My Notice – Jodine Turner
Visionary writers are incredibly important to the publishing landscape. And yet, the “visionary” label of this broad set of writers can confuse unfamiliar readers or put off publishers afraid to take risks.
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The Age of Aquarius – Jodine Turner
Visionary writers are incredibly important to the publishing landscape. And yet, the “visionary” label of this broad set of writers can confuse unfamiliar readers or put off publishers afraid to take risks.
Sliding Door Moments
In December 2020’s In Style magazine, writer, producer, and comedian Jordon Firstman said, life is “…all about finding the balance between letting change happen and pushing yourself to achieve major progress…” I agree, but how does one find the balance between taking charge and letting go, between pushing and allowing, between will and surrender? In…
In Wilderness Lies the Hope of the World – Jodine Turner
Visionary writers are incredibly important to the publishing landscape. And yet, the “visionary” label of this broad set of writers can confuse unfamiliar readers or put off publishers afraid to take risks.
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Visionary Fiction: Rediscovering Ancient Paths to Truth – Reprint – Hal Zina Bennett
Editor’s note (Margaret Duarte): There has been a recent buzz around the genre of Visionary Fiction, mainly due to the efforts of Visionary Fiction Alliance. However, a person new to the scene claims to have coined the term and has inserted restrictive content into the definition that goes against all Visionary Fiction Alliance stands for:…
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Nourish the Mind with Visionary Fiction
Visionary Fiction entertains, which is, after all, the main purpose of fiction as a literary form. But visionary fiction goes one step further; it nourishes the mind. Not all visionary fiction, though, nourishes the mind in the same way. Some novels in this category are profound and literary, others deceptively simple and straightforward. Visionary novels…
The Benefits of Being a Visionary Fiction Fan in Trying Times – Gerald R. Stanek
Remember when you freaked out because your Mom washed your lucky shirt just before the big game? You swore at her, maybe said you wished you had a different mother. Of course it wasn’t about the shirt at all, you were afraid of losing the game. Your mom knew that, and loved you anyway. Maybe…
Visionary Fiction and the Global Pandemic – Jodine Turner
I am self-isolating, staying at home with my husband and our cats. I am isolated at home but feeling a deep connection with every other person in our world going through the pandemic, having their own experience, their own struggles, their own fears, maybe even points of joy and love and rediscovery. We are in…
The Article That Started it All – Jodine Turner
I write Visionary Fiction. It’s my passion. I published an article defining it in Writers Journal, May 2009, hoping to promote the relatively unknown genre. In November, 2011, I posted a link to my article on the Goodreads page for the Visionary Fiction Group. From that Goodreads post emerged a small network of author colleagues…
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How – and why – was this book written?
Ever since beginning to write while still a teenager (rather too many decades ago), the process was always very much a partnership. The concepts, frameworks and key elements seemed to appear unannounced. Sometimes at very inconvenient moments! In recent years, this phenomenon has become even more marked, particularly with the latest book which has taken…
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VISIONARY ART, VISIONARY FICTION by Brendan Graham Dempsey
FINDING A GENRE FOR CREATIVE SPIRITUALITY In the productive solitude of your artistic woodshed, the only language needed is the silent understanding of your thoughts, the only public a very receptive audience of one. Here, the critics may be harsh—but at least they share your taste—and the imagination has no limits or prescriptions save what…
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Creating a Universe for a Visionary Novel – Part 1 – by Christina Greenaway
It is said that to sit at the feet of the master is to walk across heaven. Writing visionary fiction comes with its own wonder-filled process. (Because my own visionary works are most familiar to me, I will draw my examples from them.) Recently, an interviewer asked if I had a favorite character in my…
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Using Scene Description to Ground Your Visionary Story – by Linda S. Gribko
Scene descriptions of real, physical spaces within Visionary Fiction writing engages and enthralls readers.
