God as seen in Evah’s vision. Neither white or black, an apparition of fuchsia dust and light.
While some may consider interaction with God in space a violation of scientific assumptions that if one leaves their origin planet, such as earth, the God of their religion’s legitimacy is cancelled. For instance, to leave earth could make void the Jewish, Christian and Muslim God because the creation story only includes one planet and its promise to eventually take believers to the next world; the kingdom of heaven. In fact, many science fiction authors have torn apart and pasted together religious motifs and events to deliver in the pages of their novels. In Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg the science fiction worlds have core mysteries rooted in spirituality and science. In fact, these two paradigms of thought are on a course of conflict in the book. There is so much we don’t know about our universe and its mechanics. There may still be so much that is possible with the disciplines of consciousness devoted to the spirit and spirit world.
Nigerian sky god Obatala Also known as Oshala in Brazil
In the System of Spirea there is the remnant of the Jesuit Order brought by humans who departed earth long ago and on the planet of Hypathia, also known as Naaheen, there was a strange yet powerful spiritual process going on that was coldly snuffed out. Evah, a descendant of that spiritual tribe, like many of her kind, post occupation, were submersed in the Jesuit’s teaching of God. Similar supernatural beings and relationships to a creation beginnings can be found in the large rift between the Naaheen beliefs and the Jesuit, whether they be chaos creation myths or ex nihilo. It is so, there are similarities between many creation myths. In African mythology we know of many creation Gods from Bumba to the shapeshifting creator Can, Faro creator of the sea, Pemba creator of the earth, even the myth of Bemba about a creator God who spoke “the word” to make creation come into being.
Faro, creator of the sea from Bemba creation story
Alas, the stories of the Naaheen tribe have largely been lost, renamed or misrelated historically to such an extent that identifying the root deity is thought impossible (at least during the time of this book). Yet, the symbols, and phenomenon associated with her spiritual roots comes looking for Evah and she too is on a search to identify them while forwarding her journey to self-discovery. She relates to Christ as a spiritual deity, and Yahweh, and thus in her visions to see her spiritual master she sees imagery of the suffering Christ, and flies on the shoulder of a being of light one would say is surely the Hebrew God. And perhaps it is. Evah’s experience will prove the best pedagogy.
Christ’s delirium on the cross.
Certainly, feelings of persecution and oppressive responsibility for such a young girl make the symbols of suffering and sacrifice very real and that inner turmoil, psychologically, are naturally expected to find themselves projected into the world as well as running loose upon the inner landscape of the mind. There are other story manifestations to consider God influenced.
Depiction of Cagn by artist unknown.
Evah’s people have been known as shapeshifters and that may be related to stories of Cagn who transformed to different living and nonliving objects and each form he embodied he named and thus created. In christianity too, there are instances of transformation: Christ transfigures into a glowing being, a gravedigger seems to bring a message from God and then he becomes the risen Christ. Evah’s alter ego is like smoke or a mist, and being of a people known for their relationship to the sea, could relate to Faro, creator of the sea. Evah does multiply the size of waves to land crushing size. Perhaps it is that these deities have more in common than some want to consider. Perhaps they all lead to the same mysteries.
African Deity, art by Regina Bukharova
In Evah’s world there are unrested spirits, poltergeists, and demons too. Mingling with unrested spirits brings unexpected power but poltergeists too are able to join with those like Evah, known as extuiters, and it can prove to be not dissimilar to an identity eating insanity. Demons in the interstellar hallways and sanctuary verandas are looking for a way to enter the world of the living through vulnerable people.
Demon, drawing by Andy Chin
Of course demons and other spirits are vastly multi cultural, from the earliest South American beliefs about evil tree spirits to their widespread counterparts in the beliefs of varied tribes across Africa.
And so there is much to discover about the remaining temples and sanctuaries scattered across the spirean system. Are those temple doors on the planet Constance entrances to hell or do they have other purposes? Where does the spirit figure of the sanctuary mother come from? How and why does a stone structure on Naaheen seem to depart from the planet into unknown regions of the cosmos? For Evah, it is a daunting calling into a world possessed with the potential for incredible positivity, even benevolence, but also a darkness that may be set in motion by her own cloying inner struggles.
All of this, is a depth with terrifying spaces that would overwhelm any young girl but Evah, like us all, at some time or another must power through trials of faith, facing our inner demons and reconciling the ideology and existence of supernatural figures, in order to achieve a surviving wisdom.
longoriawolfe.com is pleased to announce that Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg is the recipient of a five-star rating from Readers’ Favorite and a Literary Titan Award.
