Blog Tour: SHYLA’S INITIATIVE

SHYLA’S INITIATIVE

Barbara Casey

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GENRE:  Fiction

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BLURB:

Thirty-five-year-old novelist, Shyla Wishon, fears that her life is spinning out of control since her recent marriage to Carl Cores. First, her overbearing new mother-in-law moves to Florida in order to be close to her son, followed by a steady stream of visiting relatives who become a constant intrusion on what was once her time to write. To make matters worse, Carl’s two grown daughters refuse to have anything to do with her, and even though Carl has a good job, bills are starting to pile up.

Shyla tries to cheerfully accept the responsibilities that come with a new marriage and the inevitable adjustments, but the stress is leaving her with constant migraines, a lack of energy, and, worst of all, a loss of creativity.

Shyla leaves her home in West Palm Beach to spend two weeks in Naples where she teaches creative writing each summer at the Ibis Institute of Writing. When she arrives, her friend, Jayne Sinclare, president of Ibis, invites Shyla to join her for lunch. Mariela Fanjul, whose family has just donated $100,000 to the Institute, and the Fanjul family attorney, Terry Sawyer, who is a big fan of Shyla’s published work, are also invited. Mariela Fanjul has signed up for Shyla’s course, and is writing a novel based on her family’s Cuban heritage and their Santerian beliefs.

As Shyla works with Mariela, she becomes entangled in the ancient Regla de Ocha involving soul transference and animal sacrifice. It is through these beliefs and a remarkable series of events that eventually allow Shyla to escape her present life and become a totally new person.

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Excerpt One:

As it was in the beginning, it had always been; and so it was now. Four people, three men and a woman, made their way single file on the stone path that marked its way through the dense foliage of flowering hibiscus and oleander, large crotons, and sweet-scented lantana. Some of plantings were large, some of them small; some of them grew in wild abandon, others in cultivated rows. The plants had been carefully selected, as had each stone, and brought together at this place in this form and pattern for the sole purpose of pleasing the orishas, those emissaries who ruled over every force of nature and every aspect of human life.

At the end of the path the four people came to a clearing surrounded by cypress trees, tall and aged. This is where the altar stood. It was that time of day when things appeared diminished in definition and somewhat muted. Colors were no longer distinct, having faded into indistinguishable earth tones. Birds ceased their song, other creatures simply paused as though listening and waiting for the unfolding events of night; and like the disappearing sun far off in the horizon, everything was suddenly less visible. It was dusk.

Miguel, because he was the oldest of the three men, spread the white cloth on the flat stone in front of the altar. Juan lit four white candles, one candle for each of them. Jesus reverently arranged the special fruits and vegetables for the ceremony, pausing in silence between placements. Each offering had been specifically chosen for a particular god. The old woman, dressed in black with an assortment of colored beads around her neck, remained in the background, swaying slightly, her head upturned, uttering words in prayer. Maria Santiago Fanjul was the high priestess of Regla de Ocha, that most ancient of African religions from which began Santeria. Known simply as “The Guardian” to those who believed, she and she alone held the sum total of the knowledge, given to her by her mother, just as her mother had received it from her mother before her. That was the way it had always been. It was the only way.

These four had come once again to petition the orishas. Unless they received an answer to their petition, there would be no more ceremonies, no more oral traditions to pass down, no more Regla de Ocha. Maria was old; soon she would pass. According to the traditions of Regla de Ocha it was time for her to give her knowledge and wisdom—the inheritance—to another female related to her by blood. It was through this oral transference, the passing of knowledge from woman to woman, that Regla de Ocha was kept alive, as it had always been since the beginning of time.

Interview:

Where are you from? Tell us a little about yourself!

I am originally from Illinois where both my mother and father were from. My father was an officer in the Marine Corps, so that meant we moved every two or three years. I think that is the reason I became a writer. I travelled to so many places and met so many people, it was only natural to store up memories. I was twice widowed, and now I live on a mountain in Georgia with my three rescue cats—Homer, Reese, and Earl Gray.


Tell us about your book? How did it get started?

