Seven: Seven, SE

by Jeff Layton

A Hybrid fiction novel pairing nonfiction with fiction. The first six chapters are narrative nonfiction, self-help built around seven. In Chapter Seven, something unexpected happens with half of the book remaining; nonfiction becomes fiction, or does it?
Pairing fiction with nonfiction is a great way to engage readers. That was my intention. So, this novel, or better-stated novella, does that. The first six chapters are non-fiction, self-help, and narrative discovery into the number seven and how much it has become part of our conscious life. The last nine-thousand-word chapter with seven subheadings is fiction, or is it? You’ll meet Seven. A mental construct being who materializes as a shaman-type teacher and has a long conversation with the first-person point of view active voice. This voice could be the author or you, the reader.
The last ten thousand words grab your attention and imagination—you can’t put down the book. The first six chapters are informative self-help written from the practical to the spiritual, with the occasional theatre of the mind metaphorical breaks. You will never see the number seven the same again.
In chapter three—Journey to the Light. This could be interpreted as fiction, but it isn’t. My reality and experience are subjective, as all experiences are. Chapter three is a teaser of non-fiction that reads like fiction for what will come later in chapter seven.

Other books by Jeff
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This is Jeff Layton’s seventh book.
Reading is the theater of our minds. The curtain is opening.

178 pages, Paperback

Published April 8, 2023

About the author

I have done and experienced lots of things in my life. To stay relevant to writing, after I completed my six-year commitment in the military. I went to college on the GI bill. I started out in liberal arts with a focus on becoming a writer. I really enjoyed my English and literature classes. I changed course after about a year realizing I might want to earn a living financially with my degree. I focused on horticulture my second interest and finished with a degree in Landscape Horticulture.
As years went on, I would enroll in community college and audit creative writing classes. I enjoyed this. In doing so I also fell in love with visual arts—painting and went on to have ten professional one-man shows in art galleries, and gain recognition in that endeavor.
My activities of interest: Hiked most of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, raced my bicycle across the United States, fell in love with windsurfing, and opened a shop—from there living fives years in Maui, Hawaii where I taught windsurfing, and then go on to Kiteboarding. I am a fly fisherman and open a shop. I have created many videos of my fishing endeavors in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia…and it goes on.
I have had some spiritual experiences along the way. Some garnered through near-death in big surf, car accident, and spiritual journey deep into British Columbia where I have gone through some smokehouse sessions and a journey to the light experience that I still reflect upon today. So, I have returned to writing and will paint with words through metaphors my experiences, and thoughts of existence.