Readers’ Favorite
On June 17, 2020 Readers’ Favorite posted their five-star rating of Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg and established a Book Review Page only dedicated to five star works. This review site is recognized as having high integrity and was awarded an Association of Independent Authors Excellence Award. Karen A., Editor of Penguin Random House Books was quoted as saying, “When the right books are picked as winners we pay attention. We will be spreading the word about Readers’ Favorite.” Readers’ Favorite reviewers Rabia Tanveer, Christian Sia, and Jose Cornelio all agreed Evah’s story has a lot to offer to readers. Evah’s story received the highest marks in all critical categories, Including, appearance, plot, story development, and marketability.
Jose Cornelio had this to say, “…a fascinating story with a young female protagonist that I rooted for. The author has a unique skill for filling the writing with strong imagery. The emotional intensity of the story doesn’t slow at any moment, and the compelling characters, including the villains, add to the complexity of the plot. Longoria Wolfe is a great storyteller, an entertainer who has crafted a story with fictional characters that feel real and an imagined universe that is irresistible to explore.”
Alternative web title image for Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg by M.R. Garcia.
Rabia Tanveer had this to say about the book, “ It is beautiful how immersive and interactive this story was. I was blown away with the number of details added to the story and how the author allowed the reader to get lost in the pages… I loved the beautiful drawings and pictures in the book; they added to the story and gave a context. Honestly, there is a lot that I loved about this novel.”
Reviewer Christian Sia said this, “…a beautiful story that describes an imaginary world that readers will enjoy navigating. The descriptive nature of the prose and the gorgeous writing are some of the elements that fascinated me through the journey with Evah. Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg is gripping and fast-paced…”
Longoria Wolfe is very thankful for the generous response from Readers’ Favorite. “Knowing the high standards of the site I thought I would be lucky if the book received four-stars. When readers’ Favorite came back with a unanimous five-stars I was moved. Relieved too. I was prepared for them to come back with editorial notes and a rating below four-stars really. You know, because they don’t post reviews lower than four stars. They give you notes on what to do better. Thankfully things worked out pretty well.” the author remarked.
Also, on June 5th, 2020, Thomas Anderson, Chief Editor of Literary Titan, reported to longoriawolfe.com that Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg was awarded a Silver Literary Titan Award. The Literary Titan website says, “The Literary Titan Book Awards are awarded to books that have astounded and amazed us with unique writing styles, vivid worlds, complex characters, and original ideas. These books deserve extraordinary praise and we are proud to acknowledge the hard work, dedication, and imagination of these talented authors.”
Literary Titan reviewer had this to say about Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg, “Longoria Wolfe has written a compelling science fiction story that is supported by a curious mystery which unravels through a thrilling adventure. What I enjoyed the most was how everything is kept grounded by motivations I could understand. Even the strange aliens had desires I think readers can relate to, and with that I was reeled into a fast-paced story that I heartily enjoyed. …a novel that is unique and hard to put down. I hope there’s a sequel in the works as this story left me wanting more of this world.”
Longoria Wolfe commented, “It’s just nice to have something that lasts. I am humble and understand this isn’t a pulitzer but it’s some nice recognition. It could be the only recognition. What’s most important is that maybe more readers may consider giving Evah’s story a chance and for that I am thankful.”
If you’ve had a positive experience with Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg remember to post your reviews on your purchasing platforms. More positive feedback means more readers can be reached. We here at longoriawolfe.com thank you for your time and consideration.
The Iron Goddess of Mercy and a Devotion to the Garden
I know a man with a green thumb. It seems whatever the weather his capabilities of tending to his plants have some magic to them. He’s had the same African violet growing in his home for thirty-five years and when he received a large store-bought orchid, for the first time I had seen, it rebloomed three years in a row. There is something to be said for steady devotion when tending to the most challenging tasks.
The mother of the sanctuary welcomes Evah to her future and ancient knowledge.
In Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg after Evah has been returned to her home planet for healing and empowerment, she is called by spirits in the Forest of Eshlam. Following their summons she discovers a sanctuary nearly entirely hidden by the passing of years. What was once clear and welcoming to members of the Naaheen Tribe was swallowed up by vines and other overgrowth. A charge is delivered to Evah by an apparition to prepare the sanctuary for use and in return she will receive a knowledge long forgotten. Indeed, her actions, and the mystery she is initiated into, bring a transform beyond anything she could have imagined. It is from thence she embarks on a journey from which there is no return.
