From "The Three Feathers - A Spiritual Journey"

This is a small excerpt from the first draft of "The Three Feathers - A Spiritual Journey", the companion to "The Three Feathers". In it, we follow Joshua's quest as it symbolizes our own journey of Self discovery.

Imprisonment and Freedom – “Jump”
Once we have answered the call from our Self that reaches us from beyond time and space to go out and search for it; once we have committed ourselves to the journey into the unknown, we will inevitably come to the point where we begin the descent into the world of the unconscious mind. And just like Joshua did not want to enter Hollow’s Gate, we don’t really want to go down there either. We think we want what’s waiting for us on the other side but we don’t yet want to do what’s necessary. We are still paying lip service to ourselves. “Of course I want peace. Of course I want love. Of course I want to be happy.” We are at a point in the journey where we think we want those things but are not aware of the large iceberg beneath the surface that simply says ‘no’. The journey we are about to undertake is the exploration of that iceberg, the area that lies beneath the surface. Everything that is hidden from us and only visible when we know where to look, lies there. All that we have kept from ourselves; all the beliefs in us that stand in the way of accepting who we are in truth—our belief in smallness, in our own frailty, our vulnerability, our lack, our needs and wants, our puny grievances and pity angers. All that lies there. And we know it is there. No wonder we don’t want to get anywhere near it.

Joshua and Grey fall into Hollow’s Gate—a world 5,000 feet below the surface—during their attempt to free Wind, a Pegasus, from her imprisonment. And so it happens to us at some point: We find ourselves free falling with no idea where we are about to go, only sensing on the periphery that it’s going to be huge and scary and will hopefully not cost us our lives. As for Krieg, he did not fall. He jumped. The small section in the book after Krieg and Wind escape to the surface is worth mentioning here. It is about limitations and the almost impossible conflict within ourselves of both the wish and the tremendous fear to leave them behind. When we first ask the question if there could possibly be more to us than flesh and skin and bones we, for the smallest of moments, question our limitations. We stop believing in them for an instant and what could be—what is there hidden deep within us—looks up to the heavens and senses that there must be something in us that is greater than the sum of our parts. Then we cast our eyes down again and continue with our ‘normal’ lives.

Wind gives Krieg an outlook on his life that he did not know was possible. He always believed that he would be a war horse until the end. He thought that he was who he was—an old horse at the end of its life—and that nothing could ever change that. When he first agreed to help Joshua on his journey, he changed his own destiny. And when he meets Wind, she introduces him to the next chapter in his life. It is the chapter of questioning his limitations. He didn't realize that he had prepared for this moment for a long time and throughout all his struggles. In fact, his struggles were, in a sense, the preparation. They instilled in him the wish to be free of them. The struggles gave him the motivation to make the leap and jump.

In this section, Wind tells Krieg about how she has gotten her wings. The wings in the story are symbols for the freedom from limitations. She talks about the legend of the flying horses and how people have interpreted it wrongly in the past. Krieg had thought all his life that Pegasus foals came out of the womb complete with wings attached and ready to fly. Wind tells him however that they do not have wings at birth. They can’t fly initially even though flying is their birth right. “Don’t you know that we are horses?... We are horses that learned to go past our limitations. We have been given the chance to fly, to leave behind all that limits us and soar with the eagles high above the earth. We have been given freedom...” Wind indicates that it is a long and hard road to letting go of one’s limitations and to learn how to fly. The horses in Hollow’s Gate 1000 years prior to Joshua and his friends coming onto the scene not only have to learn how to fly. They have to learn how to grow wings. They have to overcome something that is embedded into their DNA. That’s why the sky people served the Pegasus in the City of Light Ruins. The Pegasus were advanced beings because they knew what it took to let go of one’s limitations and reach far beyond their little selves.

Questioning our limitations is an enormous task. Thankfully we don’t have to do more than that. We can’t abolish them but we can acknowledge them gently and look at them kindly and in doing so, pass through them to the other side. Our limitations are not the problem. It is our belief in them that is the problem. We believe that our limitations will, in fact, keep us from reaching our goal of peace. They can’t. As Wind says to Krieg: “Your limitations, you must not believe them. You must not fuel them with doubt about yourself. You must know they are not and have never been part of you. You must know yourself. And not only must you know yourself you must love it as well. Deep within, you must love… you.” We don’t have to work on loving ourselves. Our Self is love. We only have to question that which we put in between ourselves and love. We have to question our limitations because any limitation we experience is a limitation we placed between ourselves and our full awareness of love’s presence.

Krieg’s jump into the unknown is equivalent to our questioning our own limitations. This is not a one-time thing. For Krieg getting his wings is the beginning of his final journey. There is still work for him to do. He can still go further and so can we. But we can begin to realize, in time, that what awaits us on the other side of our limitations is freedom. We can “soar with the eagles high above.” We are not bound to what holds us down, holds us back, stops of from crossing the seeming chasm between how we see ourselves now and who we are in truth. We can begin to question the limited awareness we have of ourselves, of others, and of the world. We can grow our own wings, in time. The horses learning to fly in the story is our equivalent of seeing ourselves and the world from a completely different plain field. We can look down at the battlefield of our lives and, from up here, look at it with kindness and smile a little bit at the silliness of it all, rather than hold ourselves down in seemingly eternal imprisonment.

One more aspect here is worth mentioning, I think. Wind’s imprisonment was voluntary. She thought she had done something horrific, almost 1000 years ago during the time when the mines were still open and the sky people began to misuse their power. She thought she had betrayed her people in a selfish act and for that she chose to be petrified in stone. We think the same way. We believe, deep down inside, that we have done something unforgivable. To make this very practical, we think it is our selfishness that is unforgivable. And no giving to charity or helping others or trying to be selfless, makes us feel better other than temporarily. That belief is hidden so deep within us that we are not even aware of it. We are only aware of the limitations we now experience in our lives—in our body, in relationships with others, in our career or our home. However, those limitations have nothing to do with the outside world. The limitations are internal. They are the limitations we put in place in order to not experience love, in order to not see ourselves as completely forgiven. The limitations are our maladaptive solution to a non existing problem. We will return to this topic a bit later on but for now, let’s see what happens when we fall, or jump, into the unknown and enter the treacherous domain of the unconscious mind.

