FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Amy Opperman Cash, amy@larsonpublications.com
Molly O’Brien and the Mark of the Dragon Slayer
by Kathleen Damiani
Larson Publications / November 2011
Distributed by National Book Network
The first in a series . . .
Where’s the new life for YA fiction that can fill the Harry Potter gap? With vampires and werewolves and zombies, and even funny zombies, still larger than they may appear in the rearview mirror, will the next “big thing” have to be even darker and more violent? Kathleen Damiani doesn’t think so . . .
Molly O’Brien is a new kind of YA heroine—who learns the power of Woman to disrupt the sinister momentum of dark energies and nurture ones that serve what’s precious in life. We first meet her briefly at age eight, when she “just can’t take it anymore” and is about to do something perilous. An inexplicable encounter with a strange creature in a tree changes her perspective, leaving a fresh “mark of the dragon slayer” on her wounded thigh that destines her for high adventure (and at least five more books).
The story resumes when Molly is fourteen, shortly before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sophia, the strange and beautiful “woman” with a long tail and hooved feet reappears after a long absence, eager for Molly to join her on a dangerous mission in the realm between the worlds—where the circumstances of earth life as we know it are formed. Together they embark on a series of adventures designed to prepare Molly for her true destiny—battling the Great Dragon that encircles our planet as the crystallized thought-forms of humanity’s past, now controlled by the demon Ialdaboath.
Their first battle with Ialdaboath is successful, easing the tension of the Missile Crisis enough for Kennedy and Krushchev to make a deal. Molly’s middle-realm initiations continue from there in a variety of adventures—ranging from a romantic interest in the disciplined assistant to a powerful sage, to uplifting visions in the Women’s Temple and the Hall of Philosophy, to a life-and-death struggle with Mephistopheles who tricks Molly into a drop of blood “signature” in his Book of Magic . . . and long periods of subsequent exile back to earth.
Molly is a healthy, inquisitive young woman who ultimately learns to navigate and balance her magical and mundane realities, and find the core strength her destiny requires. Various beings from biblical, alchemical, and esoteric tradition, as well as allegorical fiction figure into her training. Sophia emerges under a variety of names as the deep feminine nature that can guide women (and men willing to learn) to their own soul powers and the wisdom of how to engage them in service to life’s higher possibilities.
“Beyond the world we know is another realm. Kathleen Damiani unfolds the mysterious wisdom of Sophia with joyful exploration.” –Caitlín Matthews, author, Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom
Kathleen Damiani, PhD, has been researching, writing, and speaking about Sophia since 1985. She completed interdisciplinary graduate programs at Old Dominion University and Union Institute and University, earning her PhD in 1998. Her talks and writings on Sophia, the dragon, and alchemical and Gnostic themes are at sophiaandthedragon.com. This is her first adventure with fiction.
Molly O’Brien and the Mark of the Dragon Slayer by Kathleen Damiani
Teen fantasy/fiction
6 x 9, 272 pages, paperback, $15.95
Publication date: November 20, 2011
Larson Publications / Distributed by National Book Network