The Cartography of the Soul: A Metaphysical Atlas
An Emblem for Voyage: The Philosophy Behind Our Logo
At the dawning of the dawn of Story Playscapes, our logo was conceived to chart a profound rebirth of the sacred, enduring bond between the craft of the author and the attentiveness of a global readership. Grounded in a deep reverence for the classics, old symbols, and the grand Renaissance revival of art, this emblem carries forward the generous, reciprocal spirits of creator and recipient, translating the architecture of human connection into a living, visual landmark.
The design utilises the classical geometry of a vessel navigating the deep: a traditional Renaissance symbol of travel, cargo, the transport of ideas and the eternal voyage of the Romantic Spirit. Filled to an abundant crest with vibrant orange flowers, the vessel serves as a living metaphor: the boat represents the deliberate structural craft of storytelling, while the blooming flowers symbolise the vital, creative imagination being carried across the waters.
This emblem serves as a reminder that to truly ‘discover the story,’ one must honour the magnificent, dual relationship between reader and author. To offer words or a narrative to the world is a sacred act of giving; to receive them is to embark upon a boundless journey across the vast, multidimensional plains of life.
At Story Playscapes, the true narrative exists far beyond the ink on a page. It breathes within the shared connection, the ontological meanings, the states of existence, and the deep cosmic resonance that occurs when a world is shared. We invite you to step aboard, consult the charts below and discover the story.
Navigating the Literary Chart: A Note From the Literary Architect
To read these pages is not to remain stationary on a shore: it is to cast off and actively navigate a living landscape. As you venture forward, treat each section header as a waypoint on an antique sea chart and each block of prose as a shifting current to be understood.
As your Literary Architect and Navigator, my roles as a Systemic Arts Leader, Artisan Author and Artist are woven together through the precise geometry of Soulful Formalism. This craft charts a course that moves fluidly from the vast geography of external worlds down into the quiet, interior sanctuaries of human consciousness. This structural care, quiet wisdom, and comforting artistry offer a literary sanctuary across all generations, giving you the coordinates and the vital confidence to steer through the light, shadows, and darkness of the human soul. The charts are unrolled: let the voyage begin!
— Susan L. Marshall, Artisan Author, Illustrator, Founder & Artistic Director
The Terrestrial and Celestial Chart of Soulful Formalism
The Romantic Spirit Thriving in Natural, Built and Cosmic Worlds:
A Unique Speculative Craft Awakening Human Consciousness and Healing
"Upon the tiled roof of the Duomo,
my soul soars high above me.
Spanning its wings like a bird,
flying over the city's houses.
"A soul that reaches for life,
unravelled across the cobble.
Stones that carry my artistry
towards the market stalls.
"Fellow artists span their wings
of heritage beauty of design.
Giving fuel to my flight
of creative imagination."
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): O Sweet Florence, Unearth My Soul in 'Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry,'
Story Playscapes, Melbourne, Australia.
Soulful Formalism balances the raw emotional resonance of literary and visual arts with the underlying harmony of natural sciences and structured mathematics. It is built to drive Contemporary Metaphysical Literature. To do so, the independent structural architecture operates through a precise Macro to micro speculative matrix that directly mirrors how we actually / spiritually exist within the cosmos. The matrix is driven by one synchronised formula:
The Natural World, Built World and Celestial Cosmos (Macro-Geo) ——–> The Friction of Socio-Political Ethics (Romantic Spirit Macro-Socio) ———–> The Quiet Sanctuary of Human Consciousness and Healing (Micro-Soul).
This specific world and character building formula is vast, covering the Romantic Spirit and its journeys across the Natural (untamed wildness), the Built (human architecture and infrastructure) and the Cosmic (the universe, the mystical and the spiritual realm). The story architecture often involves echoes of symmetrical formation of themes, ontologies, relativities, spiritual transformations and many other milestones throughout a non-linear publication, whether it be a short story, poem, dramatic literature or a chapter novel. The formula also pays homage to the dual concepts of the Macrocosm and Microcosm for the Romantics, who believed that one’s individual human spirit was a reflection of an entire universe, which linked human consciousness directly to cosmic eternity. In my Soulful Formalist Contemporary Metaphysical Literature, I believe the Romantic Spirit is eternal.