Another Very Nice Review

"An excellent read. In just 200 pages, the author weaves a fascinating (and unpredictable) fable filled with richly textured characters, breathtaking landscapes and everything you'd expect in a solid action-adventure/fantasy-type story. But the book also has a lot more depth than your typical Dungeons-n-Dragons tale. The cast of characters is truly unique, as are their relationships with each other. And you KNOW there's gonna be a sequel because the backdrop of the story is just so rich it's begging to be fleshed out and explored some more. If you dig the work of C.S.Lewis, George Lucas or J.R.R. Tolkien, you'll dig this. Pick this one up." [-Ric]

The Second Searcher - The Prequel to The Three Feathers

Day 1

For a long time there was darkness. Thoughts of comfort and warmth enveloped her, telling her of things she did not yet understand. The one who thought to her was never absent for long from her mind. And after a while she reached out as well, first brushing against the other’s mind with hers, then staying longer until there was a bond between them. There, in the mind of her mother, she saw images of a world beyond the darkness. It was a world bright and green and vast. Slowly she became aware of voices outside. They were softly spoken, far and close but never distant. One in particular spoke to her always. There was excitement. Laughter. Then a melody, sung to her quietly at times and loud at others. And when her mind reached out to the one who spoke and sang to her, it embraced hers within it instantly.

Then suddenly there was pressure on her body. The voices outside became louder, more urgent. Her heart rate increased until her mother’s thoughts reminded her, assured her silently that all was well. The light came; flickering at first, breaking through the dark and creating patterns inside her eyelids. She welcomed the cool air and took her first breath willingly, inhaling deeply the scent of it. When she opened her eyes, she could not focus on anything at first. But for a moment she saw the darkened shape of her mother’s head against the window and she thought it the most beautiful thing there was. Then the brightness of it all made her close her eyes again. Her mother’s nose nudged her, began to lick her face until it was clean. Experienced hands began to rub down her body. The sun that came through a gap in the wood planks of the stall illuminated them as they worked, as they dried her fur and removed the water bag. She recognized two of the hands, smaller than the others, as belonging to the one who had sung and spoken to her. She felt her joy as they went very methodically up and down her spine and over her head cleaning it from any remaining residue of her birth.

When she stood up, the girl wanted to help her but the old man gently held her back so that she could get on her feet by herself. She had to sit back down several times before she could stand. And when she stood she swayed back and forth, adjusting her hooves on the floor trying to hold her balance. After a while she took an uncertain step. Then another and yet another after that. Her ivory coat began to dry and her mouth found her mother’s belly and she stilled her hunger. And throughout it all she heard her mother say one word in her thoughts over and over again. She did not know what it meant and she would not hear it again until much later, until almost a full year had passed. But at that moment she heard it and she knew it was her name. And her name was Wind.

Another Wonderful Review, This Time In German

Celebration Of The Arts

Come out for a reading of excerpts from The Three Feathers at Hasbrouck Park, New Paltz, NY. The reading will begin at 11AM. Be prepared to be transported into the world of Joshua Aylong and his companions on their quest to find the three feathers.

Joshua Made the Newspaper

Below is an interview with Lori Childers, owner of BlueStone Press - a local newspaper with global reach.

Lori: Stefan, congratulations on your book. From what you have told me so far it sounds very intriguing. I have to ask you… its main character is a rooster. Can you tell us a little bit about the story?

Stefan: Thanks, Lori. The story is about Joshua Aylong, a rooster, who lives a comfortable life in his pen doing what rooster do, protecting the hens, settling quarrels, and calling out each new day. One night while all the other chickens are asleep in the coop he realizes that there must be more to life than what’s in front of him each day. Something is missing and one day Joshua musters all his courage, pushes away his fear and doubt, flies up onto the highest perch inside the pen and, to the amazement of the other chickens, spreads his wings and flies out and into freedom. Little did he know that what he was about to encounter would change his life forever.

 Lori: Would you tell us why you chose a rooster as your main character. Why not any other animal or person?

Stefan: This might sound strange but I didn’t choose him to be the main character. I didn’t wake up one morning thinking that I had to finally write that story about a rooster I have been contemplating for so long. The story, and Joshua, came about in a most unlikely setting: a sand box.

Lori: A sandbox?

Please continue reading at http://www.bluestonepress.net/stories/Stefan-Bolzs-The-Three-Feathers,27

A Very Nice Recommendation by a 4th Grade Teacher

Last spring, I had the opportunity to read aloud Stefan Bolz’s book The Three Feathers prior to its official publication, thanks to the suggestion of one of my students.  Although it is not the type of book and genre that I typically choose for my own personal reading, I make it a point to read a variety of text types aloud in class, and we hadn't yet read and discussed a fable.  Throughout the reading of the story, I found it to be very well-written and engaging, and so did my class of fourth graders.  We all enjoyed getting to know the characters and reading about the friendship that develops between them, as well as making predictions about what the characters were going to encounter and how they were going to get out of dangerous and difficult situations. 

 In a class of students with mixed reading abilities, I found that all were able to enjoy hearing the story at their own level of understanding.  Some students were able to interpret and discuss the book’s message and theme, and others just enjoyed the humorous and suspenseful moments that occur throughout the text.  As an adult reader, I found that the book reminded me a lot of The Lord of the Rings stories, and I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys that series. 

Sincerely,

Maggie Kievit

"The Fourth Sage" - Prologue

Hi everyone, it's Aries. I have very little time. I'm hiding out in one of the secondary air ducts of my building. I'm being pursued by drones that have been ordered to eliminate an 'imminent threat to corporate security'. In short, it's me they are after. But I do have time to document everything so that none of this will ever happen again. I am uploading the first couple of entries. It is written by a dear friend of mine who has agreed to take what I have scribbled, from drawings and notes, decipher it and  convert it into a file most of you will hopefully be able to read on your computer. Stay tuned for updates. And watch your dreams. Always watch your dreams. My apologies but I need to go. They are coming.

