Today I have the honor of sharing with you an interview with Marvin Wilson. I believe you will find him both interesting and entertaining :-)

1. Marvin, how would you define yourself as a person? As a writer?

Someone who cares for and loves people. I’ve had a lot of life experiences and learned some things along the way - some marvelous peaks and a few sojourns into the valley of the shadow of death. Along my life’s path I’ve made some stupid mistakes and grown as a result, and I like to live my life and write about life in a way that hopefully imparts some wisdom and inspiration to others.

2. What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?

A compulsion to first spend a few silent moments communing with God and nature, getting my spirit uplifted, my molecules all humming, and then it’s time to write. I’m an early riser, I love to witness the sunrise and feel the day coming alive and I get so inspired by the majesty of a new day’s creation that I just have to blog and write books about it.


3. You are on a steady climb upwards as a writer and you exude a certain air of confidence that inspires many. Is this confidence a steady part of you--or do you find yourself wondering at times if it will all end suddenly? If so, what do you do to regain your sense of balance?

It is steady and I don’t worry about it all ending. I don’t worry about anything. One thing I’ve learned about worrying – it doesn’t help at all. You can stress all you want, what’s going to happen is going to happen, so premeditated anxiety will not change that one bit, except to maybe make you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually ill. I read once that of all the things we worry about, upwards of ninety five percent of them never happen! And a lot of those negative things that do happen can be the result of your own worrying and focusing on them so much that the Law of Attraction brings it into your reality.

So take all the energy that goes into worrying and use that for positive thinking. “We are what we think. With our thoughts we make the world.” Buddha said that, twenty five hundred years ago, and it is an eternal truth.


4. You currently have three books published. Would you please tell us the titles? In addition, there is always one special thing about each of our works; what one thing makes each of your books most special to you?

I Romanced the Stone (Memoirs of a Recovering Hippie) is my first publication. It will always be special to me not only because it is my first baby, but also because it tells the true story of my descent into the depths of a deadly narcotics addiction and how I found cure, peace and freedom through a powerful spiritual experience. That book has gotten me more feedback – letters, emails, etc., from people whom I’ve never met who were inspired to turn their lives around after reading it. And that’s what it’s all about for me as a writer.

Owen Fiddler is my second book, my first novel, and the first in a series I am writing. Owen is special in that he is an “everyman” character. Every one can, if he or she is honest with themselves, relate in some or many ways to Owen Fiddler. He’s just an average sort of guy who takes no responsibility for any of his thoughts and actions and figures everything going wrong in his life has to be someone or something else’s fault other than his own. It’s about personal responsibility, taking control of and living your life on purpose. And remember – if you want to dance, you have to pay the fiddler!

My latest release, Between the Storm and the Rainbow, is an anthology of the best of the best posts from my Free Spirit blog during the last two quarters of 2008, which was the period of time when I first started taking blogging seriously, began posting daily and aggressively promoting my blog globally. Last I checked there are well over one hundred countries now that have readers stopping in regularly for their daily dose of Free Spirit. There is a richness contained in that book of some of my best essays, inspirational musings, and musings about spirituality and life in general. Also a lot of humor – an important ingredient that I make sure is prevalent in all my literary works. Laughter taps into the deep well of the soul. I don’t expect that book to be among my best sellers, but a surprising amount of people have gotten it because they enjoy having the backlog of posts available in print form rather than having to dig through the blog archives to find them. I will probably publish one of those anthologies each year.


5. On your Free Spirit blog, you have a regular ongoing story about Adam Atom. Would you please tell us a bit about him and how you came upon this idea?

Adam Atom came to mind as I was reading – and I’m sorry I can’t remember the author or book, it was a long time ago, years – but I read the astounding fact that with every breath we take, we inhale atoms that have at one time been a part of every other part of the universe. Right now I am breathing in part of the former physical body of Christ, some of the atoms of Attila the Hun, thousands of tiny bits of atomic fallout from Hiroshima, fragments of the asteroid from some remote corner of the universe that slammed into the earth 65 million years ago destroying the dinosaurs, etc. Everything is one, and nothing is a thing unto itself.

I took that basic fundamental truth and created Adam Atom, who travels through time and space and dimensions on comical and educational swashbuckling exploits that illustrate the interconnectedness of all things. It’s great fun, entertaining, and informational. I use lots of hyperlinked text in the posts so as people read they can gain education in physics, history, spirituality, geometry, all the sciences, as they bop along with their little buddy Adam. The story has become one of the most popular features on my Free spirit blog; lots of people have encouraged me to publish a YA book with Adam Atom, and one publishing house has already offered to publish it if I can get around to assembling and formatting it in book form.


