Buy it TODAY!
Buy it TODAY!
How to get a copy of Malignant EMOTION:
You can order it directly from www.Amazon.com
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
Malignant EMOTION passionately entertains with an amazing balance of raw urgency and perfect humor. It is a story of woundedness, retribution, redemption and the power of choice. The novel begins with the funeral of BJ who blamed painful and deeply harbored emotions from her youth for the breast cancer that killed her. David, a remarkably successful heart surgeon, shocks BJ’s longtime friend, Terri Lin, by showing up at the funeral. His presence there is the first of a decade of surprises after Terri discovers it was David who, so many years back, set her life-long friend on the tortured road she traveled throughout adulthood.
Initially, the novel was written only for the eyes and heart of a cherished long time friend - a 25 year breast cancer survivor in her last year of Hospice. As this friend prepared to die, she repeatedly confronted the questions so many ask about God, and Heaven, and the hereafter. Holt wrote the book to entertain her friend, inspire her to laugh, comfort her, help her prepare to let go and, most of all, to remind her there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. This amazing first novel from a long time non fiction writer does not disappoint!
PROLOGUE:
I walk slowly into the woods, gazing upwards into the naked trees. The revelations that winter soon would expose already were beginning to stare back at me in a language no other season could speak. The scars told it all: the twisted trunks and barren, stretching limbs - ever reaching for the light - told stories of survival that only the forest could teach… for always the light pulls to itself the survivors. Thoughts tumble over and over the presently reluctant folds of my mind, refusing to return to their own private little corners of my heart. In all my years of walking in the woods, I quite simply have never encountered such absolute stillness. Suddenly the wind begins to whisper softly in and through the patches of tranquility above me. The leaves apparently want to celebrate with me the memories that are so determined to take me back to places where I think I no longer want to go. As I look up into the still partially hidden scars of the trees and stare deeply into and through their gnarled and twisted bodies, I boldly claim anew the lonely wisdom of their limbs - the complete, but lonely wisdom the forest always has offered me throughout all the seasons of my life. And then I go back - one more time, I go back to the day we buried her… A note from the author regarding the story behind the book:
A NOTE from the author:
On the day in 2003 when I first put ink on paper that would become Malignant EMOTION, I had no intention of ever marketing my fantasy. I simply wrote to survive while a dear and precious friend prepared to die. I wrote to entertain that friend who, during the last home bound year of her life, was riddled with horrific pain because the cancer had spread to her bones. I wrote because writing is what I do when I do not know how to manage the unmanageable. I wrote "real" not pretty...
The amazing and brilliant woman child, whose impending death made it so hard for me to cope with life, had been a breast cancer survivor for 25 magnificent years. Her resilient spirit was like none I have ever known. I truly never thought she would lose the battle. Thus, I was not prepared, during the year prior to her death, for the impotence my heart would start to know. When I would listen late at night as she talked of her fears, her pain, her claustrophobia, and of the anxious curiosity that was hers about what comes at death, and after death, I simply did not know how to handle my feelings, or to help her handle hers, until I considered writing fiction.
As a professional nurse for 20 years, prior to embarking on a writing/publishing career in 1986, I frequently chose to become involved with a number of terminally ill patients. Time had permitted it to become an easy choice because years earlier, in nursing school, a very special young woman, who died of ovarian cancer, had touched my life forever. She showed me firsthand that the dying could teach me lessons about life which could be learned no other way. Still, no matter how many times you have been there, no matter how many fragile hearts you have attempted to comfort or dying hands you have held, no matter how much pain you have tried to alleviate... you are never prepared for death to take a best friend.
When you lose a special friend - to date, three very close friends have died with breast cancer - painful emotions eventually begin to permeate all the recesses of your heart. You feel as though you will die, too, if you do not release the exploding anguish within. My pen always has provided for such release and, until the death that prompted the writing of Malignant EMOTION, non-fiction had served me well. Then, suddenly, truth as I knew it did not touch the misery that wore a thousand faces. No degree of comfort was to be found until it occurred to me that I boldly could walk into the realm of fantasy and turn our agony into anything I wanted it to become. It is amazing now to look back at how this first attempt at fiction entertained my friend, made her laugh, and made it possible for us to talk about many things besides the pain, even or especially sex!
It was many months after she died before I was able to pick up the manuscript and embrace the truths my intriguing characters so longed to teach me - characters who, by the time I put the last punctuation marks in place, had carved for themselves a place in my heart where they comfort me still. I will never apologize for the laughter that lurks within these pages to jump out and surprise the reader right smack dab in the middle of painful pent-up emotions that beg for freedom. As you read, I hope you cry, too; but I hope you laugh more! As you laugh, perhaps you will agree with my friend whose last birthday present to me, prior to her death, was a lovely writing pen on which the following tiny words were engraved: MARY JANE HOLT, NOVELIST AT HEART.
Who knew, as her death closed the door on our lifetime of friendship, that our last gifts to one another would open the door to endless Celebration of Friendship for so many others? I trust your heart will be blessed as you recall precious friends now gone from your presence... and resolve without reserve to completely and unconditionally love those who remain!
What people are saying about Malignant EMOTION
"With Malignant EMOTION, award-winning author Mary Jane Holt has penned a beautifully written and deeply spiritual tale of life, love and death and all that's in between. It is an uplifting and inspiring work that speaks to the true meaning of friendship. I highly recommend it." - William Rawlings, MD, author and physician (www.williamrawlings.com)
“Malignant EMOTION truly describes the roller coaster of emotions a cancer patient has... I could not put this book down. It was so real. It gives you excitement and then peace.” - Glenna Thornton, Breast Cancer Survivor
"Malignant EMOTION gave me more insight into the female psyche than anything I have ever read and I have been an avid reader all my life! That is by no means saying I fully understand women because nobody does, but I think I understand them a little better now." - Paul Loth, Retired Marine
"Fantastic! An excellent portrayal of friendship! - Olivia Huff, High School Senior …
“I have never been so mesmerized by a story line. It was brilliant how it flowed in and out of the hidden, yet so apparent life lessons throughout the book. I especially loved the twist at the end.” - Tommy Brandt, Award-winning Inspirational Country Music Artist ( www.tommybrandt.org )
T hrough the web of life portrayed in her novel, Mary Jane Holt conveys the importance of each individual, each thought, each act, each word or look. Then she allows these little things to fade into the mist as life focuses on what is even more important - true love. She uses words to skillfully paint a picture of love - God's love reflected by each of us as we become willing to incorporate it into ourselves. Malignant Emotion is a story of overcoming those things which bind us, and freeing the spirit, as we learn to look and listen beyond ourselves. Mary Jane's book reminds me of my husband Cliff's words after a recent near-death experience, "God took my hand and then one finger, and very carefully he guided my hand and dipped my finger into the ocean of love. And it was more wonderful than words can ever tell or than the human mind can ever imagine!" Our offenses are many, and they are hurtful and sinful. However, God's love is greater and can overcome them all! This is a story of love and grace. - Doris Woodruff Hewitt, PhD