It’s funny how some Purpose Projects keep finding their way to the ‘back burner” only to emerge again and again.  Perfect example of this is my Amberlin novel series. I’m a bit embarrassed to say that it started a little over 5 years ago, and at least for the past two years it’s popped back to the front burner around the first of the year…including this year.  The basic premise of the story is:

While God’s previous trips to earth have been as male enlightened beings (Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Lao Tsu, Bahá’u’lláh), this go around God arrives as a female – Amberlin… and it’s about time.

To me this says it’s an important project to me to still be ‘hanging around’ after five years, and I need a stronger support structure to keep it alive and on the front burner, which is why I’m being public about it despite my embarrassment.  Here’s what I’ve done so far to build more support:

• I enrolled into a Creating Writing Course at the local community college,
• I’ve created a writer’s group that meets every two weeks (two members thus far)

Plus the regular mind-mapping, and visioning work I’ve done in the past.

Next, I’m interested in attracting some additional readers — people who enjoy visionary/speculative fiction and who will read Amberlin as the chapters are written and posted on the On Purpose Blog, and post their positive and constructive comments, suggestions and ideas there.

Here’s how this idea got started some 5 years ago:

Nov. 2005 –  Several years ago, one of my favorite speculative fiction writers, Orson Scott Card, started creating an online community of readers at http://www.hatrack.com/, a community that continues to thrive to this day. As I recall, during my first exposure to the community Scott was posting chapters of the book he was writing at the time, and giving people the opportunity to comment and make suggestions.

I thought, “What a great idea,” and promptly stored it away for future use. Well, the future is here now as I pull a writing Purpose Project from the backburner to the a front burner. I envision the Amberlin Series to be just that — a series of books chronicling the life and times of Amberlin Gentry, a spiritual genius who’s born into a ultra conservative spiritual community known as Golden Acres. There she is raised by her grandmother, Rose, who is the great-granddaughter of the founding father of Golden Acres, and her grandfather, Jonathan, who quietly practices an ‘eclectic spirituality’ while living in the fundamentalist community.

Since I started writing this visionary novel about a year ago, I already have several chapters roughed out which I will be posting over the next several days. My plan is to then continue to post chapters as they are written.

I invite your participation by reading the saga of Amberlin as it’s being written and offering constructive questions and comments. I’ll also post more about what I’m particularly looking for that falls under the heading of “constructive questions and comments.”

Ok, I’ve posted the first few chapters on the blog and as other chapters are completed I’ll post them as well.

Here’s where you can get a menu of the chapters as they come available.