6. This may be a hard one. The world is about to end in the next three minutes--What do you want your final words to be?

I would ask all within earshot to please gather round. I would read them the following passage from Owen Fiddler. It’s where Owen meets Kris (Christ) in the never world while his body is in a near death coma back on earth. And I would exhort them to search their hearts and souls for anything they need to be cleansed of before passing through the veil into the next plane of existence.

***

The eye spoke.

“Owen, Owen, my friend, it is good to finally have an audience with you and to have your undivided attention. I have been here all the time. I have witnessed your sincere apology to your daughter and your acceptance of her forgiveness. Now here comes the bigger question. Can you do the same with me? I promise it won’t hurt.”

Owen was thunderstruck. He thought back to all the followers of this god who he had helped into adultery and hypocrisy. He remembered the innocent pastor who had taken the rap and lost his spiritual career over his misdeeds. His heart sank as he recalled all the foul epithets and curses he had thought and said guided toward anyone and anything that represented in anyway a believer in the Way of the Christ. He bowed his head and closed his eyes in an attempt to escape the stare of the inquisitive omnipresent eye.

The eye spoke.

“Owen, I know of all these things you are thinking. They are not you unless you hang on to them in your mind and do not repent of them. I offer you a release. I possess the capacity, with your permission and help, to rid you of your dark clinging to those deeds as if they represent the true and essential you. We are the same, Owen, but you have forsaken me in your deluded sense of self and separation from the All. Listen carefully, my friend. You are not a human being having a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being having a human experience, the knowledge of good and evil, the temptations of the flesh and free will.

You have not done so well with your choices so far, on that we are agreed. Your basic error has been in not understanding the interconnectedness of all things and beings. Everything is one, Owen. Because of this truth, this basic law of the universe, it is impossible to take from another without taking from yourself. When you harm another, you harm yourself. When you deceive others, you deceive yourself. Conversely, giving to, helping and loving others are none other than loving and helping your self. Do you understand this now, Owen?”

Owen did understand, in a momentous flash of enlightenment. He got it. His eyes went wide open. He felt strange and light. He could scarce believe the calm and happiness in his heart as he said, “Yes … I understand.”

“I can see it is true,” the eye of Kris said, “Now that you know the truth, the truth can set you free. Change is possible. Are you ready to change?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sorry for the mistakes you’ve made?”

“Yes, yes!”

“Do you believe in the Truth, and believe that I the One, the Truth, the Light and the Way, can cleanse you of your errant ways?”

“Yes, in Truth, I believe!”

“Good. You are forgiven. Go now, and stop making stupid mistakes.”

***

Then I would wave with a smile and say, “See you on the other side!”

7. Will you please tell everyone where they can find your work?

Sure. All three books are available online on Amazon.com, both in trade paperback and in Kindle book format, at: http://tinyurl.com/m8jeh4 - and you can also order them from any major bookstore.

Owen Fiddler can also be ordered directly from the publisher, Cambridge Books, at: http://www.writewordsinc.com/owen-fiddler.html

For information, reviews, excerpts, etc., about Owen Fiddler, the book website is:
http://www.owenfiddler.com/

Between the Storm and the Rainbow is also available through All Things That Matter Press, at: https://www.createspace.com/3372206

You can also now subscribe to Free Spirit and Tie Dyed Tirades blogs on your Kindle Book Reader, for those who have one, for a mere $1.99 per month.

8. Anything else you would like to add?

Just to say thanks, Joyce, for having me on your blog and the opportunity to share with your readers. We go back a ways, now, and your continued friendship is something I value very much. And hey everybody – I love meeting and hearing from new people! Please visit my blogs, leave a comment, sign up to follow if you like what you experience, and feel free to contact me at: marvwilson2010@gmail.com

Free Spirit Blog is at: http://inspiritandtruths.blogspot.com/
My Groovy Old Hippie blog is at: http://tiedyedtirades.blogspot.com/

And in closing I’d like to say to everyone, above all, live your life with intent and purpose, fashion your thoughts and deeds by following the Golden Rule, and remember these most important words from Kris to Owen Fiddler:

“You are not a human being having a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being having a human experience.”


Here is something to take with you, folks-Marvin's book trailer for Owen Fiddler: