Guest Post - Fiona Dodwell - The Banishing

The Problem of evil

When I first set out to write a modern day novel of possession, my thoughts naturally gravitated toward the question of whether we, as human beings, could be possessed. Certainly, many religions believe in the existence of a devil and of demons, and there have been many accounts in history that talk of people being taken over by evil spirits. The idea is, in itself, a terrifying one. Imagine becoming something other than yourself; your mind thinking thoughts you can't control, acting out of character, displaying new and ugly qualities. Sound familiar? Could demonic possession truly exist – or are we simply talking about flawed humans? Or, possibly mental illness?

These were questions that haunted me, and I explored it more deeply when I wrote The Banishing. I wanted to take something dark that exists in human nature – in the case of my novel, it was domestic abuse - and ask if could there be flaws in human nature that have sinister origins. Could the evil acts we read about in newspapers or see on the 24 hours news channels be describing events caused by people who were spiritually oppressed or under the grip of a supernatural evil?

Could this be something we believe in today, in this civilised world?

In The Banishing, my main character Melissa firmly believes that her husband has been taken over. He is no longer the man she married. She sees a change in his behaviour that has turned him into a different man. His temper. His raised fists. The voices he hears in his head. Is Melissa on the right track – or is she in denial, unable to face what her husband has become?

In today's world, with psychiatry and medicine taking a prominent role, we would all seek to find a reasonable, safe answer to the evil that exists in the world. But what if evil knows how to masquerade under a safe, acceptable façade?

If you are interested in finding the conclusions my character reaches about the problem of evil, then you can order a copy of The Banishing from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Damnation Books.

Fiona Dodwell lives in the UK with her husband. She has studied a peculiar mix over the years, from film studies to theology to psychology. She has been writing since she was a teenager, having developed a morbid taste for horror. Her first full length fictional novel, The Banishing, has been released with Damnation Books recently.

To find out more about Fiona, you can visit her author page at: www.fionasfiction.wordpress.com


Book Description:
When Melissa first notices the change in her husband - subtle at first - she thinks it may be the stress of moving into their new home. Or working long hours. But soon her husband turns into something far darker, far more sinister. Who or what is the dark shadow living beneath her husband? What is haunting him? Melissa must quickly find the answer to these questions, because Mark is changing, and fast. Soon her fight will be for her life, as well as for her marriage.
Genre: Horror

Giveaway:
The giveaway is tour wide- 1 print copy and 1 ebook copy. Winners to be chosen from all the comments at all the tour stops- so you can enter at each tour stop. Giveaway open internationally.