Book Review | Blue Star Visions

Jan 21

The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin

By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 7 Comments

The Long-shining Water

My sister gave me The Long-Shining Waters as a holiday gift. She attended a book event hosted by the author and snagged me a signed copy.

The book takes place on Lake Superior. Since my family has a vacation home there, I was especially interested in reading the book. My sister thought of me because one character in the book is a Native American woman who has powerful dreams. I’m interested in both Native Americans and dreams and even wrote a novel about a Native American woman called Red Willow’s Quest.

Photo of Lake Superior near our house

The book explores the lives of three women who lived on Lake Superior in three different time periods. Grey Rabbit is an Ojibwe woman who lives with her husband, two sons and mother-in-law in 1622. She has a series of frightening dreams that cause her to fear for her sons during winter when food is scarce.

Berit lives in 1902 with her Norwegian husband who is a fisherman. Their home is isolated, leaving Berit with no friends. She faces a terrible loss and struggles to survive.

Nora is a modern woman in 2000 who owns a bar. Her life comes undone and she’s faced with a damaged relationship with her adult daughter and makes a journey around Lake Superior.

A fourth character is Lake Superior with its storms, waves and moods.

Prose poetry is interspersed between the chapters, setting a feeling and mood with detailed descriptions of nature. In the beginning is an Ojibwe hunting song:

The eagle, the eagle

Patient like him

From the rocks on high

You will perceive a lake. . .

The narrative rotates between these three women’s lives with each chapter changing from one woman to another. The writer has a background in short stories and the book felt like three separate short stories mixed together with little connecting them but Lake Superior. I got caught up in Berit’s story and skipped that chapters the pertained to Grey Rabbit and Nora then went back and read them.

The story is well-researched and the author was funded by two Arrowhead Regional Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships Grants and by the McKnight Foundation. The author was also the recipient of the Loft Mentor Series Award. The book won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize.

The descriptions in this book are exquisite. Here is an example from the opening. “The cold wind off the lake sets the pines in motion, sets their needled tops drawing circles in the sky. It cuts through boughs and they rise and fall, dropping snow that pits the white surface below. The hardened leaves rattle and sail, and the limbs of the paper birch sway, holding the sky in heavy wedges.” p. 1.

The book examines the three women’s desire for meaning in life when faced with challenges and tragedy. If you’re looking for a book with rich, detailed prose that explores human emotions and universal needs, check out Sosin’s The Long-Shining Waters.

Lake Superior near our house

How important do you think the power of place is to most stories? In the book and recent movie The Martian, place was central to the story. Gone with the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird had to take place in the southern United States. What other stories can you think of where place is important to the story? If you’re a writer, have you ever thought of location being a voice or character?

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Dec 05

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Those Who Love by Irving Stone
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 32 Comments

Those Who Love

After a pipe burst in the basement, I started sorting through things in storage to see what could be salvaged. I came across boxes of books I’d read and loved, wanted to read, or those that merely accumulated over the years. I started leafing through them to see what I wanted to keep or give away.

It was a dangerous task. When determining if I want to give away a book, I read some of the beginning and sometimes found myself sucked into the story. Those Who Love by Irving Stone was one of those books.

I’ve read other books by Irving Stone: The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo; Lust for Life (a fictionalized biography of Vincent Van Gogh); and Love Is Eternal about Mary and Abraham Lincoln. I always found the books well-researched and told in a way that brought insight about the personal lives and personalities of the characters.

Those Who Love: A Biographical Novel of Abigail and John Adams is written in much the same tone as those other wonderful books. It’s told through Abigail’s experiences. It begins when Abigail and Adams first became involved and ends many years later after Adams finishes his term as the second president of the United States of America.

The novel is a love story about two people who had the same goals during an important time in history. It also tells of the great sacrifices they made for this nation.

