There are a lot of divided opinions when it comes to what we should/shouldn’t leave our kids.
Some parents will gladly pass down the keys to their empire, while others would rather be buried with them.
Admittedly, I’m still quite new to this parent malarkey, which means there’s every chance what I say in this email could change in the years to come, but Lady Laura thinks I need to live more in the present, so “the present” is what I shall serve.
And as of April 2025, my stance on this matter is:
I might not leave Master Liam or his little brother my fiction publishing business.
Why?
Two words:
SPOILED HEIRS.
While Laura and I will do our utmost to instil proper values around money, the reality is, nobody can force kids to respect your legacy except for them.
We can try, and I most certainly will, but if neither of them learns to love it as I do, then there’s a decent chance they will squander or possibly even invert what I’m building instead of growing it bigger and better long after I’ve joined the Night Shift.
Then there are the grandkids. 😱
Assuming the dark arts work and you inspire your offspring to carry the lantern, the chances of your grandkids respecting what you have built (outside of it being an ATM machine) fall off the cliff drastically.
And when this happens, it’s how you get Rings of Power.
A legacy, a story, and an entire world watered down by spoiled grandchildren.
Frankly, I'd rather all of my work enter the public domain than what Tolkien's heirs have done to his legacy.
Or maybe I’m just being a sad, crotchety git. 🧐
The jury’s out on that one.
All I can say is that I take legacy personally — despite knowing that even the greatest ones to ever grace this planet are usually forgotten in 2-3 generations.
Legacies are also one of the ‘hidden’ reasons I suspect many of us enjoy fantasy.
We follow a nobody (or in The Divided Region’s case: a lost heir and reluctant hero) on a journey of monumental stakes, failures, triumphs, tragedies, highs, lows, and trials that ultimately forge them into a "somebody" whose name might echo through the ages.
And here’s the other kicker:
Deep down, we aren’t merely watching a character transform…
WE SEE OURSELVES CHANGING.
Every good story does this, but speculative fiction — in my humble and always accurate opinion — does it best.
That’s why I love fantasy.
That’s why I write it.
It’s also why I penned The Divided Region, which you can read here:
www.djjwatsonstore.com/products/tdr-bundle
DJJW