FROM A POST ON DEVIANT ART

To follow me on DeviantArt see the following link:

https://www.deviantart.com/martenhoyle

This is an announcement post I just made on my DeviantArt platform.

My Poetry Trilogy, SYMPHONIYA DE TOSKA has been accepted for publication by Wheelsong Books.


What happened was, Steve Wheeler (who runs Wheelsong Books) had approached me about possibly publishing my work. I sent it to him and he sent me an acceptance letter. However, the book(s) will not appear in the form of a trilogy but as a poetry chapter book in three acts: Something akin the actual "silent symphony" that the story is.


SYMPHONIYA DE TOSKA tells the story of a nameless narrator whose lover has been unfaithful. In the First Act (titled WILL after Schopenhauer's "Will to Live"), the narrator commits suicide. A journey to the underworld sets the second scene of Act One. In the end, our narrator is reborn...and enters into what Nietzsche called, "The Eternal Recurrence." He must live his life again, and thus, relive his lover's infidelity.


However, in act 2, something different occurs. He does not commit suicide. He lives through the grief and prays his lover will return. In the final act, TO DIE INSIDE A DREAM, we go with him through the five stages of mourning with the repeated title, "Alone" appearing throughout the story.


I do not know when the book will be available for purchase. I will keep everybody updated. It is an odd feeling. I have been writing consistently for the last twenty-eight years. The last twenty of those twenty-eight years were spent writing tragedies in the Poetic Form. This is what I have wanted the entire time. I am doing now what 99.99% of writers only dream of doing: signing a book deal. And I could not feel more grateful.


Currently, I am working on a new collection titled AT THE EGLANTINE HOME FOR THE POETICALLY UNSOUND, which is where "Marten Hoyle's" Vate C. Carmen lives.


I like to think that, if there is such a thing as The Eternal Recurrence, it is not a complete repetition of the past life but that certain events will be different with each succeeding rebirth. Then again, chances are, death is just the end. Nobody can tell us if there is anything after death because the dead do not speak. I should know: All my life long I have been surrounded by death and loss. "Love, Loss and Longing." The Three L's of my writing as I call it.


I will continue to post poems here on DeviantArt until such time as my publisher tells me that I am not allowed to anymore. I am sure that will come as the publishing contract is drawn up, but in the meantime, I intend to use this platform the way I always have for the last ten years: Sharing my work for free.


What will I do with my DeviantArt page once I am no longer "permitted" to post poetry here? I do not know.


Anyway, thank you for reading this post. I will continue to give updates on the process of the publication of SYMPHONIYA DE TOSKA, which is a mixed-language title essentially translating to "The Symphony of Sorrows." TOSKA being a Russian word that describes a deep sense of sadness--a sense of sadness so deep that no word in the English language can properly translate it.


I was thinking about my greatest influence, Anna-Varney Cantodea of Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows. When I discovered her music nearly 14 years ago, I decided that I wanted to be a full-time writer. And now I know why. Anna-Varney is transgender, and gives me a sense of maternity. My own mother abandoned me when I was a child and I was raised primarily by my grandmother. I never felt a maternal sense from my grandmother. But I think Anna-Varney Cantodea gives me that sense: S/he is a motherly figure to me that I can look up and relate to. The trans part of her is what is most precious to me. My father (who I love and miss very much) was a bisexual drag queen. However, his trans-identity was robbed from him, beaten out of him and scared out of him at an early age. He lived in repression his entire life. I think that is why he always encouraged me to embrace my sexual identity and express it through my work. Nobody should have to live in the closet. Nobody. My father's case is like so many others: Falling into addiction, jail time and eventually suicide. I witnessed my father's suicide, but that is another story entirely for another day.


Like I said, I will keep you all posted on SYMPHONIYA DE TOSKA's progress into the professional world. It feels odd that I am employed now. And I'm working my dream job. But par of me (the schizotypal part of me that fears change) wants to get hold of Mr. Wheeler and cancel the deal so that my life can remain the same. That is ridiculous, I know. But I fear change: Even when it is going to be for the better.


--Vate C. Carmen
(2517)