WHEN we think of gods we think of imposing, warlike male figures.

But it wasn’t always so. Early societies’ gods were almost always women.

And goddesses are one of the central themes of former Examiner columnist John Avison’s fantasy novel debut, Out of the Earth.

Out of the Earth tells the tale of the return of the Celtic Earth Mother, Brigid, who has stood by for 2,000 years as men and their male deities wage bloody war around the world.

The awakening of the goddess is realised by a Holme Valley avian enthusiast through a series of strange dreams.

While John, from Armitage Bridge, has written and edited in numerous roles for magazines and newspapers, Out of the Earth is his first full-length work of fiction.

After retiring from the Examiner last year, John turned his writing hand at finishing a book he’d had in his head for 10 years.

John, 63, said: “Out of the Earth was conceived about 10 years ago. The characters and chapters came out after I had retired.

“I like the idea of going back to Celtic Britain – we were a society that worshipped goddesses. When we started fighting we started to worship male gods.”

Getting anything printed by the major publishing houses is almost impossible these days.

Others approach vanity publishers, who’ll print anything for a fee.

But John says he’s found a third way with Canadian ‘co-operative’ imprint Trafford Publishing.

“The main publishers only go for dead certs,” he said.

“With vanity publishing you can publish anything and there’s nothing to stop you. Co-operatives have a publishing advisor who advises you where to go and where not to go. But you still have to approach them and do some website research.”

Trafford was so impressed with John’s debut they referred it to a pool of stories perused by film-makers looking for potential movie plots.

John said: “It certainly lends itself to a film. It’s early days at the moment. If it gets picked up that would be a bonus.”

Out of the Earth is available from Amazon.co.uk priced £17.03 or Trafford Publishing (www.trafford.com).