Read by the author 



Why am I writing and illustrating the book Water Dancer.


Several years ago I became deeply curious as to what caused my great grand parents from the forests of Northern Europe, a hundred generations back to find the tremendous strengths to stay alive and thrive with a sense of joy in the face of tremendous difficulties.   What thoughts did they possess that caused them to survive invaders, and also, celebrate every moment of their day developing bodies that archeologists describe as having the strength of Olympians and that Julius Caesar described as having greater amounts of fierce courage than any of his finest Legionaries.  So I chose a place in history, 50 B.C.E. a time well documented by the Roman historians hired by Julius Caesar who was then a Roman General at war with my forest grandparents.  Through reading his notes and those of archeologists, I have created a drama of historical fiction as accurate as I could to what occurred, to discover how my ancestors thought about subjects like family, love and marriage, the trees, the mountains, rivers, life, death, and war, and all the creatures within the vast network of their forest home.  I discovered that their attitude was very similar to the American Natives as well as most Indigenous who live within the natural world.  This is encouraging since my body carries, all of our bodies carry the strengths of our ancestors in the very D.N.A. of our muscles and memories.  I believe that when we remember who we came from we tap into a power beyond our limited view of who we are now.  I created the main characters, Roselyn and Seiglebert.  But outside of that, the story is as close to the facts as I can say it. I believe that if they were alive now, sitting in front of me, they would want me to remember who they were, what outrageously amazing things they did.  Not to bring them glory, but to bring me encouragement when I most need it.  I think that time is now.  I think my story is every person's story.    Water, by the way, within  communities who lived in the Natural world understood that water cleans not only the body, but the mind and heart of a person as well.  In the western world, we call it forgiveness.  In their world, it was called the Water Dance.  So pour yourself a cup of tea, sit down and scroll through this gallery of illustrations, each with an attached vignette from a chapter in the book, Water Dancer. 



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Steve Brumme at Facebook and message me.  

 

or send me an email

stevebrumme@icloud.com