I found the book fascinating because John and Abigail were at the heart of all the events that led up to the Revolution and setting up a republic. They had a house in Boston and a farm close by. Boston is where many famous events took place, such as the Boston Tea Party, and where the Revolution began. The Adams also knew many of the important people that were part of history, such as Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

Through John and Abigail’s story, Stone explains all the events that led up to the American colonies rebelling against England. Taxation was one big reason. England wanted the American colonies to pay for the French and Indian War and decided to tax them without representation. People in the colonies wanted the same rights as people in England. Step-by-step the colonies came closer

John Adams was a lawyer who studied the history of government and republics. He was instrumental to the Americans gaining freedom through his writings. During the war, he was an ambassador in France working with Benjamin Franklin. Adams helped inspire Congress to form a republic with a balance of power between the Senate, House of Representatives and the President of the United States.

He was vice president during George Washington’s eight years as president and worked closely with him. When Washington’s term was over, Adams was elected as the second President of the United States.

Abigail supported John in all he did. She ran the farm and raised their children alone while Adams was in Congress during the colonial days and when he was abroad as an ambassador during the Revolution.

She joined him at formal functions with the King and Queen of England after the war when John was an ambassador there. She also entertained politically with him in Philadelphia when he was vice president and president.

In the book we learn about the Adams’ puritan values, their siblings, cousins and friends and how they supported each other sometimes and disagreed about important issues at other times.

For an intimate view into one of the most important eras in American history through the eyes of two famous people, I highly recommend this epic novel.

What people throughout history have you enjoyed reading about and why? Who are your favorite authors in this writing genre? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Oct 31

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Review of The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 3 Comments

The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried is about a Vietnam vet looking back twenty years later at his experiences as a foot soldier (legs or grunts as O’Brien called them). As a reader we learn these painful stories have been in his head and heart for all these years and finally the time came to share them. O’Brien wrote the book as a powerful, emotional cleansing both for himself and the reader.

He tells his war stories as if you’re sitting down on the front porch with him on a hot summer day and he’s opened up to you—sharing painful memories, some of which he’s never shared before.

The book is written almost as a stream of consciousness with poetic language and humor that help balance the shock and horror of some stories. You feel his pain, fear, guilt and confusion at being drafted to fight in a war he doesn’t understand or believe in. You feel the weight of what they carried: their weapons, their letters from home, photos of women they love, Bibles, their talismans against death and you wonder what you would carry in that situation.

The first story in the book is “The Things They Carried.” Here is a quote from that story:

“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects this was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required perfect balance and perfect posture.” p. 21

The reader is told the same story more than once, but it changes with the telling and new information is added. It flows like a river changing course yet still the same river. His memory of the stories is unreliable, but within the shifting narrative there is truth.

O’Brien creates a feeling, a taste of what it was like to trudge through the jungle with a group of young naïve men, never knowing from day to day if you or your comrades might die from a sniper shot or stepping on a land mine or in combat. O’Brien talks about the close friendships that form when your life depends on another person.

Here is a quote from the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story.”

“There was a noise, I suppose, which must’ve been the detonator, so I glanced behind me and watched Lemon step from the shade into bright sunlight. His face was suddenly brown and shining. A handsome kid, really. Sharp eyes, lean and narrow-waisted, and when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him high into a tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms.” p. 70

I related to the book in a deep way because it was my generation being drafted or enlisting in the Vietnam War. It was my generation staying in college, going to Canada, or go off-grid to avoid being drafted into a senseless war. It was my generation who protested the war and got fired up about stopping it. My generation of young men who died at war. My generation of men who came back from the war shell-shocked with post-traumatic stress. And yet the war story is not just about Vietnam, but also about the senselessness of all war and the experiences of men (and women) in any war.

The book is a considered one of the best ever written about Vietnam and O’Brien is considered one of the best American writers of his generation. Read this book not only for a greater understanding of what it’s like to be in a war, but for the beauty of the writing itself; to see how our memories are unreliable and yet can capture the truth of an experience.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Would you agree that stories change over time, but still carry truth? Do you think any good comes from traumatic experiences such as fighting in a war? Have you found telling stories to be healing?
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Jun 30

0

Medicine Woman by Lynn V. Andrews
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 42 Comments

Medicine Woman

I just read Medicine Woman by Lynn V. Andrews a best-selling author. It is an autobiographical account of Andrews’ spiritual journey that eventually leads to her becoming the apprentice to a heyoka medicine woman.

