\nä'•vəl\: (adj) | 1: new and not resembling something formerly known or used 2: original or striking especially in conception or style |
Synopsis:Eve Pratchet is about to fall apart. A failing psychologist with one too many overdue rent payments and plagued by the most horrible nightmares she can tolerate, she is desperate to find anything that will save her from the lonely downward spiral of her existence. She is so desperate, in fact, that she volunteers to be a guinea pig in a dubious psychological experiment, one that promises her the ability to communicate with her father, a once great man who has been in a coma for twenty years. Little does she know, however, that one of her most deranged former patients is at her heels, leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake, and that the terrifying dreamworld she has been visiting in her sleep may be far more real than she could have ever imagined. ~ |
History:Thesea is my attempt to explain my complicated feelings on the subject of psychology. My own personal experiences with it--when I was briefly convinced that it was the field in which I was going to start a career and when I found myself close friends with a few too many case studies--left me bruised and battered in a way I thought few could ever appreciate. So I initially wrote the novel to be a deeply personal therapeutic jaunt into my own psyche, and I wound up creating a story that challenged all of my beliefs about psychology and the human need to communicate with others.While I was attempting to explore my own feelings, the story of Thesea bears little to no resemblance to my own, and my father, who is neither a famous psychotherapist nor in a coma, can attest to that. In actuality, I based much of the story on a very real psychological phenomenon that is briefly addressed very late in the novel. That phenomenon, which I have to resist discussing here, is one that shines a light on psychology's dark side, a side few true believers will acknowledge. So it is little surprise that Thesea is, first and foremost, a horror story, and one whose main threats are not a gruesome death or a homocidal maniac (although those threats do present themselves). The real stakes, the ones we all put on the line when we try to understand ourselves, are sanity, well-being, and happiness, and those are what poor Eve Pratchet risks losing forever. News:Thesea has won an award! It garnered second place in the mixed genre of "Action/Adventure/Horror" in the 2007 Maryland Writers Association novel competition. Thanks to all of my readers for their support, but most of all for reading, and many more thanks go to the Maryland Writers Association, a wonderful group of writers who have taught me more than they will ever realize.This brings me one step closer to publication, so do me one last favor and keep those fingers crossed! |