Shadows
of Atlantis: Awakening
by
Mara Powers
Genre:
Fantasy
"...had
me turning the pages obsessively from the very beginning."
Readers Favorite.
Enter
the legacy of the legend...
Brigitte
has been chosen to renew the treaty between Atlantis and the ancient
bloodline of Lemuria. As an emissary of nature, her betrothal would
ensure the continued function of the Crystal Grid, the life source of
the ten kingdoms of Atlantis. But as Brigitte prepares to leave from
her home in the magical Dreamvale, her people are attacked by a storm
of shadows. Now she is running for her life.
Upon
her arrival in the ruling city of Atlantis, she meets D’Vinid, a
dejected musician who lives the quintessential Atlantean lifestyle of
revelry, escapism and apathy. Under the eclipse of a sacred festival,
they are swept into an attraction they cannot resist. Their union may
protect humanity from its worst enemy - the shadows of Atlantis. But
there is one problem, this man is not her betrothed.
Brigitte
soon discovers that the corruption of the Grid could very well be the
Grid itself. Citizens have neglected to attend the rituals required
to charge the crystals with their psychic emanations. Some have
fallen prey to an epidemic called “the madness”, caused by
shadowy parasites that feed off human suffering. But as nature always
strives toward balance, the crystals have activated a genetic upgrade
among the people. The youth have begun to express supernatural
powers. Could it be that D’Vinid and Brigitte are meant to be
leaders among the awakened? And if so, why does it seem impossible
for them to be together?
A
mysterious tale of romance, seduction and betrayal that reaches just
enough into the modern mind to ask - will we learn the lessons of
Atlantis?
**Only
.99 cents!**
Mara
Powers is a rebel of the written word who has tackled the monumental
task of recreating Atlantis. When she was 16 in Fort Collins,
Colorado, she began visiting the library in search of things she
couldn't learn in school. Her goal was to re-define her religion. She
studied theology voraciously until she discovered the concept of
reincarnation though Hinduism. It was the answer to a lifelong
existential crisis that had plagued her for many sleepless nights.
The study of reincarnation led her to the channel Edgar Cayce. In his
many books, she found his past life readings of lifetimes spent in
Atlantis. This was the beginning of a lifelong quest to unravel the
secrets of this mystery. She has spent upwards of 30 years exploring
the labyrinth of ancient civilizations. Her decision to turn it all
into a high concept, visionary fantasy series stems from her study of
the esoteric depiction of Atlantis. With the other half of her
research rooted in the secular, it was the best way to illustrate
both aspects of this fascinating legend. Her work is the legacy of
the legend.
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GUEST POST
What inspired you to write this
story?
When I was 14, I had a dream that I
still remember. It was arctic blue, like the color on my book cover.
It sent me on a quest that has consumed me for years. It showed me a
terrible evil that fed off the fear of others, trapping them in a
perpetual cycle that made the evil grow more powerful as more fear
was fed to it. I was fascinated with the concept of evil. Not that I
wanted to embrace it, but I wanted to know why it existed, what made
it tick. I read everything I could get my hands on. The Satantic
Bible, the history of hell and the devil, demons, you name it, I
absorbed it.
Somewhere along the line I started
writing the story around the villain, which was an entity based on my
dream. The more I researched Atlantis, the more I realized it was a
culture that had reached a pinnacle but was brought down by its own
perfection. To me, that is the story of evil. Absolute power
corrupting absolutely. But it went deeper. In a collective of beings
living symbiotically with one another and with the intelligence of
nature, a degree of unity consciousness was necessary. The moment
stratification happened was the birth of evil.
When someone broke free of the
collective to find their own way, there became a sense of needing to
have more than others, or be better than others. In order to do that,
they had to see themselves as separate entities. It was the basic
premise of the Satanic Bible, that free-will was their highest law.
So the concept of free-will vs. fate was the theme I set out to
explore. My male hero D’Vinid is a believer in free-will. He makes
his own destiny. But my heroine, Brigitte follows fate. My concept of
fate goes deeper. There’s a responsibility for one’s actions that
every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and these reactions
lay out a path that can be navigated with faith in one’s destiny.
Once I laid out the basic theme of my
story, it was all an exploration from there. I had set out to create
many layers of philosophical threads that explored these concepts. In
a way it’s been a reflection of my own life journey. At first I
lacked the depth necessary to set out what I wanted to accomplish.
But over the years, as I evolved through my own ups and downs, I
developed my own set of beliefs that had the depth I needed to tell
this story.
What can we expect from you in the
future?
What I have created is a richly
populated world meant to be a pre-diluvian history of humans on
Earth. I have researched not only Atlantis, but the other megalithic
ruins that span the globe. It’s evident that humans had advanced
building skills back before the dawn of our own history. We are from
as legacy that we have barely begun to understand. So just for fun, I
added a global network of civilizations that were all in contact with
one another complete with trade, diplomacy, political alliances, and
war. I have created an encyclopedia of sorts, and have been
considering turning it into a Role Playing Game. I grew up playing
RPG’s and Dungeons and Dragons being my favorite. That’s
something I have on the horizon.
