Tag: Glastonbury

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Visionary Fiction Writer Jodine Turner

Please welcome Visionary Fiction writer Jodine Turner, the mother of the genre!

jodinePlease tell us a little about yourself.

I’ve been writing stories since I could hold a pen. However, my first career was in healthcare, as a nurse, then a Ph.D. therapist. I focused on alternative healing, holistic healing, and also did energy body work. When I became ill in my thirties, I needed to stop working. My own healing journey brought me back to my real passion – writing.

How did you become interested in Visionary Fiction? How do you define it?

I became interested in Visionary Fiction when I couldn’t find a suitable category for the fiction I was writing. While researching genres, I discovered Visionary Fiction and found it to be the ideal fit for my novels. There wasn’t much written about VF, and very few books were labeled as VF. So I decided I’d do some more research and write an article describing the genre. I wanted to promote this fabulous genre to readers and publishers, and create a place where other VF authors could find resources, information, and networking.

awakeningMy article exploring VF was published in Writer’s Journal, May 2009 issue. In November 2011, I posted that same article at Goodreads. That drew together other VF authors enthused about the genre. We started a web-ring, which grew into the present day Visionary Fiction Alliance. The Alliance is now thriving and growing, proving to the world that VF is a genre today’s readers yearn for. My original article is now called ‘the article that started it all’ (for the VFA), and can be found on our VFA website. http://visionaryfictionalliance.com/the-article-that-started-it-all/

Defining VF was a complex process. I came up with a definition in my article. Then a group of us at the VFA developed and expanded a working definition that can be found on our site http://visionaryfictionalliance.com/what-is-visionary-fiction/   I still often refer to a description from my article that perfectly sums it up for me: “Visionary Fiction speaks the language of the soul. It offers a vision of humanity as we dream it could be.” 

Please tell us about your latest book?

Mdestinys-cally latest published novels are the third and fourth books of my Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series: Carry on the Flame: Destiny’s Call and its sequel, Carry on the Flame: Ultimate Magic

I published these last two novels with a small press that wanted to jump on the Young Adult genre bandwagon and market the novels as YA, since the protagonist was 17 years old. This was a lesson learned for me, because the books are definitely VF, not YA. I recently got my publishing rights back, had an incredible artist redo the covers, and republished the novels myself.

In these novels, Sharay is chosen by the Goddess to help humankind move through the fear and dark times of today’s world. Born into a lineage of priestesses in modern-day Glastonbury, England, Sharay’s way is blocked by her jealous Aunt Phoebe, who uses black magic against her to steal her fortune and magical power. When Phoebe commits Sharay to a psychiatric ward and accuses her of murder, Sharay struggles with the temptation to fight Phoebe’s vengeance with her own. It’s the elder, eccentric wizard Dillon who sets Sharay on the Celtic ‘Imram,’ a quest designed to awaken her magical abilities as a priestess. And it’s Dillon’s grandson Guethyn who shows Sharay how to open her heart in the Beltaine Ritual, the ancient Celtic ceremony of sacred union.

Hunted by the police, stalked by a demonic Tracker conjured by her aunt, and torn from everyone she loves, Sharay must learn to transform her hatred for her aunt in order to continue her Imram on her own, and fulfill her destiny to prove that the power of love, both human and divine, is the ultimate magic.

If your book were chocolate, what kind would it be?

Rich dark chocolate. Delicious and satisfying, containing the whole complexity of the cocao bean!

 Does this book fit into a series? What is the focus of that series?

Yeultimate-magics it fits into a series but all of the novels are a stand-alone read as well. The focus of the series is the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea – the evolutionary force of embodied love – and Her priestesses down through the ages. The essence is about what’s demanded of our hearts and souls when we finally choose to embrace our personal destiny and have to come face to face with our authentic truth, our deepest pain, and our darkest secrets.

How did you prepare to write about the book’s specific area or field of study?

Most of my novels take place in Glastonbury, England, aka the legendary Isle of Avalon. I lived in Glastonbury for 13 months (also met my husband there!) and experienced its mystery and magic firsthand. Immersing myself in Glastonbury catalyzed many mystical experiences and meditations which inspired the content of my novels. I also traveled to Scotland, particularly the Orkney Islands, which features heavily in my fourth novel.

