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Tibetan Prayer For The Dying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySbVs0Y1s14&feature=em-share_video_user

This is a 6 part series but I have only added part 3.   Wrathful Empathies is a layered story of self realization on many levels.  This clip on the Tibetan prayer for the dying might be useful for readers of my book that are unfamiliar with this practice.   I don’t use the term Bardo but the In Between.   I envisioned the path to consciousness winding  along the Great Trail, Golden Path or the darkened plain of the In Between.   Bret and Zoa are unique in their immediate realization of consciousness.   Los is another entity altogether.   That will be discussed in a future post and another clip.   While my understanding of Tibetan Buddhism is shallow, it is sufficient to launch my story telling imagination.   The Buddhist monk is one of my favorite characters to write.   I love the scene of him in Vagaries Tavern.  Will he make another appearance in book two?   Stay tuned.

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Scene

 

Here is the front yard of the stone farmhouse  and old barn  where I lived for a a year.  I replaced the actual town of Berryville with the fictional name of Battletown, VA.   This setting gave me the  idea for the type of location a secretive group might gather.  The rough and tumble Kindred  meet clandestinely on the second floor of the barn at midnight.   As planning for the 2nd raid gathers momentum, their numbers increase.  Eventually, the old farmhouse cannot hold all of them so they  camp openly on this lawn.   This is done under the guise of a  “Great Trail” thru hikers campsite.   Remember, the actual Appalachian Trail is only a few miles to the East.   I would see hikers wandering nearby Berryville which gave me the idea to use them as  cover for the Kindred.  The underground Kindred members  hide amongst them in plain sight.    Next time you see a scruffy, dirty and dishelved person carrying their belongings, think twice before you decide what they are.   Reading a Sufi mystic book gave me that idea.   Eventually, the barn will become the  “Singing Bowl” hiker hostel that Bret and a reluctant Zoa will own and manage with the help of a comical assortment of characters.  Back to my story…..   This location was  needed for a 2nd Raid planning HQ similar to the Kennedy Farmhouse that John Brown used about 23 miles to the North in Maryland.  This was my view during the day outside the kitchen window.  I use to write  at a  large  pine kitchen table at night.  Occasionally, I  would look up from my laptop screen to see  a mysterious light coming from inside the 1st floor barn window to the right.   I investigated several times to find no interior light source.  Finally, I  decided it was just a reflection in the broken glass pane back from the front porch light of the farmhouse.   Still, I felt I had company many late nights while writing.  Maybe the Kindred were visiting and I just missed them.  Why would the hide from me?    As a writer, you should see everything as content for your story.   The world is fascinating if you let your imagination lose.
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Urizen With His Net

William Blake envisioned organized religion as produced and subsequently passed down to christian believers as a net ensnaring the soul.   Instead, he imagined God as imagination freeing the soul from its imprisonment.   This is where Orc comes in.   He is a rebellious angel that fights for liberty at the fore front of this battle.  Blake thought the American revolution was the literal battle in this spiritual confrontation.   When slavery was not abolished upon its victory, Blake worried everything was in vain.   At least, that is how I am framing his theology in my Wrathful Empathies trilogy.

By Dmitrismirnov – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28922594

 

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Sylvia Linsteadt and Rima Staines

I wish I could write like Sylvia Linsteadt.  To be so young but so wise in the use of words is true genius.  I will never forget the image of a disemboweled bird revealing a map of a secret journey in its ribs and arteries.  Also,  the paintings of Rima Staines imagine a world so strange but oddly familiar.   Sylvia weaves her images into an epic narrative .  Reading Tatterdemalion is like a weekend hiking through one of my favorite forests.

 

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Tom Hirons

When I first heard this poem, I thought I had stumbled across something from a long ago middle age England.  Much to my surprise, the poet is currently alive and writing.  I strongly encourage a visit to Hedgespoken Press.  I bought several bound copies of this poem and gave them to all my kids.  Wonderful and enchanting experience.   His imagination is liberating.

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Writing in the woods

I wrote three chapters of 2nd Raid sitting before this campfire.

Wasn’t terribly comfortable nor warm but the dark woods inspired my imagination.   I was on a three day  backpacking trip inside the George Washington National Forest in Ft Valley, Va last December. 

 

 

 

 

The previous night was spent atop Signal Knob.  It is a rocky cliff that has a terrific view looking north up the Shenandoah valley.  I scrambled down amongst the rocks and discovered a small cave entrance.  Since it was December, I decided not to crawl inside.  Wouldn’t want to disturb a bear in hibernation.  That small opening gave me the idea to hide Orc just below the summit.  It has a sightline down below where Lord Fairfax would have emerged from his wintery cabin in response to the angelic voice.  Further up to the right of the valley, Orc could witness the explosion atop Mt. Storm.

