0943 hours. Use what works. When Amorella came on the scene to write for me; that was fine. Talents are what they are and I was not too proud to accept them. She wrote three books much to my amazement (even today) and suggested I write three more. Book four does not have my attention (it does not hold my passion) as the first three books did. If I am going to continue writing I should return to the three books (of my life) and make them better and let the Dead stay with the Dead. I will have to think on this long and hard if I am going to be the writer I want to be. - rho
Post boy and let it go for now. Tomorrow we move on. - Amorella
If this is what you wish to do, then do it. Follow the scope of the other three books though. If you wish I will make suggestions and give you insights as to the meaning of the last three books in relationship to your three. You have a sense of what the Dead ‘feel’ and how they survive. We can work this into the first book Braided Dreams and as a revision post it on line with your continued blog. – Amorella
I like it. I will think on it. Part of my problem is that I do not always know when you are you and I am playing you. Yesterday I felt I was ‘playing your part’, putting words into your mouth, so to speak.
If and when you begin anew, start at the very beginning of Braided Dreams. First, update your draft to what the published book has. We will do this updated revision one section at a time. Post. - Amorella
1734 hours. I have completed the first draft of the major revision of Braided Dreams up to the “Prologue”. Such joy is the re-write already. I hope you have been with me along the way, Amorella, if not, my Muse walks beside me.
This is in a sense as it was when you took your first published book under the pseudonym of O. Richards, titled Stuck, ©2001 in a publisher’s imprint under iUniverse.com, Inc., called Writers’ Club Press located in Lincoln, NE. The content of Stuck is Braided Dreams chapter sections titled, “Pouch Text”. Here you are using selections of Braided Dreams under the working title: The Bard.. Post what you have done and call it a night. – Amorella
2210 hours. I have attempted a rework a couple of times, but I think I needed to be far enough away from the work to be willing to remold it where necessary. If this will accomplish what six books would, then three books will work just fine. I’ll have my polished my trilogy to the highest challenges I can put my mind to. That is really all I want, a fiction, a human trilogy of showing a greater sense of meaning and purpose in what it is to be a human being dead and alive.
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A MAJOR REVISION OF BRAIDED DREAMS begun 17 AUG 2012
The Sage
A Working Novel on the Exploration of Consciousness
By
Richard H. Orndorff
***
Major selections of this experimental work are under the Richard H. Orndorff copyright: 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012. All events, themes, persons, characters and plot are the invention of the author.
***
Dedication
This book is dedicated to each of my former students and to the many trusted colleagues with whom I taught for thirty-seven years. The schools are: Magnetic Springs School, Magnetic Springs, Ohio; Whitehall-Yearling High School, Columbus, Ohio; Escola Graduada de Såo Paulo (The Graded School), Såo Paulo, Brazil; Indian Hill High School, Cincinnati, Ohio; and William Mason High School, Mason, Ohio. You all know who you are, which is a good thing because I am not so good with names, including my own sometimes. Nevertheless, with a smile and a tip of my well-worn black beret, I wish you all well.
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Acknowledgments
All of the legendary historical names, theoretical concepts and novel trivia can be found bubbling through the vast Google cauldron, World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia, Version 9. and Encyclopedia Britannica 2005 software. The chess games were played by the free online Apple computer chess program titled Sigma Chess 6.1 or by my ChessMaster 9000 software.
I thank wife Carol, daughter Kim and son-in-law, Paul for their diligence and patience, and I thank my good friends and first readers: Fritz, Bob, Alta and Craig, Jeanne and Jim, Cathy and Tod, Kim and Paul, Gary, Angie, and Laney for their patience and liberality. And, I thank two very special first readers, my aunt and uncle, Patricia ‘Pat’ and Warren ‘Ernie’ Ernsberger of my hometown of Westerville, Ohio for their insight and kindness. The many revisions to get from the first drafts to this final one are through the help of these friends and one more, Doug, a friend from grade school through college, who has been reading and advising on the plausibility of the science presented within.
I also thank my dear friend and colleague, the late Thomas Robert Pringle for his permission to use two of his previously published poems: “Nature Junkie” and “Transplant Waiting Room, Children’s Hospital”.
Also, a special thank you to my ever-temperate Muse.
