Special Interview: WWWWH with C. L. Talmadge

Welcome to C. L. Talmadge on today's stop for her tour through Goddess Fish Promotions. Every comment left earns an entry into a drawing for an autographed set of the first three books in her Green Stone of Healing series!

The series features four generations of strong-willed female characters who inherit a mysterious green gem ultimately revealed to mend broken bones and broken hearts, protect against missiles, and render its wearers undetectable.

For more information about each book, please visit http://www.greenstoneofhealing.com -- and now, down to business...

What was the title of the first book you ever wrote (published or not) and what was it about?

My first book was partially completed nonfiction for a nationally known medical malpractice attorney. I cannot reveal the name. I was not his first choice for ghost writer, so he stopped the project after the first two chapters. His first choice for writer is now available after a stint in politics, so maybe he will get that book done after all. I hope so. It would be a humdinger and infuriate a lot of powerful people. Now that’s my kind of tome.

My first completed work is nonfiction entitled Hope is in the Garden: Healing
Resolution Through Unconditional Love. This book explains the underlying cause of illness at all levels of self, not just physical, but mental, spiritual, and emotional, too. Hint: It’s not what most books on this topic say it is. Hope states the principles of healing within the energy of human consciousness and explains why/how people don’t heal, and how we can change that dynamic.

(For a free e-book version of Hope, go my blog and follow the instructions. www.healingstonebooks.com/stonescribe Deadline to vote is Sept. 25, so hurry!)

Hope was the absolutely necessary precursor to writing my speculative epic, the Green Stone of Healing® series. Many of the same healers from physical and non-physical dimensions have helped me write both of these works. A new, expanded definition of energy contained in Hope is from the “fictional” soul known in my series as Maguari, the Mist-Weaver. Maguari is a wise, powerful healer and a member of an otherworldly association of healers known as the Sunan Society. The character known as Isaac Sudras in my novels is the head of this group, and is known as Dr. Sunan. Interesting similarity in their names, no? And even today, I give this poor soul the same guff that Helen gave Isaac. It keeps him humble—a tough job, but someone has to do it.

When is truth stranger than fiction?

Truth is always stranger than fiction. The latter has to make some sort of sense or readers will object and editors will demand rewrites. Truth often makes no sense whatsoever.

There’s an interesting line in The Dark Knight, the latest Batman film. The loyal servant Alfred tells his master, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” This is a most sharp and devastating insight into the madness/ennui/pure evil of some souls. Yet this truth sounds so senseless to the relatively sane that they tend, like Bruce Wayne/Batman, to reject it. They simply cannot comprehend it because it is so far from their personal truths.

Truth is not only far stranger than fiction, it is also personal and subjective. This is one of the enduring themes of all my writing. Even science is hesitantly, tentatively, furtively groping toward this realization. Objective truth is a total myth, because we all perceive through a field of human consciousness that contains our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. None of us can be objective since our fields are so distorted and warped by that same factor that is the ultimate cause of disease at all levels of self, which I discuss in Hope.

The best we can achieve is to be honest about our biases with ourselves and, if we are writers or other kinds of artists, with our audience.

Where would you live if you could live anywhere (and tell us why)?

I would live on a tropical island like Hawaii or Tahiti. My comfort range for outside temperatures is between 55 and 75 degrees F, so it’s the tropics for me. Ideally, I would live beside a waterfall and spend a part of each day melding my energy with that of the rushing stream. Great for energizing, relaxing, and creativity. Aaaahh….

Why did the suicide king feel there was nothing left to live for?

I have absolutely no idea why anyone would feel there is nothing more to live for. I have come to this understanding after an excruciating learning curve of many, many lifetimes. I will offer some thoughts about suicide, however. It doesn’t stop the pain. The pain is in the emotional, spiritual, and mental parts of our being and these don’t die with the physical body. These parts of self are a certain kind of energy and they go on to new dimensions. To quote a famous soul named Seth, “You are as dead now as you are ever going to be.” So toss those useless thoughts of dying and start living!

How far can you walk without thinking of something one of your characters did or said?

Maybe two steps. But then again, maybe not. My characters have been on my mind in one way or another since I was 13 years old. Once I determined I wanted to write a novel, they started marching into my conscious awareness, introducing themselves to me, and many even told me their names without my asking. (They’re such characters!) I confess I love them all, even the worst of the villains, because without them I have no story to tell.

C.L. Talmadge is the author of the Green Stone of Healing® speculative epic. The fourth in the series, Outcast, will be published Oct. 1. Vote for the first book, The Vision, through Sept. 25 and get a free e-book on healing, love, and spirituality. Details at her blog: www.healingstonebooks.com/stonescribe

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