The structure of this story is loosely based on a Chinese folktale about the Goddess of Mercy, bodhisattva of compassion. One day as a poor farmer walked along in the woods he discovered an iron statue of the bodhisattva of compassion and a temple in her honor. The temple was ruined with age and covered in overgrowth, unable to be entered. “What misfortune,” he thought, “for the poor to have no place to honor compassion.” He could not afford to rebuild the temple but instead he cleared it by hand then brought a broom and swept it clean. Lighting incense he said, “It is the least I can do.” He continued to do this; kept it free of danger, swept it clean, and lit incense. Then one day, in her radiance the Goddess of Mercy appeared to him. She told him of a rare and hidden cave and that he should go in search of the treasure which lay inside. “Take the treasure and share it with the people,” she told him. In the previously undiscovered cave, he found a camellia shoot which he took home to his farm and cultivated into a stunning plant that grew strong and flourished. From it he drew the leaves in their season and made a luxurious tea. He named it Tieguanyin, Iron Goddess of Mercy. The tea became renowned even through the years and beyond the village of the devoted man. Finally, the tea found its way into the court of the emperor where it was celebrated as was the land it came from. It became the national tea of trade.
Iron Goddess of Mercy Tea.
I first learned this folktale visiting a recreation of a Qing Dynasty garden with a girlfriend in California. It was like walking back in time. There among the traditional architecture, lily ponds and freshly grown sprouts from three-thousand-year-old lotuses I was enchanted by that experience where myth and the ancient habitat converged. It was like the poetry of a fable was raising out of the earth to inform the light, the energy, the spirit of the place. There was a relationship that existed between the land and its ideas. These elements were wed in this otherworldly ancient environment suspended in time.
In the novel, the tribal traditions- the ideas that set it apart from the other cultures of the Spirean system, lay hidden in the overgrowth. A part of the land. The part of the land lost to the present variations of its people waiting to be rediscovered by a willing devotee. What will come of the ancient knowledge in the book is yet to be discovered, but thus far, one has entered and one has said yes to the call.
Longoria Wolfe
Next in the series, Misreading the Writing on the Wall and Durga Goddess of Death
Image: Ezkaysha and Thydon in the Kingdom of Naaheen by MRG
Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg, like many other works with mythic proportions, builds on the framework of great storytelling that has remained relevant to the human condition for thousands of years. In the novel’s pages are storylines that may be summed up as the death of the hero, transcendence into something spiritual, blood sacrifice leading to world change, and even empowerment of the feminine is not neglected as unbridled phenomena transfers from the hands of the male to the female. Indeed, we discover the feminine possession has a potency hitherto unimagined. The modern storyteller may call these tropes. In Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg there are many.
In the following blog series we will discuss several of the stories that shaped the narrative and how they are reflected in the pages of the novel. If you have read the book perhaps you may recognize them. It could certainly not be said that any of them are more important than others. The story arch is truly devoted to many themes that should reveal a reason not bound strictly by sex or color or specific culture. It is a hope that this universality allows the characters to transcend the trappings of their ascribed being.
Painting by Susan Seddon-Boulet
I. Fable & the Animal: At the Door of Adventure
Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg draws immediately on the use of animal spirits that will serve as messenger and fool. At its beginning, we are introduced to Felin, a tiny creature with a big responsibility. From the lauded stories of the Native American Tribes to greek myths animals represent supernatural spirits in hiding, even Gods. The animal spirit becomes more clearly drawn when we later discover the hierarchy of players in the Tribe of Naaheen with their animal guardians. Before that though we learn Felin has a mystery even he does not understand. He has known Evah for more than one life, one incarnation and he is the representative of an otherworldly entity. A character quality that will further along, evoke a riddling sense of Shamanism.
Felin is a bit of a clown too. He’s clumsy, he’s not so clean, and on top of that, he has a bit of egocentrism knowing he is a creature apart from other creatures like him. After all, he’s an animal who talks and if you listen long enough you may get an articulate lesson in brain anatomy. But though he may not have the lunatic skills of a Native American fabled coyote who can take out his eyeballs and juggle them, he is blind, and in the possession of fantastic goggles allowing him charmed sight, he drops in and out of extraordinary warp gates from place to place, converses with wise men, and serves the most important tribal female, Evah.
As many traditions have it, he is a guardian at the door to adventure. And though he may be something silly, through his experience we can discover great mysteries. Felin has the heart of a lion, and as in Buddhist myth, he is a protector, metaphorically holding Evah close as he does his best to defend her from cruel forces.
For some fun reading about the Native American Coyote you may enjoy the story in the following link.
II. Blossoms in the Mud: The Story of a Man and Two Goddesses
Before Evah comprehends the depth of her gifts she learns the story of Varin, Extuiter of Constance. His skills become key to subduing a threat in a hunt he was born for. There is a question as to what responsibility Varin has to continue his pursuit of the destructive force represented by Haytoo. Is it his destiny to continue the pursuit or should he listen to the females who love him and refrain? Perhaps it is that the tribe of Naaheen could not be reborn without his loss. The story draws on the greek myth The Death of Adonis.
