Echoes from a Time Passage began life as a long short story then morphed into a book. As for many writers, the plot and events unfolded in front of me, so I just followed. The narrative begins on the plane of Eszkiasia, and is told by Markas Xanders, the son of an Inter-plane diplomat. But Markas does things differently, for in spite of coming from an aristocratic family with a background in the combat arts, his leaning is towards the performing arts and one which is totally foreign to the plane he lives on. As the narrative unfolds we learn that through the inter-plane communications machines, he, as a child, spots dancers on Earth - children - and one girl in particular. He watches the girl grow from a talented child to a virtuoso dancer, all of this seemingly at odds with his family values, culture and his training as a theologian.
Then things change abruptly as narrative covers his foray to Earth in search of his father and sister who have both disappeared, and his meeting with the now adult dancer. Events unfold taking him back to his home-plane, a pandemic which has dire consequences, Markas' reunion with his father and the events which eventually lead him back home again.
The basic premises of the story are of the arts being a conduit for right action and leading to spiritual and esoteric understanding and how Markas' art takes him from a dancer to the spiritual leader of his people.
Throughout, it was necessary to make sketches of the people in order to actualise them in my mind - these watercolour sketches are not included in the book, but served as a visual guidelines. Not an easy task - it is one thing to imagine what these almost Egyptian mythological people resemble and quite another to actually draw and paint them. Life studies of humans helped!
No comments:
Post a Comment