Sci-Fi novel from Nettleham author
Jonathan Frost’s ideas for his novel Dreams of Eden first started to form when he was a child, taking root as a teenager and finally coming to fruition when he retired in 2021.
The Nettleham author first became interested in storytelling as a six-year-old engrossed in Children’s Hour on the BBC Home Service.
“Almost ten years later, I am sitting in the school chapel, bored, staring absently at the stained-glass windows, only half listening to a Lenten sermon being delivered by a visiting priest.
“Suddenly, I hear the words: exorcism, temptation, works of the devil. That woke me up. The priest was talking animatedly about the dangers of Ouija boards, how young minds can be corrupted, that demons are real. Oh yeah, bring it on. My, some might say unhealthy, fascination for seances and communing with the dead, became firmly planted in my subconscious. What I didn’t know at the time and a question perhaps I should have asked, where would this lead?
“Now I know - Dreams of Eden.”
After varied careers in archaeology, research, scriptwriting and journalism Jonathan moved to Lincoln in with his wife 2006 and worked as a lecturer in English, film theory and production at Lincoln College and Lincoln University. When Covid struck he was forced to retire as he was made redundant. He was then diagnosed with bowel cancer.
“I thought hell, don’t drop the ball now. While I was recuperating after successful surgery, I was wondering what I was going to do with my brain. Then I had a thought, that idea I had for that story almost fifty years ago. It was still there, locked away in a dusty, forgotten room in my subconscious, waiting. Two years later it became Dreams of Eden.”
A quick synopsis has Elizabeth Fallon and Isaac Goldman meeting by chance in 1970s London. Elizabeth, a Tarot reader, believes she can speak to the dead. Isaac, a rootless dreamer, has written a book.
Beguiled by Elizabeth he asks for her help with questions only the dead can answer. Azazel, a Watch from an alien race called the Nephilim, reveals itself during a terrifying séance, telling Issac his book is a prophecy. Their lives change forever.
The book was published on January 28 and is now available from Lindum Books, Lark Books and Waterstones. Jonathan will be holding a launch and signing event at the Nettleham Hub on Friday, February 28 from 2-4pm.