Rather than leaving the life fragments associated with the core of the human soul to float seamlessly, I work to demonstrate the deep mysteries and stoic agency of the protagonist and their Romantic Spirit, who may: blend, blur, multiply, transform, glow, immerse, etc. within the light, shadows or darkness of everyday life situations. This three dimensional approach to literary architecture, with its mosaic style narrative, works to produce a ‘walk in gallery’ feel for the reader, who explores the immersive and mysterious architecture of the protagonist’s sanctuary. Each disparate fragment, non linear in presentation, builds to present the eventual deep metaphysical truth of the character’s soul, while also providing an opportunity for connection, revelation and/or wellbeing for the reader.
To read more about the genesis, vision, principles and conventions of Soulful Formalism and Contemporary Metaphysical Literature, visit our Blueprints page.
-Susan L. Marshall
29 May, 2026.
Founder & Artistic Director, Story Playscapes
Systemic Arts Leader
Pioneer of Contemporary Metaphysical Literature & Theatre Playscapes
Professional Illustrator
Literary Architect of Soulful Formalism
Internationally Acclaimed Best-selling Author / Top Story Award Recipient
The Navigational Compass: Charting the Language of the Deep
Between the structured sanctuary of Soulful Formalism and the boundless landscape of the cosmic world lies a fluid threshold. We do not simply write stories: we curate emotional currents. While our philosophy demands a dedicated, formal devotion to the craft of Contemporary Metaphysical Literature, we recognise that the Romantic Spirit cannot be contained by rigid lines. It requires a medium capable of shifting, adapting, and enduring. To explain how our non-linear fragments find their resonance in the light, shadow, and darkness of the natural world, we must speak the language of water. Water does not break when it falls: it transforms, it returns, and it sustains. The principles detailed below outline our core artistic vision, illustrating how these eternal, fluid rhythms serve as the ultimate methodology for our storytelling and a mirror for the eternal journey of the spirit.
Choose How You Navigate Our Text
Whether you are analysing our text through an educational lens, gathering fragments from our Romantic Spirit Alight Readers’ Garden to spark your own creative inspiration, or seeking to immerse yourself in our full narratives, the artistic vision below serves as a metaphysical compass. Just as a healing garden allows you to wander and gather what speaks to your soul, this framework offers a pathway into the deliberate architecture of our prose. It helps you navigate the fluid transitions, purposeful empty spaces, and rhythmic currents that define our literary world, guiding you seamlessly toward the complete contemporary publications showcased at The Bountiful Destination: Our Cornerstone Collection at the base of this page.
Words are Like Water
– Our Artistic Vision –
Our Vision
Soulful formalism is our literary style and a cradle of journey and sanctuary for the Romantic Spirit, who courses through the natural, built and cosmic worlds of life and contemporary metaphysical literature publication. As mysteries are revealed in light, shadow and darkness, it is the ebb and flow of water’s lyricality that symbolises the dedication and care in which we shape our words in order to build a beloved sanctuary for the person and their Romantic Spirit, through our projects and publications.
Our Core Values
Water sustains life: All natural living things need water to grow and sustain themselves. At Story Playscapes, we believe each of our words represent the precious drops of life itself. We carefully curate our language to cherish the precious, individual states of being that life presents us with, nurturing the life force of worlds and the presence, cognitive and energetic development and individuality of spirit of character. We value the role of our worlds in supporting the health, growth and life force of the person.
Water has a tide: Tides are the eternal rhythm and echo of the ocean, a lyrical dance propelled by the gravitational pull of the moon and the stars acting upon the deep waters. At Story Playscapes, we believe the Romantic Spirit is also eternal and fluidly graces our poetry and prose with its beautiful presence. It experiences its own profoundly high tides and the revelation of their sublime, wondrously heightened energies. It also acknowledges its lower tides, understanding that the deeply internal parts of its varying states of being, as well as its variety of emotions, can be faced with love and sanctuary.
