Our gifts are amazing opportunities that come to us with high expectations and the weight of entering the world differently. If we’re different, then “normal” won’t always understand. Or accept. Or be our home.
My psychic twins in the Legacy series understood this earlier than most, when as little girls their mother convinced them to hide their gifts and with that dictate set into motion a lifetime of confusion and near-insanity for her beautiful, powerful girls. Because “different” meant danger and the kind of persistent anxiety that their mother couldn’t handle.
If we hide our gifts, we suppress part of why we were created (whether you’re empathic and telepathic like my characters Maddie and Sarah Temple and don’t claim your destiny as warriors, or you lose yourself in music that others don’t understand alone, or nature which others won’t see without your unique perspective, or teaching that would open the the world for students that won’t learn as deeply without you).
Hiding denies the positive energy that is waiting to be released. We dilute the effectiveness of our unique abilities in both our lives, and the reality of those waiting for us to open our minds to who we are.
And this is madness.
It’s a damaging path that so many everyday people travel, living half-lives that are never fulfilling or even a shadow of what they were meant to be, because the owner of what’s been hidden away is more comfortable with pursuing the “normal” they’ll never achieve, than he/she is embracing how truly remarkable their differences are.
I’ve received several reviews for Dark Legacy that complain of the beginning of the novel being too disjointed and fast paced and confusing. And, yes, that’s to be expected from some readers because I penned a psychic thriller that was then marketed as a paranormal romance. But the true discord that some have picked up on is that the primary point of view for the story was a woman whose mind was unravelling.
From page one until nearly three-fourths of the way through the book, Maddie Temple’s paying the price for her mother’s choice and Maddie’s adult acceptance that it was better to pretend she’s not what she is. In her (and her psychotic sister’s) case, the penalty for denying her true nature and purpose is the complete devastation of her safe life, her family and her psyche. Until she faces what’s been shoved down so far for so long, she will suffer even more gravely than the world that’s never been given the chance to thrive because of the gifts she’s so deeply ashamed and terrified of.
Dark Legacy and large parts of Secret Legacy are more than just visions of dream theory and psychic phenomenon, though I love both aspects of these books and talk about them often. These first two novels in the Legacy series are psychological studies of the damage done when we attempt to compartmentalize essential pieces of our consciousness. These stories take the reader deep into the darkness that can result when we lose touch with what we are. I first challenge my characters to accept what they’ve avoided for so long, then reward them (and us) with a spiralling ride toward healing.
Researching similar dark journeys of the mind helped add the layers that some have been uncomfortable with in Dark Legacy. One book in particular, Darkness Visible by William Styron, helped me set the mood and frantic/disjointed rhythm I wanted. The author was suffering from part of what I wanted to put my characters through–persistent insomnia and a troubling malaise that eventually manifested itself in an engulfing depression that consumed his life.
It’s a chilling account and not recommended as light reading. Yet much of what it depicted fit the situation my twins were in, particularly Maddie Temple, in the first book in my series. I guess, then, that it follows that this was never going to be a “romance.” I know–big surprise ;o)
But I am unapologetic to this day. There is purpose to the psychological dynamic building within Dark Legacy. And there is a healing and positive ending I was determined for my characters to reach (well, not Sarah, because Secret Legacy will be that for her, eventually, but you get the idea…) That’s what I needed them, and us, to see while we read.
There’s hope on the other side of acceptance, and new life beyond the dark pit that we abandon ourselves to when we’d rather stagnate than be what we are. There’s tomorrow and the next day to look forward to once we allow ourselves to start over, no matter how little of what we thought was normal is left when everything we were pretending falls away.
One of the key themes in the Legacy series, and not just for the central characters, is that it’s madness to deny our true selves and our true purpose. It’s damaging and destructive and, in the end, selfish, to lock away any part of the gifts we were meant to bring into this world.
And it’s a powerful celebration, ultimately, when we destroy the walls we’ve erected to contain what we are meant to share.
More powerful than we can possibly imagine…
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, Secert Legacy
Fascinating! I have a novel in the beginning outline stages that has a similar theme. I think it runs through my MIP too. The idea that ignoring our calling or supressing our gifts leads to disaster is fascinating to me.
So do I, Sonia ;o)
The next three books in this series are in my head. I’ve done the research, keep talking about them with everone. As soon as I get the opening straight, I’m going to dive in. Proposal is due to my agent ASAP.
I know so much, but nothing is for sure. EXCEPT that this new family with a legacy of gifts will be even more in the dark than the last, with even more to lose (and give) balanced on whether they can finally embrace what they were born to be…
Very interesting article. I still want to read your book and have added it to my list of books to read at the beach this summer.
Really intriguing perspective. I certainly hear you, my work is along similar lines. Slowly tormenting the protagonists with sanity straining events, nightmares and hallucinations that are driving them towards deep depression and insanity. I love the subjective look at the world from a protagonist that has their sanity strained. Stay the course, I know I’ll like it when I get to it in my queue.
Thanks, PW. It’s different. Very dark and intentionally so. And exactly what I wanted it to be ;o)
I’m writing a new family now, while my twins have their day in the sun. This new legacy of gifts already has it’s own feeling. It’s a new series, written into the same world, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
I’m an an organtic story teller, I suppose. My characters tell me what type of story theirs will be, and I let them lead. If I don’t, things go off the rails almost immediately. Readers who’ve followed me for years love the characters most. Those looking for a particulary type of story every time might not always be a fan…
Proxy Servers…
I found a great……