But most of all, my training as a consecrated priestess informed my writing. For 25 years I studied and practiced in the Western Mystery Tradition, an earth based spiritual system of living consciousness encompassing Kabballah, Paganism, and esoteric Christianity. Many of the visions and meditations I experienced influenced the development of plot, characters, and story scenes in my novels.

How does this book fit into your real-life interests?

My novels are a natural extension of my passions: embodied love; the craft of writing; the mysteries of magic and spirituality; the deeper meanings of life on earth and of the unseen realms in between so-called reality. I express these passions in the art form of words and story. I flesh out my stories based upon my experiences as a priestess and a Ph.D therapist, mixed with the imagination of my creative Muse. And I endeavor to embed my stories with gems of esoteric wisdom in an engaging, entertaining, but never proselytizing way.

I also discovered a practical way to teach the more spiritual things that I write about in my VF adventure stories.  I found this practicality through a spirituality of embodied love called Adorata, which is a path of sacred union of the feminine and masculine principles within us. I am now an Adorata Practitioner and teacher, which complements my novels, in a pragmatic, down to earth way.

What are you working on right now? OR What’s next for you?

I am excited about my work in progress, The Hidden Abbey. I just finished my first draft and am in the revision stage. I write first drafts with heart and abandon, then go back and apply the craft of writing to sculpture my words into the art form of a novel.

The Hidden Abbey is set in both the 16th and the 21st centuries, tracing the story of a young headstrong priestess, Marissa, from the mystical land of Avalon, and her secret lover Michael, a monk at the Glastonbury Abbey. As King Henry VIII sets out to destroy the Churches and Monasteries of England in 1539, the two lovers become embroiled in a grand plan to save the most sacred talisman of the Divine Feminine at the roots of mystical Christianity. When their grand plan is thwarted and their love is star-crossed, they are reborn in the 21st century and given one more chance to fulfill their shared destiny.

Jodine Turner is an author of Visionary Fiction and magical realism. She is also a therapist and a consecrated priestess. While living in Glastonbury, England, the ancient Isle of Avalon, Jodine began writing The Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series, about priestesses who had lived in Avalon throughout the ages and today.

Jodine’s series is a dark and edgy saga of a young priestess who’s reborn during three different critical junctions in history in order to help humankind move through fearful and bleak times – the demise of Atlantis, the Dark Age’s suppression of the feminine, and today’s turbulent world.

Buy Jodine’s Books.

Visit Jodine’s website   Blog  Facebook  Twitter   Linkedin

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The Power Places New Editions

I’m happy to announce that new editions of the Power Places Series have been published. They have new covers and the second book is freshly edited.

CoverFinalMD-UnderTheStonePawA forgotten family legacy.

Six crystal keys.

One shot at unlocking the secrets beneath the Sphinx.

Anne Le Clair, a successful, young attorney, has always managed to remain free from her family’s gothic past—until now. When she inherits her eccentric aunt’s antique necklace though, she finds no escape from its secrets. Anne is immersed in a crash course of forbidden wisdom, secret societies, and her family’s own legacy. She soon discovers that her aunt’s necklace is one of just six powerful “keys” that, when combined with the other five at the appointed time, unlocks the legendary Hall of Records. However, another group, the shadowy Illuminati, is working behind the scenes to uncover the same powerful secrets—and make them their own.

Katherine Kurtz, author of the Adept series, says “ . . . one of the best esoteric novels of the past decade.  Crater knows her way around Egypt and its mysteries.  Evil Illuminati, ancient artifacts, and conspiracies abound. Surpasses the Da Vinci Code.”

CoverFinalMD-BeneathTheHallowedHillThe Illuminati have opened a hole in time

And now one of them is stepping through

Anne Le Clair travels to Glastonbury with her fiancée, Egyptologist and mystic Michael Levy, to investigate a house she inherited from a mysterious aunt…only to find trouble waiting. One of Avalon’s sacred twin springs is failing. Together, Anne and Michael try to restore the water flow, but discover there is much more at stake: the Illuminati master Alexander Cagliostro has activated an ancient crystal tower, tearing a hole in time which threatens much more than one sacred spring.

