IAN: Please tell us about This Is Your Last Warning.
Donna Silveira: This is a book that examines purported Marian apparitions and mystic visions where the messages discuss future events, scrutinizing them for their reliability. Using guidelines given by the Church in discerning valid from invalid apparitions, the book discusses the reasons some prophecies are invalid. The apparitions and prophecies from mystic visions which are highly reliable are then taken to form a timeline of the events we can expect to see if mankind does not turn back to God. The timeline spans from today, and some of the craziness we see in our world today, through an era of peace, and ultimately to the antichrist and Christ's return on the last day.
Only the Church-accepted or highly reliable apparitions or mystic visions were used to construct the timeline. Further, these prophecies relate to happenings in our current society and world issues, the Church itself, and our general state. It is this contextualized approach to the prophecies that allows them to be understood and clearly draws the picture of what is to come. This was painstakingly researched and the sources documented.
IAN: Is This Is Your Last Warning published in print, e-book or both?
Donna Silveira: It is an eBook and is available in color-print paperback format.
IAN: Where can we go to buy This Is Your Last Warning?
Donna Silveira: The Kindle and the Paperback.
IAN: What inspired you to write This Is Your Last Warning?
Donna Silveira: I’ve always had an interest in Marian apparitions, but I come at them with quite a bit of skepticism. Many of them turn out to be false! So I think in large part, it was a matter of looking at these prophecies, which I have run across, and these concepts that relate to the end times, and wondering if there was any validity to these things! So, I began researching these prophecies, and since I was doing the research anyway, I decided to formulate a timeline out of the prophecies that could be determined to be unquestionably true, or at least had a very high probability of being true. I wound up with so much information, that the book kind of wrote itself!
IAN: Did you use an outline or do you just wing the first draft?
Donna Silveira: For this one, there was sort of a combination of both. I did a ton of research, and it was on various apparitions, and certain concepts. So things like “the great monarch”, or the “illumination of conscience” I wanted to tackle first, to see if there was any validity to either of those concepts. Then things sort of fell into two categories: Apparitions, and mystics. So the research I was doing, simply by its nature, lent itself fairly well to its organization. An editor who looked at it suggested that I go in chronological order for each of the sections, since each section seemed to be sort of haphazardly put together. When I started, I was building out the timeline and providing supportive argument from apparitions as I was building out the order of what was to come, as stated within these messages. It did make more sense to put the apparitions and the mystics in chronological order and build out the timeline in a slightly different order though. Turns out that a good editor is an invaluable resource!
Do you have a specific writing style?
Donna Silveira: My writing style is unique to me, I think. Basically, I write in just about the same manner that I speak. Therefore, my writing is replete with sarcasm, (you can almost envision the eyes rolling), and a dash of humor here and there. Life tends to be rather absurd at times, which truly makes it entertaining. One supposed prophecy that I discounted was pretty funny when you examine it logically. After recounting the story of this prophecy’s source – I just had to summarize it to show how ridiculous this whole thing was: “We’re left with a no-name ‘newly ordained priest’ giving a book that was hidden, so no one could corroborate, to a king who immediately destroys it after reading it.” Really? Someone seriously is going to take that as a valid source? Sorry, I just can’t. Again, too absurd not to be funny!
IAN: How did you come up with the title?
Donna Silveira: This wasn’t supposed to sound really fatalistic, although in hindsight I think I should have come up with something else. Having poured through numerous messages, and seeing the patterns, I wouldn’t expect any more valid apparitions anytime soon. There have been a fair number of valid apparitions and warnings given. I just put all those warnings together. So the ”last warning” is this compendium of all the previous messages. Oftentimes, when things are scattered, it’s difficult to see the bigger picture. I simply took all those scattered messages, put them in one place, and put them in the best order I could discern. As such, it turned into a timeline, since I’m a little bit visually oriented and I’ve heard a picture speaks a thousand words. So I like pictures!
IAN: What do you hope your readers come away with after reading This Is Your Last Warning?