The story starts with Andrews at an art show where she sees a photo of a “haunting” Native American marriage basket. She wants to buys the photo but her companion is in a hurry to leave. That night she dreams of the basket. In the morning, she calls the gallery about buying the photo, but they claim they never had one of a marriage basket. Stunned, she drives to the gallery; the photo is gone and there is no record of them ever having it.

Andrews goes to a party that a guest Native American writer is attending. During the evening the writer tells her that the marriage basket is real and he gives her the name of a woman on the Cree Reserve near Manitoba who might be able to help her. Thus starts Andrews adventure into a frightening journey that tests her courage as she’s given the task to steal the basket from an evil medicine man.

The book is a fascinating read that follows the amazing journey of this visionary author.

Of special interest to me, was that on page one Andrews wrote, “This book is a record of my journey into her (the medicine woman) strange and beautiful realm—a celebration of the power of woman—as she made me see that power.”

Red Willow’s Quest

I found this quote interesting in light of the endorsement she gave me for my book Red Willow’s Quest. Her endorsement was “A powerful spiritually invocative story about a woman taking her power.” My heroine was also on a spiritual journey to become a medicine woman and also came into her power.

Have you had a spiritual experience or unexpanded event that you’d like to share? I always enjoy your stories.

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Apr 16

0

Guided in Dreams
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Uncategorized, Writing | 70 Comments

Recently I was drawn to read Paulji A Memoir by Patti Simpson. I had read it in 1985 when it was first published, but felt the urge to read it again.   I’m glad I did because in the thirty years since then my consciousness and experiences have changed me and how I relate to the book.

In the beginning of the book Patti describes her life as unremarkable. She was happily married, the mother of four, and a regular churchgoer.

One night while Patti seemed to be asleep the words of a book run through her head as if she were a tape recorder. “It had been a most exciting and well-written mystery story, and as it unfolded, word by word, it left me fascinated. I didn’t know where this mystery story was coming from: in a sense, it seemed to be from me. In the morning I couldn’t remember a word of it, but I had. . . a knowingness . . . that someday I would write a book.” p. 10. Paulji A Memoir might have been the book she knew she would write someday.

The experience Patti describes in this passage struck me as very similar to an experience I had in which I had a series of six dreams that was like watching a movie. Only, unlike Patti, I remembered the dreams and recorded them. I ended up with ninety pages in my dream journal. Like Patti at the time I wasn’t an author, but the series of dreams inspired me to write the story I saw in the dream and led to writing Star Rider on the Razor’s Edge.

In Paulji a Memoir, Patti had another nocturnal experience several years later in 1968. This time she went to bed but instead of falling asleep, she remained in full awareness. In the morning she felt fully refreshed. She was aware that what she’d heard in this state was crystal clear, but she couldn’t remember what she’d learned when she awoke. This went on for many nights. Patti knew she was hearing the explanation of life, of existence and the truth of being.

On the twenty-first day Patti awoke knowing there was a book she needed to find. She went to a corner market and as she looked at a rack her hand shot out and she grabbed a book. It was In My Soul I am Free about Paul Twitchell written by Brad Steiger. This book turned out to be the beginning of an amazing spiritual journey she had as a student of Paul Twitchell that continued over the next three years until his passing in 1971. Patti grew to be a dedicated student and worked closely with Paul Twitchell, helping him bring the works of Eckankar to the world. During this time she came to know the private side of Paul Twitchell and his wife Gail.

The book is a wonderful story of Patti’s memories of this remarkable spiritual leader. The stories she tells are inspiring, humorous at times and uplifting. It’s well worth the read.

One of the stories was that a couple of years after Patti was taught on the inner for twenty-one nights, Paul Twitchell wrote and published the first chapter of the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad. When Patti read it, she recognized it as the words of wisdom she’d heard during those nights.

I read the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad in 1971 and for me it was the same experience of recognizing the truth that Patti had, though I read it in the outer form.

How many of us are guided inwardly in some way? We might have an amazing dream, be directed to buy a book, call a phone number, or have a lucid dream. Others of us might be given a book by a friend or be inwardly nudged to go to an event.

The more I hear people’s stories, the more I realize we are all guided in our search for truth.

