I did some writing at Olive Garden tonight after having supper. I just now finished typing it into Shadows and Stars Lying down. It was only about five hundred words, but the idea for it has been bugging me for the past several days.
In Shadows and Stars Lying Down, the protagonist, Daryn, and his bodyguard, Sero, walk upon a monk’s (Sato’s) cabin in the deep forest. I am really fascinated by the possibilities to describe the new religions and anti-religions that exist on this planet, so I spend sometime developing them, though I do not want the novel to be dominated by them by any means.
Sato is becoming something of a pivotal figure in at least the first half of the novel. So I have Daryn and him discuss Sato’s beliefs briefly, but then I have Daryn read from one of the journals that Sato keeps. Here are a few bullets from Sato’s writings to give you an idea of what they are. I invented these based on my readings from philosophy and theology. There are several more in addition to these.
- Mud gives us something from which to raise ourselves.
- The spiritual man is a warrior, and, in the city, like a warrior, he is too engaged in battling his enemies to engage in thought.
- Unlike man, insects do not kill those of their own species for pleasure.
- Healthy animals kill only out of need.
- To a dying man, diamonds are only pretty stones.
- Some insects live twenty years underground as grub worms, before emerging into the daylight as flies only to live just long enough to spawn then die. Men think of this as the mature stage in the life of the fly, but to the fly is it not death? His life has been underground. Perhaps a man’s life is only the death stage of his existence and his actual life, much longer, sadly forgotten, was before birth. Many would like to believe this is the grub stage of our existence and we will be flies in the next.
Maybe I will post more tomorrow. I hope to spend most of the day writing.
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 