But in KILL YOUR DARLINGS, Harper uses the conceit to explore themes of mental illness and creativity. The metafictional premise of a novelist winding up as a character in their own work is typically played for laughs. And though Kyla has been reunited with her cherished friends, there is little comfort in her fantastical situation she doesn’t believe in happy endings, after all, and the plot she’s set in motion for her book promises a grim fate if Kyla is unable to overcome her darkness and rewrite her story. She has somehow ended up within her current novel, the conclusion of her Solera series, in which her heroes are preparing for the ultimate battle in the Shadow War against evil Lord Zalor, who feeds on the energy of dreams and is determined to destroy Kyla. At her moment of deepest despair, Kyla wakes up to find herself transported into her own fictional world. And her band of champions includes characters, like Asher Brightstone and shapeshifter Rexa Faeloryn, modeled after her real-life friends, while brave, handsome Valen Stormcrest is Kyla’s idealized romantic fantasy figure.

In Solera, Kyla is Kyla Starblade, Lightbringer and Earth’s Foremost Dragon Authority. Mental illness has drained her life of light and hope, and she seeks solace in the fantasy world of her writing, the magical realm of Solera, in which stalwart heroes and formidable dragons fight the good fight against the forces of darkness. Harper’s novel KILL YOUR DARLINGS, is a fantasy author struggling with profound depression.

Kill Your Darlings by L.E. Harper