About

When I first started writing Essence of the Soul in early 2007, where at the time it had the working-title “The Mysterious Piano”, it was  self-experiment to see if I could do purely creative writing, with the target being a novel. Up till then, most of my writing had been logical, analytical, and journalistic in nature; it can be found @ http://th3g1vr.wordpress.com, if you are so inclined to browse through it.

A friend of mine, Verben Lee, challenged me to explore my creative potential rather than understate it (as I had been doing), and that is what ultimately inspired me to start this experiment; Verben, without your encouragement, Essence of the Soul may have never been written.

That is really saying something, since now that it is merely one book in a Trilogy (W.U.C. Trilogy), and that trilogy is likely only the beginning of a very expansive series. Essence of the Soul alone is likely to be over 500 pages, so I’ll probably have to do some serious post-draft editing, which hopefully my sister Bethany Ann will assist with.

The beginning of the first chapter (and thus of the initial idea for the book) was inspired by the opening sequence for the anime “Ayashi no Ceres” (Ceres Celestial Legend), where the piano keys are pressed down by invisible hands, in synchronization with the opening theme music; however, I would like to make it clear that my story has nothing to do with pianos- that was merely a starting point.

The initial beginnings of the story are thus unintuitive (they came from the mind, rather than the heart), and once I get deep into the storyline, that part will be redone.

Since the second half (which I have now split into separate chapter, known as “Chapter 3″) is largely intuitive, I’m considering removing the first chapter from a published state, and leaving the abruptness of the 3rd chapter to the audience’s imagination. However, because of the connections of the woman contained in the piano with Airielu, that would require some reworking of the first and third chapters.

This book is a fantasy / psychological thriller novel that begins with a spiritual journey to find the Essence of the Soul, delving into the most haunting mysteries of life, such as the identity, and the nature of reality, truth, and most importantly, what is means to really know, trust, or love anyone, and if that is even possible.

So “in essence”, this novel is an existentialist journey, one that starts with finding oneself, and escalates to trying t reach a true understanding of those we care about most.

When I first started writing this novel, it was my own book, a work of fiction that originated from my own ideas, my literal “intellectual property”. But soon after starting the second chapter, I realized that it was no longer just my story, that I was merely interpreting it and writing it down. I pick up the ideas “out of thin air”, and convey them as a story, turning the near-chaotic abstract into art.

In addition, this novel is two other things: autobiographical, and an expression of my other writing in the form of a story. All of the characters are heavily influenced by my own perception of myself, so if you know me, it should be very hard not to see the resemblance; most of my writing is and/or will be reflected in this novel and in the future ones.

So this novel can be considered semi-original even by my standards, being a hybrid of original and unoriginal materials. But from the world’s standpoint, this work and the others would be considered highly original. Hopefully everyone will learn, as I did, that nothing is original.