There’s so much to explore this time. Dark Legacy’s sequel is about running to your dreams and what they’re revealing, instead of away. Even I was surprised at how much fantasy wove itself into my new paranormal thriller. A key bit of research that inspired Secret Legacy was discovering that many scientists believe our dreams are based, at least in symbol, on our pasts. That the structure of our dreamscapes is the structure of the memories we’ve already lived, either projected into fantasy that helps us resolve lingering issues or into the future that some suspect dreams can predict.

Scientific articles abound, full of useful information about this and other dream characteristics. Thank dog for my “other-life” identity is a tech writer. I’ve ghosted for everything from lawyers to epidemiologists. There’s a goldmine of research material on the Internet. Articles like this one:

http://www.asdreams.org/journal/articles/12-3_mcnamara.htm

Dry stuff, you say? Picture me clapping my hands with glee and digging in. One of these days soon, I’ll share the research books I found, too. But the online resources are endless, too. Now, where was I…

Do we dream our memories? It’s a central question Secret Legacy’s troubled heroine, Sarah Temple, must conquer. Either what she’s dreaming is real in some way, or she’s certifiably insane. Or both. And without her dreams, she’ll never find the answers she needs to save an innocent child and the man, the family, she’s learning how to love. The family she’s been running from her entire life.

What about us? What from our past is waiting in our sleeping world to work itself out? Dream symbols tell us a lot about the heart of our dreaming minds. If we can remember our dreams (tell ourselves that we want to remember when we go to sleep, relax and recall our dreams before our minds completely wake, and be open to thinking lucidly in the midst of a dreaming reality), then many believe we’d see windows into our pasts and how what we’ve been is weaving into what we’re becoming.

Water’s a recurring dream image for me.  Not so coincidentally, it’s a key symbol in Secret Legacy (so strong an image, my editor chose it to design the cover around). Water is life. It’s about beginning. Renewal. And it’s about journey and rebirth. Nurturing. It was the source of our nutrition in the womb. I truly believe it feeds me now, whenever I can get away and return to a place in nature where I can hear and feel water moving around me.

What from my past led my mind to return to water time and again in my dreams? That’s a personal journey for me to puzzle through. It was fascinating to use dream theory to help me discover Sarah Temple’s journey in Secret Legacy. The question I hope these and other dream theories bring you closer to answering is, what recurring symbols in your dreams speak to you of your past? Your future? What is your sleeping mind working through while you rest? There are answers there…

Loosely, that’s the truth our Secret Legacy heroine, Sarah Temple, must deal with. You first met her (just recovered from a 10-year coma and losing her sanity because she and her psychic gifts have been the target of secret government dream research) in Dark Legacy, and she’s still battling back from the darkness consuming her mind. Only this time, she’s fighting to reach a terrified child no one else believes is real–and her only weapons are her misfiring dreams and the family she’s lost the ability to trust. Oh, and the man whose honor to his duty comes before all else, even his love for her… Which makes for an amazing fictional-paranormal-fantasy-thriller journey, even if I do say so myself (the draft’s in to my editor, who will no doubt be letting me know her revisions any second now ;o)

Loosely, it’s also continues to be the story of my life this year,though my dreams don’t have the power to kill or program others’ minds, the way Sarah’s and the secret child/legacy in my new Dorchester novel do. This year, more than any other, I’m re-learning the power and reach of the human mind, the frailty of the body, the strength of the soul, and the healing powers of love and human friendships.

It’s been a quiet four months out here, as I recovered and created the draft for which Dorchester’s been amazing enough to extend my deadline. Now, it’s time to start revising, not just Secret Legacy, but the secrets and magic and truths hidden in my own dreams–and in the choices I make every day about how I want to live my life going forward. Yes, we’ll be talking about my writer’s journey, but even more I’ll be sharing the human experience so many of you have overwhelming responded to. After all, that’s where a writer’s voice comes from, right–from her view of the world and how it feeds the characters and stories she tells.

So, come back tomorrow (for my April contest winner announcements, including winners from my Fresh Fiction contests), and for the official lauch of my “A Year’s Revision” blog discussion. I’ll be talking dream theory, what I’ve learned from crafting two stories about the amazing power of the human mind, my life’s journey this year and how it’s changing where I’m going as I move forward, and as much of your lives as you’re willing share.

