About The Epic Bedhead Saga
The Epic Bedhead Saga began as an inkling of a thought I had as a new father. Every night my daughter would go to sleep with delicately combed hair. And every morning when she woke, it looked as though her hair had had an unfortunate experience with an electrical socket. HOW was this happening?! What could POSSIBLY be going on during her slumber that caused her morning bedhead to be so incredibly unruly? That question spawned the name "Epic Bedhead Saga" in my mind, and the seedling of a story that took over 15 years to fully sprout and grow into the saga you find now before you.
How This Started
Nearly fifteen years ago, when my youngest daughter Eowyn was barely a year old, a story started taking shape in my head. It was about children. About dreams. About the things we carry quietly and the things we're most afraid to lose.
It took years to find its full form. When it did, it became a 96,000-word middle grade fantasy novel called The Epic Bedhead Saga — a story about four very different twelve-year-olds who discover that their dreams are not entirely their own, and the extraordinary adventure that follows.
After completing the novel I spent months querying literary agents. When no manuscript requests came, I made a decision that changed everything. Instead of waiting for permission to tell this story, I decided to tell it myself — as a serialized audio drama podcast, adapted directly from the completed novel, performed and produced from my home studio in Wisconsin.
It is, I think, the best decision I've ever made for this story.
What The Epic Bedhead Saga Is
The Epic Bedhead Saga is a serialized audio drama following four twelve-year-olds — Zorah, Timothy, Constance, and Garren — who discover that their dreams overlap in a shared world tended by ancient magical creatures called Dreamtenders. Each child has a Dreamtender companion bound specifically to them. And something dark is growing in the dream world, feeding on silence, grief, and the emotions left unspoken.
The story is narrated by Percival, the Shepherd of Slumber — an ageless keeper of dreams who has been watching over these four children from the very beginning, waiting for the moment their stories would finally converge.
At its heart, The Epic Bedhead Saga is a fantasy adventure with genuine stakes. But underneath the dream worlds and strange creatures and ancient mysteries, it is a story about emotional courage. About what it means to grow up. About grief, friendship, memory, and the quiet extraordinary things that happen when ordinary children refuse to forget.
It is also, quietly, a story about my grandmother — and what it feels like to watch someone you love begin to forget who they are.
The Format
The Epic Bedhead Saga is performed as a dramatized audio experience — first-person narration with full voice cast, original sound design, and carefully chosen music. Episodes run anywhere from roughly 10 to 15 minutes up to 45 minutes and release every other Wednesday. Patreon supporters receive episodes one week before public release.
The show begins with an origin story narrated entirely by Percival (Episode One), introducing the dream world and the mysterious creature at the heart of everything. The following four episodes (Episodes 2 through 5) act as character introductions for our main cast, each telling the same first day of seventh grade from a different character's perspective. Then the main story begins. (Episode Six and on.)
The Cast & Crew
Voices: Percival, Timmy, Timmy's Father, Garren, Garren's Father, Hushglow, Filbert, Codex, Valiant, Drebble, The Void
About the Creator
Tyler Michael Jonsson is a writer, actor, and lifelong storyteller from Wisconsin. After years performing on stage and behind the microphone as a theatre and voice actor, he began channeling that same love of rhythm and character into fiction.
He lives with his wife, Lisa, a talented writer and editor who lovingly edited The Epic Bedhead Saga, and their five daughters, whose morning chaos and spectacular bedhead first inspired the story's title and heart. Their household is ruled by Kaladin, an affectionate orange cat whose confidence is only exceeded by his waistline.
Tyler is a lifelong Tolkien nerd and Star Wars geek. When not writing, he watches Indiana Pacers basketball, Green Bay Packers football, and will never say no to Star Trek: The Next Generation.
"We all carry within us a story. A testament to a life lived. A tale of a journey trekked. And some… some stories can indeed change the world."
— Percival - The Shepherd of Slumber