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Our Visionary Responsibility – Gordon Keirle-Smith
We are living at a crucial moment in the advancement of humanity. Everything is in flux. Materialism and reliance upon ever more sophisticated technology has reached unprecedented extremes, while in parallel a new yearning for purpose and a path to attainment is swiftly gaining ground. Visual and literary visionary creators have a key role to…
The Hero’s Journey and its Connection to Visionary Fiction
HERO’S JOURNEY What is the Hero’s Journey, and why do so many visionary writers like George Lucas use it to craft their stories? To answer that question, we need to understand where the Hero’s Journey comes from. Joseph Campbell recognized that myths around the world follow a similar template. He referred to this as monomyth. The…
Dark Characters in Visionary Fiction Can Reveal the Light
By Eleni Papanou Visionary fiction’s theme is the evolution of human consciousness. But what does that mean? What is consciousness? Psychologist, William James, coined the phrase stream of consciousness . He identified consciousness as something that is shaped by experience and how the experience is processed in our minds. So it’s our life experience that…
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What Is Women’s Visionary Fiction? Part I – Guest Post By Mary Mackey
Women’s Visionary Fiction is not a new type of Visionary Fiction. It has been around for decades if not centuries. In fact, for all of recorded history (and thousands of years before writing existed) women have been associated with visions, mystical experiences, spiritual powers, magic, the ability to bring new life into the world, heal…
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The Visionary Fiction Revolution – And How Words Can Change the World Part 2 Guest post by Rory Mackay
(Read Part 1 of Rory Mackey’s The Visionary Fiction Revolution here)We tell stories for a reason Mythology, which is storytelling at its most essential level, was not purposeless. It played an important role in shaping and sustaining society and, according to Campbell, had four primary functions. The first was to open the eyes of the…
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The Visionary Fiction Revolution – And How Words Can Change the World, Part 1 – Guest post by Rory Mackay
It’s estimated that nearly 130 million books have been published in modern history. 28 million books are currently in print in English alone. When contemplating writing a book, I can’t help but reflect on these staggering statistics, as indeed I think all authors should. Does the world really need another book to add to those…
Reincarnation as an Element in Visionary Fiction: Part 3
There is sufficient evidence to hypothesize that reincarnation is real—whether one believes in it or not. In other words, once we enter the human zone between the material and spiritual universes, we don’t get to exit without a diploma. It’s either mastery of the human condition or repeat until you get it right.
Reincarnation as an Element in Visionary Fiction: Part 2
The stranglehold that Justinian’s Council of Constantinople placed on the concept of reincarnation and the Gnostic approach to truth through personal experience held fast for about a millennium. But there’s an odd thing about truth, especially those dealing with fundamental principles. It is resilient; it keeps coming back until it is recognized as valid. And so it happened with the doctrine of reincarnation.
Reincarnation as an Element in Visionary Fiction: Part 1
This 3-part series focuses on the role of reincarnation, one of the more complex of the paranormal phenomena encountered in the visionary environment. With it as an example, I hope to illustrate that the various psychic elements are actual features in the visionary realm we inhabit, just as stars, planets, mountains and oceans are part of our physical environment.
Spiritual Stagnation, a Temporary Layover
By Eleni Papanou One major facet of writing visionary fiction is that the author spiritually grows during the writing process. There are periods where I have to put my work aside, either when I’m in spiritual stagnation or not feeling worthy enough to write because of a personal challenge that I have yet to overcome. Only…
Visionary Fiction Part Three: Action Plan
Around the turn of the millennium, several of us authors-without-a-genre had a vision that we framed into words on the then-Yahoo Visionary Literature Forum.
Visionary Fiction Part Two: What Goes into the Bucket?
Let’s suppose, as projected in Part 1 of this series, “The Bucket,” that Visionary Fiction has become as prominent a genre label as Science Fiction or Mystery. Now let’s consider the ingredients writers must put into a work to have it qualify for the Visionary Fiction bucket and what experiences or benefits readers can expect in a work pulled out of that bucket.
Visionary Fiction Part One: The Bucket
By Victor E. Smith
“We tried mightily to get the retailing powers to start a visionary fiction shelf. We came close with Walden, but the suits at B&N, alas, took the position of ‘no one is coming into the store asking for visionary fiction’,” said editor Bob Friedman of the situation as he saw it at Hampton Roads Publishing some years ago.
Sex and Spirituality Find a Home in Visionary Fiction – by Peggy Payne
Where sex and spirituality meet is in the experience of dropping boundaries, of feeling expansion, dissolution, limitlessness. In both, we can have the experience of dissolving into a larger existence, joining a great ocean of being. Where sex-and-spirituality fits well is in the world of Visionary Fiction, which allows the reader to feel the experience…