Adonis had more than beauty and was beloved by two significant female entities. He was raised by Persephone, queen of the underworld and adored by the goddess of love herself Aphrodite. He was the very finest of hunters. Having some notion of the peril that awaited him before his last hunt his loves beseeched him to stay and forget the creature of the wild that hearkened to him for conquering. He did not listen. He was, after all, the greatest hunter and could not fail. The creature that awaited him was no ordinary beast. It was a boar of supernatural size and force sent by Artemis who was jealous of Adonis’ gifts. In the dark of the wood, Adonis fell prey to the astonishing creature. Gutted and bleeding he was left to die. Before his death Aphrodite found him and she cradled the hunter as he perished. Her tears mingled into the streams of pouring blood and as they saturated the ground red roses sprang up. Born from the misery of greatest love.
In this adaptation, Artemis is the Thwargg, Sire Claren. His mesmerizing boar the fantastic Haytoo and the goddesses who love the hunter Evah and her mother Skenkin. And, though Varin is not quite consumed with a vanity that makes him believe he is invincible he must face the decision to go, believing there is no better agent to meet with the antagonist.
Varin is haunted by the words of his daughter as he descends into the deep of the Deiphera sea where he discovers an unseen presence, not of this world. Only later will we learn it is the extended being of his daughter. Though yet undetected she has a psychic presence that journeyed with him to his fate but even for the most powerful of beings there are limits and she cannot save him. It is the reckoning of this event that develops her supernatural consciousness in guile and darkness, and perhaps, propels her toward her greatest existential question, being so powerful: Is she a goddess of death?
Though Skenkin is not a goddess she is a member of a social elite. A gifted kind of enchantress who will come to wrestle with the very substance of her “social godliness.” Unfortunately in her world, there is no possibility of begging for her husband’s return to the living though she yearns for it through the following seven years as she searches herself for a power of inner character more substantial than those who control her.
Image: Skenkin, Between Dream and Exaltation by MRG
And as it was that Aphrodite gazed upon the image of love as miracles sprung from the mud, Evah focuses on an idea of love that gives her the strength to do works greater than any technological society could fathom.
Yes, this is a tragic and major theme in my book. A black man, George Floyd, was murdered on the street by an officer who put his knee on the man’s throat until he died. All the while he begged the officer to please stop. If you’ve read my book you will know that what Evah is in search of is her father. He was murdered and he is not the only person murdered with a tribal background. Some who die are innocent and some not so innocent but don’t try to fool yourself. These things are happening. It’s wrong. In my book, one desperate man afflicted by an unwelcoming society that only longs to use him for its greedy purposes turns to doing terrible things in search of peace. Dead-end lives lead to dead-end choices. People like the woman in this video have the idea they can break the rules and victimize someone concerned about it because she’s white and he’s black. As far as I’m concerned the man recording this woman was lucky it didn’t backfire on him. No these events are not only about color. That does not mean it is not a relevant issue. People who are empowered abusing what they have been gifted with. Black, white or blue it is a grotesque flaw of nature. I guess I may not be able to change the world but I tried when I chose to write my book about people with this kind of conflict.
I recently finished a novel. It read like a feminist’s manifesto on destroying the divine patriarchal structure. God and the Devil are murdered and a Queen ascends the divine throne. Ideologically it was a revenge on the male-dominated cultural structure. There is a struggle that is interminable. A conflict of sexes perhaps but moreover a conflict of dark and light. The psychiatrist Carl Jung talked of the Anima and Animus, the feminine and masculine forces of the unconscious that exist one in the other. In the male the anima, considered a feminine force, his spirit, and true nature or source of sensitivity. In the female, the animus; rational spirit, mental dominance or power. And it does seem these forces have been hashing it out since the beginning of recorded history. On one level in the bible one may interpret descriptors of the feminine power as heretical to the purposes of the male godhead but on closer examination of the God of the Bible, the New Testament and the Quran we will easily find reason to consider the female as a component of the godhead identity. Opening up the Wikipedia page on the names of God in Islam you will find that there are many names, each representing a different part of God’s nature. In Kabbalism, there is an idea named Shekinah signifying the divine feminine (light, wisdom of the serpent, and the tree of life). These are mysteries of divine nature. But even a read of New Testament book most often associated with Jewish misogyny in the treatment of women you will find woman described as something to be loved like the temple of God, the dwelling of God
Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg explores the grey areas of power between the female entity as divine and as the vessel of life. Along her journey Evah becomes generative. She becomes a woman as she is finally immersed in the deepest mysteries of her ancient and lost tribe. The climax of the second section, Passages, reveals the multi-verse to her as no one else in the Spirean System knows it. The cosmos are a sort of living organism and through mortals spirits are born. The most exclusive view of her people’s ancient tribal society reveals a matriarchy with rituals of soul transference, some delivered to the eternal, and some delivered into the gardens of the living; the planets of the Spirean System and one mysterious garden representing Earth.