* * *
Aries closes the book, holds it in her hands for a while longer. She feels the worn leather cover under her fingers, traces the remnants of the now undecipherable title. The outline of three feathers in its center is almost completely gone, so are the two eyes of the Lioness above it. Only slight indentations are left. But when Aries closes her eyes she can still see them. Sometimes she thinks she can almost feel her presence through the pages. But the reason for that might be a logical one: She had read the book close to a dozen times. Not that she is allowed to do that. If she were to be caught with it, there would be rather serious repercussions for her. The L.O.C.—the ‘Law of the Corporation’—demands house arrest and additional work hours for first-time offenders. But she isn't a first-time offender. She isn't even a second-time offender. For her it would be the third time. She would be in prison for up to a month.

For this kind of crime children under 16 years of age are punished more drastically than adults. Aries could never figure out the logic behind this but she assumed it was because children were still thought to be more open to ideas that were out of the ordinary and didn't fit into the ‘educational schedule’ of the Corporation. And to think that this book was considered part of the history of her people and was taught in what had been called ‘schools’ for the first 800 years after her civilization arose from the ashes when the beacon was activated on the other side of a worm hole, far across the space time continuum.

Her wrist watch begins to flash and vibrate slightly. 90 seconds. A touch on the screen of the watch changes the walls of her room from an image of a forest to a regular room with a large window showing the skyline of what looks like the high rises of a city in the distance.

83 seconds. In truth there are no windows in her room. She crouches down to the ground, moves her futon over what, right now, still looks like the forest floor. In one of the corners she lifts up a thin plate that covers a larger, rectangular opening. She crawls inside. She had wondered in the past, like she does now, how long she would still fit in there. She is slim for a fifteen-year-old but knows that one day the ducts will not allow her to roam the building any longer. 60 seconds. The high resolution display of her watch begins to pulsate in one second increments. About eight feet into the air duct she turns on her back looking up. The secondary air duct, perpendicular to this one, disappears into its self reflecting mirror image far up in the building.

Two hundred and twenty two stories high. Nearly sixty thousand souls. Aries lives in the first tier, the inner core of the cylindrically shaped building. Too warm in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. The sixth tier has natural light coming through small openings in the outer shell. No normal person can afford it. Her parents couldn’t. They lived in the fifth tier for five years. Aries often feels that natural light will always be out of reach for her. When her parents died two years ago—four days before her 12^th birthday—she became a ‘Ward of the State’. Of course this is an ancient expression long since abandoned as antiquated. There are no more states. For over 200 years now, this city, this country and the world she lives in, has been owned, managed, and run, by corporations.

36 seconds. She pries open a panel in the secondary air duct. Behind it sits the Raytheon, a digital conductor generating the power to sterilize the air duct every so often. It kills bacteria and any viruses that are in the air supply in four seconds. As a side effect it kills any life form that is still in the duct system when the random generator activates the conductor. It has been rumored that the primary function of the air duct sterilizers is to prevent the inhabitants of the 2900 foot high building from escaping to the outside world. But those are rumors and as such open to interpretation.

28 seconds. She pushes the book behind the conductor, closes the panel. After she had lived in tier one for nine months she had accomplished two things: first, she hacked into the main frame computer of her complex and, from the room cameras that records everyone’s life 24/7 (for security purposes, of course) she had found a way to create a loop each day for exactly one hour. For one hour per day she does not have to be in her room or in any of the parts of the building that are under constant surveillance. She can roam the air ducts. Secondly, she figured out how to calculate the intervals between the cleanings of the ducts and manage to be a few minutes ahead of it. Of course there is no guarantee. Her calculations are 99.7% accurate. The other 0.3% is a risk she is willing to take. In her estimation, there are six hours and 32 minutes to the next ‘cleaning’. But the video loop will hold only for 18 more seconds. She turns on her stomach slides backwards pushing off with her hands. The green screen of her watch pulsates in the semi darkness of the duct. Her feet reach the opening. Seven seconds. Her knees come out. She lifts up her stomach to not get caught on her belt lock.

Three seconds. Her head is out. She closes the panel, pushes the futon back into the corner and slumps down on it. Zero seconds. Her wrist watch goes dark. She is ‘live’. She grabs her pad. There is still homework to do. “The Moral Code” being one of the subjects. Even though she calls it “The Immoral Code” as it follows from the basic premise that there cannot be privacy (again for security purposes) and there cannot be choice when it comes to education, food, clothing, and social contacts. Those are things from the past, a past that approaches its 200^th year anniversary. That was the time when ‘freedom for all’ had lost its final battle with ‘power to a few’.

She had found ‘The Three Feathers’ in one of the black markets that began to establish themselves after the book ban about 175 years ago. In order to get it she needed to trade two AI/RSC-13 chips. They weren’t just any chips. They were Artificial Intelligence/Retina Scanner chips. Built into a small case of, let’s say, a wrist watch, you could reach places in the building normal people would never be able to go to. With a device that has the AI/RSC-13 chip in it, you could even reach the outer most tier. To be caught with the chips would mean death penalty. But she never actually was in possession of them. They were hidden away in one of the air ducts and she just provided the location to the book dealer in exchange for it.

Since she had read the book for the first time, Aries had felt something that she had never allowed herself to feel in the past. Since her parents’ death, she was on manage mode. ‘Do not show any weakness whatsoever’. The AI computer analyses each frame of video surveillance and decides what steps need to be taken. Weakness will not be tolerated. Especially in kids. Strength and pride are two of the pillars of the C.E.S., short for Corporate Education System. She gives them what they want. She never, ever, ever shows them her weakness. For 23 hours a day she is strong for them. But for one hour per day she allows herself to feel. And sometimes—mostly after reading—she cries. She cries for her mother and her father and she cries for her freedom and she cries for all the other children with her that are Wards of the State and that landed on the outskirts of a society that had gone too far in the wrong direction. She knows something needs to change. She can feel it in every fiber of her being.

How can the human spirit be captured? How can it be diminished almost to extinction? How can it be made so small and almost insignificant that the thought of fighting for it is nothing but an idea and easily dismissed as foolish? She had asked herself these questions many times over. She knows the answer. She knows that whoever, whatever stands behind the Corporations has perfected it and has made it their goal, pursuing it with any means necessary: To break the human spirit. To hold it prisoner. And eventually to extinguish it completely. And suddenly she knows she needs to do something about it.

