Its all an ELUZN right?

I’ve spent the better part of my blogging life dancing around the notion that it is ALL an ILLUSION, so no small wonder that my new book is titled ELUZN.  This is my second novel and follows the story that I began with In The Lila.  But while Lila was a rather tame look at the spiritual path and how each of us deal with our own pain body … I often say that ELUZN is the dark side of the light chasers.  Its about a world where lies and deception are so entrenched into the fabric of the game that seekers of Truth begin to question even their own impeccable word.  Several of the characters from Lila do cross over into this epic tale of romance and mayhem, but new readers don’t have to worry about feeling that they’ve jumped in to the middle of a conversation.  ELUZN is complete all on to itself.

The book starts with the same disclaimer as Lila …

“All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons in 3D space or onscreen 2D avatars living or dead, is purely synchronistic.”

And while it sounds tongue in cheek, its actually very true.  The book isn’t a page out of my real or 2D avatar life.  Though its true, the main character has Dysautonomia, led and left a high tech life in higher education, finds herself at 50 something re-evaluating everything she has learned on her spiritual path as well as her life in general … well dang that DOES sound a lot like me 🙂  Because in truth, I can only really write about what it is that I know.  And I know the pain and struggle of living with a chronic illness.  I wanted to write Lila to offer some hope and help for others who found themselves facing an arduous healing journey and in some way, I wanted to share the story of ELUZN to also hold a candle up into the lonely places when we feel we are dancing in the dark.

It is also true that there’s a certain redneck twang that is woven throughout the chapters.  There’s a familiar feeling there for everyone who has met the silent and sexy avatar, the infamous Mr Monks in his various alter egos.  And while its true, there is a love story in there .. it’s not ours.  Our fall from Grace and into each other’s arms was a far more intimate and twisted tale of two eccentricities.

Scenes may seem familiar … especially the painful and poignant moments.  Because unfortunately too many of us have shared that bumpy road of losing in love in all the wrong places.  So there’s a little bit of all of us I’m afraid, in each of the characters.  And that may be the important life lesson in the book.  If indeed my work had any pointers 😉  To be able to see our Self .. even our dark and brazen qualities we despise in others … to acknowledge that we too act in ways that we would rather deny … is an important step in opening our heart and connecting with one another on a much deeper level.  Which we can only do of course, when we have opened up our own heart and listened to the beat of the music in our Being.

So yes its my story but all of us carry stories about ourselves that aren’t True.  The ELUZN fairytale is just another window into a world of egos and monkey minds twisted up into a traveling salvation show.  It was certainly a different experience writing this book.  I’ve not ever collaborated before as a writer, aside from a few Appropriate Use documents and other College Policy proposals that had to be vetted through more committees than double letters in the word.  It was wonderful to have a partner to write with.  The book took on a different flavor and explored many different nooks and crooked places than I would have ventured into on my own.  And the plot twists!!  I must admit .. I didn’t even see some of them coming!!

Fact is we loved writing the book together.  Our pace is very slow … which suits us both very well.  We do what we can do when we can do it .. and in between we rest by the most amazing koi pond.  I absolutely love when my cartoon world slips over into my real life hopes and dreams.  And perhaps that is what the book does best .. it looks at the fuzzy line between the world of flesh and bones and the furry world of 2D cartoons.  How we each are searching to find our self in what we do each day.  How we play, how we say our terms of endearment to one another and how we each try to find our way back home after the music ends.

Speaking of music!  It was so much fun writing the score for our book trailer.  I’ve been composing music since I was a young teen.  By college I had my first casio electronic keyboard and with a jury rig of cassette to cassette over recording shenanigans I was able to put down multi-track scores in a very rough and backwoods kind of way.  When we sold my baby grand piano last year, I was pretty sure that the days of writing music were over for me.  I hadn’t even installed my copy of Sonar’s Home Studio on my laptop that was over a year old.  And while I still had my long since retired Yamaha midi keyboard it was collecting dust out in the garage after our move.  But a few tears, updates, patches and hacks I was able to get all of the technical pieces working again as I began to contemplate the possibility of a short soundtrack for our book trailer.

Nothing fancy … just something that captured the essence of the book.  Rave music seemed like the perfect metaphoric genre as the driving beat can be both intoxicating and toxic.  I took the opportunity to learn about sampling techniques, royalty free loops and a wide variety of kicks, hooks, sweeps and special FX that go in to those club dance beats.  But despite all of my experience in music composition .. which in truth would fit into a thimble … my end result was more than a stave away from rave.  Redneck to the rescue, my knight in shining super dark shades re-arranged the stanzas and added just the right Lead Loops  and Acid Trax to save the day!  I must admit, I’m not a fan of that style of music, but this little ditty has grown on me and I really do enjoy the finished piece.  Big thanks to my son who agreed to narrate the trailer for us and who hopefully will also help us get Chapter One online as an audio preview of the book here down the line.

So that’s my book in a nutshell.  As usual I’m purposely vague, usually off task and forever mixing my metaphors in a way that lands me in deep grammatical grit..  But that’s who I am or at least that’s the story of me.  Even in Truth .. its all and always has been an ELUZN.

ELUZN’s RAVE by Monks & Karma © 2014