What do I mean by Unepic Fantasy?

Unepic Fantasy isn't a thing, is it?
That's my problem, and one of the reasons why I'm writing these stories. Fantasy worlds have been relegated to the Big Damn Quest since their inception. There have been faeries and fey and dragons and goblins and dwarves and gods and the world has been ending since Ragnarok, and if I'm honest, I feel like it's a little played out.
Do you ever get tired of reading stories where the stakes are always life or death? Where the world is always in danger of ending? Where the kingdom/country/nation is always in peril of collapse, and millions of people's lives hang in the balance?
I do.

UNEPIC FANTASY (Noun): A story within the Fantasy Genre that is Unepic. The focus of the story is not on the Big Damn Quest, the world is not ending, the stakes are not life-or-death all the time.

These aren't stories like the Lord of the Rings. They aren't stories about the rise and fall of empires. Winter Isn't Coming.

Don't expect a McGuffin, or the mentor to die tragically and set the hero on a grand quest of self-actualization as they save the world and everyone they love. In fact, don't expect anything that you'd expect in a Hollywood Blockbuster or a 2020 New York Times Best Seller.

What to expect

You can expect that Save The Cat won't spoil the next chapter for you. Friendships will be explored. Heartaches will be had. Important things will be lost. Some characters will die too soon, and others will live and wonder why. You can expect the hero of one story to be the villain of another, and the villain of one story to be the hero of their own.
You can expect high seas adventures, and fantasy shenanigans, and laughter, and grief, and people dealing with their problems like you and I have to -- while the world continues to turn despite them and their limitations.
You can expect children to become adults and adults to become parents and parents to become grandparents. You can expect the joy and grief that comes with that. You can expect people in this world to die of old age.

Above all, you can expect the characters to behave in a human way. Did someone get kidnapped, or held at knife-point, or nearly killed in battle? Does someone have depression? PTSD? Anxiety? You can expect that to affect the way they look at the world.
These are fantasy stories that are written primarily for the mature reader. There will be use of strong language. There will be scenes of battle and injury, and those injuries will be handled in as realistic a way as I'm able to handle them. People are going to look for ways to cope with trauma, and they won't settle on the best way to handle it every time. Read more about my Content Warnings here.

These stories aren't written like a blockbuster, but I'm not trying to write the next Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. I'm trying to tell a real story with characters that are genuine and complex. I hope you'll join me!