Author: Mark G. Cosman
Series: Stand Alone
Genre: Fiction/Adventure
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Release Date: Oct 2 2014
Edition/Formats Available In: eBook & Print
Blurb/Synopsis:
In their self-indulgent realm, the gods know no suffering
until the end of their days. Compassion is the only portal through which they
can escape the self and its eventual demise, but without suffering, compassion
cannot be recognized. So, they go in search of compassion in the human domain
where happiness and sorrow abound. There, they genetically engineer a superior
humanoid race and are soon distracted by the delight they find in the daughters
of men. The gods are the extraterrestrial visitors of our collective memory.
Tormented by envy, the Asuras are warlike demigods that
follow the gods into the human domain. They become the demons who initiate our
concept of evil.
Quay is the son of Om, the father of the gods. Quay’s childhood
adventures with Daya, his female humanoid companion, take place on the Isle of
the Gods, which closely parallels the legendary Atlantis. On coming of age,
Quay and Daya become inseparable lovers. Quay is challenged to separate passion
from compassion.
In the human domain, the gods were simply gardeners. When
the god Talmund left his garden across the Salt Sea and returned to the Island
of the Gods, he left his humanoid workers behind. Eventually, two civilizations
evolved from his workers, the sedentary Taltecs in the south and the nomadic
Tulacans in the north. The civilizations resemble the pre-Columbian cultures
described in the Book of Mormon.
Fearful that these autonomous humanoids were exceeding
limits the gods set for them, Om sends Quay across the Salt Sea to observe.
Before undertaking his mission, Quay interviews the first humanoid, Ahn, and
the god, Elo, to whom Ahn was given. The meeting occurs in Eden where Elo kept
an expansive garden. The interview is essentially a discussion with the Biblical
Adam, which sets the tone for the human condition and their relationship with
the gods.
Quay’s mission abruptly separates him from Daya. Ri, an
Asura driven by hatred of the gods and an erotic desire for Daya, pursues Quay.
Quay’s adventures among the Taltecs and Tulacans are interrupted when the two
civilizations collide in an epic conflict that spans a continent.
Meanwhile, a geologic cataclysm destroys the island of the
gods. Daya is rescued by an Asura ship, is assaulted and subsequently escapes
into the forests of the Eastern Isle that survived the deluge. There, she
becomes the legendary huntress of the forest, similar to Artemis, twin sister
of Apollo.
In the Land North, on a field of flowers, during the final
battle of the great war between the Taltecs and Tulacans, Ri finally comes upon
Quay and attacks, but he is shot through by an arrow from the bow of a nomad
who had befriended Quay. Quay assists Ri through his dying experience. By his
outreach to his mortal enemy, Quay discovers the compassion for which the gods
had entered the human domain.
Quay ventures back across the Salt Sea to find the Isle of
the Gods has vanished. He sails on to the Eastern Isle where he is reunited
with his kind. Scarred and embittered, Daya courageously defies the authority
of the gods. It is the darkest of nights when Quay watches from a distance as
Daya releases a virus from an urn that the gods had prepared in secret to cull
the humans. Her act is reminiscent of the legendary Pandora. The freeing of the
virus results in Daya’s death and that of all humanoids on the Eastern Isle. In
effect, she impedes the grand experiment of the gods and alters human evolution
forever.
In his 977th year, Quay began to die. His dying experience
is detailed using the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a guide. Quay was the last of
the gods that walked among us.
Excerpt
“Everyone knows.” He whimpered remorsefully and embraced his
knees. “You see, it has all gone wrong. My consequences are like infectious
demons, blighting the generations that stem from me. There is no escaping them.
The fault is mine, eternally mine! My seed is bad.” He began rocking
rhythmically.
Ahn’s demons are concoctions of his mind, Quay thought. They
seem to appear to humanoids when life’s balance is distorted. Guilt is an
indicator.