Have you had a remarkable experience on your journey to find the greater meaning of life? If so write your experience in the comment section of this blog post. I always love hearing about people’s experiences.

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Apr 01

0

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 60 Comments

Unbroken

I found Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand at a library book sale. I was hesitant to buy it because I’d seen the movie preview of Unbroken and knew the book would be a disturbing one to read.

It’s based on the true story of an Olympic runner who was a prisoner-of-war (POW) in WW II and was brutally treated by the Japanese. Yet, I knew Laura Hillenbrand was a talented author. She also wrote about an underdog racehorse in Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

I was also interested in reading the book because I was raised on hearing stories about my mother’s beloved brother, the heroic Uncle Bart. He co-piloted a bomber in WW II and was shot during a bombing mission over Germany. The damaged plane made it to Holland before it was forced to land. Local people ran to the plane and helped all the uninjured men run to safety before the German soldiers arrived. The injured men were left because the Germans would give them medical treatment.

Uncle Bart was uninjured. For the remainder of the war in Europe, he was sheltered by the Dutch people, who moved him from house to house and hid him in places like Dutch ovens. When Germany surrendered and Holland was liberated, Bart returned to the USA. He was about to be sent to fight the Japanese, but the dropping of the atomic bomb and the following surrender of Japan saved him from this dangerous new tour of duty.

Unbroken is a truly amazing story of Louis Zamperini, a remarkable man who showed the true strength of the human spirit to survive adversity.

The story starts when Louis was a boy. He was a wild, free-spirited child who always got into trouble. His older brother Peter, a model student and wonderful person, took Louis under his wing and channeled his energy into running. Louis was a natural runner and won all kinds of races. He became the town hero and eventually made it to the Berlin Olympics at a young age. This was all the more remarkable because he didn’t have formal training—just a good set of legs and a strong will.

Louis was well on his way to running the four-minute mile when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. Louis became an airman and flew many dangerous missions. On one flight, they barely made it back in a plane riddled with 594 bullet holes. (Warning some spoilers in the rest of the review.)

On May 27, 1943 Louis and his team were ordered on a rescue mission. The plane wasn’t airworthy, so it had problems during the flight and they crash-landed in the Pacific Ocean. Louis was trapped underwater in the blown-apart plane, entwined in wire and lost consciousness. Miraculously, he awoke free of the wire and swam to the surface. He saw two other men in the water who had survived the crash and two rafts floating away. He swam after the rafts, climbed into one of them and rowed back to the other men.

The three men faced an incredible journey of survival with barely any food, water or shelter from the sun, heat and cold temperatures. Sharks swarmed around the raft and at times leaped toward the men who beat them off with paddles. On one occasion, a Japanese plane shot at them and they had to hide in the ocean where they fought off sharks. On another night, a great white shark attacked the raft as the men slept, lifting it up into the air.

While at sea, Louis saw and heard a choir of people singing and regularly prayed to God to let him survive.

After 47 days at sea, Louis and Phil came in sight of land (the third man died at sea). Unfortunately, they were picked up by a Japanese boat before they reached shore. The next section of the book details Louis’ brutal experience as a POW. The man in charge of the Japanese POW camp targeted Louis with his wrath, making his life unbearable.

The Japanese thought they were a superior race and everyone else was less than human. They didn’t follow the rules about how to treat POWs. They killed 40,000 Chinese who surrendered to them. Thirty-seven percent of American POWs died in Japanese POW camps (compared to one percent who died in German POW camps).   They were starved, beaten and made into slaves.

Toward the end of the war, Japan set the date of August 22,1945 to execute all POWs. However, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6^th and 9^th caused Japan to surrender and the POWs were freed instead of being executed.

Louis’ story didn’t end there. When he returned home, he suffered post-traumatic stress and became an alcoholic. Eventually, he turned his life around and became a true servant of God.

The book was well researched and the author directly interviewed Louis Zamprini. Louis’ life was a hard one, but in the end he had the strength of character to move beyond the adversities he experienced.

Like Louis, we all go through challenges and hardships, as well as joys and successes. At each point in our journey we have the choice to move forward with courage and spiritual strength or be crushed by our experiences.

