Welcome to the second day of The Journey blog tour. It will run until August 9th and will feature excerpts and new author interviews each day. But first, here is the obligatory blurb about the novel to settle you into this strange world:
The Frozen Man. The Translucent Man. The Burning Man. The Wicker Man. The guide known only as the Crossroads, together these are the signposts and totems of the world that the being called the Lonely inhabits. Seeking out the meaning of his journey, the Lonely is a being consumed by philosophical inquiry and adventure. Filled with exotic places and age-old questions, the Journey is a book that seeks to merge the fantastical and real. Join the Lonely as he seeks out answers to his own existence and perhaps the meaning for us all.
A few questions for the author:
What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?
I used to have a laundry list of things that I wished I had been doing, chief among them go into business for myself. I recently overcame the fear associated with taking a plunge and have made writing a full-time gig. Life is far too short to wonder about what you could have done. I am all about taking calculated chances.
Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?
Lots, I am sure. “Holding onto hate is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” There is something to the Buddhist tradition that I seek out when I am wallowing in irritation or frustration. There are some things so monumental that it is difficult to outpace them over the course of your life, but you have to try.
If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?
I would love to live in Japan or possibly Sweden. The idea of living in a place so different from my own is a fascinating idea. I grew up moving all around the US, and thus I have a healthy respect for what a change of scenery can do for perception.
Here be an excerpt for your enjoyment:
II
The Keeper of the Fates
The one called A’thed, the Keeper of the Fates, was not a man, nor was he a beast. He was neither life nor death, but instead a being born of nothingness to encompass everything.
His task was none at all.
The Keeper watched the Lonely pass through the gates, through the portal of inevitability to which all mortals walked forever. It was the beginning to an end and an end to a beginning. An infinite sphere that continued inward, bringing about and then dismissing creation.
It was the forgotten cycle of life.
A’thed looked out upon creation and nothingness, the oceans of the coasts and the mountains of the north collapsing upon one another and called out: “Who among you can walk down the path of nothingness to return to everything?”
Silence was his answer, though he knew that many things came from nothingness and that none would come from everything. Thus was the eternal law that there was truly no discernible law.
The Keeper stood at the edge of his pillar and watched below. The space appeared miniscule; yet upon closer scrutiny was enormous, running for infinite space in each direction. The crossroads of everything coincided with what had not yet come to pass. This is what drew them to their beginning and to their end. Questions are what drove them.
Was it the beginning?
Was it the end?
These were the things that drove a being to continue, to search for a place. The Keeper knew the answers as well as the fallacies. He knew that an explanation was more than any one man could begin to comprehend. Yet with the passing of each unexplainable moment, he knew that it needed to be told. It would be a restoration of the dead and the death of those living.
Bio: A psychologist, author, editor, philosopher, martial artist, and skeptic, he has published several novels and currently has many in print, including: The End of the World Playlist, Bitten, The Journey, The Ocean and the Hourglass, The Path of the Fallen, The Portent, and Cerulean Dreams. Follow him on Twitter (@AuthorDanOBrien) or visit his blog http://thedanobrienproject.blogspot.com. He recently started a consultation business. You can find more information about it here: http://www.amalgamconsulting.com/.
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Why there?