An Era in Anddemar is an epic science fantasy in which godlike Guardian Powers watch over nature, love, the entire galactic community, and the mysterious realm of the Dreaming. What was the inspiration for the story?

As happened with Tolkien, the ’tale grew in the telling’ and as such, was a journey of discovery rather than invention. I had to get myself out of the way, so to speak, to receive what was welling up from the depths of the World Soul in the form of a new myth for our time. I became a kind of mediator, or holding vessel for an overwhelmingly powerful creative drive to help birth this myth. What initially triggered the vision of Anddemar was a powerful dream I had decades ago, which featured a Goddess at the heart of a galaxy, where she was protecting and guiding children across a plain of broken glass. From thereon, visions, imagination and inspiration took over as an entire galactic community – and the unique threat they faced – came into clearer focus. It was as if I was eavesdropping and sightseeing, then recording what I saw, felt, tasted, smelled, overheard and touched. My other main source of inspiration was my deep love for the works of classic mythopoeic authors, including E. R. Eddison, Lord Dunsany, Mervyn Peake, C. S. Lewis, David Lindsay, J. R. R. Tolkien and Charles Williams; hence there are homages to all of these in the book.

What makes Sir Jaide the right character to guide readers through such a vast galaxy?

As ’the foremost of Anddemar’s knights’, Sir Jaide is passionate, noble, intense, brave, brooding, impulsive, empathic and kind. As such, he perfectly embodies everything that the bland Grey enemy of Anddemar is not. He represents both Anddemar’s active resistance to the invading Greyness, as well as the creative fire, decency, chivalry, and deep love of beauty, communal solidarity, poetry, and Nature that permeate Anddemar as an interwoven network and advanced cosmic consciousness. He’s also one of the few able to journey into the Dreaming – the deepest realm of Anddemar – and the Ring, which he alone wields, is able to take him instantly anywhere in the galaxy. That makes him the ideal guide, not only to and throughout other worlds, but also into the inner sanctuary of the soul, since he’s also prone to deep reflection in his endless quest for insight and deeper understanding. Above all, it’s Sir Jaide’s passionate love for Anddemar – as a living web of stars and beings – that deeply enfolds him in the galaxy’s beating heart.

How did you balance science fiction, fantasy, mythology, and spirituality without letting one overwhelm the others?

It just naturally panned out that way. As a new mythology, the creative journey leaned toward a merging of vision, science, soul, Nature, and art into a seamless whole that reflected an advanced, holistic consciousness and intricate tapestry of relationships. Myths always unify through the alchemy of imagination, because they arise from the uttermost depths of soul, or what Jung called the ‘collective unconscious’, as a timeless union of spirit and substance, eternal and temporal, fire and ice, lunar subtlety and solar intensity.

What do you hope readers experience emotionally while spending time in Anddemar?

I hope they enjoy immersing themselves in the richly detailed worlds, the vast mythology, the unique human and non-human characters, their relationships and solidarity, their struggles, challenges, journeys, battles and triumphs. I hope they feel a breathless sense of wonder as they explore a galaxy pulsing with music, passion, love and mystery. I hope they awaken to an understanding that evil, in contrast, is something banal, ugly, monotonous, empty, and an enemy of the ‘Great Dance’ of life. I hope they rediscover their own love of beauty, poetry, Nature, community, and their capacity to contribute to all that is authentic, decent, truthful, and life-enhancing. I hope they enjoy an experience of the artistry and beauty of language – of how language can become music of the soul – and a celebration of the rhythmic pulse of life embraced as a grand symphony and vehicle of transcendent Mystery.

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A lifeless Greyness is threatening the living spiral galaxy Anddemar, unsettling Nature, dimming stars, fuelling tyranny, unleashing destruction, and disrupting the Great Dance of the Heavens. In response, a colourful alliance – including an exiled Shapemage, wormholes that channel music and poetry, shamans, the Grail, and a marooned band of Earth scientists – helps to repel this enemy of Anddemar’s enduring marriage of dark and light. And weaving through it all is the exquisite love between the foremost of Anddemar’s knights and the Vidar Quain of the Dreaming. An Era in Anddemar is a groundbreaking, vast mythology for lovers of breathless Romance, epic high stakes, compelling characters, richly detailed worlds, unexpected twists, and the poetic artistry of language.