There was a moment whilst I was reading ‘The Throne of David’ where I settled inside this beautiful passage of a man finding himself between living and dying – he was cast between the worlds and equally so, caught between letting himself go and fighting to come back to the surface of where he fell below the ocean’s currents. It was a passage that was written with such a clarity of knowing what would happen inside those moments of where the soul takes over the conscience thinking of the man and a will to survive is not the only motivation behind what is happening.
Farnsworth delve into a deeper part of what happens when we are taken out of our ‘life’ and placed in this in-between place between where we are, where we could be going, and where we might honestly end up. It’s a fusion of spirituality and an awareness of what can be felt and seen between the veils of where time and life intersect. I was caught so tightly into her vision of what David Lord was experiencing that I wanted to know more about how this section was written, hence this guest post!
What I hadn’t expected is that the inspiration behind this passage was heart-centered on a personal tragedy and was written after a period of healing on behalf of a Mum who had lost her child. I hadn’t realised I would broach a subject that was so dearly personal to Ms Farnsworth, but it’s how she responded to my enquiry that touched my own heart. Despite the circumstances of her son’s death, it’s how his passing has influenced and inspired his mother that truly stays with you as you read their story.
This new insight into ‘The Throne of David’ provides a beautiful back-story to David Lord’s out of body experience and re-grounds part of his character’s journey in the author’s search for understanding about what happens when this chapter of our lives ends. It’s a beautiful testimony about life and the heart of how each hour we are given with each other is a treasured gift not to be forsaken but cherished and celebrated. I found her response quite uplifting and a lovely open letter from a Mum to her child.
The book begins when a mysterious letter is delivered to the Prince of Wales 32 years after it was posted. Hinting of a secret royal marriage, the letter raises the specter of an unknown heir to the British throne and sets in motion a desperate race for the truth.
The search sets David Lord, an American accountant, against the unlimited resources of the Royal Protection Service (the SO14) who do whatever it takes to protect the King of England.
Critical to settling the issues spawned by the letter is locating the coronation stone, one of the holiest artifacts of the Hebrew nation and a companion to the Ark of the Covenant, of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ fame. The coronation stone legend originates in ancient Israel and travels, over time, to Ireland, Scotland and London. The revered stone is currently on display in Edinburgh castle.
Or is it?
Mounting evidence indicates that the genuine coronation stone disappeared before it ever reached Westminster Abbey. The sacred stone Mr. Lord uncovers could prove the downfall of the House of Windsor or validate their divine right to rule through the ancient Throne of David.
Proposed Topic:
There is a sequence within The Throne of David where David Lord takes an ethereal journey outside of his body where the journey of his soul is revealled for a brief expanse of the story. The way in which you portrayed this journey was quite beautiful – my question truly is how did you come up with the vacuum of space you’ve explored and painted such a clear picture of what he was thinking and feeling during this moment of being between life, death, and heaven?
You can write any length you’d like on this as it was truly such a curious part of the story — I loved it personally. I was wondering if you did research about near death experiences or it this sequence just came to you as your wrote it?
Before you read this Guest Post, kindly note the author invites you to read the passage from her novel which inspired me to pitch this topic of enquiry on her website.
You can find the excerpt here.
The story of my novel ‘The Throne of David’ is really a tale of a 50 year old mother who finally saved up enough life experience to write a book. There is a scene in the book that has captured my readers attention in a way I never anticipated. It is a sequence of scenes where David Lord is out of his body, some would say he was dead. But, for me, death is really nothing at all.
My intimate relationship with death started when our son Dale was born in June of 1983, our first child. I was shocked at how fiercely I loved him, even though I fought against the bit as it were, while I learned to fit myself to the role of mother. Our daughter Jody was born 18 months later. I didn’t know until after he was gone that Dale was filled with happiness, I had no other children to compare him to and so that quality was enjoyed but not to the degree it deserved.
A week before he died my parents had a huge party at their home, kids running everywhere, dads at the grill, moms putting out food and talking. My husband was measuring and cutting some carpet in a room overlooking their pool. He was kneeling at the window and something told him to look up. He did and saw a little pack of toddlers running around the pool, Dale right in the middle of them. Uneasy, Dana left the carpet and took the kids out to the front lawn and played a game of two-year old football with them to keep them away from the pool.
Dale surprised us all that next week. He begged to go and get ice cream and then pizza. He spent time with his ill grandfather and his aunt and uncles, he was ecstatic about getting some new shoes but not about getting caught up with all his vaccinations. He was saying goodbye.
Monday morning came, he played with his friends and when I tried to get him to take a nap he fought it until I gave up. We had lunch and I sat on my mother’s love seat and nursed Jody while Dale brought me treasures from the window wells; dead spiders, sticks and a frog. Finally, he came in and jabbered at me, telling me he was going to look for the frog that lived in the pool. But I didn’t understand a word he was saying. Jody was drowsy and when he went out the front door I waited for her to fall asleep.