I am currently working on a final
revision of book 2, Shadows of Atlantis: Symbiosis. While the first
book has built some high stakes, and introduced my villains, the
Shadows, book two crosses into the realm of being a thriller. I have
even terrified myself with some of the scenes I’ve written.
Normally I don’t like horror, but when it’s coming from me, I
know I’ve just made it all up. Or have I?
I have been living in Los Angeles off
and on for many years, and have more recently taken up the art of
screenwriting. Though I maintain Atlantis as my main work, I have
been writing other features, and doing what it takes to network in
the Hollywood world. I have also been developing two different
concepts for Atlantis as a TV series. We shall see how it turns out.
But I am confident it is going well. Meanwhile, I am also creating a
few other offshoots which I intend to start releasing in smaller
serials this year, perhaps on Wattpad.
Do you have any “side stories”
about the characters?
The serials I’ve been planning are
supposed to be side stories. In my books I have intentionally left
some holes in the narrative, especially when it comes to some of the
side characters. I did that so that perhaps the stories can be told
in a TV series, or in this case, the serials. It’s a fun kind of
swiss cheese methodology in storytelling and helps me break out of
the monotony of the linear storyline.
There are a few extra stories I have
planned. One is called Storm Riders. It’s geared toward more of a
mid-grade audience. It has some kids who have powers in Atlantis, and
that’s about all I can say about that. Let’s just say, they come
into play also in book three, so the storylines will intersect. While
Shadows of Atlantis is mainly an adult series, I think kids are more
advanced these days, and the internet exposes them to the cruelties
of the world. So some of the adult concepts I have in there may not
even phase teenagers. It’s more about reading level, as I like to
use fancy vocab and lingo.
The other offshoot I have planned is
the story of Prince Bavendrick, who is mostly a side character in the
books. But he is also a lynch pin in the story. Citizens in the
capitol want him to be king. Rising tensions threaten to dethrone his
brother, who has come under the influence of the shadows. Or has he?
That’s all part of the riddle.
Can you tell us a little bit about
the characters in Shadows of Atlantis?
My main characters are D’Vinid and
Brigitte. Though I use a third person omniscient POV, I jump around
to many different characters, but these are the main two. I have a
deep love affair going between them that has been in place for ages.
In fact, they are the embodiments of two Watchers (gods) who
sometimes take human form. But in so doing, they come under the
influence of what I call the amnesia of incarnation.
D’Vinid, being a worshipper of
free-will, would never accept that he has some sort of pre-ordained
plan. Ultimately, he is not as much of an incarnation as he is a
chosen avatar of the trickster god. So he wrestles between his divine
nature, and his human experience. I hate to say it, but I have not
been very kind to my characters. They go through a lot, especially in
book 2.
At the beginning of book 1, D’Vinid
has turned over a new lease on life. Like all Atlanteans, he has been
lazy and self-indulgent. He wants to make up for the sins of his
past, and yet, the more he looks back, the more his past reaches out
for revenge. He slowly realizes how much damage he has caused by his
apathy. Ultimately, he’s no good at being a hero, so his choices
reflect that. In fact, it becomes the butt of a lot of the humor I
find while writing it. D’Vinid is a beginner at making unselfish
choices, so often times his choices end up causing more harm than
good, even though he means well.
Brigitte has a bit of a secret. She is
part of a race of humans who have evolved to live in the Dreamvale,
which is the valley between the physical realm and the higher
dimensions. Somewhat like the land between sleep and awake where we
all go to lucid dream. She is an emissary of nature, who has grown up
knowing she must go to Atlantis to renew the treaty between Atlantis
and the Telluric Realm. Atlantean technology is operated by the
elementals who live in the Telluric Realm. Whereas in modern times,
we have somewhat of a separation from nature in our expression of
technology, in Atlantis, everything they do is hardwired to the
spirit of nature. In this generation, it is time for them bring their
attention back to their alliance with nature, and in the time that
has passed, they have strayed further from it than ever before.
Brigitte and her brother Lukias come
from their homeland, but first they have to escape, as a terrible
storm approaches that has been causing the demise of the emissaries.
They were supposed to be royal dignitaries, but instead they are
running for their lives. They enter the city secretly, trying to
investigate why they are being hunted. By chance, they keep running
into D’Vinid, who is trying to emerge from the fog of his
narcissism. The familiarity that runs between him and Brigitte is
uncanny, and it becomes the thread that binds them together.
It’s meant to be a secret who
Brigitte is until the clues unfold, so I will say no more. But her
main weakness is her own fear. She has been raised to know she is an
incarnated god, but she has been in resistance to it. She likes being
human. So, it takes her a while to step into the role. In fact, she
doesn’t do so until book 2. Instead she learns how vulnerable
humans can be if they allow themselves to be washed under their
emotional currents. She becomes trapped in denial and addiction, the
mainstays of Atlantean lifestyle, which makes her susceptible to the
“madness,” an epidemic that could very well be the cause of the
storm that destroyed her people.
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Wow! What a beautiful blog! I will run an ad for this post. Thank you for sharing my Q&A questions.
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