This is a time of great change for our country, for the world, and for our individual lives and families. Which is comforting, in a way, because we know we’re not alone when everything we see and believe is shifting along with our own personal lives. Whether you’re a writer, a reader, or a dreamer, sharing your revision journey this year will make you and everyone you touch with your words stronger…at least that will be my goal out here…

Let’s dream our way home…

It’s dry reading, unless you’re a closet tech writer like me, and then you’ll love all the science and find yourself lost for hours that should be going toward working your way back into a WIP you haven’t written on in a while… Where was I? Oh, yeah, it’s dry reading, so I’m bulleting some high points below for those who love dreams as much as I do. But the thing I’m finding startling is how close some of this is to what I’ve already crafted into Dark Legacy and now Secret Legacy, based on my own dream experiences and the world my characters have helped me build.

The intuitive, creative mind is an amazing thing. Which is kind of the point of the dream study I chose to base my first Legacy family’s gifts in. Good affirmation, but also a bit of a goose bump moment. Another in a long series of boo!experiences that have convinced me there are worlds playing out around us, just beyond our understanding. It couldn’t be cooler to have a job where researching into what intrigues me most is part of my day-to-day.

For those of you who love this kind of thing, too, enjoy some of this study’s intereting tidbits:

• “…most people are consistent over years or decades in what they dream about, and that the most frequent characters, social interactions, and activities in their dreams are continuous with their waking interests and emotional concerns (Domhoff, 2003).”

• Uncovering the mysteries of dreams themselves is complicated by the fact that the dreamer can’t report details of the dream while it’s happening–which, of course, isn’t a problem for my psychic twins and their mad scientists, bwahahahaha! Good to know I’m on track emphasising the uniqueness of this kind of dream study set up.

• Dream banks have allowed the study of a single subjects’ dreams across major life spans–a very cool concept that I touched on in Dark Legacy, when the twins were dreaming “back” to their childhood, and thus dipping into images and symbols they dreamed about as children. I’m already using this again in Secret Legacy, as Sarah searches for a lost child she’s shares a dream link with, and finding that their joined dreams mirror disturbing visions from her childhood that haven’t made sense until now.

• The study talks about dream reports, sets and studies. I like the clean terminology. Making a note to borrow or use something similar for my own science in Secret Legacy. Readers must be intrigued but not confused to distraction ;o)

Great stuff for me. Was it good for you???

Strange, that I’m writing a book about water while all this is going on. Both fire and water are essential, timeless elements that can symbolize change and revelation and renewal. Both can symbolize life. Fire, too, can mean torment (as in, can’t decide on the next turn in your life), while with water one can feel as if she’s drowning in a decision not yet made. So, they can go hand in hand. For me, as I write about ocean visions, it’s interesting that my own dreams have centered on fire’s illumination and possible destruction. Or, maybe not so far off the mark, as it turns out.

I’d said a few blogs back that this would be a year of revisions for me. Not all together of my choosing. I have a lot on my plate, but the plate’s suddenly been taken away from me, forcing me to slow a bit and just live while I wait for my “get back to normal” chance. Not that I’m not still loving writing Secret Legacy. Not that it’s not 2/3rds through (though this is 2/3rds of the draft that no one else sees, not even my editor, because it’s the ugly draft that needs TONS of TLC before it’s ready for others to drool over). But, the work’s slowed since mid-December, and it will be slower still for a while, and I’m not handling the downshift with a lot of grace. Just ask my husband. And my fire dreams.

They’re both telling me to let the guilt for not writing full-speed ahead go. Let the time I can’t write fill with other things I need. Let myself see other things right now–like the threat heading straight for me. Or is it a chance to shift my view, more than a threat? Is it a time to review and re-evaluate and revise, so I’m even more ready to write again, when Secret Legacy once more becomes my primary focus?

In dreams, fire can be a painful journey taken to leave past truths behind and achieve new growth. It can symbolize untamed growth and energy you have to let rage, rather than trying to control. It can be an omen, that fighting to stay where you are will lead to even more pain. It can be a chance to set your mind free, or to trap it forever.

As a writer, feeling trapped in a story, or in an impossible moment, is a horrible feeling. Writers have to see the fire their imigantions become as an escape, rather than a threat. A new beginning, as all stories begin first in a blaze of creativity and fear and uncontrollable combustion that only the most delicate, sensitive mind can embrace. And as a human being, I now have a new beginning to revise. My own. My 2010. It will be like none other. It will begin with the rush of fire, then it will catch into something new and amazing and untamed, then it will become a journey I never expected. All I have to do is open the door and know I’m ready to embrace the flames, no matter how dangerous my dreams make them seem.

