Pride & Joy
I was called to this work in the summer of 2002, but didn't know it then. The first contact I had with K’me K’ea was on December 18th, 2002, when I received a page of notes that let me know who she was and the context of the Worlds of Atria. I didn't know I was being called to write a story. I have no previous formal experience as a writer. I simply took notes for the first several months of 2003 as I was made aware of ever more information about Atria. Yes, I know, this sounds exceptionally weird.
In the late spring of 2003, I was made aware of a young man who lived in a far out-of-the-way part of Atria, in the town of Nerolli. I was “told” to write a story of his journey. This, of course, turned out to be Ahmenar. I quickly learned that my role was to tell the story, not plan his journey. Any time that I tried to take control of the story (I thought: isn't that what a writer does), the characters quickly took control back. I learned to write by being empty. During the summer of 2003 I wrote over 600 pages of his story in just under three months, what seemed to me to be three volumes. I thought it was time to clean the story up and get it published.
I went to the Maui Writers Conference in August of 2003, thinking I had a trilogy. I came back utterly confused, knowing that I had only a fraction of the story. I spent the next nine months posing questions and working in notebooks, waiting for the grand arc of the story to become clear. It wasn't until March of 2004 that I understood the structure of the entire story as an epic of twelve volumes. I still only know a fraction ofthe story. I have been “told” to concentrate now on completing the first volume (itself comprised of two books), that my understanding of much of the story will come later, once the first books are in publication.
I have been asked to devote my life to this work, and see now the metaphors that this story harbors for the human race. I have devoted two years to this work already, and have spent a year learning and honing the craft of writing. This is the work that I do full time. For two years I have had no income, and have lived on the generoisty of family and the limits of my credit. I believe in this work and turn now to the public and ask for your support.
Yes, I know how unusual it is to sell a book before it is complete. But if that is far from being the only unusual thing about this work. I ask you to join my cause inbringing the story of Ahmenar's ossayu to the world. It will prove, I hope, a vehicle for global transformation.
K’pani,
Stuart Malin
Executive Producer,
The Ossayu of Ahmenar Ishtam
