In the summer of 2007, I wrote the first draft for what became my first novel, Light of the Candle. Thirteen years ago. After it was published in early 2015, I realized at last why I wrote that book. In exploring the story of Daniel and Sarai, I was searching for what it means to keep on going when life tears up your dreams and nothing makes sense.

Now it is 2020, when we stand in the middle of a tsunami of events that do not make any sense at all to me. Uncertainty and strife seem to rule the days and I wonder when or if it will end. I admit to feeling beat up and low sometimes. A few nights ago, I lay in the dark in a state of anxiousness that would not loosen its hold. I kept having the thought to get out my first novel and read.

Here is a bit of what I found: “Sarai looked up at the sky, turning navy in the twilight. Father tells me that someday I will be able to see clearly and make sense of all that has happened. I keep waiting for that day. It feels very far away…..But there have been a few moments. I felt once a kind of stillness come inside of me, a feeling that all would be well…..Perhaps you will think me foolish, but I think what spoke to me are the days still to come. In that moment, I could sense them hanging in the air. I felt as if I could reach out and touch them, but they were just beyond my reach.”

I paused on those words, staring at them on the page. I was trying to express in words what it is to hope. It felt as though someone else had written them. Not me. In that sense, that sentiment is true. My younger self wrote it, someone with less experience, but more wise than I feel in this moment, now that I have seen and experienced more of the uncertainties and injustices that exist. Is that what comes as one moves on past youth and mid-life? I thought that in my sixth decade of living that I would somehow be all insightful and discerning, a sage. That immature notion makes me laugh. The accumulation of years does not necessarily bring that, I’ve learned, but can increase your feelings of vulnerability. To be vulnerable, according to Merriam-Webster, is to know that one is capable of being wounded, open to attack.

I’ve always needed to believe that good triumphs. I’ve rooted for the underdog, skipped to the end of a book so I know that somehow, amid all of the opposition, there exists a happy ending. What I want to feel now is that hope expressed in my book. The future reaching out to us, beckoning us to take a step forward, then another and another. Toward the good days, the happy endings, that feel just out of reach. I have felt that in challenging time before, so why should I not feel assured that it will be so again? That stillness is there, that feeling that all will yet be well. Good days sure to come.

In his book, “On Fairy-stories,” Tolkien said: “History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.” That helped answer my question about why, as an historical author, I’m currently writing a story that includes both historical and fantasy elements. Imaginative stories, he wrote, “…open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe.”

That is also what historical novels do. To me, these two genres are not far apart, but interconnected. In my book, “Light of the Candle,” it seemed natural for me to write about Daniel’s dreams of the future, of the giant image that haunted a king’s own dreams, of him flying through the air to hover over Jerusalem, or seeing a vision of Sarai as he sat in Babylon. Bible stories are filled with the mystical. Author Madeleine L’Engle reflected: “In art we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.”

Fantasy stories are not only for children, both these authors say, and I believe them. When I was a little girl, I was certain that little fairies lived in the flower beds, that my stuffed animals were alive and could talk to me, that the world contained countless wondrous things that I could not see. I spent many imaginative hours believing in the reality of magic. L’Engle lamented: “We are…taught that fairy tales and myths are to be discarded as soon as we are old enough to understand “reality.” Story, she said, “helped me to learn to live.” Tolkien said: “The association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history.” It is a false assumption that we must “grow up” and out of fantasy and myth. Adults, too, need stories of the fantastical.

Tolkien perfectly described fantasy: “The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords….[A fairy-story] contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”

So I will write of times gone by and of whimsy and revel in it.

“Uplifting and powerful. I could not put this book down. I felt uplifted and encouraged with the powerful message of hope. This was a love story I didn’t know I needed.”

Amazing Book “This is one that I am sure I will re-read many times. Excellent work by an amazing author. Kudos Carol Pratt Bradley!”

Here’s the link:

It’s hard to see, but I just had to take a picture. My books are going to be in the library of the school where I received my MFA in 2009. I am thrilled!

And two reviews:

“Exceptionally researched, beautifully written. Carol Bradley has given flesh and blood to the Babylonian exile, its characters and emotions. It is easy to imagine what it may have been like for them to leave their homeland and settle as a conquered people in a new country. She brings the prophet Daniel to life in a marvelous way – showing his majesty as a prophet, but also his humanity as a real person. I highly recommend this book!”

“Well written and researched. This sequel to “Light of the Candle”, allowed me to see into the past and feel what it might have been like to live in the time of Daniel, to get a sense of the perilous nature of living in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court, and to grow old in a foreign land knowing you are not likely to ever see the land of your birth again. Ms. Bradley has taken someone who was not much more than a name in the Bible and made him live. Well done!”

http://widopublishing.com/sequel-to-carol-bradleys-biblical-novel-light-of-the-candle-coming-soon/#more-5350