I’m having surgery next week, and there may be more to come after that.

I have a book to finish, and there are worlds and journies beyond even that to tell, once I can get my mind to re-focus on the worlds my dreams bring me.

I have a life to revise, while I wait for the former to happen, so I can get back to the latter, and it’s my choice which, if either, will be consumed by the flames my dreams are showing me. The fear. The doubt. The insecurity. It’s my year to do with whatever I choose.

Anyway, that’s what I’ll be blogging about for a while. The dreams and the journey and the writing (an Atlanta Heroes out in April and Secret Legacy out later this year). And the revising.

Joine me, and we’ll see where the fire takes us…

Actually, this post is about seeing your dreams. Seeing them all around you. Never losing touch with them.

A perfect new topic for a new blog year.

My year’s going to start out rocky. I knew that about mid-way through December, and began the next several weeks in a bit of a haze that felt at first like dread. So much so, I couldn’t write or do much of anything. But it was the holidays. Not a good time to check out. Not a good time at all, for me or my family. Not how I wanted my 2010 to begin.

So I did what I’ve done since I was a child when I needed to stay grounded in my everyday life but was stumbling about in the shadows instead–I started to read about other worlds. Obsessively. Kind like I pulled out all my favorite books that I’d hidden away in a closet and began to re-read like a maniac. Bing reading. Need-a-support-group-to-recover reading. I hadn’t done that in years. Because I’ve been too slammed with writing, instead, I guess. Not that I haven’t read books every month of every one of those years. But there’s a difference when you read solely for pleasure. Around the clock, every chance I got when I wasn’t involved with the “normal” people in my life. Because I had to escape and believe there were other realities out there besides the one I was afraid I was slipping into. Because I needed to fill my creative well, more than I needed to write. The obsession to write couldn’t sustain me for the first time.

I couldn’t write, but I could read. Only reading. A lot of reading, which, not surprisingly, turned into a lot of dreaming. Day dreaming and sleep dreaming. And a slow relaxing that I hadn’t felt in over five years. Since before the publishing race began to rule my waking world (14 books in 5 years is it’s own kind of obsession). Of course my dream life has been vivid and active the whole time I’ve published, but those dreams have been shadowed in no small part by the books I’ve been writing. The worlds and lives I’ve been creating on the page. That’s not the same thing as my dreams coming just from what I’m feeling and reading and relaxing into, because if I don’t relax I’m going to explode. Slowly, over the last two weeks, I’ve realized that reading in the absence of the non-stop writing I’ve been doing for so long has been changing my dreams. Or, more to the point, returning my dreams to something I haven’t had in a long time. Something I hadn’t realized I’d missed so much. Something I haven’t slowed down enough to see for too long. Me. That’s what I’d been missing. What I needed to plug back into to face the first of ’10’s challenges. I had to put the rest away and just see me and what I needed for a while. Different. Not what I’ve been doing for 5 years. But essential. And it only took me two weeks of falling into my favorite novels to get there ;o)

Of course I’ll write obsessively again. That’s who I am. And my dreams will once more become about the other realities floating around in my mind. Soon, I hope. But for now, they’re about what I want this day to be. This week. This year. My family and my friends and the NEXT five years. My hopes and dreams, which need to thrive again. What makes me stretch and relax and believe that all will be well, regardless. My friends and the life they challenge me to live. My love and the power it has to hope and heal and thrive and conquer. These are the parts of me that reading and dreaming have always inspired. These are the emotions that dreams touch in all of us. And aren’t stories simply another way of dreaming? Don’t they help us see ourselves, as much as the subconscious worlds that go on in our sleeping fantasies? Don’t they teach writes and readers alike what’s most important and worth fighting for?

So where does that leave me/us?

1. I’d have to say to my writer friends, read for pleasure, as a way to feed the soul you need to create.
2. To my reader followers, recognize your role in breathing life into the stories you read and the dreams they inspire, because you’re part of all of this, and it’s a HUGE part of you.
3. To me, understand that slowing down is a new chance to grow and learn what you need to learn next.
4. Whoever you are, see your dreams, in every way they come to you.  However they come to you. Whatever you have to do to stay in tune with them.

Sounds simple, right???

Anyone else have a light-bulb beginning to their new year???