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THE CLUTTER OF FEAR

William Wordsworth wrote,
“What are fears but voices airy?
Whispering harm where harm is not.
And deluding the unwary
Till the fatal bolt is shot!”

Sit in any boneyard and look at the tombstones and you shall see a date, a dash and another date. Birth and death bridged by a simple short line; that dash. And there it is, the beginning and end of lives, two events none of us hold any control. But that dash, that unassuming dash that all important dash, the totality of individual existence, we each can direct. Yet, how many dashes are cluttered with fear? Did you fear birth? But oh so many fear death, and how is that so? During our dash of life we have learned to fear. I contend, maybe we should all unlearn or never learn that treachery.

Perception is reality. Granted we can each frame our own perceptions through choice. John Putman stated, “Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it.” So, laugh in the face of traditional fears and teach yourself that courage is the grandest way to dash between those two fixed dates in each of our lives.

These are not scary stories but odd twists of life, word colored by imagination. The images are magnified for effect. You control the fear. You control the panic. Or do we? Run and hide or marvel and enjoy. It is your choice. Choose wisely. Remember that dash of you is precious.

And a similar dash coated by fear can be found in KILLER DOLLS a contemporary romantic thriller, which was released in September 2009. This is a captivating story of terror. Not the terror of the supernatural but that which is part of our world ever since terrorists brought their war to our shore. It isn’t always about the fear that is, but the fear that could be.

As each child in this story receives a handcrafted doll created by Letti Noel, you fear for that child knowing terrorists have planted ricin capsules in the doll’s core. You watch the child’s joy, and you, the reader, gulp horror.

At the same time, you experience undercover F. B. I. agent Taut Johnson’s fear, his fear of not being able to protect those children, his fear that he might lose Letti Noel, the woman who charmed his soul and captured his heart, his fear that even if he saves her, he would have to leave her. And then there is Letti’s fear, fear that her innocent creations would be death’s pawn, fear that she has found her partner of forever, but that his past would not allow him to claim that forever.

Then there is another dash, a simple line delineating the fright doused tale of SNAKE DANCE, a sci-fi fantasy with a release of February 2010. It chronicles the strange, provocative, and unusual planet Starling where the chickalas of wRen’s Nestling fear their very protectors, the Kin. None, though, would speak of that fear, few would defy it, and many would run from it. Still, the haunt slithers under the surface clam. wRen stands against fear, against all the Kin proclaim to be good and right, and against the dark legends of the Asp, so as to be with VeIper, her heart, and enemy to the Kin. VeIper denies fear as he seeks to free his species from ethnic cleansing and crosses boundaries to win the awe of the beautiful and defiant wRen.

Fear, though, still embeds the dash. Mong, a slayer, has claimed wRen and vows to destroy those of VeIper's kind, beginning with VeIper. Fear for his life forces wRen to sacrifice herself to a life of submission. Meanwhile, VeIper fears he cannot overcome the impervious, hypnotic power of Mong and save wRen from that existence.

We bring you into the dash of the character’s lives. But will that dash… their lives… be long or short. You must read to find out.

So, what has any of this to do with the beauty and wonder of the holiday season? Good question! Angelica fears Santa will forget to bring her an electronic reader. Zi fears there are not enough chocolate chips in the chocolate chip cookies. The latter, like reading a good thriller, is a delightfully delicious sort of fear.