Water has a phase transition: Water is a powerful element, seamlessly changing its state from liquid to ice or vapour or steam. Similarly, at Story Playscapes, when we engage with mysterious fragments discovered in nature, light, shadow or darkness, we do not leave them ‘broken,’ yet help them be reconstructed, emboldening the fragments with words that help them find their presence and meaning within our stories.
Water is cyclic: Water on Earth, like our words, are everlasting. Just like water changes states and moves between the ground, the oceans and the atmosphere, so do our non-liner poetry or narratives. Water may fall as rain, so do our words, showing that our beings are able to discover and adapt to new places in our journeys through life. Water may also undergo condensation, rising and cooling until it turns back into liquid droplets discovered in its clouds. Our words too, linger collectively, reverberating across time and place in our narratives, demonstrating that the Romantic Spirit is eternal in our literature.
Water sets us on our pathways: Our lives are presented with the possibility of many channels to explore, some towering as high as waves, some gurgling in a stream, others a big swim to trek. Our words allow us to immerse ourselves in the deep flows, currents and energies of water, allowing them to find their own special rhythm, harmony and beat. These textual streams gently lead readers away from the chaotic outer world, guiding them toward the hidden sanctuaries of self-discovery and ultimate autonomy.
Water gives us tread: When the world crests above us, seeming almost impossible to reach, words can help us to discover a new channel. To tread the water is to be within the moment, to pay attention to its details and to take the time to seek a new direction. Our words offer a sacred, buoyant embrace for the weary spirit, granting us the vital breath, the grace, and the quiet endurance to keep our heads above the tide.
Water fills the empty spaces: We are each unique in the way that we think and process our thoughts and feelings. Story Playscapes’ publications leave deliberate white gaps between fragments for the reader to step into, wade through or splash with their own heartfelt words and impressions. In these reflective pools between words, the void is transformed into a pool of profound meaning, deeply saturated with light, grace, and presence. The reader’s spirit is given time to breathe, stretch and discover, as it works towards discovering the metaphysical truth of a text.
Water soothes our Souls: Our words ripple across the plains of time and worlds, lyrically vibrant with a steady roar, bubbling gently like a gentle brook, or falling timelessly in their rainfall. We aim for each reader to interact with our immersive words in their own way, as no two people are unique. Our ultimate goal is to help soothe the readers’ soul and to provide a sense of sanctuary from the busy world. We aim for each reader to interact with our immersive words to discover their own inner depth and emotional resonance. Like water reshaping the earth, our fragments and their textual streams gently wash away the noise and chaos of the outer world, empowering the soul to claim its unique rhythm, ultimate autonomy and beautiful presence.
The Bountiful Destination: The Cornerstone Collection
We have arrived at our Bountiful destination, where the fluid coordinates of our mapping transform into legacy print. I invite you to explore the compiled volumes below, where words take shape as a physical sanctuary for your journey.
The Contemporary Metaphysical Collection
Coined Style: Soulful Formalism
Every publication within this curated collection represents a structural sanctuary for the Romantic Spirit and its human soul. Engineered through the precise, non-linear layouts of Contemporary Metaphysical Literature, these legacy editions are crafted to offer a slow lived experience, balancing cognitive and energetic responses to life stimuli.
Available Now
Internationally Acclaimed & Best-selling Children’s Literature
Princess Zyra’s Lost Storm:
An Australian Childhood Myth
by Susan L. Marshall
Market Calibre: A Top-Rated Best-Seller at Alibris and Books-A-Million; notably featured on the prestigious Poetry New Releases list at Goodreads.
The Structural Blueprint: Susan L. Marshall’s monumental debut as both author and fine-art illustrator, using a combination of metaphysical myth and visual metaphysics to map and create its world and character architecture.
The Metaphysical Focus: Empowering childhood heroism, individual perception, and personal ontology, deeply attuned to the natural beauty of the Australian landscape.
Internationally Acclaimed & Amazon Bestsellers in Australian Poetry
Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry
by Susan L. Marshall
Market Calibre: A Top-Rated Amazon Best-Seller. #1 Hot New Release at Amazon Australia and #8 Hot New Release at Amazon USA.
