Sagacita (english version) E-Book

Klaus D. Wagner

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 95

Beschreibung

SAGACITA A secret goddess from Greek mythology inspires a modern age poetic drama and a manifesto for world unity. The supreme Greek God Zeus¹s latest illicit love affair will have consequences that could save the world from ultimate catastrophe. However, at this moment, the mighty divine King of Mount Olympus has not the slightest interest in the fate of the planet, or the dispensable mortals who populate it. Zeus is concerned only for the personal catastrophe of displeasure. The news he has just heard throws him into a monumental rage...

Leseprobe

When the power of love overcomes the love of power

the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

KLAUS D WAGNER

Born June 11, 1952 in Esslingen, Germany

Media University - Stuttgart

K&E Prize - Top Student Award

International Advertising Agency - Frankfurt

International Advertising Agencies - Sydney

Wagner Business Development, Advertising Agency - Sydney

Germany’s Order of Merit - by Federal President of Germany

Lives in Australia on Sydney’s Northern Beaches

BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

1

CHARLEMAGNE TRILOGY

Historical Fiction

2

WALDO

- CHARLEMAGNE’S PRIEST

Historical Fiction

3

GODSBERT

- CHARLEMAGNE’S SCRIBE

Historical Fiction

4

CAROLUS

- CHARLEMAGNE’S LIFE

Historical Fiction

5

PANGAIA / SOUL

Thriller

6

PURE SIN

Tragedy

7

PURE FIRE

Tragedy

8

PURE ANGST

Tragedy

9

PURE LOVE

Epiphany

10

REVOLUTION

#

10

Conspiracy Thriller

11

GODSON

Music Drama

12

EUPHORIA OF UNHAPPINESS

Cultural Satire

13

SAGACITA

Poetic Drama

THE FIRST SIGH OF LOVE

IS THE LAST BREATH OF WISDOM

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The moonlight floated to earth as a shimmering silver mist, illuminating the night. It bathed the landscape in a pale glow, betraying the nocturnal predators lurking in their hidden places.

A great eagle owl dropped from its moonlit perch without a whisper of sound to find a darker place to hunt. As it glided low across the ground towards the forest, its gleaming blood orange eyes caught a glimpse of a tall, imposing figure silhouetted against the purple sky.

The words above form the opening paragraphs of the first book I ever wrote. They were committed to paper, with much angst and trepidation, almost 10 years ago. It began a personal creative journey I had wanted to embark on for many years, before I finally found the confidence, and inspiration, to take the first step.

Where the confidence came from, I can’t say for certain … perhaps the false bravado of scorn for advancing age. As to the source of the inspiration, however, I am in no doubt. It was the imposing figure in the moonlight glimpsed by the eagle owl. The tall silhouette belonged to the legendary warrior king, Charlemagne.

The book I’m referring to is WALDO: Charlemagne’s Priest, an historical novel. Looking back on the decision to attempt it, never having written a book before, I can see I was right to be filled with angst and trepidation at the prospect. I’m an expatriate German living in Australia, and while my English is excellent, it is not my first language. The nuances of the language required to write a book were extremely daunting for me. But with a little professional guidance initially I developed the requisite skills.

With hindsight, writing the first book was bold - even daring. To then embark on developing it into The Charlemagne Trilogy with two more historical novels, bordered on the insane. As the splendid, larger-than-life warrior king who Christianized pagan Europe, Charlemagne is a huge subject, and was an epic undertaking for a novice author. Now, almost a decade down the track, and possessed of a measure of confidence, I prefer to see the venture as intrepid rather than insane. That I dared seriously contemplate such a thing reminds me that many seemingly impossible things are achievable with confidence and tenacity.

Subsequently, both traits have enabled me to write a total of 12 books since I began in 2010.

While The Charlemagne Trilogy was a wonderful personal creative and intellectual adventure, another series of books is much closer to my heart. They comprise four historical novellas that I call the Pure Love series. These books are based on the trials and tribulations of my most recent ancestors, including my great grandfather, who, in 1896 entered the service of Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, ultimately rising to the position of his Personal Guard. Of all the books I have written, the Pure Love novellas are the ones I am most proud of. But without my plunging into the literary deep end with The Charlemagne Trilogy and very rapidly learning to swim, the Pure Love quartet would not exist.

The deeply personal nature of these four novellas makes them at once immensely satisfying and profoundly moving for me. Notwithstanding, all the books I’ve written have had a lasting impact on me and helped shaped me as the man, and author, I am today.

Of my 12 books so far, those that have affected me most powerfully are The Charlemagne Trilogy, dealing with Christianity, the Pure Love series examining love and sin, the thriller Soul, about our very being, and the Godson, exploring the life of the teenage Jesus Christ.

Inevitably, writing such books brings with it a constant and acute interest and awareness in the meaning of religion and the spiritual state of mankind generally. Two factors of humanity that have a profound impact on the state of the world; a world that I believe is in its worst ever crisis of social and spiritual destitution.

