DANCING THE MUSE - Danial Neil

  Dominion of Mercy   Danial has an exceptional gift, for bringing the reader, into the other reality, so completely, that  you become one with that experience, and live with the characters, in that time, place and context, realizing their thoughts, feelings, worries, hopes and dreams. I enjoyed, participating, in “another life”, learned and grew from the experience - empathized and worried for the others, used my imagination to “help” them problem solve, hoped and dreamed for them. It’s been a journey, and I love to travel, to explore, to learn. I especially enjoyed reading the notes and references, at the end, that supported the historical context and Danial’s personal connections, through his own family, as well as his academic research. Well done Danial! Next, I’ll be off to look up your other publications and delve into them as well. Thank you for sharing your gift. Must take tremendous time and efforts, to research, draft, revise, rewrite, rewor...

How do we understand the past? As a historian, perhaps it is the events that mark a particular time. Key figures, wars and their significance, their carnage. We can judge history's limitations in order that we may evolve, gain some insight so that society at large will not repeat the errors of the past. We can marvel how far we have come. Technology, yes, but by the most essential of measures, how we treat each other, we have not come that far. How we perceive race, the migration of people seeking a better life, differences and inequality, still dog the progress of humanity. Perhaps history is only a reflection of the level of consciousness of the day. So, to write a fictional piece of a time that we can longer find, that does not possess an objective reality, but resides in photographs, writings, and in our imagination, we can view history without judgement, but with a kind of empathy that recognizes the struggles of a particular time. We can create a dreamlike world, some aspects...