Hilaryon Stories

The world of Hilaryon is a place adjacent to our world, where imagination is unleashed and the unexpected given free rein. It is a meeting place for Sigmund Freud, Johann Sebastian Bach, a very young Adolph Hitler - but also for a Triton, a Cloud Butterfly, and a talking fennec. It's a world where the past is uncovered and re-imagined; where trauma is healed through art and magic; where lives and loves intersect in fresh patterns. It is possible that Hilaryon is more a state of possibilities and probabilities than a planet - but it has allowed me to explore how deep loss can be healed and why, when in doubt, frolicking is the best thing to do. The book is about finding one's home in the heart - below that loss and longing we all carry. When Johan Sebastian Bach is drawn to Hilaryon by his longing, he is taught how to heal his grief about the loss of his ten children, his parents and his wife. Much of this education happens within the pyramid Sakkara, who (she is female) has a secret underground room where you never know what happens. A talking fennec also plays a role in sharing an animal's view of healing the loss of a mother. In some strange way it is also the story of how the old feud between Pharaoh and Moses in the Old Testament is echoed on this rarefied level of existence; how a mysterious staff whirls some of the Hilaryoners into other times and spaces where they learn to relate to the dark hatred in the feud. An eleven year old girl and boy - Leaf and Mo - have to find a way through this old hatred in themselves. The story describes how poetry, storytelling, stitching, making music and art heals our deepest wounds - and how some people have difficulty finding where they belong: the earth -or the water-element. Maybe most of all, it is about the power of music to transform. The book has musical interludes with links to the original performers on YouTube. And if the book can teach some readers the joy of frolicking in green grass, the author's greatest wish is fulfilled.