It occurred to Quay that the humanoid mind acts much like a
judge. Once the cause of guilt is discovered, its harsh reasoning carries out
the sentence. Neither gods nor humanoids can help him. The humanoid mind is a
stern taskmaster. It will unlock Ahn from guilt’s yoke only when his imagined
demons are satisfied and life’s balance is restored.
Places to find: Decent of the Gods
Amazon
Where did you come up with the idea for your book?
I believe the seeds of my interest in writing “Descent of
the Gods” were cultivated when I was quite young, after reading “Chariot of the
Gods” by Erich von Daniken and Zecharia Sitchin’s “Wars of Gods and Men.”
Later, in my travels to Egypt, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, I found
great similarity between the antediluvian lore of those ancient places.
For example, the aerial combat between Seth and Horus of
ancient Egypt seemed to closely resemble the struggle of Arch Angel Michael in
casting Satin from the heavens. The
ancient wars of India revealed in the Mahabarata and the Puranas, told of an
age of similar battles between gods, possessing advanced weaponry. Relatively
more recent, the interaction of the pantheon of the Greek gods with human
beings contributed greatly to the mysterious sense of competing clans of
ancient visitors, more advanced than the humans that worshipped them.
I became extremely interested in why these visitors, we knew
as gods, came here and how did they interact with native human beings. What
biological contributions did they bequeath to their worshippers? The questions
kept biting until I wrote about them.
How did you come up with your characters?
I chose the god, Quay, as a character to impart the
spiritual influences that seemed to have originated with these ancient alien
visitors. Their wisdom was handed down through human generations, influencing the
Vedas of ancient India, as well as early Egyptian, Greek and Judaic/Christian
cultures.
I also chose, Daya, a unique human female as a most complex
companion of the god Quay. In Pandora-like fashion, it is Daya who unexpectedly
thwarts the grand experiment of the gods and changes human evolution forever.
Who did you show your first draft to and why?
I showed my first draft to my “x” wife, Susan. Endowed with
sound judgment and an avid reader of good books, Susan is a dedicated partner
to my writing success. With the murder of our daughter some years ago, we have
been through a great deal together. There is no one whose judgment I trust
more.
Do you have plans to do a follow up?
My newest book, “The Kids from the River,” a Solstice
Publishing title, is a follow-up to “Descent of the Gods,” philosophically. It
is a dystopian work taking place in the not too distant future.
Open your book to a random page and tell us the first paragraph…
“Father recounted our legends to me when I was very young,
so his words are a distant memory, but I remember the essence of what he
imparted. He said we were drawn from the purity of our Source by the
distraction of a separate self. Father called our separate self the ‘phantom’ because
it is a concoction of mind and does not really exist.”
What do you like to read? Do you only read the
genre you write in?
I read every day from the Bhagavad Gita. Additionally, I
enjoy reading about ancient Egypt. “Egypt Light of the World” is an excellent
text. I also like to read about current events, given that my career included
interaction with world leaders.
Where do you go to escape?
Because I have traveled so much in my career, my favorite
escape is down the hallway to my office where the characters of my next book are
waiting for me.
Do you have a
favorite chapter in Polished?
I do not understand how “Polished” is used here
.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Know thy self. You’ll find everything there.
Would you recommend
self-publishing or main stream publishing for first time novelists?
You can self-publish to begin your career and suffer the
embarrassment of putting yourself before the criticism of seasoned readers as
did I. Eventually, being published equates with recognition that amateurish
writing is at last behind you and you can move forward with new, well-founded
dreams and aspirations. However, I also believe and author can derive more
income from a successful self-published book rather than having the majority of
profits go to a publisher.
Some writers are good from the start. I wasn’t. My love of
the subject matter is what brought me through, dragging my inabilities behind
me until they caught up with my vision and became refined.
Mark Cosman’s writing began when his daughter, Berlyn, was murdered
at her high school prom party. It was when Mark left the rubble of his beliefs and
assumptions to go in search of the most profound questions we ask ourselves.
His first book, “A Flower in the Snow,” and his latest work, “Descent of the
Gods,” is the result of that odyssey.
Where to find: Mark G. Cosman
No comments:
Post a Comment