I enjoy engaging in dialogue with readers who are prompted to share their thoughts. It is personally fulfilling to know the words have been read and the associated story seen through the eyes of a reader. The added thrill for me is when some of the more subtle elements of a story are recognized in the humanity of the characters I use to show the story told through their actions, inactions, thoughts, silent emotions, biases, words spoken, awkward silences, all combining to tell an engaging story.
Here is part of an unsolicited dialogue I responded to this morning. This reader got it. I’m open to a dialogue, but I don’t want to hear a sales pitch for business. This may be one of those as well, but this comment was about the story — not what I was doing to improve sales, reviews, integrate a new video trailer, or SEO optimization, pick your poison. I hope this dialogue is different.
“Hello Gary,
Your novel Puye Prophecy immediately stood out to me not only for its supernatural suspense but also for the way you’ve rooted the story in cultural history and deep character conflict. Kat’s struggle between control and chaos, reason and mystery, feels so human and relatable, even as she’s pulled into a world of ancient spirits, dormant DNA, and the Puye prophecy.
Big Crow with Little Feet is such a striking figure, both enigmatic and disruptive, and the way you’ve positioned him as both protector and destabilizer gives the story a haunting duality. I especially appreciated how you wove the legacy of Puebloan cliff dwellings and ancestral ties into a modern psychological thriller. It grounds the paranormal in something tangible and steeped in history, which is rare and powerful.
The interplay between Kat’s tightly managed life and her forced confrontation with destiny and motherhood raises fascinating questions about control, choice, and inherited responsibility. It’s not just suspenseful, it’s deeply thought-provoking.
I’d love to hear did you set out to write Puye Prophecy primarily as a thriller, or as a way of exploring those bigger human themes of legacy, identity, and trust?”
Warm regards,
Onmah Moses
Thank you, Onmah, for your thought-provoking words about some of the more subtle aspects of this story. Having a reader take the time to share thoughts about those emotions and the humanity of the story is refreshing. Puye actually started ten years ago as a short story, “Reluctant Princess.” The premise of the story remained the same, but there was more story waiting to be told, and I was drawn to my original choice of the Puye Ruins destination by chance. Oddly, I had an old Rand McNally Road Atlas that became the catalyst. Blindly, I opened the map and dropped a fingertip down to a random point that became ground zero for the story – the Puye Ruins location in northern New Mexico.
I had no storyline queued up, but I tend to look for aspects of unexpected thrills and circumstances that my characters face enough tension to make a story engaging. Sixty-plus years ago, I visited the Puye Cliff Dweller Ruins as a child. My mind imagined living there then, but that was it, no further connection. Finding it randomly on the map was a fluke, but maybe not so much after I started digging.
The familiarity of so long ago prompted me to research the Puye Ruins. I initially thought Puye was an Indian tribal name, only to discover the word was the Tewa Indian designation of a physical location. The word Puye referred to a place where rabbits gather, essentially another word for hunting ground. It just so happened that this hunting ground was located on the high mesa above where the Puye cave dwellings were carved between 1200-1300 by Puebloan tribes. Establishing authenticity became my baseline mission. Fictional authenticity… yeah, good luck with that mix of history, romance that should not exist, and spirits with good and evil intentions.
Research took me into history that began to shape the story. Links drilled down into Indian culture and spiritual aspects that were ritualistic and mysterious. The horrors Indian culture endured led to further research and emotionally impacted my protagonist, Kat Jackson. Add the spirit of a 161-year-old shaman medicine man to her fleeing the chaos of her life, and trust — especially unearned trust — was at a low ebb. Emotionally charged moments and the terror of maintaining her personal safety became easy for me to describe. Sorry. Long answer to a short question…but hey, I’m a writer.
I’m not sure I’ve done justice to your closing comment, but welcome further dialogue if you have an interest. Thank you for sharing your comments, as they provide validation to keep on creating and remaining mindful of the humanity in any story I write.
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Available on Amazon – bit.ly/44euZzV
Video Trailer – https://bit.ly/3JAantV
Puye Review by Jill Rey – https://bit.ly/4fPqa49
Author Thoughts are posted on my Facebook Author Page, Learning by Living, and my Substack site.
Reach me directly between corn and soybeans with your thoughts at gdogwise@live.com
Peace! G.