While selecting from among big-list-best-sellers for the VFA bookstore, I grappled with the question: What books are appropriate to the visionary fiction category? In order to resolve my query and narrow my choices, I relied on the expertise of three people familiar with the genre: John Alegeo, lecturer and writer in the Theosophical world; Hal…
The copious comments and suggestions that greeted my post, “Visionary Fiction for Readers” of December 2, 2018, shows that the suggested sea change of emphasis from authors to readers on the our website is both necessary and welcome at this point in our genre’s evolution. I apologize that I did not follow up with the…
Editor’s note: We are re-posting an article originally published in 2014, one worth repeating in that it encourages visionary fiction readers and writers to take heart. Good works of visionary fiction can—and do—become word-of-mouth hits. ***************** What if I were to tell you that one of the best selling books in history is visionary fiction? Say what? Yep, The…
Editor’s Note: We are posting this repeat of one of our readers’ most commented upon articles, with some new additions. We invite you to share your thoughts and continue the discussion! ************* Have you ever thought about the power of place, of setting, in writing your Visionary Fiction novel? In The Writer’s Chronicle, (Vol. 51,…
From the first posts on VisionaryFictionAlliance.com in August 2012 until the present, emphasis has been on defining Visionary Fiction and exploring the art and craft of writing it. In the beginning, we were not sure what content rightly belonged in the genre and what writers were actually or potentially producing genuine Visionary Fiction.
Part Three of The Mater’s Series An Alternate View of What Comes Next Gary’s eyes were large, way too large. As he awakened from surgery they appeared to be swollen, waterlogged marbles about to burst open. Around the two of us the recovery room was sparse and barren. Standing beside the gurney, I waited for…
In Part One of this blog, I covered World Building, the use of a Sacred Force, Time, and Location. Part Two begins with Settings. SETTINGS Interiors can help establish the mood of your novel and support the emotional landscape of your characters. My novel Time Blade follows the main character, Sky Hunter, through several incarnations. In…
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…
Writers should attend a writing conference at least once in their writing career. The networking, experience, and information presented enhance our craft, and these riches transfer into our written words. I had the pleasure of recently attending the Willamette Writer’s conference in Portland, Oregon. Attending was a last-minute opportunity and I grabbed it, even though…
Part Two of The Mater’s Series Love, Loss and Resurrection Mahogany-brown eyes gazed back at me from across the table. Aaron’s eyes. Sipping rosé I absorbed his soul, drawing it unto my own, hoping somehow to keep it there forever. Shades of love wavered in from the past, shades I had known as experience transformed…
Part One of The Mater’s Series Peering into Tenacity, Strength and Wisdom Do you miss them…the old women in your family, your friends or neighbors, the ones who withstood all life thrust at them and emerged stronger for it? Maybe by the time you realized how much you longed to know their secrets, how they…
By Mary Mackey. Revisited guest post from 10/10/16. Your unconscious is packed with ideas, metaphors, visions, plots, dreams, colors, characters, emotions—in short, everything you need to write a great visionary novel. But how do you get to it? How do you step out of the social agreement we call “reality,” and dip into this incredibly…
Nothing inspires me more than the idea that the impossible can be made possible…that stories have the power to transform the final arbiter of reality—the human mind. What could be a more “visionary” undertaking than to embark on a writing journey whose mission is to change the very nature of reality by influencing human perception?…
“I am the little sister of Jesus,” the young Caucasian man said. Dressed in time-faded jeans, a tee shirt and Hush Puppies, he slouched on a couch in a cottage on the grounds of the Miramar Hotel. Overly thin with blondish-brown hair and wearing Superman glasses, he epitomized the look of a writing nerd. It…
[In Part One of this post, we discussed the similarities and differences between theosophy and theology, the two forms of theosophy (Blavatskyian with a capital-T and generic with a small-T), and that the spirituality prescribed by theosophy has the elements of universalism and perennialism in common with the definitions of Visionary Fiction.] Theosophy (Small-t) Proper…
Some months back, John Van de Kamp, a relative of one of our founding members, Margaret Duarte, asked her if she had ever heard of theosophy, suggesting rather grandly, “I believe this concept may be the basis of visionary fiction.” A group of us discussed the idea and concluded that the topic might make for…
WRITERS CONFERENCES… AND YOUR SOUL I saw a clip from a TED talk the other day that enumerated the top ten factors that enabled people to live to a hundred years old. Yes, there was a focus group of long-living folks and tons of data about them. The topmost factor? Connecting with other people on…
I would like to honor one of my favorite writers, Mr. Clive Staples Lewis, briefly showing how his intuitive genius made him a famous exemplar through works closely related to the “visionary fiction” genre. C.S. Lewis is the author of the well-known Chronicles of Narnia series, as well as a less known but most inspiring…
Vision is not mere fantasy devoid of pragmatic realism but an expression of our core values linked to universal experiences. For a nation that used to pride itself on a universal concept of E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one), we have politically divided and compartmentalized ourselves in the “Pluribus,” but have precious little “Unum”…
Black Elk, a Native American visionary and Lakota Sioux medicine man chronicled by John Neihardt in Black Elk Speaks, believed a coherent vision to be central to a people’s well-being. Black Elk’s prophetic message was clear—“Without vision, the people perish.” A vision encompasses not only the values and goals a people strive to honor but…
This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in the Land of Israel: The Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the twelve tribes of Israel. Perhaps even harder to swallow is that the united…
Editor’s Note: Karen Rider’s insightful article was originally published in January, 2013 on our VFA blog site. We thought the discussion it catalyzed was worth having it reposted. We invite you to enjoy and comment! Setting the Literary Stage for Visionary & Metaphysical Fiction Rapid-fire change is ongoing in the publishing industry—and it’s not just…
I first started watching Once Upon a Time with my daughters this year. The visionary fantasy story was created for television by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It focuses on a young boy, Henry, who believes that his book of fairytales is based on real-life events. The setting is Storybrooke, Maine where Henry’s foster mother, Regina,…
Visionary Fiction gives us a stairway upon which we can climb and express what we know deep within. When we look at great works of art, it is as if they are reflections of higher worlds, higher dimensions. Artists paint upon a canvas, writers write upon a page, but at the top of the stairway we…
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that those of us writing Visionary Fiction have had some sort of vision, be it a lucid dream, an unexpectedly successful meditation, a trip brought on by a substance outside the normal diet, or even a near-death experience. It may have lasted several hours, possibly…
Applied Parapsychology: Synchronicity and Super Synchronicity To read or revisit Part One of this series, click HERE. For Part Two, Click HERE. Parapsychology in its various aspects is an enormous field of study and practice both for evolving humans trekking through the maze of physical/mental/spiritual existence and for visionary authors narrating that tortuous saga, aptly…
Undercover Agents of Consciousness To read or revisit Part One of this series, click HERE. Like researchers venturing beyond the known and allowed boundaries of sanctioned science, visionary authors often strike radioactive material that incites incredulity, hostility, and worse. For these, in the words of Carl Jung, “The experience that furnishes the material for artistic…