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Jean Neff Guthrie earned a B.S. degree in Dairy Science from Virginia Tech and M.S. degree in Mass Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. She worked in public relations and association management in Richmond, Virginia for eight years. Then Guthrie moved to the Atlanta, Georgia area where she managed information technology projects and programs.
While living in Atlanta, Guthrie worked with author Tom Bird of Ambassador University in an intensive writer’s program. She also attended writer’s retreats on:
•“Releasing the Author Within” with award-winning editor Michael Sideman and best-selling author Carol Adrienne.
•“Editorial Eye” with Dick O’Conner.
•“How to get on Oprah” with David Thalberg, Founding Partner of BrandStand. Thalberg commented that Guthrie, “Would be a remarkable guest on any television or radio program.”
The voice of Aria Vanir introduced herself to Guthrie during the retreat with Tom Bird and David Thalberg. Guthrie listened to Aria and based her first novel, Mystical Aria: Seeking the Gallion Queen, on this psychic tween protagonist.
Guthrie’s first published poem, “Prison Walls,” appeared in America at the Millennium— the Best Poems and Poets of the 20th Century. Her poem “Baler Twine” won a National Cattlemen’s Magazine contest and was published in its March 2001 edition.
Guthrie lives in Smyrna, Georgia, where she writes sequels for the Mystical Aria series and works as an IT program management consultant.
Reviewed by Mary T. Kincaid for Readers' Favorite
The opening paragraph of Mystical Aria: Seeking the Gallion Queen by Jean Neff Guthrie introduces us to a seventh-grade girl, Aria Vanir, who is looking at the stars, dreaming and wondering who lived among them. The aliens who receive her message decide to come to Earth to meet her. They value her curiosity and initiative.
Complications bring Aria’s family into this meeting. Aria’s father is head of one of the SEAL teams sent to investigate abnormal transmissions intercepted at Virginia Beach. The Gallions touch every one of the earthlings they meet in this story about another culture from the other side of the galaxy. It is a message of peace, harmony, and oneness with all things in the universe. Aria’s father has to learn how to forgive his enemies and himself in order to be healed.
The story is well written for a seventh grader reader. I think they will enjoy the adventures of Aria meeting aliens. The dialogue is realistic for this age. The descriptions of the Gallions are entertaining and believable. They have tentacles instead of arms and hands, and lavender eyes.
The story is a well-executed plea for readers to think about their approach to living. An alien culture comes to teach us many things about the way we see our world. It makes a point that if we view the world as one of scarcity then we will know scarcity. If we view the world as abundant, we will know abundance. It tells us that we make our world by what we project, abundance or scarcity. The first place we have to heal is in ourselves, then we can heal our relationships and Earth.