The writer within is Amorella, and during these last five years she has continued to help me along the way to my present decision to significantly expanded revising of the 2007, 2008, and 2009 manuscripts to include the significant holistic aspects of setting, theme, plot and conclusion.
Richard H. Orndorff
17 August 2012
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The Oxford Testing that Enticed the Writer
This novel is the first reworking on a trilogy of a particular human consciousness set as all such higher consciousnesses are, within a framework of a present, a past and a future.
The human being in these books is a Scottish Bard aptly named Merlyn. This sixth century Scotsman has a heartansoulanmind spirit. This human spirit, unlike your own, is trapped in an inner dimensional cube rather than frozen through the mind of Mary Stewart’s crystal cave.
This six dimensional cube’s six walls are composed of chessboards unlike anything seen this side of Plato’s Theory of Forms. The only way to move into Merlyn’s current dilemma is to move into that which forms the basic foundation of each of us, the natural DNA strands, the genetics that enwrap and compose our unembellished humanity, the chemical and biological coded bond we all share and in which we are also individually trapped, though in fewer dimensions than where Merlyn stands without a hint of body, naked.
Merlyn stands naked, as all the Dead once stood. Merlyn stands while the rest of the human Dead scoot about in HeavenOrHellBothOrNeither. The Dead unconsciously gave up their spiritual backbones, their spines if you will, so that Merlyn might stand and tell a tale how it is to be spiritually conscious while being physically dead, and how this present circumstance indirectly affects us, the Living.
To begin my own individual search to discover Merlyn the once sixth century Scottish Bard I requested my DNA tested by Oxford Ancestors, Limited. In this process I ferreted out the fact that I am fully human, and for which I am fully thankful.
For the record, according to Oxford, my Y chromosome signature is: DYS 19 – 12; DYS 388 – 12; DYS 390 – 23; DYS 391 – 11; DYS 392 – 13; DYS 393 – 13; DYS 389i –11; DYS 389ii-i - 16(30); DYS 425 – 12; and DYS 426 - 12.
My MatriLine chart says I am a direct maternal descendent of Tara, a hypothetical woman Professor Brian Sykes, the Director of Oxford Ancestors, refers to in his well known book of several years ago, Seven Daughters of Eve. Tara lived seventeen thousand years ago in the then forested hills of Tuscany in Northwestern Italy.
A letter to me from Oxford Ancestors states: “your signature is most likely in Haplogroup 1 which indicates probable Celtic paternal ancestry.” Another such letter from Oxford Ancestors says: “Our analysis shows that it is most likely that you have inherited your Y-chromosome from one of the very early inhabitants of the British Isles, perhaps even from one of the first settlers who arrived 9,000 years ago. There are intriguing genetic connections between Y-chromosomes such as yours and those found in the Iberian Peninsula, especially among the Basques. This hints at the existence of vigorous connections between Ireland, western Britain and the Atlantic seaboard of France and Spain, which archeologists have long suspected. This connection began with the pre-farming hunters and fishermen, and continued with the peoples who built the large stone monuments, the megaliths, which also connect these western sites from Spain to Scotland. You may not have a Viking paternal ancestor but, from what we can tell from your Y-Line results, your ancestors have been in Britain for a great deal longer.”
What a thrill, I thought at the turn of this century, my Celtic and Basque paternal ancestors, my genetic Y-line, were pre-farming hunters and fishermen whose very descendants helped build the large stone monuments from Spain to Scotland. Some of your ancestors did also I am sure. Our ancestors built everything that was ever humankind created in our planet. Our species, each of us is that old genetically.
The sudden realization of what a human being really is, that is the realization of what it is we may continually take with us after our physical deaths left me with memory, imagination and hope. Upon entering the nether world of Merlyn’s memory, imagination and hope I found we are more alike than not. Our humanity is built to be composed enough to recognize other memories and heartsansoulsanminds. Some of whom are not even human. Being dead is beyond belief because it is a fact of life. The Dead run through us as if our very warm blood were the River Styx. The Living run while they still have means and the wherewithal to do so. These books have the Dead and the Living running together across a plain of common humanity, across the plain of common understanding. It is my memory, my imagination and my heartansoulanmind, and you are freely welcome into it.
With warm regards,
Richard H. Orndorff
17 August 2012
***
I trust this is a first draft in the right direction. This I may complete before I leave this planet. Six books in three looks plausible to me.
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