Donna Gillespie & Cathy Cash Spellman - Words that live in your soul

I first met Donna through her novel The Light Bearer, written in 1994. It was so incredible I managed to track her down and built my first fan site over at The Light Bearer Unofficial Fan Site back in 1996!

What Donna does in her book is reach into your soul and craft words that make you realize aspects of yourself you've never before admitted outloud. Her heroine, Auriane, is a woman brilliantly strong in protecting those she loves....yet fragile and self-doubting about her own personal worth.

Every single time I re-read her books, I gain more insights into myself as a maturing woman who has grown from a single career entrepreneur to the all-powerful Mother Unit that I am now. I plan on gifting my children with her books when they're old enough as well.

Here's one of my reviews:

Donna Gillespie's first book, The Light Bearer, literally changed my life back in 1994 when I first read it. It's the type of novel that speaks individually to each reader and opens paths to their inner self-knowledge; I was always astounded at how I'd struck by deeper and deeper insights at each reading.

Personally, I thought Donna could never outdo herself with The Light Bearer. It has everything any human being could want - thrilling adventure, forbidden love, soul-devouring danger, stark honor, difficult sacrifice, etc. Keep in mind I read it prior to becoming a mother myself.

Now, 12 years later, The Lady of the Light is released. Let me tell you, I have no idea how the author accomplished this but the impact of this book knocked me figuratively flat on my rear. I've been a mom myself now for over a decade, and never never never NEVER have I read a book that speaks to women and men as does this.

You see, Lady of the Light transcends your typical book reading experience. The Light Bearer did too, of course...from a different viewpoint. TLB is a mansion of masterful rooms, each described robustly and fully and coming together beautifully in the end. Each component was described fully and in detail (horrific war, dangerous love, impossible training, hidden treachery, fanatic deceit, etc.)

Lady of the Light, in comparison, had a much more targeted focus... it is the hidden sanctuary that all women, mothers and daughters have secret within their fragile-strong souls. It draws readers into matters of the mind and heart while allowing the tightly-packed action scenes to take the background... leaving instead the center stage to the more subdued yet far more draining struggles of women finding their true inner peace.

Men too, for that matter, will find the material just as resonating; the main character, Marcus, was given not only a stalwart soul but also a woman's understanding as well.

In closing, I have probably re-read Lady of the Light a dozen times by now, and The Light Bearer times past counting. Not because I forget the material, mind you....but each reading simply reveals more about myself to me. I still have no idea how Donna accomplished this. It's uncanny... I've never seen another author with this particular gift. I highly recommend the series.

Donna's books are so amazing, I created the following sites for her:

 Oprah Worthy

 Donna Gillespie

And some quotes that stand out in my mind include:

Catastrophe is Fertile...
It Brings Forth Worlds

"Why did you allow her to torment me?"

"It was not her words that tormented you, but your belief in them
If there is some shame lying about, how eagerly you pick it up and say, this is mine."

"Better a spirit that does not quite fit in this world than one that is broken."

Do yourself a favor and check out her writings - I guarantee the books will resound in your inner self as they did in mine.

Sometimes if you're lucky, you can find her books on eBay too:

Cathy Cash Spellman is another gifted sorceress with words who manages to give her readers the deepest, darkest understandings of what drives good people to behave badly...and to what shining clarity one's inner strengths can be forged.

My favorite book by her is called Paint The Wind. To quote a review....

Wide as the continent and wild as the west, Paint the Wind is the epic saga of one unforgettable woman and three strong men who risk everything to possess her.

1864. A plantation is ravaged by border raiders. Ten year old Fancy Deverell is saved by a wise old slave named Atticus, who sets her on an extraordinary journey that will lead her headlong into the rough and tumble days of the Old West. The novel sweeps along with the relentless rhythm of those turbulent times....from a westering circus train to the gold and silver fields of Colorado, from the cutthroat world of the New York stage and the arcane shadows of magic and mysticism to the legendary and tragic struggles of Geronimo and the Apache Nation.

To survive, Fancy must learn what it takes for a woman to climb from poverty to fame and fortune in a universe that belongs to the ruthless and the male. Before she's through, there isn't much that Fancy won't have done, or bargained, or sold for her dreams...and the price of her deliverance. For Paint The Wind is first and last the story of feisty, tempestuous, and vulnerable Fancy Deverell. Far too beautiful for her own good, she wants it all-love, power, money, and security-and she'll get it, too, if she can keep her heart out of the way of the three men who so desperately want her.....

Fancy's journey is a tale of self-discovery and of spiritual growth that takes as many strange turns as life itself. The men and women who bring their dreams and their drives to it are as colorful and various as the thousands who journeyed west; the stalwart, honorable madam and the gunfighter that loves her...the brilliant dwarf with the secret past...the cunning Chinese wise man who knows the cure for Opium addiction...the old prosecutor who would sacrifice everything but integrity for the Mother Lode...the thespian who yearns for one last great role to play...the mysterious Gypsy who mastered the forbidden arts and now must win back her soul.

This book stays with me too, for a multitude of reasons. Some of my favorite quotes by which I've aligned my life include:

Wu offered Fancy no solace in her maternal anguish.

"The gods honor you," he said once, and Fancy stared at him incredulously.

"They believe you are equal to this test."

"You know, kid," Jewel said after a moment or two. "I was listenin' to what you two said to each other, eavesdropped on every blessed word of it, like it was my sworn duty to hear it all. It kinda made me wish I could ever once have told my mama what was wrong in my life and have her understand like you tried to do, just now. I really loved my mamam, more'n anybody...but I never once got the chance to do what you two did tonight. I cain't help but wonder if maybe everything coulda been different in my life, if my mama'd ever known the truth."

"Doctors got no business bein' positive about livin' or dyin, I guess," Doc Philmore said with a smile. "Guess we ought to know more about miracles than anybody."

"This was not a miracle, Doctor," Magda answered him. "This was merely the manifest power of love."

"Well, now, I'd say love's about the biggest miracle of all, wouldn't you?" he replied.

If you get a chance, definitely check out her books too! They'll walk by your side as you go through life as well.