Warren Goldie believes that modern
human beings rely too much on their logical, left-brain
thinking and too little on what he calls "intuitive thinking."
"For centuries, the church was the dominant belief system,
and then with Descartes, the prominent world view became
anti-intuitive, and that remains today," said Goldie, of
Pikesville. "But that's not all there is. I think through your
mind and intuition you can also arrive at knowledge not
available elsewhere."
That strong belief is, at least in part, what led the
former computer programmer and writer for Steven Spielberg's
Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation to pen
"Waking Maya," a novel about a 22-year-old woman's search for
the meaning of life.
The self-published book was named Book of the Month in
February by Bookreview.com, a Web site.
"Every once in a while an important novel crosses my desk.
Waking Maya is Important with a capital 'I.' If I could put
one book in the hands of everyone today, this would be the
book," said Zanne Marie Gray, who runs the site.
Such words are music to the ears of Goldie, who actually
wrote the book _ his first _ over four months in the early
1990s, and found an agent shortly thereafter.
"I was living in California and the job with Steven
Spielberg had ended and, well, I had this idea for a book,"
said Goldie, who also worked in Los Angeles as a script
analyst for "Shakespeare in Love" and "The Last Samurai"
producers Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick. "So I
disciplined myself, and I sat down and wrote it."
The idea grew out of Goldie's lifelong fascination with
metaphysics and spirituality, some of which was sparked by
Jane Roberts' so-called "Seth Books," in which a spiritual
entity spoke ageless truths through a human channel.
"What fascinated me about those books and other things is
the notion that there are places in the world, such as
Jerusalem and places in Guatemala, where religions spring up
and passions are at a fever pitch," he said. "The idea is that
there are places where there seems to be some sort of power,
which when combined with human thought and desire, causes new
ideas to spring up."
Goldie wanted to communicate those ideas and his own
beliefs without being "dry" or "preachy," so he created the
character of Maya, a 22-year-old woman who discovers on her
mother's farm a tattered journal left behind by her father,
who had mysteriously vanished years before.
The journal contains a message and a warning that sends
Maya on an odyssey across what the book blurb describes as "a
rapidly changing physical and psychological landscape ... to a
shattering revelation at one of the Earth's power vortexes of
native tradition."
Though the agent was reportedly impressed with the plot and
the book's craftsmanship, her efforts to get a publisher to
commit to the novel was fruitless, largely because the book
defied category.
"People thought it was interesting, but there was simply no
genre for this kind of thing at the time," Goldie said.
"Today, there is something called 'visionary fiction,' and it
fits that category nicely. But at the time, that didn't
exist."
Nevertheless, Goldie never lost faith in "Waking Maya."
"I always thought the story was good, and that is what kept
me going," he said. "I kept rewriting and passing it along to
friends. I just kept at it."
By the middle of last summer, Goldie had what he thought of
as the "final manuscript."
"I had somehow just hit another level as a writer, and I
nailed the characters and the plot, and I had the book I
wanted. I knew that there was not much more I could do with
it," he said.
Though Goldie considered getting back into contact with his
former agent and having her shop the book to publishers one
more time, he ultimately decided on what is called
"print-on-demand" publishing, in which a writer pays to have
his work published and books are printed as orders come in.
"My motivation for that was mostly to see my vision in
print in the way I wanted it and without the long wait for a
publisher," he said.
Goldie also hoped _ and still hopes _ that the book will
generate enough buzz in its current form to elicit interest
from a reputable mainstream publishing house, the way "The
Celestine Prophecy" did for self-published author James
Redfield in the mid-1990s.
"In 1995, a large publisher (Warner Books) picked up
'Celestine' and ran with it, and it became a phenomenon,"
Goldie said. "I am kind of dreaming of getting grass-roots
interest in my book in the same way."
Abbie Kealy, a television producer from Reisterstown and
one of the book's early fans, would be surprised if that
didn't happen.
"The world is ready for a book like 'Waking Maya,' " Kealy
said. "Reflecting both the times and Goldie's experience, it's
as much about his own inner journey as the main character's
spiritual survival. He has penned a great read for people who
consider themselves spiritual but not religious."
Goldie hopes other people agree.
"I really think the book has something to offer, and I hope
people read it," he said.
The book is available through Amazon.com, Borders.com,
BN.com and Xlibris.com, and can be ordered through bookstores
or by calling 1-888-795-4274.
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