It’s a fall evening
and the sun whispers goodbye as it gently descends over the horizon. But the
day has been too short for you so you decide to go for a walk with nature. But
then you realize that you’ve wandered far from home. . . . very far. So far
that you’ve come across a dark forest and you ask yourself if you really want
to go in there. Despite the fading of sunlight your curiosity gets the best of
you. After all, you’re not far from the gravel road, right? You go in and hear
the crunch of leaves beneath your feet. The chill in the air caresses the back
of your neck and begs to turn back. Suddenly, you notice an old wooden sign
that is nailed to a tree.
ABANDON
ALL HOPE,
YOU
WHO ENTER HERE
You’ve heard
stories of this place before. It’s not where you want to be. You try to move
your feet but you can’t. You start to shake and break into a cold sweat when
all of a sudden...
...you wake up.
It was all a dream.
It’s not real.
But what if it was?
How would you escape the nine circles of hell?
This is the
premise (at least, in part) for the new novel by author, Leonardo Ramirez
titled, Haven of Dante: The Staff of Moshe. In the work, the nine circles have
become incensed at the audacity of Alighieri’s emergence from their realm and
after a lengthy war they’ve come together to inflict pain on mankind. Calling
themselves “The Aristocracy” they are responsible for every evil that has
plagued man.
Here’s
the synopsis:
Haven Irena Dante,
seventeen, struggles with a dysfunctional family. Her workaholic father is never there, but his
absence is filled by a loving mother harboring the secret and mysterious past
of their family. The Dantes are
inheritors of a centuries old legacy stretching back to Dante Alighieri
himself. They fight to contain the nine
circles of hell described in the classic literature "Dante's
Inferno."
Today, the nine
circles have infiltrated the world at every level, operating as a secret
society known as "The Aristocracy."
The only thing stopping The Aristocracy from world domination is the
Dante family line.
Now its Haven's
turn to carry that torch.
Combining literary
fiction with fantasy, this action-packed young adult adventure races through
dimensions of paranormal, science fiction and the supernatural.
Why
did you write this book?
I wondered what
someone would do if they were at the point of death and they were given the
choice to remain in a suffering world where all they had experienced was
heartache and pain or go into paradise. The catch would be to return to this
world knowing that there was a chance they could fix their relationship with a
loved one. This is where the idea stemmed from and led into the inclusion of
Dante Alighieri’s cantos which represent the ills of mankind and our struggle
to overcome them. Our protagonist needed to have more than enough reason not to
return so we also included a violation. This was not done gratuitously. My wife
had suffered the same experience and today she is alive and well. I wanted
others to have gone through this horror to have the same chance and be an
encouragement to them. Aside from this I wanted to delve into some of the
things that we fear the most fully knowing that there is always a reason (more
specifically, a hurt) behind them. I think that sometimes we allow a hurt to
become a fear and then the fear becomes a part of us. Some could argue that it
makes us human and I would not disagree. But at the same time we reach a point
of decision when we are exposed to the meaning behind the fear or the hurt. And
that can manifest itself in any of the areas explored in the nine circles.
To
keep it interesting, I’ve given the leader of each circle a character who in
turn, become hybrids.
In the interest of keeping the spoilers
to an absolute minimum, I’ve deleted some of the biographies of the hybrids.
Circle One – Those in limbo
led by Lord Limbus. This
demon transports humans into the nine circles. According to the code of the
Aristocracy, no human can be transported out of the realm of the nine circles
except of their own volition.
Circle Two – The lustful led by Lord Hedonis.
Circle Three – The gluttonous led by Lord Voratum. This is a gluttonous
demon that possesses Chuck Flegman, an outcast in Haven’s high school.
Circle Four – The hoarders led by Lord Hordran.
Circle Five – The wrathful led by Lord Vengus.
Circle Six – The heretics led by Lord Retic.
Circle Seven – The violent led by Lord Ravage. This demon is a mindless savage beast bent on the
destruction of the Dante family line and all human life. The more he kills the
stronger he gets.
Circle Eight – The sorcerers led by Lord Lock.
Circle Nine – The traitors led by Lord Traiton.
What
are you working on at the minute?
Right now I’m
writing the 2nd book in a Children’s Steampunk series titled, The
Jupiter Chronicles: The Ice Orphan of Ganymede. It’s geared towards struggling
readers in the 2nd grade and on up.
What’s
it about?
The series focuses
on two kids (Ian and Callie Castillo) who have just discovered their missing
father had been the ruler of the steam-powered world of Jupiter. It also
explains how steam technology arrived on Earth and forever changed our world.
What
is the one message that you want readers to hear coming from this book?
The one resounding
message that I want folks to (hopefully) get is that no matter how bad the
cards that have been dealt to you are, you can still make good choices. You
might stumble along the way. You might fall. You might be angry and hate for a
little while. But after you’ve allowed yourself to experience those feelings
you can still make constructive choices for your life. The road to heaven
sometimes goes right through hell.
There is a violation on the main character
that occurs in the story but this is not done gratuitously. My hope is that the book will be an
entertaining source of encouragement in its message that you can make some good
choices despite the cards that have been dealt to you.
So
with all of that said, how would you escape the nine circles?
Author Bio
Leonardo
Ramirez is a husband, a father, a Karate instructor with a 3rd degree
black belt, and a writer. His first graphic novel, Haven, is a
supernatural Young Adult story centered on an ancient war between the
Dante family and the nine circles of hell. His follow up is a
self-published children’s Steampunk book called The Jupiter Chronicles:
The Secret of the Great Red Spot. It follows the adventure of two
children as they are transported to the steam-powered cities of Jupiter,
find their long-lost father, stop an attack from Mars, and witness the
birth of Steampunk.
“My
heart and motive have always been for people who are hurting. These can
be kids who have had to suffer through child abuse or neglect or an
absent parent which can be equally torturous as was the case in The
Jupiter Chronicles. It can also be young girls who have suffered an
assault like Haven did in Haven of Dante. Young or old it doesn’t
matter. Those are the kids and adults I want to speak to because I’ve
been there.”
It’s not just Science Fiction.
It’s Science Fiction for the Human Condition.
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