Inferno Novel

The Inferno (c1998) is a 43,000 word novel about a young shaman on another planet. His discovery of a secret society evokes memories of previous lives as a magician and brings him in contact with an old enemy. Alone and hunted, he is tempted to unleash dark forces to fight his enemies.
I wrote The Inferno between 1990 and 1998. I chose to publish it here because it is too short for the fantasy market, and because my web art project has roots in this novel. The subject of both is states of consciousness.
One early reader, a parapsychology researcher, read The Inferno three times in one week. Another early reader said it changed her life. _
I began work on my Inferno in Verona (Wisconsin). On the day I chose "The Inferno" as my title, I subsequently arrived at the library where I worked and found two copies of Dante's Inferno on my desk, a new copy and a worn out copy that needed replacing. This was the first of hundreds of Dante-related dreams and coincidences or synchronicities in my life.
Only one piece of mine was ever featured in a show. An early Goddess piece made its way, on its own, to a featured spot in a window of the Lincoln Center. This was in 2000, the year a flurry of Dante-related coincidences prompted me to begin thinking about making his work the subject of some of my art. I later learned that there is a Dante Park and statue directly across the street from the Lincoln Center. _
Daemon: inspired as if by a demon, indwelling spirit, or genius. Daemon originally comes from an ancient Greek word which referred to a lesser deity or guiding spirit. The word is further derived from Proto-Indo-European dai-mon "provider, divider (of fortunes or destinies)". Daimons were possibly seen as the souls of men of the golden age acting as tutelary deities.

Read Chapter One online