We come to the final installment of Xlibris author Jennifer Van Wie’s Xlibris Blog feature. Read on to learn more about her writing wisdom, as well as her next novels in the works.
From Dust to Man Ponders ‘What Ifs’
600 years in the future, they didn’t even know that man ever existed. This set up a new need to explore misunderstandings and assumptions of a society that not only lived without a man but thrived without him.
In the first part of the book, I could use no masculine terms to describe my plot. When you erase all knowledge of man, certainly it is challenging to use a language devoid of masculine terms and descriptors.
You could say that this book was my need to find clarity at a time of free love and a new emerging “me generation” that for all their lip service did little to come together and defined each person not for their commonality but their intolerance of each other. Sounds a lot like today in this politically correct atmosphere, doesn’t it? But for all our failures, we as a society have made some limited progress.
Knowing that civilization was struggling but still so status quo then, I knew my book and certainly my characters would never be taken seriously, so when I finished my book, I neatly put them in a box on a closet shelf knowing that my characters would not be welcomed in the world of the eighties, or nineties, and even in the year 2000 so I waited for society to grow, to bend, to moan, to bleed and to question, and to be open for food for thought. When I dug out the dusty box in 2012 and then published it in 2013, I did so with great trepidation because I wanted my characters to have a life outside of their imprisoned box but like a new mother taking her child to kindergarten for the first time, I was hesitant to push them out into this complicated and opinionated world. To their credit, they have been lovingly received and I am glad that they are able to share their existence, their hopes and dreams with others.
Writing a novel gives the writer a platform that can enter thought into the equation of people’s lives. In my case, my characters struggle with the reality of manipulation and lies. They struggle with inequality in a world that should be equal and they struggle with the understanding that all species have a place on the planet and should be respected. The male child struggles with forming his identity with no male role models and no masculine history to show his place in the world.
From Dust to Man asks the question if women did become the ultimate supreme power, would they make it a utopia or dystopia? If a man was reintroduced to this fictional all-female society, would he be given a chance at equality or would he be considered inadequate, subservient, or would the women merely exterminate him because they found him alien?
So you see, timing is everything. Even though this book lived in my mind thirty years before, society wasn’t ready—now it is.
Next Writing Project Underway
Currently, I am putting the finishing touches on the second book in the Dust to Man Series entitled, “Samoht, The Rise of Man” and the wheels are turning for book three. My characters still have a lot to say about their lives, they are movers and changers striving to shake up their society, and I certainly wouldn’t miss the journey.
We support your literary quest, Jennifer Van Wie! Such enthusiasm and dedication to your craft show the makings of an accomplished Xlibris author.
Read the first installments of Jennifer’s blog from these links:
Xlibris Author Jennifer Van Wie Befriends Her Fictional Characters – Part 1
Xlibris Author Jennifer Van Wie Befriends Her Fictional Characters – Part 2
Xlibris Author Jennifer Van Wie Befriends Her Fictional Characters – Part 3
Pursue your writing and publishing dreams as what our Xlibris authors did! Read their stories featured on the Xlibris Blog and the Xlibris Indie Authors Roundup! For writing, editing, and book marketing tips, visit the Xlibris Writer’s Workshop.