Fiction Archives - Will Dreamly Arts Publishing

Weapons of the Mind

willdreamlyarts — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 16:52:55 +0000

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Master your emotions. Perform your duty. Follow the Tenets. Tala has lived these rules for twenty years: the rules of an Enhancer. Then a mission goes wrong, and she finds herself framed, branded Renegade, and called to face judgment. Fleeing means violating the Tenets, the moral precepts of her order. Yet in that moment, she finds she cannot stay.

Hunted by the endless forces of the Galactic Coalition and her own mentor, famed Renegade killer Exemplar Scratch, Tala will pursue the proof of her innocence to the very heart of the galaxy. But cling as she might to the tatters of her honor, she cannot deny the true purpose of her mission: revenge. And the further Tala strays from the Tenets’ path, the greater the risk she runs of losing herself.

In a galaxy of strange aliens and hostile humans, danger casts its shadow on every wall. Friendships are forged, lost, and tested. And the lies that keep the galaxy running just might be about to come crashing down.

Early Reviews:

“Weapons of the Mind is an awesome work of world-building, conjuring original territories, traditions, technologies, politics, and follies. But as the title promises, it’s also a powerful work of mind-building. The narrative viewpoint threads from consciousness to consciousness, among human and alien “sapients,” each with a unique grasp of a reality that’s never exactly what it seems. The action alone would have kept me turning the pages, and I’m hotly anticipating the further adventures of Tala and her crew (and their minds) in next installment of the Renegades Trilogy. But Greenwald and Kivelson, in their seamlessly blended and masterful prose, add real moral and emotional depth to the action. Their obvious care for this fully realized world becomes the reader’s.”

— Michael Macrone

Michael Macrone is the author of nine books on language, culture, and ideas, beginning with Brush Up Your Shakespeare! (Harper & Row, 1990) and also including By Jove! Brush Up Your Mythology (HarperCollins, 1992), Eureka! What Archimedes Really Meant and 80 Other Key Ideas Explained (HarperCollins, 1994), and Naughty Shakespeare (Andrews & McMeel, 1997).

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The Newirth Mythology Boxed Set

willdreamlyarts — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 23:17:34 +0000

Stories change us. Loche Newirth’s story changed the history of the world, and only now are we learning how. . .

In Part One, psychologist Loche Newirth is hunted after he sees painting that opens a window onto the afterlife. A secret order seeking to control the art pursue him across the world, into madness and beyond. Loche’s journal is left behind for his mentor Doctor Marcus Rearden to interpret. It tells of William, a diagnosed manic depressive, swashbuckling swordsman who believes he is over six hundred years old; Basil, a stoned and prolific painter and his perilous work that he must keep secret; Julia, a beautiful business woman who abandons everything for a love she never expected.

In Part Two, Loche Newirth must face how his writing has shaped the lives of William, Julia and countless others. As a war breaks out between the immortals on earth and the inscrutable Albion Ravistelle, Loche seeks a path through death to find a way to end the conflict.

In Part Three, discredited mythology professor Astrid Finnley is summoned to a secret archaeological dig site to translate an ancient script where se uncovers an unthinkable nightmare―a woman buried alive for over a thousand years. Meanwhile, Loche Newirth’s assassination is ordered. But his former mentor Dr. Marcus Rearden wants him alive to torture, to command, to control. When Loche discovers his son is also a target, he flees and is vaulted back to the prehistory of his writings―to a time when a venomous army of gods lay siege to the City of Immortals, and his little boy stands in the balance.

Infused with intrigue and mystery, steeped in rich atmospheres and celestial horrors, saturated with twists and delightful intricacies, Koep’s offering is a final mythology for a rapidly evolving New Earth.

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Pilgrimage: The completed Canterbury Tales

willdreamlyarts — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 15:07:15 +0000

Well-traveled medieval pilgrims were often covered in tokens of the pilgrimage sites they had visited, much like the station wagons of the 1960s would have flaunted stickers from Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, etc. Below is a medallion pilgrims might have received when they prayed at Becket’s tomb in Canterbury. This one is an artistic rendering of the sacred shrine, as found in this manuscript in 2015.

The translator and editor of this only complete version of Chaucer’s great work, Michael B. Herzog, Professor Emeritus of English, Gonzaga University, has devoted the first five years of his retirement to re-introducing modern readers to Geoffrey Chaucer and the wonderful art of Chaucer’s storytelling.

Throughout history, believers of every kind have made pilgrimages to sacred sites. In Medieval England, the most popular pilgrimage destination was Canterbury, the centerpiece of whose magnificent cathedral was an extraordinary, lavishly-decorated tomb that held the bones of St Thomas á Becket.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s late 14th century Canterbury Tales, a random collection of pilgrims who meet in London agree to make the three day horseback trip to Canterbury together and to tell stories to each other, with the best tale to be acknowledged by the reward of a dinner for the teller, at the expense of the other pilgrims.

