Saturday 24 August 2013

Guest Post: Dark Night of the Soul by E.M. Havens





Dark Night of the Soul
by E.M. Havens
Fantasy/Visionary Fiction
Date to be Published: 7/1/2013
Available from amazon

Description:

What comes after life? Jayden Schroeder is about to find out. At the end of the road of despair, she ends it all and finds out that living might not have been so bad.  Thrust into a strange and disparate world, Jayden joins a team of warriors from all places and time. Together they battle demons to save the souls of the living, all the while on the run from the end of all things - The Judgment.

Will she fight for a second chance to spare those she loves? Or surrender?

Dark Night of the Soul is a fantastical journey, both literally and figuratively for Jayden’s soul. Action adventure, fantasy, romance, and dark humor twist together to create an afterlife tale that will keep you thinking long after the final chapter.

About the Author:

Who is E.M. Havens? I’m a lot of things. The word that seems to define me most at the moment is mom. It can be all consuming. Not only am I a mom of three (one of them is a teenager…pity me), but I also home-school (pity me more). I share this awesome responsibility with the love of my life, best friend, and soul-mate husband.

Add to that, the twenty-five chickens, twelve turkeys, ten guineas, nine pigs, three barn cats, two Great Pyrenees guardian dogs, a Chihuahua, a house cat, and a goose, it makes for one crazy, full, and certainly entertaining life.

Somewhere in there I find the time to write.  I started out young writing poems, then moved on to songs. I actually have a Bachelor in Music with a secondary in Science because I can’t stand English. Yes, the writer hates English.  I like to read the story for the experience of reading the story, not to nitpick each letter and comma. But I digress.

I eventually found blogging and really enjoyed sharing my life that way. When an unfortunate turn of events separated me from my music equipment, I decided to use my overactive imagination, my love of reading, and my new found hobby, prose writing, to release some of my creative energy.  I wrote my first novel and loved the experience. Fate War: Alliance is actually the second novel I wrote and the first to be published.  Now I’m working on my third and several sequels to Fate War!

So that’s pretty much me, sitting in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma, reading, writing, collecting eggs from the coop, and being a schoolmarm. It’s a pretty great life.

blog: www.emhavenswrites.blogspot.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/havensem , www.facebook.com/thefatewar
twitter: @havensem
goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/EMHavens




Guest Post: Visionary Fiction
by E.M. Havens

I have to admit, I didn’t even know the visionary genre of writing existed before I finished writing “Dark Night of the soul”. I started trying to decide what category it fit into, and I just couldn’t figure it out. I mean, there are demons and supernatural powers, but it’s not really fantasy. Not in a Lord of the Rings sense.  It’s also not horror. I’m not really fond of blood, guts, and fear. However, there are all three in the story, it’s just not the focus.

As I looked through each genre on Amazon, I continually skipped over visionary/metaphysical. It just seemed so…well…weird.  I mean, have youseen the metaphysics book commercial? I even vaguely wondered how that would even fit into science fiction/fantasy. And what kind of pompous fool would I be to tout my book as visionary!

Then someone suggested that my book was visionary. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the Metaphysical/Visionary Amazon Best Sellers. I was shocked to see “Cloud Atlas” in the top. I LOVED that movie! (haven’t read the book yet)  I generally have not seen a movie in a very long time that held my interest, but “Cloud Atlas” did. My wheels started spinning. I thought that maybe I just did not understand what metaphysical/visionary literature was about.

Now, I may not still have it exactly right, but this is what I have discovered. Metaphysical fiction is set in the real world. Some part of the story is fantastical in the respect that people (or events) have metaphysical powers. (channeling, healing, telepathy, astral projection, etc. ).

Similarly, visionary fiction is grounded in the real world with fantastical happenings and characters. However, the story is meant as a catalyst for the reader to ask and/or answer a spiritual question. In “Dark Night of the Soul”, that question is whether suicide is right or wrong. I will guarantee you there is no answer to this question in the book. But the question is looked at from many facets while the main character travels the strange land she’s found herself in.

Visionary fiction may take place in the afterlife and is meant to lead the reader from darkness to light, depression to joy. It differs from Christian/Spiritual fiction in that there is no direct moral or statement of good and bad.

So, to sum it all up…yes, metaphysical/visionary fiction is weird, but in an ‘oh so good’ way. I’d place “Dark Night of the Soul” in the category of Visionary, because of its overall theme, not because I have some grand vision of the future to share.

Do you like “What Dreams May Come”? It’s considered visionary and is similar to “Dark Night of the soul”!

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