Have you had a challenging experience that you grew from? I’d love to hear it, if you’d like to share it.

Here is the movie trailer:

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Mar 01

0

By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 6 Comments

Matthew, Tell Me about Heaven by Suzanne Ward

For Christmas, my son gave me Matthew, Tell Me about Heaven: A Firsthand Description of the Afterlife. It’s a fascinating read based on a series of telepathic conversations between the author, Suzanne Ward, and her son Matthew who died in a car cash at the age of seventeen.

When Matthew died Suzanne was overwhelmed by grief and sought out mediums to contact her son. But it was almost fourteen years later that he started coming to her inwardly and they started having telepathic conversations. Matthew explained to his mother the car accident wasn’t an accident, but a planned agreement between him and his family on soul level. The family shared many lifetimes before this one and decided his early death would contribute to everyone’s lifetime missions.

Suzanne had a hard time accepting this and an even harder time accepting Matthew had to die young so she could write this book and tell people the truth about our relationship with all creation and how to better understand our life’s purpose.

Matthew tells his mother he is in a world called Nirvana, which is a place people on earth go after they die before they reincarnate again. People from other worlds have places they go to like Nirvana.

Matthew talks to his mother sometimes as Matthew, her teenage son, and sometimes as his cumulative soul. His cumulative soul is more spiritually evolved and knowledgeable than one lifetime. Suzanne said, “I was to think of all creation as an ocean, of his cumulative soul as a cup of ocean water and of his soul as only Matthew as a drop of waterI took from the cup.” p. 40-41

Matthew explains that when souls die they are greeted by loved ones and then there’s a transition period during which they adjust to their new life and remember who they are as larger spiritual beings. They might go to a place where helpers dress in clothes that the person expects, and the heaven they go to mirrors their spiritual beliefs.

Eventually, they adjust to the world of Nirvana. More advanced souls need little time to adjust. Some who suffered traumatic death need a lot of healing. The area of helping souls adjust is where Matthew works.

One interesting chapter is on the difference between a near-death experience and dying. In a near-death experience, soul is lovingly met by loved ones in a place that meets his expectations. If he is Christian, he may see the golden gates of heaven, hear heavenly music, or see a hologram of Jesus. He is guided to try to decide whether to go back to earth to complete his life mission or die. It’s a beautiful, loving experience. If the person actually dies, they will go through the transition period and learn about Nirvana and the truth about such things as reincarnation.

Music is important in Nirvana. The great symphonies already exist in this world. Gifted composers can hear this music inwardly and bring it down to earth, as Mozart and Beethoven did. When musicians die, they can continue to be involved with music in Nirvana.

Music has great importance for healing of souls when they arrive. Magnificent concerts are featured in heaven. But music has an even greater purpose as expressed in this quote:

“The perimeters of this realm are dependent upon the frequencies of music. The vibrations, especially from the strings, are part of what keeps the entire realm in attunement.” p. 146

Many creative skills we use on earth continue in Nirvana, such as writing, art, teaching and architecture. Life on Nirvana is a place where past lives are reviewed and soul is actively involved in some kind of work and continued development before it goes back to earth, or another planet, for another lifetime.

The book touches on many different topics. The chapter titles include Angels, Spirit Guides; Divine Love, Children; Time; Travel; Employment; Suicide; Pre-Birth Agreements, Karma; and Akashic Records, Lifeprint Review.

The book sheds light on many topics. I found it interesting to compare what Matthew told his mother and what I’ve experienced or read in other places. One thing Matthew didn’t explain: we eventually evolve enough spiritually so it’s not necessary to keep reincarnating on earth. Perhaps this is discussed in the next book because this is the first book in a series of conversations with Matthew.

I was also aware that Matthew could only explain things to his mother from his level of spiritual evolvement. He said there were levels in Nirvana. He was at the fourth level and there are levels beyond his. Clearly, many truths are beyond his understanding. Yet the book gets people to start thinking and looking at their life, death and purpose in life. It can bring comfort to people to know life on earth isn’t a random event, but an important spiritual experience. It is part of our journey home to God. In each life we come here to learn something. When we return to Nirvana, we will review our life and the Akashic records to see how we did and what we still need to learn.