The search for this knowledge is a prize desperately sought after by one of the primary antagonists of books adventure. Haytoo, one of the most gifted remnants of the lost Naaheen tribe, uncovers a temple on the Spirean capital world Constance. His excavation reveals just one of many passages to the world between worlds. A sort of backdoor to divine places. Unfortunately, by the time he has discovers it the space overrun with demons and more closely a passage to illusionary places of hell where they suffer and await the pleasure of devouring the life force of misguided mortals. Indeed, Haytoo’s determination to find a connection with a tribal force and entity he believes more powerful than any in the known mortal worlds.
It is that moment of his most mind-boggling discovery where the book’s themes of male and female forces divide purposes of destruction from purposes that support life and its ongoing processes. Haytoo has known a hard life. He is a being with gifts feared by the ruling parties. He has had to lie and cheat and fight to stay alive and gain power. In fact, his paradox is the more devious and hardhearted he becomes the farther he moves away from joining with that ancient spirit he seeks. Not unlike the struggle of many tormented segments of life. He is perhaps one of the clearest examples of animus in action and tortured anima in repose for his objectives. Seeing through a lens of torment he seeks an ultimate power of control. Something that will best the powers of control in the living world where he has suffered. Reading the hieroglyphs on the temple wall he interprets there is a god of death, known as Urga and all the people with the power of the old tribe, extuiters, are Shone Men that may be one with the god though they are separate. What further confuses his interpretation is that history and the knowledge of what he is trying to interpret has been written wrong. It was a history written by those who conquered his people. And as we all know, in a bad break up the losing party gets stiffed and demonized. So what he finds is evil and has no clue it is not the divine figure he seeks.
This, of course, is only one layer of the farcical misguided divine tragedy that is Haytoo’s journey. There are many functions that fulfill the whole of the old tribe’s rituals and society, many roles, and Haytoo will come to fulfill the responsibilities of more than one before his journey resolves. Moreover, we find what he thinks is a god is actually a goddess. A female figurehead who is a component of eternal machination. She is an elevated mortal spiritual figure, though one couldn’t say how long she could have lived before being slain by those masters of the Spirean histories. But that is for another tale. Still, none the less, even Evah learns of this being from a history book that calls her a goddess of death. It is this skewed interpretation of her greatest tribal power that sets Evah’s mind on a tortured debate about the quality of her very own purpose and nature. If she is as powerful as may be suggested, is she a goddess of death reborn? Is it her purpose and nature to sacrifice the living for some end game she cannot understand being out of her reach of experience? Is she the very heart of destruction? She may be slightly aware of her ability to travel out of her body and even aware that she has a kind of omniscience due to her abundant psychic presence. That powerful part of herself she is too afraid to acknowledge because she does not comprehend its purpose or limitation.
Sadly, I feel this is a common feminine conflict of the modern age, perhaps of any epoch, but one of current social and political struggles, relevant on many levels, though perhaps not only a feminine question. In a quandary between using personal power or being a victim. It is an existential reality that lives can be destroyed with a few words these days. People of power can lose all they’ve built. In this post Me Too age. How should such power be used? How can life go on when everyone’s dark secrets can be revealed with a tweet? What will happen to society? This is a metaphorical variation of Evah’s question. She could literally kill people. The themes are further complicated with other ideas in the story like deep fakes. How do we know what is true? If misinformation can be used as believably as truth and society is ripped apart, how will we find something stable? As I mentioned in the opening paragraph of this post there was the story of a woman who kills God and the Devil. Once that is done what is sacred and what is taboo? Where is and what is order? Not male order. Any. Any of morality as it is the death of good and evil; the dark and light forces we have related ourselves to for so long. Where is order in the post-truth world? These are issues that still seem a struggle in our daily lives. We throw out the idea of God and along with that goes the writings that were kernels of wisdom saying don’t murder and incest is not right. It is a schizophrenia of the modern age. We can prod through the pages of Thus Speaks Zarathustra all we want, it is still relevant. Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg is a book that questions where is there safety, what is there to have faith in if we were to pull the carpet out from under everything that holds society together. Should Evah destroy the worlds and their capital power and reestablish an ancient mysterious matriarchy? Is that what she wants to do? Still, either way, to have a power that can be so destructive is a complicated one. Particularly when you’re eleven.
