“Like the existence of God, it’s impossible to ‘prove’ reincarnation to the conscious mind,” C.L. points out. “The only clue to the validity of a past life is how your re-experience of it resonates with you emotionally and spiritually.” Excerpt from C.L. Talmadge web site.
RtP: Hello, C. L. and welcome to Romancing the Pubs (RtP) first virtual tour. We are excited that you are here. Please come in, sit, and make yourself comfortable. We want to get to know the author behind the Green Stone of Healing® series. C.L.: I am delighted to be the first author to stop by for a visit. That’s an honor. Thanks for allowing your blog to be part of my tour.
RtP: I don’t remember the last time I reviewed a book that was so well planned. Your website: www.greenstoneofhealing.com is a showcase of talent with its descriptions, art, and music.
C.L.: Thanks. Lots of time to plan certainly helps! The website is intended to give the story of the stone a context, so that readers understand it better. The tale is complex and involves a lot of characters in action that is set primarily in an island nation called Azgard, but also reaches halfway around the world.
The music was composed by my brother, Jim Talmadge, a gifted artist and musician. The drawings of the characters and map of Azgard are by Christine Miller, based on concepts first sketched by my partner, Jana Simons.
RtP: I know you believe in past lives and that your series is a ‘map’ of that spiritual journey. Will you please tell us about the writing journey that brought about your decision to document the Green Stone of Healing® series?
C.L.: The writing journey began back around 1966 or 1967, when the mother of my best friend put a copy of Taylor Caldwell’s A Pillar of Iron into my hand and said, “You can write something like that.” (The first book in the series is dedicated to her.) During that time I also discovered J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and loved the story. But it really frustrated me that the action was “boys only.” I wondered, Can’t a woman be a heroine?
Another part of the Tolkien tale that really moved me was the tragic history of Numenor, the island nation to the west of Middle-earth that destroyed itself. It resonated with me profoundly for reasons that I understood only much later in life.
Out of my teen dreams about Numenor and the Rings series grew two characters in love with each other. The woman had a mysterious background but the man was a prince at political odds with his powerful monarch father. The father tries to have the prince slain but the woman saves him by healing his almost mortal wounds. After exploring them and their story for a number of years, I realized it went back two generations to the woman’s grandmother and even great-grandmother, who are the first-generation heroine, Helen Andros, and her mother, Miriam Andros, respectively.
I spent decades exploring these characters, learning more about them in dribbles and drabs. Twice, in 1982 and 1985, I tried to start what I thought would be one novel. But I still could not get a handle on my characters and their motivations. There were also big pieces of the story simply missing. In 1986, I discovered an alternative approach to healing at the emotional and spiritual level, and it brought me profound and blessed relief from many deep wounds. I even detoured to co-author nonfiction about the Sunan method emotional and spiritual healing resolution. I kept up this process of accelerated healing and personal growth. But I never abandoned my characters or their story.
Then in 1998, one morning in late July, I sat up from a sound sleep and knew at long last that I could write what I still thought would be one novel. I began like a madwoman, writing in the small hours of the morning or after my work was done in the evening, and on weekends. Not far into the process, Jana started getting involved as my editor, and we realized who she had been in the life I lived as Helen Andros (Judith Altair, best friend of Helen’s mother, Miriam Andros). Jana began adding to the information about the series. Without prompting, our closest friend realized she lived as Miriam. We all needed healing through the Sunan method to resolve the many deep wounds that we suffered during those turbulent and troubled past lives.
The writing journey continues with the fifth book, and soon Helen’s story will give way to the second-generation heroine.
RtP: You are not new to the writing arena. I see you are a syndicated writer for the North Star Writer’s Group. What other writing have you experienced?
CL: North Star Writers Group has evolved into The North Star National, a politics website where I am now one of the syndicated political columnists. My professional writing career began in 1976 when I became associate editor of The Suffolk County News, which was the oldest weekly on Long Island in New York. I have since written thousands of articles on a fulltime or freelance basis for media that include Adweek, BusinessWeek, the Dallas Times Herald, Forbes, the International Herald Tribune, the Las Vegas Sun, The New York Times, the Orange County Register, and Reuters America.
My background in journalism with its deadlines was outstanding training to be able to sit down and write quickly. Journalistic style and story structure, however, are not well suited to fiction. My challenge was to learn how to write fiction, and that took a bit of doing.
RtP: Thank you C.L. for this interview. I have enjoyed getting to know the author behind the Green Stone of Healing Series. And thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your Virtual Tour. Good luck with book sales!