Meanwhile, in ancient Atlantis, Megan, priestess of the Crystal Matrix Chamber, flees the destruction of her world carrying with herself a vital artifact.

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Jodine Turner’s The Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series – guest post by Theresa Crater

Jodine Turner’s The Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series – guest post by Theresa Crater.

Excerpt:  Jodine Turner’s Visionary Fiction series traces the reincarnations of a priestess specially called to do the work of the Goddess of the Stars and the Sea, an Ancient One who reawakens when humanity is ready for a dramatic shift in consciousness. The first novel in the series shows us the fall of Atlantis and the rise of Avalon. In The Awakening: Rebirth of Atlantis, Geodran is promised to this special Goddess even before her birth. Her mother, High Priestess Jaquine, has lost babies to miscarriages and does not want a repeat performance. The Goddess of the Stars and the Sea claims Geodran as her own in return for bringing her to term.

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Interview with S.P. Hendrick, author of The Glastonbury Chronicles

When I saw that S. P. Hendrick had written a series called “The Glastonbury Chronicles,” I was so happy to have more to read about one of my favorite sacred sites in the world, so I invited her to drop by and tell us about the series, the latest book in it and her other work. Please welcome S.P. Hendrick.

Would you please tell us a little about yourself?

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in English from San Fernando Valley State College which is now California State University at Northridge.  I also studied at UCLA Extension, taking classes in Television writing.  My first TV script, which was for The Man From U.N.C.L.E., was on the story editor’s desk when the show was cancelled.   Under the nom de plume Jennifer Starkey I did publicity for such rock groups as Buffalo Springfield (you can find my photo with Neil Young, Stephen Stills and the rest of the group in their boxed CD set) and others.  During that period and under that name I was a columnist for Teen Life, a national magazine, and my first novel, Sunset Offramp was published. 

In 1991 my husband Jay Mayer and I went to a gathering in Millom, England and met my future publisher, Peter Paddon (Pendraig Publishing).  I returned to Britain in 1994 to research the first volume of “The Glastonbury Chronicles”, Uneasy Lies The Head, and visited him in Luton while I was there, sending him a draft of the book when it was finished.  He replied that if he ever got around to publishing fiction, he would love to publish it.

A few years later he came over for a visit, fell in love with our housemate, Linda, and moved over here to marry her.  By 2010 he had decided to begin publishing fiction and took on not only that book, but my other series “Tales of the Dearg-Sidhe” and its first Volume, Son of Air and Darkness. The two series dovetail, though one takes place in the future and the other begins in the distant past, for the heroes of one series keep reincarnating together , while the hero of the other series is an immortal, and their lives are constantly crossing.

Would you please tell us about your latest book?

Volume VI of The Glastonbury Chronicles, The Barley And The Rose, finds the protagonists as Arthur and Gavin, son of the King of Britannia and Lord Tyrell, Prime Minister.  After the first five volumes in which they and the King’s Companions, Knights of the Order of the Sword and the Rose (an ancient Pagan Order which preserves the arcane history of the lineage of the Sacred Kings whose blood and bloodline preserve the Land and its people) this volume finds them far in the future on the last outpost of the British Empire, a distant planet called Britannia.  This time they are born remembering all that has gone before them instead of the way it has been in the past, when something triggers their Awakening.  The two are telepathic with each other, their bond stronger than that of brothers, for they have lived and died together throughout history, throughout legend. 

An ancient evil, one they recall from the far past on long-lost Earth, one they had believed to have died with their home world, has begun to make its presence known on a planet once more peaceful following years of revolution.   Can they, aided by Dubhghall, the immortal foster-son of the ancient Goddess Morrigan, stave off this new threat, or will their foe put an end to everything they have known and sink the Universe into eternal darkness?

What inspired you to write this novel?