I lived in Florida for several years and became interested in the religion of Santeria for some research I was doing on another book. The more I found out about it, the more intrigued I became. I knew that once I finished the book I was working on at that time, I would want to write another book that dealt more deeply into soul transference and the ancient religion of Regla de Ocha, an offshoot of Santeria.

In Shyla’s Initiative, Shyla becomes the subject of soul transference after trying to make the best of a bad marriage. I think she will want to make the readers applaud for who she is and who she becomes.


How do you create your characters?

I usually start with a storyline that I want to write about and then build my characters from that. In preparation, I read a lot of poetry. For some reason, I get inspiration from that. I don’t have any fixed rule about my characters because each book is different and requires different characters. However, I do have to create at least one character in my books that I really love and champion to make my writing work and be entertaining. They can’t all be bad dudes.


What inspires you and what got you started in writing?

I wrote my first poem when I was eight years old, and my first short story when I was nine. So, I started fairly young. I always felt I didn’t have any imagination, yet I loved to create stories I could write. There is no one thing that inspires me because so many things interest me. When I least expect it, something will come to me as an idea for a book. The result is, I have written two dozen books that have been published and received awards. If anything inspires me, it is the fact that people enjoy what I have written.

What would your advice to be for authors or aspiring writers in regards to writing?

Writing is a long process—from the first written draft to marketing your published book. Normally, that takes a lot of trial and error, so my advice is to not get discouraged. There are so many reasons why a publisher might not offer you a contract, and none of those reasons have anything to do with how good your writing is.

Anything else you’d like to share?

Thank you so much for hosting me and your interview. I really enjoyed your thoughtful questions. I would also like to say that if you or any of your readers get a chance to read Shyla’s Initiative, or any of my books, I would love to hear from you and what you thought.

I wish you all my best.

Barbara

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Originally from Kane, Illinois, author/agent/publisher Barbara Casey attended the University of North Carolina, N.C. State University, and N.C. Wesleyan College where she received a BA degree, summa cum laude, with a double major in English and history.  In 1978 she left her position as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development at North Carolina Wesleyan College to write full time and develop her own manuscript evaluation and editorial service.  In 1995 she established the Barbara Casey Agency and since that time has represented authors from the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. In 2014, she became a partner with Strategic Media Books, an independent nonfiction publisher of true crime, where she oversees acquisitions, day-to-day operations, and book production.

Ms. Casey has written close to two dozen award-winning books of fiction and nonfiction for both young adults and adults. The awards include the National Association of University Women Literary Award, the Sir Walter Raleigh Literary Award, the Independent Publisher Book Award, the Dana Award for Outstanding Novel, the IPPY Best Book for Regional Fiction, the Book Excellence Award, among others. Several of her books have been optioned for major films.

Her award-winning articles, short stories, and poetry for adults have appeared in both national and international publications including the North Carolina Christian Advocate Magazine, The New East Magazine, the Raleigh (N.C.) News and Observer, the Rocky Mount (N.C.) Sunday Telegram, Dog Fancy, ByLine, The Christian Record, Skirt! Magazine, and True Story.  A thirty-minute television special which Ms. Casey wrote and coordinated was broadcast on WRAL, Channel 5, in Raleigh, North Carolina.  She also received special recognition for her editorial work on the English translations of Albanian children’s stories. Her award-winning science fiction short stories for adults are featured in The Cosmic Unicorn and CrossTime science fiction anthologies.  Ms. Casey’s essays and other works appear in The Chrysalis Reader, the international literary journal of the Swedenborg Foundation, 221 One-Minute Monologues from Literature (Smith and Kraus Publishers), and A Cup of Comfort (Adams Media Corporation).

Ms. Casey is a former director of BookFest of the Palm Beaches, Florida, where she served as guest author and panelist.  She has served as judge for the Pathfinder Literary Awards in Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Florida, and was the Florida Regional Advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators from 1991 through 2003.  In 2018 Ms. Casey received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas. She makes her home on the top of a mountain in northwest Georgia with three cats who adopted her: Homer, Reese, and Earl Gray – Reese’s best friend.

http://www.barbaracaseyauthor.com

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

Barbara Casey will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.