Short synopsis

Hi everyone, it's Stefan,
first of all, I know for a fact that Joshua and his friends are preparing several great new entries in the blog. Wind will speak about her adventure, the prelude to Joshua's story, which happened 1000 years prior to the arrival of our heroes in Hollow's Gate. It will shed light on Wind's story and how she learned to let go of her limitations and learned to fly. Pegasus foals go through years of rigorous training before they can make the long pilgrimage up the dreaded and feared circular Path Of No Return, along the walls of Hollow's Gate, passing through the gate of time, to strengthen their resolve to eventually let go of their limitations and learn how to fly. This will be either book two or three, depending on which one is done first. Aries, our heroine from the sequel of Joshua's journey, which is set 1000 years after Joshua's adventure, will have some insights into what will be happening in her story. The entries will appear in the next couple of weeks.

On another note, it has been very busy here at "The Three Feathers" headquarters. There are many book stores to visit, book signings to set up, author's days to plan. No rest for scribes, right? I have been working on a letter to Barnes & Noble to see if Joshua's journey can be available in their stores. Would be awesome, don't you think? Here is what I came up with for a synopsis of the story, as part of the letter to them:

The hero of this magnificent story is Joshua Aylong, a rooster. Joshua lives a relatively comfortable life amongst the hens and chicks of his flock, protecting them from predators, settling their quarrels and calling out each new day at precisely 4:45 AM – until one night when he has a dream about three feathers somewhere deep inside a mountain. The dream stirs something inside him; something he can neither explain nor even fully grasp. He just knows that despite his fear and his sense of foreboding and of danger, he has to go out and find them.

And then one day, when the call to adventure becomes unbearable to him, when the bleakness of his existence grows to be too much to endure, he collects all his courage, pushes away his doubts, jumps up to the highest perch inside his pen and, to the amazement of the other chickens, spreads his wings and flies out. If Joshua would have known what awaited him, the magnitude of his leap into freedom, he might have stayed and therefore not endured all the hardships, the danger, the perilous quest and the overwhelming force of evil he was about to encounter. But he also would not have found the magnificent friends he made on his journey. And he certainly would not have found the one he was destined to meet all along.

More soon. Keep your fingers crossed and your mind open. And (I'm channeling Joshua now) watch your dreams. Always watch your dreams.

Very best wishes,

Stefan 

A Short But Sweet Review

Diane B. Silverberg about "The Three Feathers": "It is one of the most spell-binding, teeth grinding, holding your breath new books out there. A surprise read that should not be missed."

Interview with Stefan by Donnie Light

The Three Feathers – eBook76 Featured Book

I recently had the opportunity to work on a new first novel, “The Three Feathers” by Stefan Bolz. As I gathered the information for the eBook and Print book projects, I became interested in the book and wanted to know more about it. Stefan has graciously accepted an invitation to be interviewed about his novel, and have it be featured on the eBook76.com website.

 Donnie: As I was formatting this book for eBook and Print versions, I read bits and pieces of the story as I was working on it. The story seems very intriguing in concept, so I want to know more! First off, I see that the main character, Joshua Aylong, is a… Rooster. Can you give me the scoop on how this character – and his name came to be?

Please continue reading at Donnie's blog at http://ebook76.com/?p=476

The Labyrinth Of Mirrors

This is a small excerpt from the labyrinth of mirrors, Joshua and Grey's ordeal.

He wandered the endless labyrinth for close to a day. Once in a while he heard the distant howling of the wolf. His heart broke for him and he let out his own rooster crows that echoed eerily through the dark corridors. If they ever reached the wolf he did not know it. In the end he just sank to the ground, exhausted and overwhelmed by the hopelessnes

s of it all. He looked at himself in the mirror, looked at his face, his eyes, his beak. He saw the colors of his tail feathers and the red coloring of his back and wings. He just sat there staring at himself in the mirror for a long time.
The thought came slowly as if approaching from deep inside. It was quiet at first and small. But it gained momentum and at one point Joshua became aware of it.
“There must be a way out.”
Faint still but persistent, the thought grew in strength, and as it grew in strength it grew in hope as well. And suddenly a second thought joined the first.
“We can’t die in here.”
And when this one began to reach his awareness he knew he had to find it in himself to get up.
“Get up.” He thought to himself.
“Get up!” He thought to his mirror image.
“Get UP!”
And then he could no longer dismiss it. He had but one choice—to follow it.
He stood up, let the wave of dizziness wash over him; let the fear and hopelessness take him and pass through him. And then he knew it. There was just no way he would let his friend die. He had to find a way out.

Almost done (by Stefan)

There is a tiny bit of tweaking left on the cover of "The Three Feathers" before the book goes into print. Thank you all so much for your support, your likes, and your encouraging comments. This has been a daunting task. Not so much the actual process of publishing but exposing the world to a part of myself to that extent and the little voice inside my head whispering, "Who do you think you are? You can't write. You can't publish a book. Come on!!" 

I have been thinking about a one-liner that would describe The Three Feathers and what it's about, in a sentence. I found it in Kimberly Llewellyn's review: "...where friendship and love can overcome the most devastating of enemies — doubt in yourself." I think that's it. It's that doubt. Almost never fully conscious and mostly hidden yet always present in one way or another. Are we worthy enough to reach for the stars? Are we good enough, strong enough, brave enough, to go beyond our little self and

 search for something more than what is in front of us each day and every day after this day?

Joshua's search for the three feathers is the search of each of us for this hidden potential that we can sense in ourselves but never really pursue. We get an inclination here and there that there must be more to us. For us. Not crumbs but the whole banquet. And not so much materially but spiritually. Joshua sees, in a dream, what he could be, and from that moment on he cannot but search for it. His is a race against time for he has to find it before the dream fades back into nothingness. But he has limitations. He's not a mighty warrior or an athlete or a rocket scientist. He can't really fly. He can't do anything yet. All he can do is jump out of his pen (barely) and begin the journey, trusting that whatever it is he needs to know will be given him on his quest. Once he leaves though, he can't go back. He has to go through with it, however hard it is.

There are a lot of times throughout the journey when Joshua and his friends are faced with two choices: push through or die. The often perilous quest moves them toward its inevitable destination where each of them has a chance to find what they were looking for. But they can only make it together. They have to hold each other's hopes and keep them safe, otherwise the journey itself, the environment they are in, will just break them down one by one and obliterate them completely. The opposing forces are the guardians of sleep, trying to stop us from awakening to our true potential. Hollow's Gate, the land Joshua and his friends must travel through, is in and of itself an opposing force, trying to stop them from ever reaching their goal. Such is life, be that a rooster's or a human's.


