Plus a peek at the psyche of my most obstreperous heroine

Hi All!

I hope you’re having a good August. After a Tatooine-like start to the summer here in NC, we got hit by a wave of storms, including a hurricane, which has transformed our desert into a slime-mold-covered swamp. I half-expect to see Yoda emerge from the swampy underbrush in my back yard. Some of my plants are flourishing and others appear to have died. What can I say: it’s an exciting time to be an inexperienced amateur gardener.

On the other hand, in between fighting the mosquitoes and making vain attempts at reviving my long-suffering camellias, I’ve been savoring the pleasure of re-reading a favorite series. Actually, re-hearing to it, since I’m listening to the audiobooks. The series is The Heritage of Shannara, a four-book sequel of sorts to the original Shannara series (I have to admit I got some of my idiosyncratic series creation habits from the Shannara books). Have you read it? Do you have a Shannara book or series you particularly recommend? Terry Brooks is one of my all-time favorite authors, and every time I revisit his older works, I find more to appreciate. The Elfstones of Shannara blew me away when I listened to it earlier this summer, and The Heritage of Shannara continues to be a riveting read/listen, 30+ years after it was originally released. If you have any particular favorite Terry Brooks books, please let me know!

As for my own books, a breathless late summer seems like the perfect time to share a little more backstory about The Dreaming Land, the third mini-series within the overall Zemnian series. I’ve been doing deep dives into the psyches of my heroines this summer (check it out here, here, here, and here), and now it’s the turn of Valya, my horse warrior princess.

There’s soooo much I could say about Valya, but I’ll keep it short (sort of). If you’ve read The Dreaming Land, you know that it’s narrated in the first person, unlike most of my other books. Switching narration styles like that is weird, I know, but that’s how Valya came to me. Although on a superficial level she’s very different from me, on other levels she’s the heroine most similar to me, and I experienced her more from the inside than the outside, if that makes sense.

Like me, Valya was born in the summer and is associated with summer (although I’m starting to lose my taste for summer, I have to admit). The Dreaming Land starts shortly before the summer solstice and ends around the autumnal equinox. While Slava from The Midnight Land is associated with the regeneration and rebirth of winter and Dasha from The Breathing Sea and The Singing Shore with the transformation of spring and autumn, Valya is linked to the heat of high summer and fecundity of early fall.

While Valya seems like the most confident and forthright of my heroines on the outside, on the inside she is perhaps the most confused. From a Jungian perspective, she is probably a dominant Introverted Intuitive, just like my other heroines, but she presents as someone with dominant Extraverted Sensing. In other words, she fights with swords rather than words and magic. Part of her heroine’s journey is to set down her sword and take up the magic that is her birthright; i.e., to stop relying on her inferior function and learn to use her dominant function. This is the opposite from the typical path of individuation and self-development, but Valya never can do things the normal way.

Turning to the Enneagram, Valya can come across as an 8, the Challenger, and she certainly has a number of 8-like traits. However, I suspect that she is actually a 1. When you take a bird’s-eye view of her behavior, whether she’s interrogating a prisoner, seducing a prince, or digging graves, she’s generally motivated by her rage and what she thinks is right, not by her lust and what she thinks is strong. As a 1, her greatest danger is falling into destructive self-righteous rage, which she almost does on several occasions. She is also committed to cleansing her land of the corruption the antagonists are defiling it with, a very 1 type of concern.

(As a side note, I tried to think of what kind of action would be the most outrage-provoking thing to do and then had my antagonists do that thing. Valya’s rage at them is justified).

It takes an encounter with a 9 to jerk Valya—literally—off the dangerous path towards committing evil in the name of righteousness. When she finds herself caught up in a more and more aggressive interrogation of suspected slave-traders, it is the 9 Vanya, who has seemed so mild-mannered, even passive, so far, who literally grabs her and drags her away before she can commit an irrevocably bad act.

Valya then tries to turn her conscience over to Vanya for safekeeping, but Vanya essentially tells her that she needs to keep her own conscience. Valya is doubtful, but in the end she chooses to let go of her rage in order to achieve her greater aims. When she gives up her reliance on her inferior function and embraces her dominant function, and turns away from the dark side of the 1 by listening to the wisdom of the 9, she is able to integrate the warring sides of her psyche as well as the warring factions of her native land.

When I finished The Dreaming Land  I declared I was done with the entire Zemnian series. Hahahaha! I’ve already added another trilogy to it (The Singing Shore), and I’m currently making notes for a potential second trilogy involving Valya. I know, I know, I know. It’s in the very early planning stages, but if you’re a fan of Valya and you’d like to see more books featuring her, please let me know! And, of course, please do share your favorite Shannara books with me.

Happy reading!

E.P.