Well, it’s been quite a while.
In the blink of an eye, I find myself here at 5am, penning a catch-up blog post and wondering quite how all of this happened.
Three Mr Puff & Ruby Queen adventures are complete, with a trilogy edition — including extra content — on its way. A Dream Journal has made its way into the world. Three decks of oracle and tarot cards have been created, and a board game is preparing for its first proper road test.
Who am I? Where did all this come from?
And perhaps more concerning… why does it feel like this is only the tip of the iceberg?
Somewhere along the way, House of Mystique stopped being a collection of ideas and started becoming a real body of work.
Books, journals, cards, games, stories, symbols, strange little characters, mystical detours and more than a few moments of “What on earth am I doing?”
But here we are.
And there is much more still to come.
What has surprised me most is not the amount of work, but the way one idea keeps opening the door to another.
A children’s story becomes a trilogy. A journal becomes a collection. A card deck becomes a game. A visual idea becomes an entire realm.
Apparently, imagination does not believe in staying in its lane.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I’ve realised that life has been doing a bit of grafting of its own.
The journey that led me here — including this rather pot-bound chapter of living with an elderly parent — seems to have grafted a whole new profession onto the foundation of everything that came before it.
Maybe I’m a bonsai.
Ha!
Not unlike Mr Puff’s Ginkgo Tree House.
For 800 years, that tree existed as a bonsai. Then, fifty years ago, Mr Puff planted it in the ground… and look what it became.
Well, you’ll have to read the next trilogy to find out exactly how that happened.
Perhaps that’s the point.
Sometimes being confined doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Roots keep forming. Structure keeps developing. And when the right moment comes, something that looked small and contained can suddenly become much larger than anyone expected.
House of Mystique feels a little like that to me now.
So perhaps I shouldn’t be asking, “Where did all this come from?”
Maybe it was growing quietly all along.
And perhaps the most exciting part isn't what I've already created, but what might happen when all these ideas finally have room to spread their branches.
After all, an 800-year-old bonsai can become a rather extraordinary tree.
Who knows what House of Mystique might become?
Welcome back inside the House.
The kettle's on, the imagination is running wild, and I suspect we're only just getting started.
Jennifer
House of Mystique — Realms of Imagination