This should have been just a small update and here we are going deep into the story (of life).

Back to "reality" ;-),

Stefan

A small scene about Krieg's experience in the war

“What is your name?” Joshua asked after a moment.

“Krieg,” the war horse answered.

“What does it mean, Krieg?”

“It means ‘war’. Just ‘war’. I was bred for the war, born during the war and trained for battle.

“Is that where all your scars come from?” Joshua asked.

The horse looked toward the dark horizon, lost in his thoughts.

“I have seen death and too much of it. On the battlefields of Toloose where men fought men for land that belonged to neither. For riches that held no value other than a handful of sand that amounted to nothing. I saw blood there that ran like crimson rivers across the charred soil. It spilled from brothers and fathers and sons, from big hearts and small ones and the blood of each flowed into the others’ and in death they became one once again and they forgot why it was they had fought.”

He turned toward Joshua and the Wolf. “I just want peace. I do not wish to fight for my life anymore. I’m too old. Too tired. Soon. Soon, I will follow my fathers’ path into the great vast grasslands where the sun never sets and the water is plenty, and where there is peace for all living things. Until then, I am in your debt, Joshua. In both of yours."

Perfection is not necessary

“Joshua,” Wind’s thoughts came to him like a warm ray of sun on a cold and dreary day. “Perfection was never necessary. Willingness was. And of that you have plenty. Your heart is open and that is all. Mistakes cannot stop you from finding your destiny. And in searching for your own you are finding it for others. You began this journey for yourself. But you will end it for everyone.”

Joshua was stunned. He never thought this, never held such lofty ideas about himself. And even though Wind’s thoughts were like balm on his soul, he could only accept them partially, and with many reservations. He could not believe they would ever become his only truth. There was just no way. He was who he was and accepting himself as more than that was something he could only see in others and not himself. He could see greatness in Krieg. He could see greatness in Grey and certainly in Wind. But whatever it was that grew within himself, it was safer not to go anywhere near it.

"The Three Feathers" review - By Kimberly Llewellyn

I've made it an unofficial policy of mine to simply not review indie books that I do not like. Grandma's old adage, "If you can't say something nice. . . ." sorta stuck with me, she'd be happy to hear. "I'm glad something stuck in that girl's thick head," she'd say. However, when an author actually submits a novel for review, I feel an obligation to give it my best shot to let the author know where I feel the story and/or writing could improve and the reader know they might want to skip it. I got that tight, nervous, "oh, no, oh, no, no, no" feeling between the shoulder blades when I started The Three Feathers. Yep. I started to tense up right on the first page, already dreading writing this review. Someone poured their heart and soul into this book, took a leap of faith sending it to me for review, and here I sit judging it from the first page. I imagine Mr. Bolz is feeling that hard, cold knot in his stomach right about now reading this, so I've got to let him off the hook. Not even realizing it, I looked up a few pages later and noticed that nervous feeling I had, the dread, had melted away. I had become thoroughly immersed, enthralled, in fact, by the magical world of Joshua the rooster and hadn't even realized it. Yes, rooster. Give it a chance, people. ;)

Stefan Bolz's The Three Feathers is a delightful story about stepping out of the box, following your dreams (literally and figuratively, in Joshua's case) and finding your place, your mission. It is about the bonds of friendship and love, and making differences a strength. It reminds me on many levels of an old Chinese proverb; the language, the Zen-like lessons, the writing itself. The best I could describe it would be an ancient Chinese fable intertwined with a Grimm's fairy tale, a parable, and an epic fantasy.

The Three Feathers follows Joshua the rooster as he escapes his mindless but easy life in the coop. He has had a dream, and unlike many of us Joshua is brave enough to follow it even though it means leaving the comfort of everything he knows, there is danger at every turn, and he doesn't know what it really means. He just knows that he must. As his journey begins he meets his companions, Grey and Krieg, a brave wolf and a mighty war horse. Together, they help Joshua follow his dream, while each of them separately fights to overcome their own personal demons. Friendships are forged and obstacles are overcome, fantastical creatures are discovered and evil souls unearthed.

Joshua steps out of his comfort zone and opens his heart to magical possibilities -- I am asking you to do the same when you read The Three Feathers. The writing style and dialogue is a bit different -- formal yet simple. That's part of what put me off for the first few pages, I think, but now I realize it is part of the charm and I couldn't imagine it any other way. The punctuation could have used a little help, but given my background I think I notice punctuation errors more than the average reader.

Mr. Bolz has woven a hypnotic tale where friendship and love can overcome the most devastating of enemies -- doubt in yourself. This is a book for all ages. There is danger, yes, and doubt and sadness and loss. But lessons cannot be learned without them, am I right? This book is marvelously innocent and thought-provoking all at the same time. Tired of the jaded and worn out modern fantasy tale? I enthusiastically encourage you to pick up this enchanting fable and rediscover the innocent joy of childhood and the magical wonder of life in this simple yet wonderfully complex story. Joshua and his friends will make you a believer, I promise.

Kimberly Llewellyn - The Indie Book Review
www.TheIndieBookReview.Wordpress.com

The Great River (spoiler alert)

Dear Friends,

It's Grey. First of all, I hope you know that I did not die at the end of my journey with my good friend Joshua. I am very much alive. Life does neither begin in birth nor end in death. It is much bigger than that. From where I am, life as I have known it - as it is know by most - is but a tiny drop of water compared to the ocean; a single sunbeam compared to the sun. I was very surprised to experience it and not in my wildest dreams could I have known what would happen. Which brings me to what I want to talk to you about. During our adventure in The Three Feathers, Krieg had thought about how everything that happened in his life seemed to have been like small creeks and brooks that eventually flowed into a great river and that river lead him to take the leap and leave his limitations behind (you must admire him for that. To even question ones limitations is probably one of the hardest things to do. Ever. But I know that Krieg is preparing an entry that has to do with that and so I'll better stick to my own topic for now.) 