I had no choice.  These characters announced they were back, they had a new adventure, and it was time for me to start writing it down as they dictated it to me.

What does a typical writing day look like?

There is no typical writing day.  Each day is different.  It is not unusual for me to be awakened in the middle of the night with “The Lads” as I have learned to call them, chattering away in my head and chiding me for sleeping when I should be at the keyboard writing.   Sometimes it is in the daylight, sometimes the TV is on in the background, sometimes it is dead silence.  The first book was written with black pen on lined yellow paper.   Somewhere along the line I learned to compose on the computer and it now flows more easily that way.

Can you describe your writing process?

There is an initial “What if” and an examination of history for odd facts and people my characters might have been in prior incarnations.  Then there’s the connecting of the dots in the same manner an ancient astronomer might have looked at the night sky to form pictures associated with mythology.  And then I listen to the characters, most of whom I have been living with since about 1994 in some form or another.

How did you prepare to write about the book’s specific area or field of study?

I read history and mythology, then try to visit as many of the places which actually exist as I can.  For the future history I try not to step on the toes of the past, but to echo it, as cycles keep repeating themselves over and over throughout time.  And I look for quirks in mythology…folks who are mentioned perhaps once and then never heard about again, and try to give them lives.

How did you come up with your title?

Barley and Roses have been symbolic throughout the series.  Barley is the symbol of the Sacred King and is used in several rituals in the books.  It comes from the old notion of John Barleycorn Must Die, which is in itself a reference not only to the making of beer and whiskey, but to the sacrifice of the King.  The Rose is the symbol of secrecy, and has also been used in the books to symbolize the women in the book.

What advice do you have for writers who have not yet been published?

Never give up.  It was about 30 years between the publication of my first book and my second.  If the ideas are good, you will eventually find yourself in the right place at the right time with the right publisher.  Just keep writing.

Excluding family, name three people who either inspired you or influenced your creativity.

Robert Heinlein, Robin Williamson and William Shakespeare

If your book were chocolate, what kind would it be and why?

Dark chocolate, about 85% cacao.  Rich, sweet, but somewhat bitter, complex and for an adult palate, because that’s the way my characters and their relationships are.

Tell us about your main character’s psyche or personality. What led her (or him) to be the person s/he is today?

There are really two protagonists, the King, in this case Arthur, and his Knight, Gavin, who is so close to him that in one life they were born conjoined twins, both the firstborn son of the King of England.  One cannot exist without the other.  They are the two sides of the same coin.  The King must die and the Knight must slay him, usually taking his own life soon after.   They are Hamlet and Horatio in the scene in which Horatio tries to drink the poisoned cup.  They are who they are and what they are because they have been through that scenario countless times over millennia, each time trying to stay alive until the proper time and place, no matter what the Gods or their fellow man have thrown up against them, and when the time is proper and the place is right, they complete the cycle and are at peace for a time, until the Need arises once more.   They have died unknown and unseen, behind their own lines at Ypres to bring about the end of The Great War, in the Tower of London to precipitate the end of the Wars of the Roses, in a sealed cave as the Revolution surrounded them to bring the blood of the Sidhe to a blue world to make it green and fertile.  They have not always been seen as King and Knight, but their Order knows who they are and so do they, and so will they always.

Describe your protagonist as a mash-up of three famous people or characters.

Hamlet, Valentine Michael Smith, and King Arthur

If you could host a magical dinner party, who are the six people (living or otherwise) you’d include?

Robert Heinlein, J. R. R. Tolkien, Robin Williamson, Peter Jackson, J. K. Rowling and Joseph Campbell.

What are you working on right now?

A deck of Tarot cards which are based upon the characters in my novels, Celtic Mythology, and British folklore.  I am hoping to get to Britain next fall to work on the physical research of the next couple of books in the “Tales of the Dearg-Sidhe” series, and working on a third companion series “The Glastonbury Archives” which will have a lot of back story on other characters and the Order of the Sword and the Rose, and there’s a detective novel I have written the first three chapters on, which I would really like to finish.  Also a novelization of a modern mythological rock and roll screenplay I wrote some years back called The Midas Chord.