The Structural Blueprint: A rigorously beautiful structural composition that fuses contemporary metaphysical, non-linear poetry with classical style metrics and formal sonnet structures.
The Metaphysical Focus: Captures and cradles the raw, wild energies of winter in nature, providing a sanctuary for the Romantic Spirit and its soul.
Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall
by Susan L. Marshall
Market Calibre: A Top-Rated Amazon Best-Seller and Popular Psychology Publication.
The Structural Blueprint: Raw metaphysical poetry written in response to the heightened energetic motions of every day life. Poetry that distils and transcends sensual life impressions into a path for spiritual awakening and wellbeing.
The Metaphysical Focus: Formulated to guide the contemporary reader to alight their own perceptions and connections with their Romantic Spirit, cognitive wellbeing and love for life.
‘An Adira Cazon Literary Mystery Series’
Adira and the Dark Horse (Book One)
Paperback Edition
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: A suspenseful metaphysical literary mystery and small-town romance. This work masterfully utilizes a postmodern literary mystery structure to map and frame two distinct worlds and multiple eras within the souls of Private Detective Adira Cazon, the silk trade, and its deep emotional resonance in Redbank and Mira.
The Metaphysical Focus: It explores the Romantic Spirit’s relentless search for truth and justice.
The Monumental Theatre Playscapes Series
Coined Framework: Wellbeing-Centered Performance Style
This groundbreaking series celebrates the living architecture of wellbeing, aiming for a balance of cognitive and energetic explorations to performance art. Each text pairs a dynamic, non-linear play script with a monumental theoretical essay, aiming to actively empower individual autonomy and emotional resilience.
Fleur of Yesterday
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: The premiere publication in the Theatre Playscapes series. This volume includes Susan L. Marshall’s groundbreaking masterwork essay: Theatre Playscapes: A New Theatrical Style.
The Metaphysical Focus: It officially introduces Susan’s innovative, wellbeing centered theatre style for the young adult performer, while also exploring the scientific and emotional architectures of memory loss and plant breeding. It provides a precise, highly structured framework for performance and spatial staging.
All the Hope We Carry
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: A profoundly inspirational, non-linear play focused on young adult war survival through the lens of unwavering hope. It is accompanied by Susan L. Marshall’s structural essay, Theatre Playscapes of Hope.
The Metaphysical Focus: Meticulously engineered to act as an emotional support, empowering individual autonomy, personal agency and resilience for the young adult performer.
The Luminous Treasury: The People’s Choice Laurels
The following curated fragments represent the definitive pieces selected by our global community: a collective showcase of the moments where our narrative architecture directly resonated with the reader’s spirit.
“Dipping my bare brush
into your garish gold eyes,
I draw your dreams close.
They dance divinely within,
sparking silhouettes alight.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Harboured Love in Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry.
“Now I inhale the air, the microcosmic particles of the earth and all that I tread upon. I keep inhaling, drawing in the fragments of time that we have both make shifted our ways through. Their presence, their fleeting moments, their courage, their truths, cannot ever be captured in a single breath.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
VOTED #1
“The autumn leaves remind me of my own faded memories.
The leaves hold their own precious stories,
which drift about in the wind,
finding a new place to settle
and continue to exist.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): Fleur of Yesterday.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
“To be held again, to be touched, even through absence of presence, through his cardigan, unravels my heart. Somewhere in its life filmstrip, my heart’s beats have captured something special. A deep memory, a lingering love moment, a sensation, a passion, anything that I may dare face again.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Whispers of My Deep Soul … If I Could Just Return … to the Love I know.
“Whispering wind,
a quiet breath
exhaled across years
of tiny fragments of light.
Glowing in the breeze,
like silent fireworks,
accentuating my wanders
through life’s debris.”
Susan L. Marshall (2025): Whispering Wind in Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry.
“I look out at the beach
as night begins to fall.
Echoes of a time
still splash in my ears.
It is persistent,
gently prying into the
silver moon of my mind,
where the tide has come
to shore and wallows.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Mind Time in Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Nicolas Cool on Unsplash
“If spirits could speak, they would tell you that mine rose high that afternoon, almost double circling the air. A sign that the deep pounding of my desire was enough to catch and freeze for eternity. I was totally allured by the very presence and rawness of you, as you reached for my hand.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Wild Love at Christmas Eve: A Romance.
“Echoes of life call to me,
like sparks of hope in the darkness.
Times of play and freedom …
“The trees we would climb,
higher and higher towards the sky,
releasing our dreams towards the heavens.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): All the Hope We Carry.
“We stare into each other’s eyes for a long moment, connecting through our ache, our longing for each other. I feel a tremendous pull towards him and a longing to be held close. Sliding down onto the floor, I feel him embrace me tightly and I place my head against his chest.
“I can hear Mitch’s heart pounding strongly. “My beautiful wife,” he says softly, stroking my hair. “I love you with all my heart.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
“Her long hair maps out street marks desperately. They swirl in and out of existence, depending on her memory. Her strands are like candle wicks, which burn alight with hope as they shine, waiting for his mystery to reappear.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Love’s Dying Road: A Romantic Metaphysical Fiction.
“Her hot flame melts the chill
as she draws me into her arms.
Her kiss a streak of lightening,
that electrifies my deep soul.
“Undoing my shirt buttons,
she strokes my chest alight.
A pure glow that wraps her
in my deeply aroused desire.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Wild Love in Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
“The music intensifies, the drum beats now accompanied by Spanish guitar. A tune that tingles deep within, alighting my desire. Our eyes stare into each other’s, bodies tingling, raw and ready. Leaning closer, he presses his hips firmly against mine. I feel his heat, his desperation, his forbidden soul.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Our Forbidden Love: Its Romantic Journey Home.
“I allow myself to believe
that I just might be that bird,
taking a small adventure
across my tiny island.
“I could have wings that soar,
high above the red stained streets
into a much calmer, brighter sky.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): All the Hope We Carry.
“The dress I seek cannot be found.
It is tucked away deeply inside
the constant flickering shadows
of my very absent mind.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): Fleur of Yesterday.
“Gritting my teeth with determination, I floor the engine again, trying to gain as much distance as I can away from Redfin. Third gear it is!
“The wind is even stronger now and I feel like my hair is going to fly off my head. A strong whipping sound bursts into my ears as I floor the accelerator again, engaging fourth gear. Nouveau Road is wide and long enough to take the truck and its speed for a little while.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Олег Мороз on Unsplash
“Fiercely wilful, Lori closes her eyes, refusing to acknowledge Coro’s darkness. His searing heat scorches her icy soul. His world is one that was unwanted by her and so she had outgrown it; her spirit thriving in the comfort of her iced cold life world. She had found a new way to exist, freeing herself from the controlling story lines and sketches. It is a peace that she has nurtured and clings to dearly.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Lori’s Free Will … in a World of Ice and Fire.
“When you hold me close
I breathe in your special scent.
You are my sanctuary.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): My Beautiful Mother in Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Nicolas Cool on Unsplash
“The assured nature of you, as you shared your spirit, Renauld, in that moment that you stepped closer to me; wiping rogue strands of my black hair away from my face. Your heat, your presence, my pounding soul. The sticky afternoon air. Do you remember how we merged with the breeze as you pressed your hips against mine and swayed steadily? Did the evocative jazz music, adrift in the wind, arouse you too?”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Wild Love at Christmas Eve: A Romance.
“Grasping hold of the stair case hand rail with both hands, I take a deep breath. It takes a lot of strength to lift my body weight off the balcony and swing it across to the staircase. Somehow, I succeed, landing my feet successfully on a single step.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
“I could follow dusk always,
brushing it with stripes and dots
of simple beginnings
for us to share in time.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Dusk Heart in Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall.
The Estuaries of Imagination: Explore Our Shifting Currents
Our textual streams are designed to carry you away from the chaotic outer world, leading you toward the hidden sanctuaries of self-discovery and ultimate autonomy. The charts are unrolled and the voyage continues through our globally beloved projects. Here, you are invited to actively participate: to wander, explore, and discover the true depth of your own inner landscape.
