Rebuild the Light*
It’s been two weeks since Garden of Shadows was published and what a two weeks. If you couldn’t feel it back in this post, I was not hopeful that the election would produce a favorable result. To the point that I considered keeping my book back from release until late this year or even next year, but I kept coming back to what I said in that post; I write because I believe that art is vital to our existence as humans. And we need the beautiful to counteract the devastation.
I wish I could share some words of comfort or inspiration, but to be honest, I am still processing. Amidst the grief, I keep returning to an experience I had in Chile on my first trip there. We were on the bus from Santiago that travels over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. The bus left late in the day because at that time the traffic over the pass was alternating. Uphill traffic crossed the mountains overnight (arriving at immigration at the top of the pass around midnight). After the trivia game during our crawl through Santiago traffic, but before the looped showing of the Spanish dubbed Hunger Games and our dinner, conversation dropped to a lull. With the exception of the group around us. An older man in our row was answering the questions of a group of young Chileans about his experiences during the Pinochet regime. These were kids born well after the fall of the dictatorship and it was still rather rare for those that lived through the regime to discuss it. At that point my Spanish comprehension exceeded my conversation skills, so I sat quietly listening to them. The man left academia soon after the coup when it became clear what the fate of “leftists” would be. As a reminder, “In 2011, the Chilean government officially recognized 36,948 survivors of torture and political imprisonment, as well as 3,095 people killed or disappeared at the hands of the military government.” The dictatorship lasted seventeen years. Seventeen.
Our companion on the bus was vague about what he suffered during those years (understandably). One thing however, that has remained in my mind, was his emphasis on how they survived. They protected the most vulnerable, they surrounded themselves with the love of their families and friends. And most important, they didn’t waste energy by trying to anticipate what horrible turn would happen next.
On this same trip we also saw and heard about the results of the closing of imports on a country while in Argentina. As someone who had very little exposure to these kinds of experiences prior to our trip, it radically shifted my perception. A complete alteration to what I understood of the world. I came back a different person and spent the intervening fifteen years seeking out more experiences that pushed me into uncomfortable realities.
In the coming years, I plan to use everything I have been fortunate to have learned. It is the only way forward for me. And of course, I intend to keep on writing.
So, that’s what I have. I’ll keep promoting Garden of Shadows (and Voyage of the Pleiades) with the hope that people will find comfort in my stories, as well as ideas that challenge them. And I hope you will continue to buy art, because no matter what the situation, art will always be needed.
As a reminder, reviews move our books up the algorithm, so please consider posting a review.
I’ll be quiet for a bit, trying to write book three, and contending with our new reality. But I’ll return before the holidays to remind you that books make excellent presents.
Wonderful...as always!
I have found the book, "Garden of Shadows", thus far to be an exciting and thoughtful mystery book!