All I can say of these challenging questions for sure is that one way or the other life demands to persevere. We must survive. Anything that does not support life and its continuance must be used wisely or it is simply antithetical to survival. It is lapses of wisdom with such power that incur genocides, the destruction of empires, and the loss of entire segments of culture. It breeds oppressive cruelty. Should we trade one oppressive cruelty for another?
All of this brings me to the inspiration for the aforementioned being Urga, matriarchal head of the Naaheen tribe. This character was derived from the Hindu goddess Durga. The goddess of war, destroyer of pride and greed. Type “Durga, goddess, and meaning” into google and this is what comes up-
Durga (Sanskrit: दुर्गा, IAST: Durgā), identified as Adi Parashakti, is a principal and popular form of the Hindu Goddess. She is a goddess of war, the warrior form of Parvati, whose mythology centres around combating evils and demonic forces that threaten peace, prosperity, and Dharma the power of good over evil.
I guess one reason I settled on Durga was to exemplify good and evil is a cross-cultural science. Be it any one of the cultures depicted in the book, Naaheen, Sharvannan, or Thwargg. In Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg, one Thwargg in particular, a part of a secret cabal, not only uses the feminine in destructive ways but proudly stems from a Thwargg history of colonialists smacking down other cultures to serve their drive to assimilate them and add foreign worlds to the Spirean Federation. I thought it appropriate on several levels to use this mythic or spiritual presence, Durga, and her story for the foundation of my book’s most debated cultural figure. The Naaheen queen. Durga’s story draws a picture of a blissful company that is divided by one all too powerful presence and how he must be defeated. I’d expand on the story but isn’t it more fun to watch a cartoon? To know Durga’s story in more depth check out the video here.
So I guess if you know these things it becomes apparent that the story of my book is a loose adaptation of this Hindu tale. Though we have yet to see the war. The truth is, I think, in many ways religion does not necessarily define God as much as it defines the men and sometimes women who run it. Something is going on in the System of Spirea or should I say something is going on behind the curtain to its spirit world. It is something with more shapes than a man with a white beard. And it’s connected to sacrifice and destiny in the physical world. Evah is a girl finding her greatest power, and I think for everyone, whether they dispute a spirit world presence or not, questioning the boundaries of personal power gets sifted through the measure of science and spirituality. Perhaps as many gurus have said, “this life is a cosmic dream,” and this story too, somewhere between the masculine and the feminine, the anima and the animus that we share. Science and spirit. Evah has a supernatural power, as will other members of her tribe to come and where bliss, where peace, will be found is anyone’s guess but pride, greed, and responsibility will be a substantive conflict as the equation plays out.
I have gleaned there may be some idea my story is about a heroic guy who is betrayed by a woman, but there’s a little more goin on here. No one is without some flaws. Varin, the “heroic guy” in question doesn’t just get a one-way ticket to heaven and everything is alright. He is tormented by his inability to undo the web spun by our leading antagonist. Really, he is naïve and for a certain time, would rather believe lies than take action to free himself and those he loves most. You decide if it’s cowardice or faith. If anything, on a simple level, this is a story about a system that will use people like puppets if left unchecked. Men and women. And how should our divine company, being of spirit or merely energy, deal with such sources of control? How will a young girl deal with it?
Next in this blog series: The Conflict of Dissonant Systems
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now? Born and raised in California, US. Still living there, just outside LA. I’ve done some traveling domestically and abroad, and lived in Oregon for a while, but home is home. Retiring to Lake Lugano in the alps could be nice.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing? Truthfully, books have always been challenging for me because of a vision problem. There were some books I fell in love with in high school. poetry, philosophy, short stories, and plays. Dramatic literature was where my love really grew. It stemmed from my love of making up adventures with neighborhood friends, building silly inventions, clubhouses and throwing ourselves off the roof of my family home acting out stories. Even my dog was a part of the fun. In high school, we used to sit around on the lawn discussing Dickinson, Nietzche, Bukowski, the Beat Generation. Then in college the likes of Federico Garcia Lorca, Brecht, and other poets affected by fascism and that sort of thing.
As I grew older reading books with my lovers, my mates, became a way to connect. All the while I was reading and performing the works of dramatists such as Mamet, Shakespeare, Pinter, Moliere, Tennessee Williams, Checkov and many more. Some were also short story writers and novelists. When I began to lose my sight, listening to audiobooks and reading the bible became entertainment for me. Dostoyevsky, Dickens, Tolstoy, Stephen King, Voltaire, John Milton, Gillian Flynn are just some whose work I explored, that come to mind. I had read some of their books before of course but the storytelling I had studied in high school and college really started to be influenced in a different way.