 

The Massanutten Trail is one of my favorite quick escapes.

Very accessible and lightly traveled, especially in Winter.   In my mind’s eye, I am always gazing south at the valley within a valley.   The sunlight softly rains over the beautiful mountains.

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At the Stone Farmhouse

This picture was taken from the front porch of the 250 year old stone farmhouse where I lived for one year.   It lays outside of Berryville, VA in the no man’s land of Clarke County.  It was here that Wrathful Empathies was conceived and partially written.  I gave it to my daughter Becky to read.  She said it was three books in one and needed major editing.   Heading her advice, I sought professional editorial help.  It took another year to finish.  This view was amazing with the entire setting inspirational.  You can see the old stone barn in the right.  Of course, the far off Blue Ridge mountains are lurking under the clouds.

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Storyline

Hello,

Hopefully, you have read my first book by now and have come here because you want more.  Research has begun on book two.  My mind won’t let me start until I close out everything for the first book.  This means I have to figure out a marketing strategy.  I purchased an German application called Book2Look.  I could never figure it out.   I would love to shoot a  video explaining the book.  I spent a spectacular day hiking all around Harpers Ferry which turned out to be of no use whatsoever.    Specifically, I hiked to the cliff opposite the train tunnel.  I waited for a train to enter but my camera battery died as it approached.    Didn’t run into any Kindred but I did find my new favorite bar in town.  It used to be called “The Secret Six” tavern but is now called something else.  This was the site in my book where DB and Lynn meet Magda.

The working title of volume 2 of the trilogy is  Wrathful Empathies: The 14th Colony.  Time travelers will pay a visit to the mountainous frontier of 18th century America.  Can you guess who that will be?  Already, I am having trouble sleeping because the cast of characters are creating a racket in my brain late at night.  That is when they seem most active or my mind is quiet enough to hear them.  Their voices are insistent and impatient for the story to continue.  I think second book should be more fun to write than the first.  I plan to  follow many of the story lines from book one.   Dip back into our favorite characters, places and events.  A few new characters will emerge.  There is a great historical figure I want to insert in volume 2 but the real history timeline is a bit off.  He was called “The Maryland Monster” who depending on which side you were on,  terrorized the PA/MD border.  Like so many historical figures, they must be viewed in context of their time.

The pith helmet is resting comfortably on the middle shelf of my bookcase.  I get the sense that it is always watching me expectantly for another adventure.  Reminds me of my dog who gets incredibly excited  whenever I pick up his leash.   Clearly, going outside for a walk in the dark woods is something that not only I enjoy.

P.S.  Keep your eyes on the news, the Authority is alive and well.  The battle for freedom rages as I type.   Pray for the brave spirit travelers out there on the various paths today.  I suspect the wrathful empathies are working the dark plain countering the fear mongering of Urizen.

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Volume 2

I start work soon on the second book of the Wrathful Empathies trilogy.   It is called “The 14th Colony.”  Maybe you heard about it from some weird corner of history.  It is about the proposed colony of Vandalia that was to be carved out of the mountainous frontier west of the Blue Ridge.   I picked this conceptual colony because it links directly to the Raid on Harpers Ferry.   Remember how West Virginia was created?   Imagine if this happened a hundred years earlier.  Mountain people and slavery never mixed very well.   I find the concept of Vandalia fascinating.  Had it actually occurred, how would this 14th colony have impacted legislature of our country and the slavery laws.  Intriguing to contemplate.   The 14th colony  encompassed what is now West Virginia, and small parts of south western Pennsylvania, far western Maryland  and south eastern Ohio depending on what source you read.  A place of misty hollows and rugged peaks.  It never actually took legal shape except in the minds of adventurers and speculators.  I populate it with the usual ghosts, audacious warriors, historical characters, the ever present spirit travelers and the terrible Maryland Monster.  The fight against Urizen continues in multiple dimensions.  Orc grows into a powerful man.  Vandalia becomes the new, or old, battleground of good versus evil.  The fact that it never materialized as a colony doesn’t mean it never existed to those who fought and died there.  Check in for updates.  Unlike my first book which was predominately written in Berryville, Virginia and scattered camp sites along the Blue Ridge, this book will be written mostly in Maryland.  In fact, I plan to kick it off during a prolonged camping trip in the Green Ridge State Forest.  It is located in Western Maryland where some of the historical action I plan to use actually took place.  I hike and camp there extensively.    It is a place I know very well.  In the words of Dr. Martin Shaw it has claimed me.  Sitting at my desk far away, I can still hear the wind whisper through the tall hemlocks that cling to the Fifteen Mile Creek bank and the high ridges of Green Ridge and Town Hill mountains.   I know it is a good place to write because it is enchanted with spirits and ghosts.  I have seen them.  Wish me luck.  Cheers.