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Writing It Was A Healing Experience
The Tempest in Glass follows a grieving man who’s propelled on a supernatural quest to reset the constancy of the spiritual realm. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
“I’d say without a doubt, it was my disillusionment with prayer that affected me emotionally and spiritually. There were life-altering events in my life, following some of my prayers, that ended up very badly. I think what put me over the edge as when a co-worker spoke on the radio one day, while I was driving, and she was balling her eyes out. Her husband had been a police officer, and he had been killed in the line of duty. This woman—my co-worker—through her tears over the radio, said that she had prayed every single day for her husband’s safety. And now he was dead. It angered me and it confused me. I stopped trusting God. So—years later—the creative side of my brain led me to deal with this pain and confusion through the telling of a story. The story is an entertaining metaphor for my own voyage to understand prayer, the purposes of God, the meaning behind some of life’s most confounding circumstances. Writing it was a healing experience.”
Marvin and Amina are intriguing and well-developed characters. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
“I rely on classic psychology in terms of character development. Hippocrates—not Myers-Briggs. In terms of audience and limitations, there were three parameters I set for myself before I even started outlining Tempest. One: there would be no guns. Two: there would be no F-bombs. Three: there would be no obligatory sex scenes. I see all three of those things as clichés and crutches that squelch creativity (at least, in the cross-genre approach I took). So those inclusions were off the table from the get-go. Denying myself those elements forced creativity.”
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Themes of the common human experience of dealing with loss, and the seemingly unanswered prayers that frustrate many of us. Does everything happen for a reason? Is there a grand plan? Or is everything just random? Does God hear us, does God care, or is God detached from the creation?
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
“I am working on several ideas for my next novel, but it is too early to make an announcement”.
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Ever since intelligence officer Marvin Fischer’s plea to spare his wife’s life was ignored by God, he fills the void with luxury living and no longer believes in the power of prayer. But when single-mother Rubi Valdez insists he pray for her safety, Marvin complies, resulting in a shocking accident. Haunted by guilt, Marvin is determined to understand why his prayers are met with disaster, and desperately seeks a way to reunite Rubi with her young son, Antonio.
World-renowned medium Amina Karimova senses perilous turbulence on the other side, and fears the spiritual world is caught in an unprecedented assault by some unknown power.
Led to Amina through a mysterious message, Marvin and Antonio embark with her on a dangerous quest through ancient ruins and mystical realms, where legendary spirits reveal unspeakable secrets altering the course of eternity. Tasked with the mission to reset the constancy of the spiritual realm, Marvin must let go of logic to revive his faith, or Rubi Valdez and millions like her will be lost forever.
The Tempest in Glass
The Tempest In Glass by Dirk Eichhorst begins rather prosaically, Marvin is drinking his morning coffee and taking in his surroundings outside of a coffeehouse before he tackles the day. He then receives a text from an unknown person; which propels the story in unexpected and ethereal directions. Mystified by this text and who it came from, a woman named Ruby asks Marvin to pray for her. Confused, Marvin prays for her but what he does not expect is for her to get into a traffic accident and die. This startling sequence of events sends Marvin on a riveting supernatural quest for answers.
The author has written a creative and unpredictable story. The book explores a variety of topics from various types of religion, to death, the supernatural and loss. Marvin’s character is one that I disliked at first, because of his seemingly shallow nature, but I grew fond of his character by the end because of the interesting evolution he goes through as a character in this story. He seemed sad, lost, and materialistic in the beginning of this novel, but after his journey, readers can see that he is caring, kind, and has a new outlook on faith.
Amina’s character is one that I was immediately fond of. Her knowledge of almost every religion and her profound mediumship is deeply intriguing. Amina is intelligent, a natural beauty, and her character brought much needed depth to this surreal paranormal story. When she described things, she makes readers feel like they are in the story.
Eichhorst does a fantastic job of showing the reader rather than telling them what is happening. The author does this well with Marvin’s wife who had passed away years ago and Marvin is still grieving from his loss.
While I enjoyed the book, I felt like there is a lot of time spent describing people, places and scenarios. The ideas and scenes are fantastic and I think the story would benefit from being a bit more succinct. But if you are a reader who enjoys being immersed in a fully realized world, then author Dirk Eichhorst has a richly imagined world for you to inhabit. Besides that, there are many thought-provoking connections to religion, much of which I believe makes this book much more enticing and intellectually deeper for me.
The Tempest in Glass is a rare work of supernatural fiction that will entertain readers looking for a thoughtfully constructed story with a provocative character on a compelling journey that will consistently surprise you.
Pages: 478 | ISBN: 9780578351230
LITERARY TITAN 