The Guru’s Puppets: Coming Fall 2024

I first got the idea for The Guru’s Puppets on a beautiful morning just south of Lahaina. I was on the shores of Olowalu beach, waiting for a single-person snorkel tour to arrive—something quite rare. The guest's husband arrived early and informed me that his wife, whom I'll call Linda, would be over shortly with her gear. I assumed he meant snorkel gear. A couple of minutes later, a woman with no arms or legs, walking on prosthetics, came around the corner. My jaw momentarily dropped. I wasn’t sure how, or if, a snorkel tour with someone with these limitations could work. But I decided to try our best and see what happened.

Linda had the most positive and upbeat attitude, and we made it work. It was extremely rewarding. I imagine it was one of the highlights of her trip. I'll never forget walking back to shore, arm-in-arm (prosthetic) with her as she trudged through the sand. That moment will stay with me forever. Oddly enough, the night before the tour, I had prayed to God for new metaphorical shoes, inspired by a poem in Stephen King’s latest novel Fairy Tale. Linda and her new “shoes” seemed like a sign.

I told my auntie about the tour. She, a former nurse, speculated that Linda, a woman in her sixties who mentioned, “Life was easier before all of this,” might have had her limbs amputated due to blood sepsis. The idea terrified me, as blood sepsis can happen quickly and unexpectedly.

Around this time, I was very interested in metaphysical, philosophical, and spiritual teachings from people like Dr. Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, and Ram Dass. I thought it would be fun to incorporate a guru-type character in a book whose teachings profoundly impact the lives of people they've never met.

Thus, The Guru’s Puppets was born. It tells the tale of sweet, church-going Kathy, who contracts blood sepsis from a bug bite on a safari her husband wanted to go on. Her husband mysteriously disappears after the safari, and Kathy must handle the amputation of all her limbs without him. When the televangelist church she volunteered at for years, along with all her friends, turn their backs on her, she finds herself in a terrifyingly lonely place. 

As Kathy navigates her new reality, a guru's teachings touch the lives of people in her orbit. These characters make changes in their lives based on the guru’s teachings, leading to a confluence of events and people. Everyone learns their lessons, and some receive their due justice.