However, that is not true; regrettably, even writers are constrained, to a greater or lesser extent, by the unspeakably tedious and mundane world of reality on planet Earth, no matter how much we would prefer not to be. 2016 and 2017 have been exceptionally difficult for me, with the mundane world wreaking merry havoc on my creativity and peace of mind, and that is why, at the end of October 2017, I am still struggling to publish the two books that I want to publish this year.
One can only keep slogging onwards, and hope that the door really does hit 2017 on the way out. The year is not yet over; there is still time to defeat its monsters.
In the meantime, please enjoy a second extract from the manuscript of The Enemy Soulmate. (You can read the first extract here.)
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There were
stories as to why soulmates and soulmarks existed. Some said that, in another
life, human beings had once been powerful creatures that threatened to
overwhelm and ruin the earth, so the rocks or the wind or the lightning
– the tales varied – had split or torn or burned each creature into
two, and in this life each half was born as a separate person, each one seeking
the other half of the creature they had previously been. And the soulmarks
resembled markings that the single creature had had; markings that reappeared
when each half recognised the other. Other stories said that humans had once
been stars, who drifted in space, lonely and aloof from each other until angels
cut them in half and sent them to earth in order to teach them how to love. Some
said that souls were created before bodies were, and before birth each soul
split itself in two and each half was born in a separate person; so that no
matter how lonely a person felt, they could know that somewhere on the same
earth was the other part of them. And as for soulmarks, they were obviously the
soul’s way of ensuring that both halves found each other.
While Fedir
thought the stories were beautiful, he had always suspected that they were just
guesses: soulmates existed, but no one really knew why.
People
liked it, though. People loved knowing that somewhere out there in the world
was a person who was destined to be their perfect companion, who would love
them as no one else ever had or could. Who would complement them, and bring out
their best self. Although the stories talked about ‘halves’, in truth every
person was complete by theirself: like a piece of wooden furniture: perfectly
serviceable, and attractive, without a finish. But add a coat of oil, and rub
it thoroughly with wax, and suddenly every grain and vein of the wood could shine
out: its own natural patterning and colours now heightened and displayed. So it
was with soulmates: soulmates did not complete each other, but finished
each other. And if soulmates had to do without each other for half a century or
more before they finally met, then so be it: a soulmate was worth any amount of
waiting, and it was said that soulmates could only meet when they were both
ready for each other.
So Fedir
had been told.
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The Enemy Soulmate will (eventually!) be published at Smashwords.com, and from there will be distributed to various other online booksellers.