Donna Silveira: With this, because I honestly believe that this is the most accurate picture of the future, I really want readers to come away with an understanding of how God simply wants us to return to Him. Hopefully they’ll get a sense of the fact that humankind has gone our own way for long enough, with terrible results. Our society isn’t peaceful, isn’t based in love and truth, isn’t generous and kind, and isn’t respectful of life, authority, or much of anything. I think it leaves us getting more and more wounded with each day, and God simply wants to put a stop to it.
IAN: How much of the This Is Your Last Warning is realistic?
Donna Silveira: Well, obviously, this comes down to one’s beliefs. What I can say is that with many of the Marian apparitions, there is substantial evidence. Now granted, there is no apparition that has given “irrefutable” evidence – although I would say that the apparition at Las Lajas is one of the most convincing with regard to evidence. That one didn’t discuss future events and is not included in this book, but I am also planning on writing another book simply on significant Marian apparitions. That will include a greater portion of the overall messages given, not just the messages relating to the future. In the Las Lajas apparition, an image appeared on a rock, which turned out to be the rock itself – not paint, not dye, not some natural means. Rocks don’t normally rearrange themselves at the molecular level so that the color striations within the rock form images that look like paintings. So although not “irrefutable”, because I’m sure someone somewhere will try to argue why this can’t be from divine origin, it’s enough to convince me. The Church goes through a fairly hard-core process of looking for ways to deny an apparition, or to refute a mystic, before the apparition or vision is approved. They look at everything from psychological disorders to the demonic. In the book I mention the guidelines the church uses for discernment of these visions, and I use some of those guidelines in discerning the validity of the messages in the book. As a result, only the most reliable ones are used to formulate the timeline.
IAN: How is This Is Your Last Warning different from others in your genre?
Donna Silveira: Well, another author who read this book and who has an interest in eschatology, or the study of the end times, said the following: “I’ve been both a keen observer and critic of apocalyptic literature, and I must confess, this is among the few books that have captivated me entirely.”
So I suppose I must have done something right! With many of the books I used as sources, I noticed that people would use books as sources that themselves didn’t cite where these supposed prophecies originated! That was really frustrating to me, so I made sure to document every source I used.
IAN: Do you see writing as a career?
Donna Silveira: It’s kind of funny, but I don’t really consider myself an author. I just impart information. I once had a Literature teacher in college tell me that I should become an author, but at the time my thoughts were something along the lines of “Yeah, right.” Now that I’m older, I just feel like there’s so many things that I have learned, so much progress I’ve made in certain areas, and not an insubstantial amount of “hard-knocks” type lessons I’ve had to go through, that I really need to pass this along. I didn’t have much in the way of mentors, and most of these things I had to figure out for myself. If I can save someone a little time in their spiritual growth, steer someone clear of things that are patently false, or give them a leg-up on gaining a valuable life-lesson, then my time writing is well-spent. That would make it all worth it.
IAN: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
Donna Silveira: I really like Michael J Sullivan’s work with the Riyria series and all the books of Elan. It’s fun when you have a series that paints a detailed picture of a whole world, and cross-references back to the earlier works. I would love to be able to have that level of talent to create a whole fantasy world! I absolutely love to immerse myself in good fiction where the characters are like us, both honorable and flawed, with all the nuances that make each person so fascinating! Plus, there’s enough humor in his books that make them a pleasure to read. In my case, they’re a delight to listen to since I tend to do audiobooks. Tim Gerard Reynolds is the perfect narrator for the series, and you can truly become lost in the story. This is one author where I find myself pre-ordering the next book in the series and have read all the others! The original seven or so books of Harry Potter were a good read too, although I don’t find myself waiting with as much anticipation for any other follow-ups. Sometimes it’s good for a series to just end, but maybe that also had something to do with the movies and other marketing “spinoffs” that the whole series generated.
IAN: Tell us about your next book or a work in progress.
Donna Silveira: My next book is soon to be released. It is entitled “A
Mother’s Walk Through Scripture: A Prayerful Journey Through the Gospels”
It is a view of some high points of the Gospels, based on the “Mysteries
of the Rosary” as Catholics would reference them. These are meditations on
these points in the Gospels, which comprise a fairly comprehensive narrative of
the Gospel story, but looking at it from Mary’s perspective.
