Today's guest on the blog is Laura K Cowan
Over to Laura -
Mermaids
and God:
Making
The Invisible Visible Through Imaginative Fiction
By
Laura K. Cowan
I
once was researching a novel and discovered that many modern physicists believe
that the entire basis of matter is vibrating energy at different frequencies,
as though different kinds of matter are notes on a scale. Take off one
electron, you change the energy level and you also change what kind of molecule
you’re looking at. I know, my head exploded too. Because beyond being
completely awesome, this idea (from string theory) also has great implications
for fiction and for the layers of reality itself. Here’s how I came to
understand the possibilities, not only of imaginative fiction, but of the life
it reflects.
The
idea above got me thinking. We now know that even thoughts in our minds have an
energy signature, a certain frequency, mappable in the brain. So if you
imagined a mermaid, the energy signature of a mythic creature would actually
exist in your mind, because your thoughts are real things with a real energy to
them. So in that way, don’t mermaids exist, if only in the plane of existence
of the imagination? Isn’t anything possible on some level, even if it’s the
level of the mind? I began to write stories about the lives of imagined beings,
some of whom were aware they were dreamed into existence. Uh oh. Doesn’t that
resonate with the mythic truths coded into the Bible about the origins of life?
God spoke and the universe came into existence? Whether we believe in God or
not, we all know on some level that however this crazy mixed up life began, in
mythic terms we were all dreamed up by someone, or something, or dreamed
ourselves into existence somehow. Weird, right? But however we define it, it’s
true. We were created somehow, and we are ourselves creators. Mermaids living
inside our own imaginations speaks to the origin of life.
Great
stories can come from any genre, but the very best ones bring something more
than an entertaining read. We all know that the very best stories leave us humming.
Something resonated with us, with the truths of our lives. Whether they inspire
or disturb us, the best stories bring us truth. In fantasy fiction, the genre I
call home, we do this by making the invisible things in life—the imagination,
the spiritual truths of life, the possibilities of the world—come alive in a
literal way. We make the invisible visible for the reader so they can
experience the world in a new and wonderful way. How can fiction get any more
wonderful than that imaginative creative work, in any genre? Dreaming up new
life?
—
Laura K. Cowan
writes imaginative stories that explore the connections between the spiritual
and natural worlds. Her work has been compared to that of acclaimed fantasy and
sci-fi authors Ursula K. Le Guin and Ray Bradbury, but her stark and lovely
stories retain a distinctly spiritual flavor. Laura’s debut novel The Little Seer was a top 5 Kindle Bestseller
for free titles in Christian Suspense and Occult/Supernatural, and was hailed
by reviewers and readers as “riveting,” “moving and lyrical.” Her second novel,
a redemptive ghost story titled Music of Sacred Lakes, and her first short
story collection, The Thin Places: Supernatural Tales of the Unseen,
received rave reviews, and Music of Sacred Lakes also topped the Kindle free
bestseller lists during its launch, including #42 on all of Kindle, and #2 in
Genre Fiction overall, remaining on the top 100 Kindle bestseller lists for
Metaphysical Fiction and Metaphysical Fantasy after launch. Laura’s short
stories also appear in a number of anthologies, including the charity anthology
Shades of Fear (#5 on the Kindle free
bestseller lists for anthologies during its promotion), and the upcoming
historical horror anthology Sins of the Past, the rather ridiculous
soon-to-come PANTS! anthology, and the completely absurd upcoming Faery Tale
Therapy.
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