To the frustration of modern readers, Chaucer had finished perhaps only three-quarters of his masterpiece when he died in 1400. But then, in 2015, a miracle. In an archeological dig near London’s Westminster Abbey the book you now hold in your hand was found, the only complete version of the Tales.

Here, for the first time ever, readers can meet all thirty fascinating, raucous, endearing, unabashed pilgrims, enjoy each of their intriguing, surprising and uncensored tales; and discover to which of them the Host awards the prize for telling the best story.

Reviews:

“Having already reimagined the life of Geoffrey Chaucer as historical fiction in This Passing World, Michael Herzog turns his considerable talent to the Canterbury Tales, translating this cherished collection of stories into accessible modern English while also filling in the missing tales. What emerges is a splendid mix of scholarship and literary invention.” — Jess Walter, New York Times Best Selling Author

“Herzog’s expansion of Canterbury Tales is wonderfully readable. His use of contemporary language makes Chaucer accessible to new readers and non-specialists, while his deft storytelling will delight scholars of all casts. The addition of new tales and new interactions among pilgrims mirror the humor and subtlety of Chaucer’s original material. Indeed, there is a seamless flow from beginning to end. The functions, titles and roles of these travelers might seem antiquated to contemporary readers, but their tales, both Herzog’s and Chaucer’s originals, reveal something universal about vice and virtue, about human nature and human sexuality, about the power of stories where the truth will out. Herzog has achieved his purpose in this completed Canterbury Tales: to help readers “appreciate the genius of this medieval poet.”” — Janis Haswell, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of English

“After 600 years, Michael Herzog has completed the unfinished Canterbury Tales in a style entirely consistent with Chaucer’s work. Surprising, entertaining, poignant, imaginative, and delightful. This translation brings a rich new coloring and texture and energy to the original and lures us into what Chaucer, better than anyone, reveals about the human psyche. Bravo!!!:” — Patrick Burke, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy

“The idea of Pilgrimage is terrific, and it is executed with real skill. I admire the inventiveness and reach of combining the extant tales with the new ones.. Very impressive; a genuine pleasure to read.” — Chris Anderson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of English

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This Passing World: A Novel about Geoffrey Chaucer

willdreamlyarts — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 17:45:48 +0000

It is 1398, and all of Europe is abuzz about the duel to be fought in September between Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, to settle the question of which one has committed treason against King Richard II. Geoffrey Chaucer, courtier and well-known poet, is unexpectedly drawn into the intrigue surrounding the impending duel and compelled to perform an act so heinous that he is shaken to the core. The journal Chaucer begins and keeps for the remaining two and a half years of his life chronicles his unlikely rise as the son of a middle-class wine broker to become not only the pre-eminent poet of his age but the brother-in-law of John of Gaunt, uncle to the king, at times the most powerful man in England and, with his three wives, the ancestor of every ruler of England since the year 1400. This novel provides a fascinating look into life in late 14th century England, the women and men Chaucer loves, the intrigues of the Richardian court, and what compels someone who holds some of the most important jobs in the English bureaucracy to spend his nights writing poetry that is still being read and studied 600 years after his death.

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The Shape of Rain: Part Three of the Newirth Mythology

willdreamlyarts — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 05:59:45 +0000

Michael B. Koep’s final installment in The Newirth Mythology Trilogy brings a psychologist face to face with his greatest fear: madness. On the other side of the world, a professor of mythology struggles to interpret a sudden shift in the historical timeline, the mysterious discovery of the ruins of an ancient city and the anomalous nature of Loche’s writing.

Discredited mythology professor, Astrid Finnley believes gods and immortals once battled for a place in Creation–for a place of their own on the earth. When she is summoned to a secret archeological dig site in Northern Idaho to translate an ancient script, she uncovers an unthinkable nightmare: a woman buried alive–for over a thousand years.

Psychologist Loche Newirth’s assassination is ordered to prevent him from rewriting history. But his former mentor, Dr. Marcus Rearden wants him alive to torture, to command, to control. When Loche discovers his son is also a target, he flees, pursuing a lead that promises to end what his writing has started. Instead, the path vaults him back to the prehistory of his story–to a time when a venomous army of gods lay siege to the City of Immortals, and his little boy stands in the balance.

The Newirth Mythology Trilogy is a wholly original, imaginative and remarkably inventive approach to the thriller genre. Koep’s final installment, The Shape of Rain is a poetic, action packed and existential page turner that will leave you haunted and wowed.

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Leaves of Fire: Part Two of the Newirth Mythology – Trade

willdreamlyarts — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 05:22:06 +0000

To slay or to heal?

In the spring of 1918, young William of Leaves knows only of remedies, herbs and his mother’s kindness. When he is forced to watch at she is dragged to witch’s pyre by a mob led by the Bishop of London, the mysterious immortal apothecary, Albion Ravistelle, promises the boy a chance at vengeance.

