexier, stronger, immortal beings whose only drawback it seems is sunshine and a source of blood to survive from. In fact, the way the books and movies portray vampires, who wouldn’t want to be one?

I told the author, aren’t vampires dead? How can they have sex when their hearts don’t beat? How can a male vampire get an erection if he is dead? Could it be their sensuality is a tool they use to draw in victims? And do they continue to live as immortals or are they slowly decaying? Using blood from a fresh victim to stave off the inevitable day do they simply turn to dust? Do their hearts beat when they draw in blood or do they stay cold and dead?

I asked her to look at this story with the eyes of a person new to the supernatural. Are Angels the good guys? Do Demons always do evil? Is a Fairy good? Are Gnomes evil? And what about Werewolves? And what will her physic do? Can she read minds? What does that feel like? 

Can she see the future and stay sane? What kind of personality can handle physic abilities? I asked my author to branch out. Think outside the box. Imagine a different story with different realities for the standard supernatural characters. Give them unique flaws. Make the psychic herself flawed but fun.

I asked her if she could imagine this story? To date, she has done better than I hoped. I am looking forward to bringing you the adventures of Fannie Mae. Unique adventures of a snarky detective with issues. Those issues being her supernatural clients and her non-supernatural life.

I’m Ross, The Editor-in-Chief at The Pyrateheart Press and I’m out.