Local novelist takes aim at The Secret

Science fiction book The Lightbringers explores the dark side of positive thinking

HOUSTON, TX – According to Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret and similar books and videos which make up the “positive thinking” movement, people who think positively will draw positive experiences to themselves. This is called the “law of attraction.”  Byrne asserts that thoughts send out a magnetic signal that draws similarly-aligned energy back to the sender. “It always works,” Byrne claims. “It works every time, with every person.”

In her debut science fiction novel The Lightbringers, Houston author H. C. H. Ritz explores the dark side of the positive thinking movement. Ritz’s novel imagines what might happen if an entire culture were to restructure its government and society according to positive thinking principles.

In The Lightbringers, the United States has been remade as the fictional New America. It is an apparent utopia, since nearly fifty years of positive thinking and complete isolationism have supposedly perfected everything and everyone inside. There is no sickness, crime, poverty or mental illness. In reality, the government hides all signs of societal and personal ills and eliminates those who know too much.

The protagonist, Gaylen Andrews, is unable to cope with a tragic event in his life and finds himself under the scrutiny of the government, which “rehabilitates” negative thinkers, or eliminates them if they cannot adjust their thinking. Seeking a means to deal with his emotional issues, Gaylen discovers the illicit underground and from there becomes a member of a revolutionary group. Gaylen must find his inner strength and heroism to strike a decisive, if disturbing, blow for freedom of thought and his own sanity.

Ritz says she was inspired to write the book because she is a former believer in The Secret herself.

“I spent several years wholeheartedly following this way of life, so I know it intimately,” Ritz says. “I also read the original books from the early 1900s on which the positive thinking movement was based. Some of the claims the government makes in my novel may seem far-fetched, but every word is carefully based on the real teachings of positive thinking.”

Jason Aydelotte, Chief Gecko at Grey Gecko Press, was drawn to the book because of his personal interest in the dichotomy between the concepts of utopia and dystopia. “The Lightbringers blends two great storytelling worlds into one thought-provoking and cohesive whole that has you questioning just how good—and how bad—you should be,” he says. “I’m very proud to have this title in our catalog.”

The Lightbringers is now available as an ebook and in hardcover and paperback at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and GreyGeckoPress.com, as well as on Nook, Kobo, and iBooks. You can connect with H.C.H. Ritz on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HCHRitz.

 

Press contacts:

Author: Hilary Ritz, 281-224-6152, hchritz@gmail.com

Publisher: Jason Aydelotte, Grey Gecko Press, jason@greygeckopress.com