Black Mountain Writer Pat Christy's Book, "The Education of Temple Fox," Explores Rebirth of Spirit
Everyone has a story to tell. Each
of us (sometimes secretly) believes our life history is unique, rich with
quirky detail, and huge with seas of emotion. And, universally, people want to
share their stories – even with strangers.
When
you’re a writer, you’re compelled to commit your story on paper. It’s a gift: a
wave of longing, a tsunami of passion, that rushes you onward from the
turbulent ocean of your imagination. The story may be told as allegory, disguised
in fantasy, but it pushes shoreward, building momentum, into a heap of
manuscript pages crawling with the blood and guts of your soul.
Ah,
that first draft. You feel relief, throw open your arms, curl your toes into
the sand, eyes on a miraculously clearing blue sky, and sigh: Behold, this is who I am.
This is the exhilarating spirit
reflected by writer Patricia S. Christy in The
Education of Temple Fox,
a spiritual fantasy and adventure story like no other.
Pat
Christy, who’s lived in Black Mountain for ten years, was born in Baltimore in
1953, child of a magician and a mercurial, beautiful mother, each
self-absorbed, complex, depressive, and having suicidal tendencies.
As a precocious, shy, and curious
child, Pat took refuge in deep thought. At age fifteen
she became a Neo-Platonist, believing in Truth, Beauty and Love, with a belief
in divinity residing in human form.
A restless and questioning soul, Pat felt guided by "Spirit" to move to many terrains across the country, where one could say she has lived several lives, both on terra firm and in metaphysical realms.
While living in Santa Fe, NM, she
learned to discern the charlatans from the genuine shamans of New Age thought.
In the “lush, green woodland of somnambulistic” Connecticut, Pat said she had an experience that "engulfed me in magnificent love
and peace that permeated every cell of my body.”
Pat survived three serious illnesses
and was told by “Spirit” to move yet again, this time to Wisconsin.
“It was there that I slowly gained
the power to heal myself, and where I fell in love,” she said.
In 2005 Pat and her partner were
told, again by “Spirit,” to resettle among the mountains of Western North
Carolina.
Has this writer drawn on her own
rich spiritual experiences to develop her memorable characters? Unquestionably,
yes!
The hero, Temple Fox – an
Anglo-American free-lance pilot in 1930s Kenya – emerges from Pat’s pen as his
wood-hulled plane crashes headlong into a lightning-torn sea, where he meets
his maker.
But
wait… The hero, struck dead in the first chapter?
No, of course not. Temple Fox is
fished up from the sea by a magical, primitive tribespeople, far from
civilization as he knew it. Brought back to life, Temple Fox is hailed by them
– well, by some of them – as a god and savior.
The story of Temple Fox is a universal one of rebirth, spiritual
awakening, mysticism, magic, belief, and disbelief. It is also a compelling,
beautifully crafted saga that enchants the reader page after page.
Copies of
The Education of Temple Fox are available through Amazon, at Town Hardware in Black
Mountain, and at Mountain Made in Asheville. Book Two of this trilogy is being
written now.
“It’s taken twenty years to bring
Temple Fox’s story to the public,” Pat said. “Now he can proudly proclaim, as I
can, ‘Behold, this is who I am.’”
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment