Welcome to Between the Covers Summer Series where# we put the spotlight on South Florida authors.

Hi, I'm Anne Bok and joining me is Henry Woodman.# The book is The Reincarnation of Marie.

It is historical fiction.

It is a paranormal romance# and it asks the question, does reincarnation exist?

Welcome.

Thank you.

I'm happy to be here.# I am happy you were here because there's a lot to talk about with this book.

This is layered with# history, emotion.

It explores reincarnation and at the very least a very unusual love story.

So# actually the book was written decades ago by your father.

That is correct.

Never published until# now.

Yes.

There was a Marie.

Marie was in the 18 late 1800s.

Marie kept keeps has kept this# intimate journal.

After her death, the book becomes a bestseller.

So you give us a peak into# this love story of Marie and this young lieutenant that is obsessed with her.

Right.

Dad wrote the# book as sort of a tribute to a friend.

Now when I read it I was thinking I was I was in Los Angeles.# This is in the early8s and I'm thinking, you know, I want to produce and direct movies.

And my# sister sees this little manuscript t typewritten and she sends it to me and I fell in love.

I# was in tears and I called dad and ultimately he said well I was just you not doing anything# as a tribute so I bought the rights ultimately you know the story is about Marie Barkers who# died in 1984 in excuse me 1884 she had written a journal 10 years prior from 14 to 24 when she# passed of tuberculosis and in the journal she was very raw and candid and frank and talked about# things that women at the time didn't talk about, you know, sexuality and things of that nature.# And so one and and two years after her death, her mom publishes her journal and it becomes an# international bestseller, scandalous international bestseller.

And then about 70 years later, a young# army officer picks up the book on the Can River in Paris, reads it, and he finds himself oddly# attracted to the author who had died 70 years earlier, Marie.

And nothing weird about that.

No,# no, no.

You know, it sort of talks to some echoes of the past like she's talking to him.

And in her# journal, she would say things like, "I know I'm dying."

She knew she was dying.

"I know I'm dying,# but I will find you in time, my love."

She didn't find her true love.

And he starts to believe# she's writing to him, right?

And so he goes on and he's like eventually visiting the places she's# visiting, visiting museums that have pictures of places of of of women that she says, "I look like# this, and my body is like this, and my hair's like this."

and he would sit there and you know this is# this is before the internet understand okay who is this person until ultimately he visits her tomb in# P one of the oldest cemeteries in Paris at which point he realizes this is a bit crazy this is sort# of a an obsession that has taken over I think I need to leave because it's crazy I've fallen# in love and she's a dead woman right the book, the story is told by an army friend.

Do we# know did that happen or was this your father's own romantic story or are we better off just# coming to our own conclusions?

You know, Ann, if I had the answer to that question, I would tell# you right now, but I don't know, you know, the the the author and the person it was told to ev# evidently was my father.

Now, we don't know if the story was told or his friend in air quotes, uh, he# read the journal and had this obsessive passion, this neurotic passion about this this dead woman,# you know, because there's these echoes of the things she would say that would resonate, right?# And so, I wasn't entirely clear and I never asked.

My my father passed 14 years ago and as a result,# you know, I never got a chance because life got in the way.

I didn't produce the movie.

I went on# and I did other things and then eventually I said, "Okay, I sold my business.

I'm now going to# publish the book and then develop a TV series."

So, I don't know the answer to the question.

I'm# guessing it was his neurotic obsession.

That's just the guess.

I think we're better off just# coming to our own conclusions anyway.

But why do you think he didn't publish the book?

Well,# he was a travel writer and a non-fiction guy, and he really didn't have a he wasn't a a romantic# paranormal writer at all.

So, I think it was more of an outlet to let this emotion, as he claims,# for a tribute for a friend, out on the paper, right?

And as a result, um it wasn't something# that he thought was in his wheelhouse.

And you know it was like air travel bargains, discovering# Yucatan, Nazca, books of that nature were things that he had authored.

What's fascinating to me is# the story.

This man finds his soulmate which is the good news.

And then unfortunately she is is# long dead.

The writing paints this vivid picture and it takes us into Paris and it to me it's# so visual.

You alluded to you are working on a screen version.

Yes.

Yes.

Because this this# it's it needs that.

Well, what's cool is it it blends fact and fiction because Marie Barkv was# an actual figure in history.

She wrote a book uh called the the I am the most interesting book# of all which was her journal right and the facts were all there and he picked it up and he goes# it must be me she's writing to now all of the uh locations in Paris and all that surrounding# area exist right Marie went to San Fargo to have her tuberculosis treatment and at the time in# the late 1800s it was very um primitive Right.

And so all of these things existed.

Even her tomb# still exists and I went to visit that years ago.

Um so he then finds himself a bit worried about# his own sanity, you know, and this is where the book takes a turn where he then finds what he# believes to be Marie reincarnated.

The minute he hears the name Maria of the woman that he meets,# he realizes, "Oh my god, that's that's that's the reincarnated Marie.

That was her original name in# Russian."

And so that's where the book starts to take a turn into what he believes is finding her# reincarnated.

That is the point where the book really challenges the reader.

What is it that# you want people to take away from the book?

Well, I think the takeaways for the most part# are what is it really all about?

Why are we here?

Are there such things?

You know, we talk# about soulmates and we talk about reincarnation.

We talk about other lives and past lives and# karma and sins of the father.

And we have to sort of take a step back and say why do we have# these beliefs?

Is there something about them?

And this book explores a lot of those.

Does the past# life intersect and are there echoes of a previous life that affect our current lives?

Right?

And# so we tend to look at our lives and say, "Wow, is our love really truly a soulmate or did we# have to work out some karma from a previous life and then we have to meet again in another life?

"# It doesn't obviously answer all these questions, but it poses those very big questions and this# mystery of reincarnation and echoes of the past.

Is there any chance that you would write a# companion piece to this about your own journey with your father's work?

Wow.

You know, I I would# consider a sort of a documentary on the making of the series.

The series is called Slipin, which is# a is a play on words of slipping through time, but it is a far deeper dive into how interconnected# the lives are.

not just Marie and our protagonist Yan in the this story, but Marie and we've# updated it a little bit more contemporary, but we've added some elements of other people# that intersected in Marie's real life like um the these author uh pen pal relationships he# had.

Gimon Pon was an author at the time.

So we we sort of updated it to say there's a lot more going# on and how is it that something that happened back then is affecting how you are and you react today# or to somebody you've met and what were they to you in the past life?

It is fascinating and thank# you so much for bringing it to light.

The book is the reincarnation of Marie Henry Woodman.

This# has been such a pleasure.

I can't wait to see the film version.

Me too.

Thank you.

I'm Anne Bok.# Please join me on the next Between the Covers.