The Novels

Shawn Quinlivan is a therapist, holistic health author and novelist.

Author’s Note: I wrote my first novel almost twenty years ago. It was called ‘The True Believers’ and was edited by the great Ardath Mayhar, who authored over 60 books of various genres and was a tremendous influence on me. That book made it to Penguin Putnum publishers in New York, NY, where it was received well but was ultimately rejected because it was deemed less than ideal for their market audience of young readers. In fact, ‘The True Believers’ was not a coming of age story but rather an adult fantasy. Nonetheless, the editors who reviewed the work were very complimentary and had some interesting and helpful suggestions, which I took seriously.

Unfortunately, the confluence of events and crisis that eventually led to my becoming a therapist came to a crescendo shortly thereafter, which is to say life intervened and I was forced to put my story aside. But the tale of this distinctive reality, its cast of diverse characters and their conflicts, challenges and motivations, lived on and morphed in my mind—in ways that defy rational explanation. Suffice it to say that the connections writers have to their works are unique, perhaps even psychic, in a manner of speaking. It is relevant to mention, however, that some of those enigmatic elements carry over into my therapy practice, and in that world they are best summed up in one word: intuition. In that I mean we sometimes just know things, and it comes to us to explore them in allegorical terms, occasionally of the fantastical variety.

“Fantastical” was one of the words Ardath used to describe this enchanted world, which has since come to be called the realm of Moirai. The adventure entails many episodes and more than one novel, and it came to me to call the series ‘The Shadows of Heaven.’ Joseph Campbell’s hero journey, Carl Jung’s archetypes, and the enduring legends of ancient Celtic culture all reside in this mythical destination—along with wolves and wild nature in the vein of Jack London, and the shamanic mysticism explored by Carlos Castaneda. There are also elements of horror fiction, or what some call dark fantasy, that profoundly impact the story. The Shadows of Heaven is a passageway of reflection and self-discovery, of conviction and resolve and valor, not just for the characters and all they learn about themselves, but for the reader who travels at their side.

If you have taken the time to visit this page and decide to read on, I am grateful and hopeful that perhaps some of the profound inspiration which was gifted to me in the creation of these tales, finds its way into your heart.

~Shawn Quinlivan, September 2018

Long fall the shadows of heaven, summoning the harbingers of divine light to suffuse the darkness.

The mystical realm of Moirai is a resplendent otherworld of enchantment and treachery, where the agencies of evil have corrupted the theocratic rule of the Cathonian Sisterhood and its divine birth priestesses. The ancient guardians have faded into legend and myth, and the indigenous peoples that hold to their old ways are tyrannized by a sinister anarchy that drives them―clan by clan, tribe by tribe, and village by village―to the perceived protections of the Church.

The Sisterhood’s genetic breeding of the sacred flesh through refined rituals of necromancy has gone astray, as one of their prized progeny has become a vile and terrifying Morphling. The arcane talismanic magic which bestows this creature obscene powers has also enabled the tainted dark sisters to unleash age-old demons that threaten an apocalypse. Yet as foretold by the Sisterhood’s estranged prophet, one man of noble and respected heritage, an unbeliever of the Church, will stand against the priestesses and their religion of dark sorcery, holy power and god-making.

A maimed champion and living vestige of Moirai’s bygone era of glory and grace, he is a man whose only eye is a witch-crystal and whose face is like his pride, burned and scarred and hidden―a man whose soul is haunted by dark secrets and the deeds of his past. Elandon di Brehon is the last in the lineage of Paladins sworn into service of the Sea Kings of Ein, the once benevolent rulers of this magnificent realm. He must thwart the daunting forces of darkness and fulfill his role in the prophecy, thus proving to himself and to creation that his dying breed is not just another tool of the Sisterhood.