The Northfield (MN) author’s book, Spirit Song: Cape of the Red Jaguar (CreateSpace), is the story of a young anthropologist from Minnesota who searches for the Sacred Cape of the Red Jaguar deep in the Venezuelan rain forest. Kidnapped and sold to a tribal chief who sees her as the fulfillment of the prophecy surrounding the cape, she is rescued by a dark-haired, green-eyed doctor who happens to be a powerful shaman. As a dormant volcano explodes, the two of them race toward safety down the treacherous Rio Caroni.
But a deeper mystery awaits them. Shamanic attacks by a dark sorcerer push them toward a discovery in the Inca Temple of the Sun, five hundred years and fifteen hundred miles from where it should be in Cusco, Peru. Deep in the tunnels under the gold-covered Solar Drum, they make a discovery that could not only solve an ancient mystery, but change lives, and shatter beliefs — and are given a mission that will affect the Earth and put them in danger from those who wish to stop them.
What, or who, inspired you to become a writer?
Sherry Janes: One of my first spiritual teachers and I were talking one day about what direction I should go next. This would have been 1988 or 1989, after I had moved to the Phoenix area. Out of the blue, he said, “Have you ever thought about being a famous novelist?” The way he said it made me realize he’d seen something about my future. At that point, I had not thought about it just the way he said it, but I was already writing little stories and poems. Because it was someone I trusted who said it, I began to think more seriously about it.
SJ: In the early ’90s, I received a big push. I began to get the beginning of a story, seeing it as a movie that just ran in my head and kept going, over and over. Finally, I decided to write it down and hoped that maybe it would stop. I wrote it down and that part stopped, but more came, then more and more, until I had a book. I really learned how to write doing that, and realized I needed some classes and feedback, if I was really going to publish it.
Why do you write in the genre that you’ve chosen?
SJ: I have immersed myself in metaphysics, energy healing, and spirituality for 35 years, so it was natural that it would find its way into my writing. I began with the Edgar Cayce Readings and was very involved with his work for some years, here in Minnesota. I learned a few different types of energy healing until I found Christa Healing, a form of spiritual healing, which is far and away the best and most powerful method of spiritual healing I’ve found. If people understood how this could help them, they’d be lining up.
Finally, I realized this is what my particular mission is, to write about these topics in a fun way, doing it just as I had been doing it, writing about characters people would love, and stories that made them keep the light on longer at night, so I just kept going. I truly didn’t know just what genre it was going to be in the beginning stages, other than fiction.
I’m surprised at how many people love this kind of fiction. And now that it is 2012, we are all facing a tremendous shift that will send us into the first true spiritual dimension. Seeds in the Blood, the second in the Spirit Song series, deals with that.
What has been your most rewarding experience while in the writing process?
SJ: Years ago, while writing down that movie in my head that kept playing, I mentioned it to a friend. She wanted to see it. I very reluctantly gave her the first 30 pages and she loved it so much that she eventually decided to be a literary agent, and my book was read by New York editors who had nice things to say, but they weren’t buying. Even so, that entire experience was so confidence building, it kept me writing. That is the kind of friends writers need.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?
SJ: In addition to Seeds in the Blood coming out soon, because I became so interested in the rain forest while writing Cape of the Red Jaguar, a certain percentage, or dollar amount from the sale of each book, will be donated to an organization that works to save the rain forest. And stay tuned. There will be a third book in the Spirit Song series.
Spirit Song, Cape of the Red Jaguar, by Sherry Janes, will be featured in Cold Coffee Writer’s Magazine in the Fall 2012 Edition. For more information on author Sherry Janes, visit www.sherryjanes.com or email sajanes@earthlink.net.