I had a vision once. It has not been recorded in The Three Feathers. I shared it in a private conversation with Joshua and at the time of chronicling what had happened Joshua felt that it should be left private for the time being. Now I think it will be a great addition to the back story. The vision came to me just before Joshua, Krieg, Wind, Dragon-of-the-Stone, Alda and I reached the cave of dreams, the end of our journey. We had slept close to the river that flowed toward the cave and when I was just about to wake up, I had a vision of that river being the Great River of life. I saw myself walking along its shore, slowly keeping up with its flow. When I looked around I saw friends, family members and others whom I had met throughout my life. They walked with me along the edge. Sometimes one of them would step into the river and disappear into it. At other times, someone would come out the river and join the rest of us. 

I realized in great astonishment that we were all connected through the river. I saw Ayres, my life long friend who had been killed by the vulture. I saw him go into the river and disappear. But even though I didn't see him anymore, I could still feel him next to me. Only during the times when I walked slightly faster or slightly slower than the flow of the river I lost the connection to him. The moment I adjusted my own walking to the flow of the river, I felt his presence very clearly next to me. And even more so, he did not seem to be separate from me but rather very much a part of me. 

When I let go of my bodily form later on and joined up with my long lost companion once again, I realized that we had never been apart. My grief over losing her had blinded me to the river's flow and the recognition that I had walked much faster at times and much slower at others. I tried to run away at times and I almost gave up and stopped walking at others. But the moment I joined with her at the end of the journey I basically finally adjusted to the flow of the river and I could feel her again. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced. Knowing that she was - and has been - there with me all this time was overwhelming at first. But I found out that the great river can't lose anyone. There is nothing outside and because there is nothing outside, there is nobody that can be left behind by it. It is there, always, forever, for all times and beyond even time itself. 

Even now, if you want to either slow down a bit or pick up the pace, you might just feel me walking next to you; or someone you have lost along the path we are all on. I know now for a fact that, in the end, we'll all be together. What an amazing experience that is going to be. I look very much forward to it. 

Until then, I stay very truly yours, walking next to you along the Great River of Life,

Grey

On How To Leave Your Limitations Behind

Hi everyone,

this is a small excerpt of the part in the story right after the moment when Wind, the Pegasus, tells Krieg, the war horse, how she got her wings. I thought it was worth including here. Of course, the end of this excerpt is not the end of the story but you knew that already.

Yours truly,

Joshua

For a while he was quiet. He became aware of the land around him and her presence next to him.

“How do you leave your limitations behind?” He asked.

Wind looked at him for a long time. There was a kindness in her eyes born of knowing the strength it took, the faith in both the goal and the means to reach it.

“Your limitations, you must not believe them. You must not fuel them with doubt about yourself. You must know they are not and have never been part of you. You must know yourself. And not only must you know yourself you must love it as well. Deep within, you must love... you.”

Krieg was quiet for a while. Within himself there was a small part, deeply submerged somewhere, that resonated with her thoughts. At that moment he knew that her words were true. But...

“...you are asking, what about the other part? The part that thinks you small and frail and puny?” Wind finished his thought.

“Yes.”

“You freed me from eternal imprisonment. I will help you go beyond your limits. I will help you get your wings. I will see you fly.”

The last part of her thought whispered to him. Krieg's eyes stung suddenly and he closed them to hide what he felt. It was as if his whole life, all his struggles, the preparation for war, war itself and all the horrors it brought, the time when he was captured and held prisoner, his friends freeing him and his pain of losing them again, flowed like small streams joining together towards a great river. He suddenly knew that his life was culminating in this. Not only that, but each step along the way had been a step toward it. He just never knew that that was the goal all along. Why did he never even have the slightest inclination that he could one day leave all that he thought would limit him behind? Or could he? 

He suddenly felt tired. “I'm not so sure I can make it. I'm old and the strength it takes to undertake this might be for younger steeds, more spirited horses, not an old war horse like myself.”

And with that he closed the door that Wind had opened. The sting of regret was easier to handle than the thought to even question his limits. It would never happen. And that was the end of it. 

Final Editing Notes

Hi there, 
it's Stefan. Just yesterday I received the final 50 pages with edits. By next Sunday, July 15th, the book will be on Amazon and available for the kindle. What a journey this has been and still is (and probably will be for a while). My friend, sister-in-law and editor, Jacky Dooley, has done an amazing job - and not only because she saved most of my characters from starvation. She also saved my readers from words like 'wolfes', way too many 'after a while's, and lots of Yoda talk ("You might not remember. Too short was your glance at her").

She asked pertinent questions such as, "What does insanity smell like?" or "How can you hit the surface of a hole?". There is even a part of a haiku in her editing notes. "Water gushes. Air blows." And she is responsible for my favorite line and one that will echo trough time and hopefully into the hearts of many readers: "May the Lioness walk beside you on your journey, and give you strength and hope and comfort. Always."

Final Cover

The Journey begins...

Everything begins with a dream...

Hi everyone, Stefan here,

The story of The Three Feathers and Joshua Aylong's magnificent adventure is only a few weeks away from leaving its home inside this laptop; inside this safe haven of dim obscurity. The idea of a rooster searching for three feathers somewhere deep inside a mountain grew from a small seedling to something far beyond itself. During the process of writing it, I realized that I was on my own journey right along with Joshua. How it came about, the momentum it gained while it was written and where it lead me and the characters in the end, was simply astonishing. Several times throughout the process I felt very clearly that my conscious mind had absolutely nothing to do with it and that the story in itself was something that was there already, like a piece of history on a scroll that I just happened to find.  

I was deeply touched at times, moved at others, and couldn't help but weep profusely during the writing of the last 15 or so pages. In its simplest, the story is, I think, about our search for something more than what is in front of us every day; something beyond ourselves; something greater; something we cannot grasp. 

Everything begins with a dream. Everything. It might be a small one, it might be seemingly insignificant or it might seem outright crazy. But whatever it is, it sometimes propels us to go and search for it, even though we have no clue why and what it is we truly mean to find. We just have this sense that something is missing, that the picture is not complete. And on our way we find friends who are, in one way or another, with us on this journey. Without them it would be impossible for us to find what we are looking for. For there is danger on the road, there is despair and fear and a sense of futility that the quest might just be for naught in the end and that we but have set out on a senseless journey with no purpose. Who has not felt this at some point in their lives?
As Wind, one of the characters in the story, points out to Joshua: “You have begun this journey for yourself. But end it you will for everyone.” In this sense, Joshua’s journey mirrors our own. From the beginning to its end. From a fading dream through a perilous quest and on to its magnificent conclusion.

