| A Witch In The Wardrobe A novel by L. D. Wenzel "A
Witch In The Wardrobe" is a newly completed, unpublished novel seeking
an agent or publisher. It has been edited and contains about
70,000 words The writings of C. S. Lewis are much beloved by most American Evangelicals, though a vocal minority of fundamentalists see him as a great danger. This story deals with a violent strife between these two groups, described in the presentation below. This novel aspires to be a literary work but could be as seen as a parody on the generic thriller. One might call its farcical extremes "apocalyptic hyperbole". It includes action and romance, conversation, literary criticism, and descriptions of the Evangelical experience today. Read the presentation below. Enjoy..... A Witch in the Wardrobe Belfast, Northern Ireland October 2004 Twenty-six-year-old Shannon Dillon uncovers a secret document in an obscure attic. Her grandfather recognizes it as a manuscript written by C. S. Lewis, the great Christian writer. Oddly, the binder is covered with Occult symbols. Startled, the grandfather calls university experts who promise to retrieve the papers the next day. The word leaks out, and, within hours, armed bandits burst into the house to steal the documents. Things turn sour when an intruder shoots and kills her grandfather and younger brother. Shannon flees to the cellar and escapes through a window. The killer and his band take off with the manuscript. Something in Shannon snaps as she vows revenge. Shannon grew up in Belfast as a Catholic and was trained by a Republican militia up to the 1998 Peace Agreement. Her search for the American killer takes her to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she recruits an evangelical professor of Romantic literature for her vendetta. Against his better judgment, thirty-four-year-old Simon Magister is drawn to her by scholarly curiosity and personal chemistry. While C. S. Lewis has been dead for nearly fifty years, contrasting legacy myths collide. Mainstream evangelicals would canonize him as their first Protestant saint. But enraged fundamentalists demonize the man as an agent of Satan himself, who, through his magical world of Narnia, infiltrates Christian homes with the Occult. This results in violence. Meanwhile, news of the document discovery spreads to opposing parties, and rumors of its contents abound. The anti-Lewis fundamentalists already believe C. S. Lewis to have been a practicing Occultist, and the Belfast Papers would be hard evidence they need to expose Lewis's true identity as a witch. While evangelical publishers think this to be crazy talk, their industry would be financially ruined if it were all true. Thus, before any can read them, they must destroy the documents to preserve their lucrative cash flow. Shannon and Simon enter a dark world where two forces connive for possession of the controversial documents. They meet foes ready to kill to seize ownership, and Simon and Shannon narrowly escape death several times as others die in their wake. Shannon shows her militia skills. They meet an unlikely companion, Bob Wynveen, a naive fundamentalist. Like David of old, he dares to take down the evil Goliaths in the publishing industry whose gigantic power and money have employed a clandestine meta-force called UNIKORN. Through dialogue with Bob, Simon explores aspects of literary Romanticism and how the fiction of Lewis can overlap with esoteric Christianity. Shannon and Simon enter into a romantic relationship, forcing Simon to deal with repressed sexuality from his evangelical past. All forces converge to a climax at the Holy Hill Shrine near Milwaukee. Shannon finds her grandfather's killer and takes action. In the end, the reader hears the stories of all who live and die, as well as the final fate of the Belfast Documents. Witch in the Wardrobe is an over-the-top novel aimed at C. S. Lewis’s vast American readership. Lewis himself is not the target. The author seeks to provoke by focusing on how American evangelicalism has hijacked this great writer's legacy into its own mythology. At times a hyperbolic parody, the action of this thriller is nuanced with an intelligent depiction of contemporary religious cultured in America. To read sample chapters, CLICK HERE Since
this novel is still under development, your comments would be very
appreciated. What did you like (or not like)? All constructive
criticism is welcome. Email address: wenzel.ld@gmail.com |