It is a comfort to know that there are guides, teachers and angels helping us. We are not as alone as it appears.

I liked the book because it was another piece to the puzzle of life. It helped make sense of other accounts of heaven in books describing life between lives, books on near-death experiences, and books on spiritual teachings. It all fits together.

What books have you found interesting on the life between lives or near-death experiences? Have you ever had a near-death experience? Have you ever dreamed about the times you spent in the life between lives?

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Mar 01

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Interview with Virginia McClain author of Blade’s Edge
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 4 Comments

Blades’s Edge

Recently, I read a wonderful fantasy book entitled Blade’s Edge by Virginia McClain. The characters are well developed, plot intricate and the setting influenced by Japan. The book is about two young girls living in an orphanage who have powers that they must hide. They eventually become separated and the story follows each of their lives.

I loved the cover art that was done by artist Juan Carlos Barquet.

Here is a description of the book:

The Kisōshi, elite warriors with elemental powers, have served as the rulers and protectors of the people of Gensokai for more than a thousand years. Though it is believed throughout Gensokai that there is no such thing as a female Kisōshi, the Rōjū ruling council goes to great lengths to ensure that no one dares ask why.

Even as young girls, Mishi and Taka know that they risk severe punishment – or worse – if anyone were to discover their powers. This shared secret forms a deep bond between them until, taken from their orphanage home and separated, the two girls must learn to survive in a world where their very existence is a crime. Yet when the girls learn the dark secret of the Rōjū council, they discover that much more than their own survival is at stake.

After reading the book, I asked the author for an interview. Her answers were quite interesting.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve always enjoyed telling stories. Even as a child I would write down ridiculous stories (written in crayon, and largely illegible, to start with) and share them with my mom, who always thought they were brilliant (as mothers do). Then when I was in middle school I had an English teacher who actually told me that my creative writing was good and that she enjoyed my stories. She encouraged me to write more and asked me if I wanted to become a writer. That was the first time anyone other than my mother had told me I was a good writer, or made me wonder if it was something I could do for a job. I decided it was, and I’ve been working (slowly) towards becoming a writer ever since.

How did you come up with the idea for Blade’s Edge?

Actually, the idea started because, as I was living in Japan and spending a lot of time hiking to secluded mountain shrines and temples, I started to wonder what it would be like if all of the shinto spirits were actually real and able to influence the world. Then I started to wonder what magic would be like if it were based on certain zen meditation practices. Ultimately, the book became something very different than a simple answer to those questions, but it was how the initial spark for the story started.

The world you created is very detailed. How did you come up with it?

Well, the last question answers part of this, but the rest of it is that I stole a lot of inspiration from the Japanese landscape, and from feudal Japan. Of course Gensokai (the world in which Blade’s Edge takes place) is completely fictitious, but it’s inspired by Japan and feudal Japanese samurai culture. Living in Japan, having access to a lot of Japanese history even in the small and remote city I was living in, and having that cultural experience to draw from certainly helped me detail the imaginary world I created in my head.

You had interesting names for your characters. How do you come up with them?

Virginia McClain

Most of the names of the characters are the names of animals in Japanese (Taka is the word for Hawk, for example), but not all. Others are Japanese words that suited the characters’ personalities or physical traits (Mishi’s name is an abbreviation of an infrequently used word for ‘strange’ for example) and others are actual Japanese names.

What is the most important theme in the book?

I prefer to let readers answer that question for themselves. Everyone’s experience of the book is likely to be quite different, and I don’t want to sway anyone else’s experience with the text. However, without getting too specific, I would hope that the book raises some questions in readers’ minds about gender norms, and how they affect us as a society.

What experiences from your own life helped you write this book?

Wow. That’s a difficult question to narrow down. Obviously my time in Japan, but also my whole life leading up to that point and since. How’s that for a broad answer? Honestly, though, my experiences with martial arts training, contact sports, and the fact that my parents always went out of their way to treat me the same way they treated my brother, all affected my ability to write this particular book. Hopefully, that makes sense to those that have read the book already, and is sufficiently vague and intriguing to those who haven’t read it yet.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I don’t think so. Thanks so much for taking the time to ask me these questions and for sharing them with your readers!