Keep your dream alive.

Publishing Schedule Update

Hi, it's Stefan. Just a brief update on what's happening. The kindle, nook and iBook versions of "The Three Feathers" should be ready by the end of the month of June 2012. Formatting is pretty much done. I just looked at the book on an iPad and it looks amazing. Waiting for some copy editing and the title page. The paperback and hard cover versions will come out roughly by September. Then the movie, of course, ideally with Peter Jackson as the director :-). How much fun would that be!!!!!!!! I will send out links once the books are 'live'. Stay in touch through this blog or via the "The Three Feathers" Facebook page.

Cheers,

Stefan

What is to come...

Hi there, it's Joshua.
If you have read "The Three Feathers", you might ask yourself what's next. Is this the end or maybe just the beginning? A lot happened during my travels through Hollow's Gate but there was one moment in particular that has importance to the continuation of our journey together. As it is with some things in life, what we might judge as insignificant may just be the small pebble that falls into a still pond, its ripples reaching far across and all the way to the other side--unbeknownst to us. The same happened when my good friend Grey and I inadvertently activated the beacon--the ancient means of traveling between the worlds. We did not know this at the time but the ripple effect of it was enormous. A whole world on the other end of the galaxy began to awaken because of it. And as the pendulum swings from one tipping point to the next, this world arose from the ashes and began to blossom and grow and reach new heights within its civilization. Hundreds of years of splendor followed. But as the midpoint was crossed, the zenith passed and the value structure changed, the darkness slowly made its way into the mind of the people. Greed became normalcy. Friends became foes, neighbors enemies. And what was once "freedom for all" now changed into "power to a few".

Almost 1000 years after the beacon was activated, the people of Nibiru--the Sky People, as they were called in the indigenous language of my world--were lost. They could not find themselves anymore and they could not find each other. But as it was in my time, each civilization has a searcher, a 'dreamer of light', if you will, who stands at the very tipping point of the pendulum, either ending what has become a path of despair or beginning a new hope or in some cases both. There is one in particular I am thinking of. She does not know it yet but it is on her to restore hope to her people, to bring the human spirit back from the brink of an abyss that is about to swallow it whole and set chaos in its place. Her name is Aries. Don't be fooled by her age. Fourteen years is young to shoulder the fate of your world but as I have learned, age, size, or any handicaps and limitations you think you might possess, have no bearing on what you can do. None at all. She is on her journey as we speak. Once it is finished--or at least once the first part of her journey is over, you will be able to read about it. After all, she is The Fourth Sage and her people's only hope.

Peaceful travels,

Your friend,
Joshua

"How Small Are You?" by Broga

Dear fellows,
Let me introduce myself first. My name is Broga. I am a peeper frog and the guardian of the Porte Des Lioness, the sealed entrance into the mountain through which Joshua and his friends, Krieg and Grey, needed to go in order to save Wind and reach the Cave of Dreams, the destination of their journey together.
I have been asked to make a contribution to this and thought what better topic to write about than to write about smallness and tallness, about height or the seeming lack thereof. Over my long life I have been asked many times why I am so small. First, there is absolutely no way I can answer that. Second, it's a paradoxical question as I am not small. You might think I am. How tall are you? Four feet? Five feet? Six feet? Seven feet? I am, stretched out, exactly 7.5 tenth of an inch tall, which is just about 2 centimeters. You might believe that your height, the height of your body, has anything to do with weather or not you are small or large, tall or tiny. I don't believe so. You must realize that you and I can not be measured in weight, in height or in anything like that. Can you measure potential? The sheer unbound potential of someone who recognizes who he or she is? Can you measure will power? Can you measure a dream or a hundred dreams? Is one dream larger than another, or more forceful? We all have them. We all have in us all of the universe; its vastness and its beauty. And let me tell you something that took me a few hundred years to realize: There is nothing small within you. Nothing at all. What you think of as small is just a belief about yourself. The belief is the only thing that is small. It's just a spec of dust with no power other than the one you give it. Be happy that you are wrong about who you are in truth. So, now go. I have things to do. BIG things. Remember always: your purpose is not small. How then can you be?


Yours truly,


Your friend, Broga

On Music (by Alda, composer, singer & turtle extraordinaire)

Have you ever felt carried by the music you were listening to? Have you ever felt transported to a distant place or time or felt close to someone even though you were a hundred miles away? That's what music can do to you. I began to sing when I was still inside an egg, just below the Porte Des Lioness where I was born. I didn't know for a while that the singing I heard was my own. It just poured out of me and it never stopped since then. Because of my age--must be close to a thousand years or more--I'm very big. And I mean VERY big. But to tell you the truth, when I sing while I walk I almost never feel my weight. It is as if there are hundreds and hundreds of balloons tied to my shell lifting me up. Of course, my singing keeps the 'Dark' away in Hollow's Gate during night time. You know, night time lasts seven days down here, right? One night on the surface is seven nights down it the Great Deep. This long time of darkness can bring out creatures that you don't want to encounter. You don't, trust me. But let me tell you something: In all those long years I have been down here, the 'Dark' which are basically creatures, scary creatures, that want to eat you alive, devour you and feed on your flesh; in all those years they never could come near me. After a while I figured it out: it was my music that held them at bay. They just didn't want to come close.


So, if you hit a dark spot, turn on the music and feel assured that someone is carrying you through it.


Yours Truly,
Alda

How the story of "The Three Feathers" began

Hi everyone,
Joshua asked me (as he has done since I met him) to write down some things. This time its the story of how the writing of "The Three Feathers" came about. It will be interesting to see this process from Joshua's point of view as I am certain it will be completely different from my own. But that for a later time. Right now let me tell you how "The Three Feathers" came about - on this side of the galaxy and in the 21st century, earth time.


