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 In an interview with Writing Magazine Harvey Tordoff agrees that writing the 10,000-word epic poem O Lanoo! was hardly the conventional way to break into print.
'Writing a 10,000-word epic poem about an obscure subject is hardly the conventional way to break into print,' agrees Harvey Tordoff. But that is exactly what he did with his O Lanoo!, recently published by Findhorn Press.
Harvey's epic poem tells the story of the evolution of the human spirit, and it is a re-telling of the ancient Story of Dzyan - a story that pre-dates all the Hindu sacred texts. 'From the perspective from which O Lanoo! presents the story of evolution it links the ideas of Genesis and Darwin,' says Harvey.
'I came across the Story of Dzyan when I was a teenager, and its ideas stayed with me. In my professional life I was an accountant, and I found that in business you often have to compromise your principles for the exigencies of the moment. At times like this I found the ideas very helpful. In due course I progressed through to financial director of a large company where I found myself writing business reports that had to present complex subjects in clear language.
'Eventually I left the rat race for a different lifestyle. Among other things I joined a Buddhist group, and they were looking for poems for their magazine. That started me on writing poetry which, strangely, I found not unlike writing business reports: every word has to count, and there is no room for padding. That led me to the writing of O Lanoo!.
'When I had finished, I looked around for a publisher in the mind, body and spirit field. I first found a publisher in Dorking, but they went out of business just before publication date, and eventually I was lucky enough to come across Findhorn Press.'
Findhorn have a growing reputation in the mind, body and spirit field, with the aim of reaching the widest possible audience with books about an alternative way of life, and they are publishing O Lanoo! simultaneously in the UK and the US. |
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