Ok, so Otempra feels like a fantasy, and it is, mostly. Some of it is true, though quite minimally. This post contains spoilers, so read at your own discretion 🙂

I did indeed have imaginary friends growing up. The lieutenant was my stand-in father. His platoon they were my uncles. The twins were truly my first friends. They would color next to me as a very young child. Liam takes on many friends all in one. As I grew up, who he was would shift. He was always my favorite. Sometimes whoever I had a crush on, he would become. Sometimes he would just be who I needed him to be. I had other imaginary friends, too, and I believed they lived in the walls of whatever home I was living in.

Liam and I would fight battles together, along with his friends. Typically with a bow and arrow, hiding in his cave, inside hidden spaces inside trees, and always winning, no matter how much of a struggle the battles were.

I would someday love for them to return. They were my everything. They kept me going in the most difficult times of my life. In the book, I write the reunions as I imagine they would be for me. Like reacquainting with family I had long been separated from.

I did use to bury treasures, though, digging them back up in a day or two was the norm. I couldn’t quite find the self-control to let them sit any longer. The treehouse I mention is real, though it wasn’t my favorite place in the woods. My favorite place was in a tree that grew sideways. I would climb up and sit on it as high as the not-so-sturdy branches would allow me to. I would linger, writing stories or poems, filling my time in my own presence, in a place I felt safe.

This story was such a delight to write, and I hope to have sequels in the future.

Till next time,

– Arden