It all began with my colleague Diane telling me about her friend Joyce who had computer problems. I seem to have pretty good 'computer karma' and Diane thought I could make some extra money by setting up her friend's computer at her home. When I was at Joyce's house (she is an excellent Astrologer as I found out) and sitting in front of her computer trying to figure out how to connect the printer wirelessly, she asked me my birth date and time. I gave it to her and for the next two hours, while I was trying to set up her computer, she told me all about where my sun is and in which house I was born in and the whole problem with Gemini... To be honest (sorry Joyce, you know I love you) I didn't contain much of what she said. Except for two things. First, she told me I should go back to therapy. And secondly, that I needed to stop editing myself. Interestingly enough I had been thinking about going back to Julie, my therapist, for a couple of weeks now. I had been going to her for several years and she had been extremely helpful through some rough patches. The next day, I called her and we made an appointment.


We usually do either table work which is a combination of energy work and visual journeys into my body, or what's called 'sand box work'. Julie asked me if I wanted to do the sand box that day and we did. Here is how this works: Julie has a sand box on one side of her room. Behind it is a whole wall filled with shelves on which you can find pretty much anything you need, in order to--yes--play in the sand. Small figurines, action figures, or items like little palm trees, dragons, motor cycles, cowboys, dogs, helicopters, stones, rocks, pieces of wood, train cars, etc. I would then usually randomly pick out some of the items, the task being not to think about which ones to take. So, that day, one by one I took my items from the shelf and placed them into the sand box. Here and there I pushed the sand to one side, again without much thought of anything. Once I was done, we looked at it together and as we always do, Julie asked me what I saw. It usually makes sense while I look at the landscape as to which of the figurines I am, what's going on in the box and therefore in my life at that moment, etc.


Not this time. I had no clue what I was looking at. There was a rooster, red and orange colored; there was a wolf, a large horse, a Pegasus, a frog, a dragon and three feathers on the left left side kind of stuck into the sand. That was all. I told Julie that I had no idea what it meant, what it was or what to make of it. All I said was that it sure looks like it would make a nice little fable: The rooster sets out on a journey. On his way, he picks up friends like the wolf and the horse. Then they encounter a Pegasus and a dragon. There is a frog in there somewhere. And in the end they find the three feathers. So far so good.


I left Julie, not disappointed but feeling kind of neutral with the sense that nothing really had happened in there. Sometimes a session stays with me for days. Not this one. I forgot all about it for a while. Then one morning I thought I'd better write it down before I forget. It was more out of habit as I usually write down what happens during the sessions. So I began with, "Once upon a time there was a rooster who lived on a farm on the Eastern shore..." Four chapters later I stopped. I couldn't believe the force with which the story made itself known to me. I truly felt like a scribe more than anything. None of it came from my conscious mind. It was as if I for myself discovered what had happened, like an archaeologist finding an ancient city under the dessert sand. It was there. Complete and ready to come through. My duty was only in faithfully writing it all down. There was but a minuscule and insignificant amount of thinking about plot, characters and the story itself on my part.


There will be another blog entry about the actual writing of it but let me take this opportunity to thank two more people at this point. First, Hans-Werner Sahm, a German painter whose images haunted me since I was in my early twenties. His images contributed a large amount to the locations of the story. His paintings gave me, and all of us, a glimpse into how Hollow's Gate might look like. Its astounding beauty and its law-of-nature defying landscapes opened Joshua's world to me--and many more beyond this one. Secondly, I would like to thank Sheila Wright for her painting of the lioness. It is so mesmerizing that I could not take my eyes of it for the longest time. She made me realize what Joshua's story is all about and that moment was so powerful and beautiful that I can't even describe it now. I hope while reading the story you get a glimpse of the lioness within yourself. If that is the case I have done my job as a scribe.


Cheers,


Stefan Bolz

About "The Three Feathers"

I thought I would just start with a summary of "The Three Feathers", my journey as I remember it. I had someone write it for me so it will not be in the first person. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask at the end where it says: comments. By the way, the picture above, is a quick drawing of my good friend Grey and myself after we survived the labyrinth of mirrors and as we travel toward the city of light ruins. What an amazing place that was... You should have been there. Well, hopefully while reading the book you will. But now, without any further ado, here is the synopsis of "The Three Feathers" for you.

"Propelled by a powerful dream, Joshua Aylong, a rooster, sets out on a quest to search for three feathers deep inside a mountain. On his journey he meets others – strangers at first but soon to be friends: Grey, the wolf who had lost his companion to hunters in the Ice Forests; and Krieg, a war horse and last of its kind who desires peace more than anything. Together, they face dangers beyond what they could have imagined as they enter a world of unparalleled menace and beauty. For in order to get to the mountain, they must first pass through Hollow’s Gate, a 50 mile wide, five thousand foot deep gorge where time flows differently and where the laws of nature, as they know them, are suspended. There are labyrinths where friends become foes; lakes so deep they have no bottom; and mythical creatures that have lived down there for a millennium and that are now slowly awakening. The world they enter has its own laws and will try their friendship and endurance to the utmost breaking point.

As they travel deep down at the bottom of Hollow’s Gate, entering an ancient city from which now only ruins are left, they inadvertently trigger the reactivation of a beacon that has been destroyed a thousand years passed. This “beacon” is only called that in the indigenous language of the world they are in. In truth it is one end of a singularity, a wormhole, connecting this world with another. Activating it brings a whole civilization on the other side of the galaxy back to life.  But that is not all.

As legend tells us, there are light dreamers—individuals who stand at the very tip of the pendulum of each civilization to change its direction back toward the balance point. Joshua is one of them even though he doesn’t know it at first. He just follows his dream and in doing so triggers a series of events that could either save or bring complete destruction to not only this world but all the worlds beyond. For each dreamer, by the very dream he has, awakens his dark counterpart—in this case a dead and already partially decomposed Griffon Vulture who, brought back to ‘life’, assembles an army of her own to oppose Joshua, to kill him and to eventually use the beacon to bring death and destruction to all the worlds that lie beyond it.

But there is more, as the true purpose of the dream still lies hidden from Joshua. For he has yet to meet the one he has avoided all his life—the one he is utterly afraid to find. He thought he searched for three feathers on a blackened stone. But buried deep inside him lays a power he has yet to accept as his own. It is the power of the lioness. On their quest, the three friends stumble upon evidence of her existence on several occasions. And just before they enter the final stage of their journey which leads them deep into the mountain, she tells Joshua in no uncertain terms that in order for him to survive this, in order for him to save his friends, this world and many worlds beyond this one, he must summon her; he must reach deep down and bring her to the surface. He must set her free within him—or die…"

Yours always,

Joshua