My ever-increasing interest in the fate of the world and the reasons for its spiritual decline have driven me to regularly attend a Bible Study Group with learned friends, who are devout practising Anglicans.

Another inspiration came from a book given to me by dear Chinese / Thai friends: Tao Te Ching - The Book of the Way - by Lao Tzu written at the time of Confucius (551-479 BCE). The central figure is gender neutral whose life is in perfect harmony with the way things are. The Master has mastered Nature; not in a sense of conquering it, but of becoming it and to finally conclude: ‘I am the Tao, the Truth, the Life’.

I am still learning, but I like to think my attendance reflects both my genuine curiosity and my willingness to consider a variety of views without prejudgment or prejudice.

There is a Yiddish proverb I like: A man should live if only to satisfy his curiosity. Without an enquiring, open mind I don’t think I would ever have been inspired to write even the single historical novel Waldo, let alone the additional two Godsbert and Carolus that make up The Charlemagne Trilogy.

The worth of mixing open-mindedness and curiosity are aptly encapsulated in the words of America’s great humanist poet Walt Whitman, who advised us to ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’

Without embracing the attitude contained in Whitman’s exhortation I could never have written the Pure Love novellas with their harrowing experiences of my forebears. It would have been impossible not to judge the church and the secular authorities of the times.

The first two novellas were the hardest to write because they involved my maternal grandmother (Pure Sin) and my own mother (Pure Fire).

Both books are romantic tragedies, with a constantly flowing moral and doctrinal undercurrent.

The protagonist in Pure Sin, Father Franz, is a priest who sires an illegitimate daughter, Gisela-Maria, who ultimately became my maternal grandmother. It is a powerful and poignant story; a tapestry of conflicts between personal free will and morals and the immutable doctrines and authority of the Catholic Church and its clergy.

The highly charged inner conflicts and moral anguish of Father Franz and his lover Karoline are agonizing to witness at times. And there is no fairytale ending. Despite the book’s treatment as a novella, I was at pains to maintain the integrity of the reality of Franz and Karoline’s love to the heart-breaking end.

Pure Fire is equally confronting and testing emotionally, but without the moral torment of Pure Sin. And there is no happy resolution here either, ending in the expulsion of my grandparents from their homeland after the second World War.

Notwithstanding, each novella is a celebration of the fortitude of the human spirit and, I trust, rewards the reader with a palpable sense of hope and a belief in the extraordinary power of love and perseverance. It is that power the world needs today more than ever before.

When I look back over the books I have written so far, what strikes me as curious is the theological undercurrent running through most of them.

Even the scientific, biological thriller among them is about the search for the mortal, physical soul, and where it is anatomically located within the human body. This novel, Soul, also has hints of science fiction flitting in and out of the shadows. But constantly lurking just below the surface of the narrative is the existential angst of humanity and its place in eternity.

I’d never thought of myself as a religious or theological writer, or ever deliberately set out to be one. But something seems to have nudged me in that direction. Inevitably, I suppose, a deep interest in the meaning of life, and its decline and decay, must draw one into the philosophical depths of human behavior. And that leads to an examination of the issues associated with spiritual beliefs, religious faith and ecclesiastical dogma, and how they impact on people’s attitudes and behavior in this day and age.

The deplorable state of today’s modern world is at the core of this book. But it is not a lament. It is a positive call for adults everywhere to arrest the decline through individual courage and action. The inescapable truth that we must all die soon means we have nothing to lose in trying to leave a better world behind for our children’s children and their children.

I have to admit that re-reading many passages in my books reduces me to tears, partly because some are about my forebears. But equally I feel a deep sorrow for humanity. Either way, I’d rather it didn’t affect me so emotionally, but sometimes we can’t stop our feelings falling from our eyes and running down our cheeks.

In all my books, family-related or otherwise, there are countless occasions of intense poignancy and sadness. This is not to say any of the books are full of doom and gloom, quite the contrary. Almost all are uplifting triumphs of the human spirit over adversity and sorrow.

While I am proud of the body of work so far that my books represent, and I hope others will appreciate the effort and emotion involved in writing them, reputation and plaudits are not important to me. What drives me is a deep desire to honour my own belief in myself as a writer worth reading – and perhaps listening to about some solutions for a better world.

Perhaps the words of the eponymous character in Waldo: Charlemagne’s Priest best describe the individual quality required to bring love and peace to the world:

“Reputation is what other people know about you. Honour is what you know about yourself.”

Table of Contents

Prologue

Sagatica's love

Epilogue by Hesiodos

Good god

Manifesto

God's ten suggestion

Inescapable conclusion

PROLOGUE

As a young goddess, Sagacita was fascinated with the Earth below. But even stronger than her fascination was her sense of despair and sadness that Earth was in such chaos and its inhabitants living in misery and turmoil.

‘Why can the mortals not make life better for themselves?’ she constantly asked herself.