In the summer of 1972, Helen Storm is a stoned groupie on the sunset strip with a very special condition: she is immortal. When her life intersects with a famous guitar player, she is introduced to her future as a deadly and remorseless assassin.

In present day, psychologist Loche Newirth and Julia Iris mut come to terms with Loche’s prophetic writings that have changed the course of history and shaped the lives of William, Helen, and countless others. As war breaks out between the immortals on earth and Albion Ravistelle, Loche must accept the realities he has authored and cross over into death – the must enter again into Basil Fenn’s paintings to find a way to end the conflict.

In Part Two of the Newirth Mythology, Leaves of Fire, Koep entwines these lives and lifetimes as he explores myth, memory, revenge and the hope of forgiveness.

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The Invasion of Heaven: Part One of the Newirth Mythology – Trade

willdreamlyarts — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 05:10:53 +0000

The first part of Michael B. Koep’s The Newirth Mythology, The Invasion of Heaven is mystery, adventure, myth, betrayal, murder and madness.

Psychologist Loche Newirth wonders if it was his fall: the fifty foot drop from the rocky cliff to the icy water below. Is this why he has been hallucinating? Or is it because one of his clients is dead, or his mentor has gone mad, or that his wife is leaving him? He can’t bring himself to believe what h has been seeing. Insane things like a massive, searching eye. he sees it in the water below the cliff. he sees it in mirrors, on walls: a massive, crystal blue iris and fathomless pupil there in the center of his life, looking at him.

To find the answer, Loche pens the recent events of his life into a book and leaves the work behind for his mentor Doctor Marcus Rearden to interpret. As Rearden reads he plunges in to the harrowing depths of Loche’s reality: his loss of a client, the discovery of an unkown past, an ancient conflict over possession of the human condition, the awesome reality of gods walking among us, and the crimes of humanity invading the hope that lies beyond the grave.

And along the way, Loche tells of unforgettable characters: the torn and manic house-wife that teeters on the edge of sanity, and a depressed, swashbuckling swordsman that believes that he is over six hundred years old, the stoned and prolific painter and his perilous work he must keep secret, and the beautiful business woman that abandons her life’s work for a love she never expected.

Koep’s story sweeps from the mountain lakes of North Idaho to the Italian Riviera and the ancient waterways of Venice – a milieu of fine art, fine food, secret lovers, sharp steel mafia, ancient languages and the loud music of classic vinyl LPs.

The Invasion of Heaven, part one, by emerging author Michael B. Koep is the story of how one man’s manifestation alter the fate of the world and what comes after.

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Leaves of Fire: Part Two of the Newirth Mythology – Paperback

willdreamlyarts — Tue, 09 May 2017 01:20:28 +0000

Imagine paintings that hold the secrets to the meaning of life and death or scribbled words that can alter the past and reshape the present. We know art imitates life but in Michael B. Koep s thriller fiction trilogy, the author brings the arts to life in an action-packed tale spanning seven centuries.

In the spring of 1338, young William of Leaves knows only of remedies, herbs and his mother s kindness. When he is forced to watch as she is dragged to a witch s pyre by a mob led by the Bishop of London, the mysterious immortal apothecary, Albion Ravistelle, promises the boy a chance at vengeance.

In the summer of 1972, Helen Storm is a stoned groupie on the Sunset Strip with a very special condition: she is immortal. When her life intersects with a famous guitar player, she is introduced to her future as a deadly and remorseless assassin.

In present day, psychologist Loche Newith and Julia Iris must come to terms with Loche s prophetic writings that have changed the course of history and shaped the lives of William, Helen, and countless others. As a war breaks out between the immortals on earth and Albion Ravistelle, Loche must accept the realities he has authored and cross over into death he must enter again into Basil Fenn s paintings to find a way to end the conflict.

In Part Two of The Newirth Mythology, Leaves of Fire, Koep entwines these lives and lifetimes as he explores myth, memory, revenge and the hope of forgiveness.

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The Invasion of Heaven: Part One of the Newirth Mythology – Paperback

willdreamlyarts — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 03:41:00 +0000

Psychologist Loche Newirth is hunted after he sees a painting that opens a window onto the afterlife. A secret order seeking to control the art pursue him across the world, through centuries, into madness and beyond. Set amid the mountain lakes of Idaho and the cities of northern Italy, the tale is a milieu of fine art, grand twists, forbidden lovers, myth, mafia, ancient languages and the loud music of classic vinyl LPs.

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Leaves of Fire: Part Two of the Newirth Mythology – Casebound

willdreamlyarts — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 03:42:08 +0000

To slay or to heal?

In Part Two of the Newirth Mythology, Leaves of Fire, Koep entwines these lives and lifetimes as he explores myth, memory, revenge and the hope of forgiveness.

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