Guest Post ~ Alchemy and the Art of Writing Backwards, by Ailsa Abraham

A world without war? Professor Sawhele Fielding stumbles across an invention that would change the world; something so monumental, it could spell the end of environmental disaster and conflict. With the help of her father, a shadowy figure in the world of international banking, she begins to set into motion the biggest upheaval the planet has seen.  How could a Utopian dream of free fuel and peaceful co-existence turn into a nightmare? Iamo, a priest of the Mother Goddess and Riga, a Black Shaman assassin captain, are thrown together - reluctantly at first - to face a threat that nobody could have imagined before "The Changes". ALCHEMY is the prequel to Shaman's Drum which features the adventures of Iamo and Riga through their world in the near future, where the established religions of our own days had been banned. 

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon US

Thanks so much for inviting me over, Tony. How did I come to write Alchemy? Like most things in my life...back to front and inside out! I had already been published under the name of Cameron Lawton in gay romance /detective fiction which, in itself, is a bit of a mixture. MLR Press had taken three of my works and wanted a series.

Out of nowhere apart from my life-long interest in comparative religions, I was sitting in my back yard drinking tea when a scene flashed through my head. A crippled woman, dressed like a nun but obviously not a nun was rescued by a very handsome young man in monks' robes. It was just like the trailer for a movie which I very much wanted to continue watching but someone spoke to me.

That was it. I had to find out the back-story and what happened once he rescued her from the convent. That was how Shaman's Drum was written which was accepted immediately by Crooked Cat Publishing. The reaction was unbelievable. My two main characters, Riga the Black Shaman woman and Iamo the Priest of the Mother Goddess were immensely popular and all the readers wanted was MORE background.

Alchemy was commissioned straight away and took less time to complete. It includes many subjects close to my heart: the environment, the outrages of terrorism and inter-faith intolerance. I had my own experiences on which to draw for the different religions, including the old gods/New Age,  which come to predominance when the established ones were banned. I am, however, no scientist so I had to rely on my live-in nuclear engineer to help me with the “tricky bits”. In this novel I don't only show how the two lovers met and fell for each other, I look at the often-suggested solution of banning all religions to put an end to terrorism. Does it work? Read it and see!

Readers were delighted with the prequel too and asked for a third. I see – so the happy ending that was hinted at in Shaman's Drum doesn't work eh? (I am, of course, knocked-out by that reaction!) It is work in progress, only put on hold by a very nasty motorcycle accident I had last August which landed me in a coma for three weeks. My head is recovering but only slowly and writing for any length of time gives me demonic migraines. (Excuse me, there are a few demons in my books, too).

A fourth may follow as one of the important characters would now like his own book which he intimated to me while I was listening to a talk in Scotland by some Navajo Rangers on the paranormal investigations they sometimes carry out. I can't ignore a Black Shaman Blood Father for very long, can I?

Thanks again for this opportunity to share my work, Tony.

Ailsa Abraham

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About the Author

Ailsa Abraham retired early from a string of jobs, ending up with teaching English to adults. She has lived in France since 1990 and is married with no children but six grandchildren. She copes with Bipolar Condition, a twisted spine and increasing deafness with her usual wry humour – “well if I didn't have all those, I'd have to work for a living, instead of writing, which is much more fun.”. Her ambition in life is to keep breathing and maybe move back to the UK. She has no intention of stopping writing. Her other passions are running an orphanage for homeless teddy bears plus knitting or crochet now that she has had to give up her beloved black Yamaha. Find out more at Ailsa's website http://ailsaabraham.com/ and follow her on Twitter @ailsaabraham