ELI POPE/EM POPE

This story is progressing really well. The main theme is psychological. Sometimes the mind is far more powerful than we can comprehend. Morgan’s mind is a world in itself.

Things aren’t always how we expect them. Life holds surprises and Morgan’s life has led him to take stockof his past and work for his future to become far more. His love for

4 String Quartets drives him deeper into his desire to be something more than he ever believed he could become. Simone Sparrow Foot is the key to his sanity and she only sees him as a friend in need. That’s a chord Morgan isn’t ready to accept. A group trip to Totality, total eclipse of the sun, brings something more than anyone ever expected.

Current work-in-progress

I’m bouncing back and forth between Totality and Crossroads. I love both of these stories as they grow and take life. Polar opposite from each other but that’s what I love about how my brain works. Opposites. And we all know opposites attract…right?

A Cage For Magpie by Eli Pope opens on a frigid day in Missouri, introducing us to a grief-stricken young girl named Maggie Mae DuVane, affectionately known as Magpie, as she attends her grandfather’s funeral. Magpie is in shock, struggling to cope with the sudden death of her beloved grandfather, David Duncan DuVane. David, an admired and rising fiction writer, had been descending into darkness before his untimely demise. His final novel, NEVER CAGE A MAGPIE, eerily seemed to foreshadow the events that unfolded, as if he had written it to hint at his tragic end. Connor, David’s closest friend, felt compelled to read on, seeking to uncover the causes of David’s madness. Meanwhile, David’s wife, Coraline, was left heartbroken and questioning the dark angels that plagued her husband’s mind. For Magpie, the loss was compounded by her desperate longing for the return of her mother, who had abandoned her.

Pope’s writing style is both intriguing and captivating. His premonition-like hints and deliberate word choices engage the reader, creating a mysterious and suspenseful atmosphere that keeps the pages turning. Like Connor, readers are driven to understand what led David to his tragic fate. The secrets haunting David’s mind and compelling his actions become a central focus, with readers eager to uncover the truth. The character development in A Cage For Magpie is commendable. Pope’s characters are realistic and relatable, each imbued with compassion and depth. As a reader, I felt a personal connection to Connor, Coraline, and young Magpie, with a particular empathy for Magpie’s plight.

Current work-in-progress

expected publish date-latter first quarter 2025

Michael De Luca has begun awakening each morning haunted by nightmarish visions now blurring the fragile boundary between reality and dangerous imagination. His heart pounds while sweat beads on his brow while he struggles to discern what is real and what is a product of his increasingly fractured psyche. 

With each night of sleep there is an owl—a creature often associated with wisdom and prophecy—perched on a fence post gracing his vision at the threshold of what Michael hopes to be a dreamlike state. Yet, rather than offering solace, its piercing eyes amplify his mounting anxiety, transforming it into an inescapable shroud of anxiety.

In a desperate bid to reclaim some sanity, he has drastically cut back on his television consumption, acutely aware that the nation is teetering on the precipice of chaos, echoing the dark days of Germany in 1934. He can feel the electric tension in the air, whispers of discontent swirling like smoke around him. Each broadcast feels like a siren call to madness, igniting fears of the world spiraling out of control

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As dusk approaches, a consuming dread grips him. The thought of nightfall sends shivers down his spine, as he braces himself for the return of that overwhelming force—an unseen hand that now pulls the strings of his very existence. It is as if he is trapped in a sinister marionette show, his thoughts and actions not entirely his own but manipulated by a shadowy puppeteer lurking just beyond the veil of his consciousness.

How long can Michael maintain this fragile illusion of self-control? The stakes are high; in this fraught political landscape, revealing any of the turmoil that churns within him could spell disaster. The fear of exposure looms larger than any nightmare, and Michael finds himself caught in a web of paranoia and dread, questioning not only the world around him but the very essence of his own identity. The night is deepening, and with it, the shadows grow longer, threatening to swallow him whole with its bleak colorless blackness.