The author’s website is: http://www.virginiamcclain.org/

Here is the book trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ6Dr7OcyxI

If you’re looking for a good fantasy novel, check out Blade’s Edge.

I’m always interested in hearing your thoughts and comments so feel free to share them.
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Jan 30

0

Interview with Iva Kenaz, author of The Witch Within
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

I just finished reading The Witch Within and greatly enjoyed the main character’s journey both physically and spiritually. The following is an interview with the author.

Iva Kenaz author.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve been fascinated with storytelling since childhood. I wrote many simple hand-written books and in my teenage years I wrote a three-part novel about past lives. I often had repetitive dreams and visions in which I experienced stories from another person’s point of view and felt compelled to note them down. I keep returning to these dreams for inspiration. Writing is something very magical and sacred to me. I believe that it’s a divine communication between the author and the worlds beyond.

What is The Witch Within about and what is the major theme?

The Witch Within is set in 16th century Bohemia and is about a sixteen-year-old gifted healer, Talitha who has been charged with witchcraft.

Talitha escapes to the abandoned Cursed Lands and seeks the ancient cave of her ancestors where her grandmother lived. In the mystical woods, she starts to remember her ancestral lore of healing and magical symbolism and receives guidance on how to survive from the local spirits. But then she is captured by two men who were sent to bring her back to the local justice. One is a brute, but the other one is fatally attracted to her.

After Talitha manages to escape them, she finds her ancestral cave, but also another one at the highest peak of the forest where a group of refugee women have established a camp. By facing both the dark and bright side of her kin, Talitha learns that what she thought was her curse, may yet become her gift.

The major theme is survival, both in physical, emotional and spiritual sense. It’s about overcoming one’s fears and limitations and becoming empowered using primordial inner wisdom.

The Witch Within

What kind of research did you do for the book? What made you pick the 16th century in South Bohemia?

The story is inspired by repetitive dreams and visions I used to have and partly by a book called The Secret History of Czech Lands (by A.Cesal,O.Dvorak and V.Matl) that focuses on the long-gone mysteries of my home country.

During the 16^th century the witch-hunts became more serious all over Europe but I decided on that period mainly symbolically, as the story is made up and thus remains a fantasy.

I was also inspired by the beautiful magnetic countryside of South Bohemia, particularly mountain Kleť, which could translate to Cursed or Mountain of Curses. In the middle ages many landscapes of South Bohemia were feared and some of them even drowned under lakes and ponds. People considered them cursed and haunted, however, those places had rich pagan history and concealed the wisdom of Celtic, Slavic and Germanic tribes.

How does Talitha, the main character, grow and change in your book from her experiences?

Talitha starts off as a gifted healer but she has a very low-self esteem and feels guilty about the death of her brother. She believes that her choice of herbs caused his death. It’s only once she manages to heal one of her captors that she realizes she is truly able to save lives.

Eventually, she also becomes initiated in the magical and healing power of runes and a part of her soul that used to be conscious of such ancestral mysteries begins to re-unite with her present self.

Her spirit is also greatly tested by the shadow side of magic but in the end Talitha learns to understand that the witch within her might not be a curse but an actual virtue.

What writing project are you working on now?

I’ve been working on a stand-alone sequel to The Witch Within that focuses on Talitha’s granddaughter, Berkana, and delves deeper into the mysteries of the natural spirit, runes and sacred geometry.

Iva Kenaz’s Bio.

I’m an indie author and a devoted student and practitioner of Sacred Geometry, Astrology, Tarot, Runes and Channeling. My novels are mainly visionary/metaphysical and are greatly influenced by spirituality, symbolism and philosophy.
In June 2014 I published my first novel The Witch Within and later that year also a personal confession titled My Melancholic Diary. I studied screenwriting at a film university in Prague, FAMU and MA Creative Writing at London South Bank University. Currently, I’ve been working on a stand-alone sequel to The Witch Within as well as doing a research for my non-fiction book about archetypes in storytelling.

