The Great Day of His Wrath 1851-3, John Martin

My beta readers are split on their opinions of The Darkness Within. Three think it is amazing. Two have been made deeply uncomfortable. They all agree it is not a traditional Regency, but I knew that.

The comments are all helpful, particular those about what people didn’t like. I’ve been rewriting the blurb to warn those who probably shouldn’t read this, and writing an author note to address some of the questions raised.

The question the process left me with was why I wrote this, and why now and why this way?

As you know if you’ve been following me for a while, I write by the seat of my pants, following the idea that next occurs to me. I can blame the plot elves, but the truth is that my muse responds to what is happening around me, in my own life, that of my friends, and in the world at large.

The Darkness Within takes place largely within a cult that isolates itself from the world, where the leader and his most senior disciples practice mind control, where dissension and doubts are socially unacceptable, and where happiness is mandatory.

On the surface, everything looks fine. Bland, as one of my beta readers pointed out, but fine. But underneath? The darkness within, as the title says.

When everyone agrees about everything, some of the people are either lying or having their minds controlled. It’s unhealthy. It’s scary. It’s not sustainable.

I was not aware, while I was writing, that I was making a social comment on the condition of a world that appears to be fracturing into disconnected realities, some of them less fact-based than others. Looking back, I see that I was.

I was also talking about what happens when a reality that has become divorced from the world at large collides with unpalatable facts. Some people need to be held accountable. Some can change. Some simply can’t live without the reality they believed in.

We can’t afford to become so rigid in our thinking that we are threatened when others believe differently, especially when our sense of community and the respect of our friends and family depends on a belief that is plain wrong.

We need to remain curious, to ask questions, to keep learning. And if, like the people in my fictional community of Heaven, asking question is likely to get us into deep trouble, there’s another question we should be asking.

Who is profiting from keeping us ignorant and obedient?

In The Darkness Within, it is the One. He is the best dressed, the best housed, and he’s making a mint. Even more, he is in command. Everyone believes him. Everyone adores him.

No wonder he doesn’t want anyone asking questions.