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The Lamb of Sandalwood is a novel that follows Sam Hale on a hero’s journey. |
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Sam Hale was born on the cusp of a spiritual war between good and evil, the event horizon where visions race through time and space. Mortals who can receive visions of the war – closet telepaths like Sam – threaten the balance. Sam’s early childhood traumas taught him to mask his intuition, anxieties, and unwanted prescience. Now, it’s 1998. Sam is thirty-two, dangerously overweight, exhausted from masking, and wishes he had some joy. Yet he must still travel from Chicago to work as a senior information technology consultant. Dixon Hale, Sam’s long-lost paraplegic brother who blames Sam for the poolside accident at Sam’s wedding that paralyzed Dixon, is a wealthy black marketeer. Dixon has developed a cell regeneration pill to help him walk again using the abundant nickel and sandalwood in New Caledonia combined with fetuses supplied by his secret network of human traffickers. The O, a genus of parasite species that feed on dark matter, thrives worldwide by stealing unforgiven souls from an existence where all souls await judgment at the end of their mortal life. It traps them in the roots of Sandalwood trees and offers them a choice: Haunt living souls into becoming unforgiven souls or become dark matter. The story begins when Sam discovers the lifeless body of a young intern from New Caledonia. Then, his boss sends him to consult at a bank in New Caledonia. Once there, he receives a vision of sandalwood roots draining life from the young intern and discovers Dixon has manipulated his soon-to-be ex-wife Amy into bringing her unwanted fetus to New Caledonia so he can walk again. Amidst the visions and eerie coincidences, Sam meets Simon, a wise and compassionate spiritual master who is blind. Sam first struggles with Simon’s guidance but accepts it when Simon shows Sam that he has a purpose buried by early childhood trauma. When Sam starts receiving visions of the O, he realizes his highest purpose is to free souls, including his unborn child, but feels overmatched by the quest. For Sam to succeed, Simon guides Sam to discover himself, master his gift of visions, and commit to his highest purpose. He must do all this while the O sends Dixon and others to stop him. |
| Is this material too much for YA? My response was that it depends. However, as I thought more about the question, some considerations came to mind. Firstly, I am not motivated to make this something other than what it is—a hero's journey to self-discovery. I'm not motivated to turn it into an Illiad poem, a Shakespeare-like play, a screenplay, or a short story. I work organically, and these forms have felt too constrained—but that's me. In saying that, I've accepted that this novel series format will not be for everyone. Secondly, I would probably not have read a book or understood the psychological perspective of this novel in my twenties. That is, I did not know what I did not know. By my thirties, I had more questions than answers. By my forties, I was ready to read a book like this. I realize others get through those stages faster, so there is nothing age-related in my perspective. My perspective is more about the state of readiness of the reader. And my point is that the target audience for something like this will read it when they need to and are ready, if ever. So, for those willing travelers, I want the novel to be clear, well-paced, and riveting (aka binge-worthy). To put this goal in contrast, I am not a fan of the ponderous tomes of Harry Potter novels or the soliloquies of Shakespeare. Such things put me to sleep, as I'm sure the 'ready' reader will also be asleep. On your behalf, I struggle and work to boil away wordiness and passive voice and apologize if I ever give you a reason to nap. For those willing, the journey should move forward because the perils are clear, so there is good reason for bravery and heroism. If such a journey were easy, everyone would be doing it. I hope this helps |
| "Breaking the Seals" is a metaphor, representing a changed capacity and awareness for the hero. The book title and the Seals are symbolic references to the Lamb and Revelations. In other words, once the reader breaks open (begins reading) a new Seal, the author assumes that the reader has already journeyed (experienced) the Seals that came before it. In this way, the meaning is not lost to the reader or the hero. |
| The novel mixes the physical with the metaphysical to describe the hero's journey to self-discovery. The cupula is the meter that tracks the hero's progress. The cupula in the novel is about the size of a large, high cathedral ceiling (from the author's perspective). Imagine lifting that cathedral dome and placing it upside-down in a special dry dock for cleaning. Sam sees it for the first time as an upside-down dome, like a bowl. Neither Sam nor the reader is given much 'big-picture' information about it at the beginning. That is by design. The cupula's damaged and encrusted state symbolizes a blocked lens. Should the hero choose to cleanse it, much of the work will involve self-discovery. The lens is patterned after the metaphysical Third Eye (I will leave researching that reference to the reader). The cleaning work can be considered physical, which then triggers metaphysical work. The metaphysical work follows hints and patterns of visions, discovery, deciphering, and releasing work from a psychological perspective. As much as possible, nothing is directly told or pre-determined for the hero by design. That is because the meaning is in the journey. For those interested in the psychology theory involved, I would say it is an eclectic mix of Gestalt, Jungian, and feminist theory, with a touch of the Socratic. The cupula has twelve slices, each like a pizza slice, that organize the progression of cleaning. The hero, and I'm sure the reader, may want to jump to the end. Again, the meaning is the journey. As someone famous said, "You can't have the rainbow without the rain." The first two installments of the novel clean the first six slices. The Third Seal opens with work to face the structural damages to the seventh slice. Our hero still has five slices to cleanse. What is clear to this author at this midpoint is that the novel series ends when the twelfth slice is cleared. But since it is a quest, one can only imagine what happens next - this author included! |
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