In my teens I entered poetry contests then along the way, in my early twenties, I had started writing screenplays, plays and short stories and, you know, some professor in university says “your a good writer” and people start telling you you should be a writer. I never really took writing a novel seriously. Frankly, I didn’t think I was smart enough. I remember I had this really strange experience with a psychic in Hollywood. She had read my cards and then told me I was going to do a lot of writing, stressing “a lot”, that I was a writer. Then, suddenly she looked as if she had a terrible shock. Like she caught a glimpse of something horrific and told me it was very important I come in for a blessing. I didn’t, and I still regret it because I had some far-out experiences not too long after. Finally, one day I thought, “Well, if it’s really meant that I should write a book, then I should be able to sit down and just write a book.” So I sat down to write nonstop and six months later I had written a book. I guess it isn’t the easiest thing to do. I had studied character development, story arch, different forms or story development nearly all my life. So it came together. Whether for the best, is a reader’s place to decide, but that’s been going well so far.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings? Well, I enjoy those classics. Maybe more because I am unconsciously studying them. Along with Voltaire, and Dickens I’ve read King and Clive Barker. Though I don’t think I’m really built for reading the dark horror work anymore.
My favorite genres are literary fiction and fantasy.
I am inspired most by issues with loved ones and social injustice. I’m involved with Amnesty International and have written letters to leaders of Iran as well as jailers in Alabama and many more. The stories of people struggling have really influenced every part of my life, including writing. Seeing the disparity of classes and races motivates me. And the “metoo” movement, the struggle for women’s rights to decide what to do with their bodies as well as find fair treatment. These issues have really shaken me to the core.
Tell us a little about your latest book? Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg touches on many issues. It’s a sci-fi story with elements of mystery, adventure, spirituality, and much more. It’s about a young girl who discovers her connection to a mystical tribe that was vanquished at the hands of the ruling technological race. There is a chance that the tribe may be reborn through her but she must navigate through their system of control.
In part, it was an experiment. I wanted to find out if an adventure novel featuring a black lead character and a woman learning to stand on her own, free of a system of control would spark any interest. I like fantasy, crime, mystery, and adventure but often they are deeply rooted in white experience and many fantasy novels are rooted in white European culture. I love Tolkein and Robin Hood and King Arthur. I just think it’s way past the time where we should be able to feature characters of color and females in ways that share some universal themes. This book “Evah” is about the departure from the male-centric world. But what happens to the main characters, the struggles, of Evah and Skenkin I feel have a universal quality. We are all looking for our tribe. We are all learning to be adults with self-defined ideologies that let us be the best we can be. That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot of male action in this book. There is. Military action on alien worlds. It’s just not a white man the action follows. And the plan for the book to come is to see a female character who happens to be black really kick some ass and do some magic that blows the mind. What’s wrong with that?
Longoria Wolfe extends condolences to all those affected by the Corona Virus and wishes you all the very best health and care during this unprecedented time. The price of Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg is being reduced to the very lowest price of $1.99. Due to imagery in the novel causing large download size the book does not qualify for any further discounting.
“I wish you, your family and friends safety and good health and hope this may provide you with further quality entertainment. Though there is much to be concerned about in this situation there is still much to celebrate, much to be thankful for. May you feel love around you.”– Longoria Wolfe
Well, it seems like a hundred years ago now, I was living in the LA area working as a classical actor. I was working on film scripts and deep into Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. The archetypical hero always intrigued me. That there was a score of elemental markers that consistently made for resonating story and character, gave me a sense that the human troubles we lived with could somehow find psychic resolution through their experience. Or at least ease our troubles for a while. It was back then I began to imagine strange adventures, but they had a scope that could only be realized with big commercial industry budgets. A far distance from the independent field I was closer to. I guess it was then that Varin, The Extuiter of Constance, first appeared in my imaginings, deep in murky waters with six hundred pound fish, up to something mysterious. The worlds he walked in were often dark, anachronistic, and seemed to have a magic that was just beneath the surface. He was an adaptation of the Orpheus mythic construct. A character between the mortal and the gods. He was a lover with outrageous fortune to contend with and his greatest battle was holding on to a hopeful faith in a world ravaged by mortal and divine destruction. As I was a child of the eighties these imaginings were dressed in an aesthetic of urban fantasy films like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil or Tim Burton’s Edward Scissor Hands. My friends were reading books about the deterioration of the feminine energy and identity. The cover-up of the goddess history. Women who Run with the Wolves was a big read. Other books floating around were The Tibetan Book of the Dead and The Egyptian Book of the Dead. The mythology of Isis and Osiris and the mythologies of the Mediterranean. Though it wasn’t until I had become a Christian that I started to really understand Campbell’s ideas of initiation, the special world, and the return, along with some other essential concepts like sacrifice and love which at first seemed far-flung from his more agnostic position. So it was that these varied traditions, which I found had more in common than most soapboxing zealots would agree, started to color the shadow and light of my imagined world with there inherent debates and unyielding presence that demanded consideration. And as I was busy in the development of great classical literature on the stage the depth of the tale was bound to be operatic.
