At first, I was desperate for meaning. That’s
what got me started. As a depressed young adult, fraught with existential angst
and across the board over-thinking, I was never satisfied by life. I wasn’t in
direct contact with the world, so I couldn’t be fed by it. When I created a
manuscript, I introduced something into my experience that mattered to me—a new
element that penetrated the layers of insulation I’d gathered around myself to
stay safe.
However therapeutic, this era of writing was
marked by a distinct lack of expertise. When I eventually began to build a
skill set, I added in another motive—making money without having to work a
regular job—you know, getting all sweaty, being bossed around, keeping regular
hours. Not surprisingly, I failed to manage anything close to making a living
writing. Perhaps I sustain a large-scale writing project as a hobby. Nope. It
simply didn’t provide enough reward to motivate me.
Eventually, I had something to say, and the tools
to say it. Then the early motives dropped away.
I’ve learned to appreciate the glorious nature of
being with ordinary life experience just as it is—yielding gracefully to it
when I can, and always being mindful to whatever there is to be mindful to.
(This is a cure for mood disorders, by the way. Feel anxious about what might
happen? Step away from that and orient yourself to the here and now, where the
scary future is not happening).
The moment may be sufficient these days, and I
may not need to write or generate drunk monkey busy-mindedness to escape it,
but nonetheless I feel a continuous urge to create and serve others by adding
something meaningful to their moments.
In a sense, I write due to attrition. I tried
pretty much everything else and writing survived the process. I was a
professional athlete, a storeowner, a spiritual mentor, a singer/songwriter,
rich, poor, a Southerner, a New Englander, a Texan, a Californian, an
ex-patriate, a factory worker, a road crew laborer, a taxi driver, a carpenter,
a world traveler, a hippie, and too many others to list. As I worked my way
through what didn’t match who I was—what was based on flawed ideas about
myself—I zeroed in on psychotherapy and writing.
They both draw helpful, intriguing, fun things
out of me from all levels of my being. Whatever difficulties I’ve endured, I
can spread the learning associated with these in both realms. In my work as a
therapist, this might entail direct sharing or role modeling. With writing,
it’s usually in the background—the settings, a given character’s perspective,
or the details of how my protagonist changes over the course of the plot.
Some people really do change, sometimes
dramatically, in a short period of time, especially when a conspiracy of
dramatic, unexpected events swirl around them as they do in Blood and Wisdom,
my new PI mystery.
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Title: BLOOD & WISDOM
Genre: Mystery/PI Novel
Author: Verlin Darrow
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
About the Book:
When
Private Investigator Karl Gatlin takes on Aria Piper’s case, it was no more
than a threat—phone calls warning Aria to either “stop doing Satan’s work” or
meet an untimely demise. But a few hours
later, a headless John Doe bobs up in the wishing well at Aria’s New Age
spiritual center near Santa Cruz. Aria
had ideas about who could be harassing her, but the appearance of a dismembered
body makes for a real game changer. And
what Karl Gatlin initially thought was a fairly innocuous case turns out to be
anything but.
Dispatching
former rugby superstar and Maori friend John Ratu to protect Aria, Karl and his
hacker assistant Matt are free to investigate a ruthless pastor, a money
launderer on the run, some sketchy members of Aria’s flock, and warring drug
gangs. With his dog Larry as a wingman,
Karl uncovers a broad swath of corruption, identity theft, blackmail, and more
murders. But nothing is as it seems, and as the investigation heats up, Karl is
framed, chased, and forced to dive into the freezing water of the Monterey Bay
to escape a sniper.
Against
the backdrop of a ticking clock, Karl races to find answers. But more murders
only mean more questions—and Karl is forced to make an impossible choice when
it turns out Aria’s secret may be the most harrowing of all…
An
intelligent, intense and engaging tale, Blood
and Wisdom races from the opening scene to the final page. Brimming with colorful, multi-dimensional
characters, wit, humor, and a taut storyline, Blood and Wisdom is filled with twists, turns, and surprises. Novelist Verlin Darrow, a practicing
psychotherapist, infuses Blood and Wisdom
with fascinating details about psychology and metaphysics, and seamlessly
blends elements of hardboiled and softboiled detective fiction. With its original premise, smart plotting,
to-die-for redwood-studded coastal Santa Cruz and Big Sur setting, and
protagonist like no other, Blood and
Wisdom is a pitch-perfect PI novel.
Blood and Wisdom has garnered high
advance praise. According to Richard
House, MD, author of Between Now and When, "Darrow
has a sense of plot and style that carries the reader forward into that special
place of anxious expectation, the place where putting the book down is
unthinkable. Fascinating.” C.I. Dennis,
author of the Vince Tanzi series, including Tanzi’s
Luck, praises Blood and Wisdom for
its “great pace, fun characters who you care about, plenty of twists, and
narrative personality.”
About the Author:
Verlin
Darrow is a psychotherapist who was patted on the head by Einstein, nearly
blown up by Mt. St. Helens, survived the 1985 8.0 Mexico City earthquake, and,
so far, has successfully weathered numerous internal disasters. He lives with
his psychotherapist wife in Northern California. They diagnose each other as
necessary.
Connect with Verlin
Darrow:
