Letters to the Editor.
Editor: "Hi Mike. Want to talk about Chapter 8? This is the one that gets me — the cup scene. Everywhere else in the book the water power is spectacle: lifting it out of the sink, aqua balls, the arrow on the dorsal's back. But here Shane does something different. He introduces water to Gary like it's a person. 'He is your friend.' 'He can always be cheered up.' And then Gary — this fearless master of the sea — is suddenly scared to drink a cup of water because it's alive. So tell me, brother — where did that come from? Was giving water a personality something you planned, or did 'he' just show up in Shane's voice one day and you rolled with it?"
Mike: "This is pretty well what water is. It is full of life force. Or maybe it is life force. I remember the first time I read The Power of Water. It blew me out. But water is that amazing. It has life."
Editor: "That's Emoto, right? The water crystal photographs — water exposed to kind words forming beautiful crystals, water exposed to hate forming chaos. So when Shane says water gets 'deeply upset within its very structure' when we prevent its purpose — that's not a metaphor to you. That's a literal description of what you believe water does. And that reframes the whole chapter for me. Because I read the cup scene as Shane teaching Gary a charming lesson. But what you're actually saying is the fantasy element in this book isn't that water is alive — that part's real to you. The only fantasy is that Shane can move it around. So here's my follow-up: the line 'it just forgives us, again and again.' That one's got a different flavour to the rest. Upset, cheered up, bright and bubbly — that's personality. But forgiveness is moral. That's water as something almost saintly. Where'd that line come from?"
Mike: "Good question. That is moral. Water can be cleaned up, filtered, given some sunlight, some nice music and bright again it becomes. There is no doubt that drinking enturbulated water is not so good for your health, but calm happy water, like the water forming beautiful crystals, really beneficial. Just like the Emoto photography. But I do feel that we can move water. Just with our spiritual power alone. We just have to wake up to it. This power we have that is."
Editor: "So hang on — that changes everything about how I read this book. Because now neither half of Chapter 8 is fantasy to you. Water being alive? Real. Moving water with spiritual power? Also real — just asleep in us. The only fiction is the setting. Which means the cup scene isn't Shane teaching Gary. It's you teaching the reader. Gary's the stand-in for every one of us — a capable, good-hearted bloke who works with water every single day and has never once considered that it's alive. And his fear at drinking it — that little flinch — that's the moment of waking up, isn't it? So is that the real purpose of this chapter — a wake-up call dressed as a boat story?"
Mike: "No. The journey is the story. It is my fiction adventure. But also my observation of what water is. Could even be a place to be between lives."
Editor: "Fair call — story first, always. I overcooked it. It's an adventure that happens to be written by a bloke who sees water truly. The observation rides along; it doesn't drive. But that last line, Mike — 'could even be a place to be between lives.' That stopped me. Because that's already in your book and I don't think you put it there on purpose. Chapter 1: Shane leaves his body and where does he go? He cups a water planet in his spiritual hands. Then he crosses the galaxy and drops straight into another one — into a newborn, warm and full of life force. Water to water. The ocean is literally where he arrives and departs between lives. That's your discovery writing doing its thing again — the theme arrived before the thought did. I reckon we've hit it, brother. Chapter 8 in one line: an adventure story where the water is genuinely alive — because the author reckons it genuinely is."
Mike: "I feel there is more. You see the water pointing, knowing the direction. Water has purpose. In alignment with life."
Editor: "You're right — I stopped one layer short. The cup scene gives water feelings. The arrow scene gives water knowing. Those are different things entirely. Because look at what actually happens: Shane doesn't calculate the direction and shape the water into an arrow to display it. He asks the water — 'watch him now as he reads my thoughts' — and the water leans toward the bow. It wants to go there. It already knows where the high point is, where the Crystal sits, before Shane does. Gary said there are no landmarks within 40 nautical miles and even Hi-Sun would struggle to find the spot. The water doesn't struggle. It points. And that fits your definition perfectly — if water's purpose is to flow toward purity and support life, then of course it knows the way to the Crystal. The Crystal is the thing that protects all the water on the planet. The water is pointing toward its own survival. Toward its own source. It's aligned. Which makes water the sixth crew member, doesn't it? Gary navigates by stars, Hi-Sun by feel, the dorsals by instinct — and water navigates by purpose. Shane's not the Lord of Water because he commands it. He's the Lord of Water because he's the only one who thinks to ask it. And you see it in the real world too — water always finds its way. Seeks its level, carves the river, finds the crack, reaches the sea. We call it physics. You're calling it purpose. Is that the piece you were feeling, brother?"
Mike: "Yep. Let's punch it."
More chapters, more letters, coming soon. — Mike
This series is built from real editorial conversations behind the Lord of Water trilogy. Read Chapter 1 free at https://www.lordofwater.com/chapter-1/