It wasn’t more than a minute or two before I heard a distinct voice in my head saying, ‘Go and get Dale.’ So urgent was the message that I put a sleeping baby on the floor and ran out the back to the pool. It was obvious from the moving water that something was in the pool, it was our little son. I pulled him out and must have screamed for help because Dana came from the office where he was laying that carpet. No whisper came to cause him to look up this time. He started CPR and my father called 911.
To make a long story short, we arrived at an emergency room that had been trained the preceding week by an expert in children’s drownings. The expert was waiting at the curb for a taxi to take him to the airport when the ambulance pulled up, he graciously missed his flight and worked on our little boy, never sent us a bill and I never even knew his name. We waited patiently but Dale never coughed or sputtered or woke up. The doctors were mystified because he hadn’t gone without oxygen at all. His toes were still pink!
We went home without him and began the exhausting process of reconciling our beliefs about life and death to our current reality. My husband and I both struggled. For me it was Jody that kept me tethered to this earth and my life. She needed a mother to smile at her, to feed her, to bathe her and to rock her. She had lost her older brother and learned to walk that week looking for him.
It was about a month later that we were given the gift of knowing that there is life after death.
We were at the grocery store in the milk aisle. I was pushing the cart when suddenly and without warning, I felt our son standing by my side. My husband felt him too and we stopped in the middle of the aisle and just looked at each other and cried, the tears were both tears of longing and tears of absolute joy. There was no question in my mind, he was standing near us.
I didn’t hear a voice, my eyes couldn’t see him but I felt his presence and his love for me.
So, my fears about death were dramatically changed. Dying holds no terror for me now, for there is someone on the other side of this experience we call life that I love and he is waiting for me to come to him. I am in no hurry because my husband and children still need me and I would never want them to suffer grief the way we suffered. But, when I think about death, I get a little excited to be united with Dale. And my grandparents and a sister that died as an infant.
With every breath, every beat of my heart, every fiber of my being, I believe that death is nothing. Getting there might be scary and heartbreaking, but death is just like walking through a door, from one room to another.
This is something I used to believe but since our little son died I know it. It is not a matter of faith for me any more.
After our son’s death I was looking for understanding and I naturally sought out people and books that expanded my knowledge about life after death. Most recently reading Dr. Eben Alexander’s book ‘Proof of Heaven’. One of the first books I found was called ‘Life After Life’, by Raymond Moody and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ book ‘On Life After Death’. All of these books helped solidify what I knew from my own experience.
I have always believed that what makes us ‘us’, is our spirit and that our bodies play host to that spirit and house our spirits for a time. Our body is animated and enlivened by the spirit and when we die our spirit leaves the body behind but still lives – in another sphere. I believe that they do watch over us, cheer us on and wait for us to come to them. Meanwhile, we have work to do here.
I have read accounts of people who are involved in accidents or are on the operating table and suddenly find themselves outside their bodies, watching the scene. It usually takes them a while to realize what they are seeing. That is because they are still ‘them’, even without a body and it usually takes them a few moments to realize that they had died.
We now have 10 children and the experience of losing our sweet son too early has shaped me into everything good I have become. As I wrote ‘The Throne of David’ my belief about death naturally incorporated itself into the book.
People who die and come back all recount very similar experiences, they watch themselves and gradually realize what they are seeing. They are drawn to a bright light and this light is brighter than anything they can describe. Within that light is a pure and immense love, a love that fills them even when they come back to earth and take up their body again. None of them dread death anymore, that is gone from them. The other interesting thing they recount is that there is no pain at death but coming back into their body can be painful.
Ever since we lost our little son, the subject of death has held a great fascination for me. I am endlessly curious about what Dale is experiencing in heaven and I suppose it is natural for me to explore the concept in my writing.
There are times I feel Dale close to me, watching over me. There are times when I feel his love for me tremble on the air. There are days I hear whispers of ‘mother’ all around me.
Those who have preceded us in death watch over us, pray for us, laugh with us and grieve with us. Nothing has changed except the space we inhabit.
To learn more about Ms Farnsworth and her family, please visit a lovely interview hosted by Design Mom wherein the author shares an interlude about the joys of motherhood.
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My review posted off the tour due to lightning and connectivity issues which were happily resolved by mid-September! There was a scene within the chapters of ‘The Throne of David’ which were beautifully eloquent and ethereally visual in their clarity of a moment between life and death whereupon I pitched a topic to Ms Farnsworth for a guest feature which has become the context of this second post for my contribution to the blog tour.
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Kindly leave your questions, comments, and thoughts for Ms Farnsworth!
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Author photograph of Ann Farnsworth, Author Biography, Book Synopsis, and the Book Cover of “The Throne of David” were provided by the author Ann Farnsworth and used with permission. Blog Tour Badge and Cedar Fort badge were provided by Cedar Fort Publishing & Media and used with permission. Author Guest Post Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded due to the codes provided by Twitter. Comment badge created by Jorie in Canva.}
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