Guest Post by Heidi Garrett: What Happens When We Die?

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

I have a special treat today! Heidi and I are swapping blogs and she always has the best ideas when it comes to something fun to write about :) Today we're talking about what happens when you die--and how that fits into our books. Interesting, right? I'm hanging out over on her blog, so come say hi, and be sure to check out her post (and definitely her upcoming release!).

What Happens When We Die?

What happens when we die? Where do we go? We ask these questions because we have such a strong sense that something essential survives the death of our physical bodies. Whatever it is, the accumulated experience and wisdom of a life lived seems hard-won and valuable. Surely, it’s not just tossed into a cosmic landfill to disintegrate into nothingness over light years. Most of us hope not.

Like many, I’ve long believed that our soul, our spirit, whatever you want to call that non-physical part The Teachings of Don Juan—books I’ve never read—a seed was planted within me which has since blossomed. After he shared with me Don Juan’s Yaqui belief about life after death, I came to this:

of our selves which seems determined to believe in its enduring existence, survives. However, in a discussion I had with my husband many years ago about the Carlos Castaneda books,

By the time we draw our last breath, our identities have either evolved enough as individuals to survive the assault of physical death, thus we move on to the next plane of existence. Or our identities have not evolved enough as individuals to survive the assault of physical death, and our essence is reabsorbed into whatever primordial substance births souls in the first place. Our individuality and whatever knowledge we’ve gained in our walk on this planet is subsumed by the collective consciousness/pool of soul goo to be drawn from again at some point in the future. However, next time we won’t be the same discrete individual we were, we’ll be a scoop of something all mixed together, and when we’re born again, we’ll have another chance to establish our identities and move on to the next plane of existence. If we fail to meet the threshold again, back to the pool of soul goo… I suspect the threshold is some sort of energy level cohesive enough to survive… well, death.

I like this way of seeing things because it keeps me centered in my life here. To me that’s important: To be here now. The truth is, no matter how much I contemplate the after life, it’s really all a crap shoot. It may or may not exist. But today does. And I do believe that the universe is about expanding consciousness, and I do believe the intelligence/life force that animates the universe is interactive, thus the one thing I’m pretty sure about is this: The best thing I can do about any tomorrow, including a dead tomorrow, is live the most joyful and conscious today that I can manage.

In the end, I like to keep things simple.

This skeletal belief system I’ve sketched out here is the foundation for the cosmology in my Daughter of Light series. However, Umbra, the series antagonist, was born from an imbalance that occurred when the human population exploded. Now the souls of humans whose consciousness has evolved too much to be reabsorbed into the pool of soul goo, but not enough to make that leap to the next dimension, split into ember and ash. The ember is reborn in the enchanted world as the vital muannai, wingless dark faeries who populate northern Faerie, and the ash drifts into the Void, beyond the Parallel of Shadows. This ash has aggregated into the incorporeal but discrete entity which calls itself Umbra, the darkest part of the shadow.

Now, Umbra seeks to incarnate. Since he is the most toxic residue of the human psyche no one really wants him to. Half Faerie is scheduled for a July 31st release.

Genre: Fairy Tale Fantasy
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ABOUT Half Faerie:
Melia is an eighteen-year-old half-faerie, half-mortal who longs to fly like the full-blood faeries. She also yearns for a life that’s truly her own, which might prove more difficult than sprouting wings. Her faerie mother practices black magic and her mortal father plots to bring war to the enchanted world. No matter how she tries to distance herself from them, Melia can’t seem to escape their long shadow. After the half-faerie is accused of acting as her father’s spy, her best friend advises a trip to the Illustrator, a mysterious woman who paints intricate body art. The woman marks Melia’s forehead with a plain blotch. She claims it will call a green-eyed stranger from distant lands to the half-faerie’s side. Spooked rather than comforted, Melia dismisses the woman’s words. Rather, she travels to the mortal world to confront her father.

The fallout from her visit destroys what's left of their already fractured family. Melia’s mother is unforgiving. The punishment she metes out will leave her middle daughter torn between guilt and ecstasy, challenge the bonds between three sisters, and complicate Melia's relationship with the green-eyed stranger. The half-faerie is sucked deeper into the vortex of her family’s dark history when the youngest sister pursues their parents' damning legacy. Melia and the green-eyed stranger must stop her—or risk the rise of Faerie’s darkest queen.

Daughter of Light is a spinoff of the 14th century French fairy tale, Melusine. A high fantasy with fairy tale elements, it's great for readers who enjoy fairy tales retold. The variety of female characters, layered story, and intriguing cosmology make it a great read for young adult and older readers.

Heidi Garrett was born in Texas, and now she lives in Eastern Washington State with her husband. Garrett is the author of the contemporary fairy tale novella collection, Once Upon a Time Today. In these stand-alone retellings of popular and obscure fairy tales, adult characters navigate the deep woods of the modern landscape to find their Happily Ever Afters. She’s also the author of the Daughter of Light series, a fantasy about a young half-faerie, half-mortal searching for her place in the Whole.

Find Heidi here: www.heidigwrites.blogspot.com

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