A WOMAN'S JOURNEY BEGINS
I knew that any story I wanted to be apart of would have to examine some issues that were important to me. Watching the flood of mainstream entertainment in films and other media, I guess I started to become dissatisfied with the color and gender boxes. When one season of television yielded more new shows about super-duper white guys than even the stereotype comedy color and gender blasts I decided if I were going to contribute a story to our culture it was going to be one that attempted to toss something into the giant zeitgeist hole that just didn’t seem to really want to tame itself. I have a daughter and she deserves stories about independent women. As Reese Witherspoon has said, “stories about women who are more than just someone’s wife or someone’s daughter.” Forgive me it is a slight paraphrase, but the kernel of it is what stuck with me. At the same time, I see a struggle. I see we are in a period of transformation and reconciliation with the male masters of entertainment industries and there foolish abominable activities. So, I guess that’s why in book one, where Evah’s story begins, there are two key features. One, the reconciliation with the male mentor identity, and two, the conflicts that are tough to get around in the bringing in of a new feminine era. A new culture that is made up of opposing features. It is a dichotomy of reason that will work its way out through the series. Technology and a forgotten spirit presence that transcends the technological limit. There are great stories of Yogis. Through meditation, they transcend the body and travel across great reaches of space to visit someone. Then there’s us common scientific-minded people that just go get on a jet, pay hundreds of dollars, purchase in-flight movies and help burn off huge sources of carbon-based fuels. Two vastly different paradigms. In Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg, the Thwargg destroy an exotic culture with unimagined possibilities only to try and recreate it synthetically so they can feel like masters of the universe. Though Evah does have to meet with adventure and danger we see a lot of action with the previous extuiter character Varin. Evah’s story is about the rediscovery of lost experience. It is the lost experience and connection that would make some classes and planetary races viewed as lesser to be far more relevant. Therefore it is a common struggle for many of the characters in the book to find where they belong. A female Thwargg seeks to find her power apart from man, an anarchist seeks to find a home. and a planetary culture seeks to rediscover its history as Evah must do.
LOSS & AN ALL KNOWING BEING
In my late twenties, I was gutted in a string of emotional losses that I thought I would never recover from. Then after dragging myself out of that, it happened again. I remember in those days wishing so badly that I could go back in time, jump the track of reality and get back to where I wanted to be. That was the first time I had thoughts like, ‘In my other life I lost I would be doing this or that.” It was the first time I mourned for activities and choices within my own power. I was talking with this girl not too long ago. She was telling me terrible things about her father; all these horrible things he did. First, she told me about things he did when she was no older than four or five. This was not sexual abuse, I wouldn’t drop that on you like this. But she told me of these things and then she told me of things he did when she was being born, even before her birth really. Now her parents separated and she went through a really bad time. I began to realize these things were impossible for her to have memories of unless she was some omniscient being. She was either omniscient or she was in mourning and fabricating a tapestry of fantasies to protect herself emotionally. Not wanting to judge I tried to relate, and I remembered those times of grief and how badly I wanted to magically be able to just have reality be whatever would have been easier for me. It is in times of loss that dissociative identity issues can begin. Then we may be acting like two completely different persons. Two persons with completely opposing psychological points of view. For all that pain that I could relate to for this girl who lost a family unit and a strong relationship with her father, I decided to dedicate the book to the healing of such pain. I know a book can’t heal all wounds. I guess I just want those in the world who feel alone with their pain to know they aren’t alone. Evah is on a journey to discover her history, but she is also on a journey to discover herself. And if she can find a balance, that will be the most valuable power she can possess.
longoriawolfe.com is online now. Explore the story and graphic art of Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg. Read samples of the text and view the graphic art gallery to experience the story in images. Find out about the characters, the world and more. Join the Longoria Wolfe mailing list to get news on promotions and different publication formats as they become available.
Right now, get a closer look at Section One: Dark Eye. Find out what’s troubling Evah Achtoli, and what spirits are visiting her. Scientific society is on a course to collide with one of magic in this star system of extraordinary experiences, conflicts and strange pursuits.
Then get a peek into Section Two: Passage to Eternity. Discover guiding spirits and mysterious discoveries as Evah takes off on her own adventure. More content is being added all the time. Come take a ride on a starslide, leap through a Planck gate and tuck yourself in on a Thwargg dream table with the characters of Evah & the Unscrupulous Thwargg. The adventure is beginning. Drop in now on longoriawolfe.com.