Here is Iva Kenzaz’s website.

http://www.ivakenaz.com/
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Jan 22

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Shadows in the Sand, Fantasy story by Michael Diack
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 18 Comments

Shadow in the Sand by Michael Diack

Shadows in the Sand is a fantastic fantasy story that is reminiscent of Tolkiens. The following is an interview with the author.

What inspired you to become a writer?

Writing has always made me happy and I’m motivated by a personal sense of achievement not a financial one. It’s great to see your hard work pay off by having one of your own books in your hands.   I still have a day job that I love and that pays the bills, but it’s great to have a hobby.

How did you come up with the idea for the Shadows in the Sand?

I used to work in Oman in the middle of the desert.  I was there for nearly five years on a seismic crew looking for oil and gas.  Everything in Shadows is inspired by the Omani landscape: the rolling dunes, the rugged mountains, the lifeless voids of endless flat terrain and, of course, the snakes, scorpions and other creepy-crawlies!

The world you have created is very detailed how did you come up with it?

I am inspired by the environment I live in.  I’ve had a lot of good feedback about the descriptions of the landscape and that’s because I essentially lived in the world of Shadows in the Sand.  I sweated in the heat, felt the hot, desiccating wind and I know what’s it like to be alone on top of a sand dune with no sound but your own breathing.  I consider myself very lucky to have experience an environment like Oman and in this modern world of big cities and hectic noise, it was very other-worldly to be in terrain like that.  I think my descriptions are strong but character dialogue is something I need to work on for future novels.

How do you come up with good names for your characters and beasts?

Again, some of the names have an Arabic feel to them while others are normal Western-style names.  I actually find it hard to think of strange names for the beasts and I usually just write a list down while a little half-drunk and then see if they make sense when I’m sober!

This is part of series called Empyria. How many books are in the series and how do you plot your books?

There are actually only two books, the final being The Light and The Glass.  I found the second book much more fun to write as I had already set up all the plot in book one.  So book two is basically one non-stop epic of huge battles and life-changing scenarios.  As for plot, I have a general sense of where the storyline is going but I’m never too detailed.  I usually find that when I’m in the ‘zone’ and writing thousands of words each day the book just takes on a shape of its own.  However, that’s not to say it is perfect as it’s usually editing that is the very hard part and ironing out the plot-holes you find and sticking points.

Do you know the ending to the series?

I must be honest though, the ending to Book Two does leave open the possibility to writing more.  I never actually specified how large the world of Empyria is as I only talked about the one continent.  Perhaps there could be another land, inhabited by other monsters or another race, on the opposite side of the world.  That’s the great thing about writing fantasy, you are unrestricted and there is no limit to the scope of your imagination or world-building.   I know I said I’m not motivated by money but the truth is it also costs a lot to self-publish if you’re putting quality work out there.  A good thousand dollars for paying an editor to proofread your 75,000 word novel and then the cover design.  I’m simply not making the sales from Empyria to justify writing a third and paying to have it edited again.  I appreciate that’s negative talk but you have to prioritize everyday life and rent!

What fantasy authors have inspired you?

I’m a huge Tolkien fan.  I think my entire bookcase is taken up by almost all his works.  It’s incredible how one man created so much detail and even a language.  I also find that Tolkien’s books are the only ones I regular re-read and never get bored of.  As a child I also enjoyed Brian Jacque’s Redwall series about heroic mice and other animals taking on the evil rats and similar foes!

Michael Diack

Author bio:

My name is Michael Diack and I’m from the UK, but currently living and working in Denmark.

I studied geology at the University of Manchester and, after graduating, I was lucky to find a job in the Middle East working for a geophysical company.

My favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, JRR Tolkien, Markus Heitz and an Italian author called Niccolo Ammaniti. I love fantasy books but I’ll read almost any genre that catches my eye, yet it is the world of Middle-earth that fills up my bookcase.

I released my debut novel, The Super Spud Trilogy, back in April 2012 as a paperback and e-book for Kindle. Book 4 of the Super Spuds – Over Land and Sea, was released on Kindle in December 2012. In July 2013 I branched out from writing about magical crisp packets and released Shadows in the Sand, the first part of my fantasy series Empyria – a survival story set in a dystopian world in the desert.

I’ll happily interact with any readers through Twitter, my website or on Facebook.

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