Archive for the ‘Anna's Secret Legacy’ Category

Dream Banks: Secret Legacy’s on the cutting edge…

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

I’m loving how much more detail I’m adding in Secret Legacy about dream theory and research.Some of it is my sole creation, some uses gems from my research into dream study.  And some, it seems, is a spooky combination of both… For example, I’ve used a “dream bank” in my WIP from pretty much day one. A database where Richard Metting stores everything he knows about the Temple Twins’ dream patterns, particularly Sarah’s. Then today, I stumbled across this paper about studying dream content.

lady-dreams

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. (more…)

Posted in Anna's Dream Theories, Anna's Secret Legacy | 8 Comments »

We Write to Taste Life Twice…

Monday, January 25th, 2010

“We write to taste life twice…” ~Anais Nin

I love this quote, even though it’s been a little while since I’ve tasted my life nearly as much as I’ve survived it. And tasting… Well, there’s something that sounds like thriving in the word. Something that’s gotten me thinking.

taste life

 There’s a lot of fight or flight in my work-in-progress. (Well, at least Secret Legacy was my WIP before December happened. ETA to getting back to Sarah Temple and the dreams that will either save or destroy her–Feb. 1st. . so stay tuned for upcoming dream theory posts.) A lot of fighting adversity and challenging limits and refusing to give up–this is a paranormal thriller series, right? But now that the Legacy world is built and it’s dream theory other-worldliness is grounded in its altered realty, I’m finding as I reread what’s already out of my brain and down on paper that there’s space for more in Book 2. More richness. More character. More…flavor.

My heroine in Dark Legacy spent the entire book running from danger and surviving a world of revelation crashing down on top of her. Her sister in Secret Legacy, I’ve known from the start will be running toward something instead of away.The twins’  conflict needs to ramp to the next level. They need the truth. Their legacy needs to become a future to fight for, not just a past to struggle against. But how to show that? How to make the reader feel the shift in the series??? Over the weekend, as I reflected on the last month and the next 11 to come and the revision I wanted in my own life, my good friend Anais reached out to me with the above quote. (more…)

Posted in A Year's Revision, Anna's Secret Legacy, Visit with Anna | 3 Comments »

Sarah’s Dream-Revisited. EXCERPT!!!

Monday, December 14th, 2009

More fun pics below of my Thanksgiving freedom ride. This time of amazing Buddha’s I found lurking in a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit. Amazing treasures like this, just waiting for you to discover. How could anyone not want to live in a city like this???

But first, the rewrite of the rewrite of the rewrite of Sarah Temple’s “Secret Legacy” dream (part of the first scene of the book).Within the dream lie the clues to every mystery you’ll encounter in the book. This is just the first snippet. If you likie, I’d love to share more.

It’s still not clean or even edited by anyone else but me, but I think it’s truer to the overall story. Now that I’m writing through the middle, I can see so much more clearly what the story was trying to tell me when I first envisioned the dream. There will be more changes. Many more, if my method holds true with this book. But, IMHO, this is lovely progress. For those who like to follow the creative messiness of drafting, here’s my first crack at the dream’s opening.

Let me know… Oh, and enjoy the Buddha’s after the excerpt!

Secret Legacy Excerpt 1–Revisited
On Shelves, September 2010
—————————————–

There was beauty in the ocean’s violet blue. A sense of elicit belonging to the secrets below.

Cool channels wrapped Sarah Temple in the dream’s velvet. A promise of freedom lured her deeper. The water’s current caressed as it charmed, beguiled, seduced her into believing the emptiness could finally end.

It was the need to belong to something that propelled Sarah forward. Deeper than before. Those who wanted to save her were far here.

(more…)

Posted in Anna's Secret Legacy, Excerpts, Visit with Anna | 1 Comment »

What We Hide In Dreams…

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Sarah in Secret Legacy is hiding all kinds of things in her spooky dreams (from family, from her friends and enemies, and from herself most of all). Just like we all lose important parts of every day to our subconscious, and those parts start dancing around in the worlds we paint after we go to sleep. The thing with Sarah Temple is that her dreams tend to become reality, and she’s losing control of them (or maybe she was never in control in the first place, since a secret government unit of mad scientists has buried sleeper programming in her mind to manipulate her psychic abilities into a direct strike weapon). So, you know, not know what’s going on inside her sleeping (and maybe even waking) mind tends to make things dicey.

Yeah, scenerios like that are what’s monopolized my mind for the few weeks I’ve been away. Plus, there was the holiday travel and catch up and the the prep for the next holiday. Craziness–and I have the pictures to prove it, so look for those throughout the week. But I’ve also been hard at story work, and dream work. So Secret Legacy’s coming along nicely.  And I’m in the groove and daily writing toward my first “rough” draft THE END. Which means things are going to pick up out here.

It’s amazing the things that happen in our dreams when we are minds are turned on and firing at full speed ahead. Like Sarah, my dreams are swirling. And like my Temple Twins, my dreams give me visions of what’s going on under the surface that my “awareness” becomes during the day. Yours, too, right about now, I suspect. Because this time of year we’re all running on empty and pushing to do more and trying to stretch shorter and shorter days to get the most time out of them we can. Which  means there’s less energy to process everything that’s happening, and so our sleeping minds pick up the slack. (more…)

Posted in Anna's Dream Theories, Anna's Secret Legacy, Visit with Anna | 1 Comment »

Dream Theory–Follow Me To The Sea

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Dreams are absorbing me into their mystery again. The side effect of writing my next Legacy novel. So, expect regular dream musings for a while ;o)

My current obsession… Ocean dreams. And, why yes, I DID just spend ten days by the sea…

ocean dreams

Three years ago, I first worked out the high concept for my first two Legacy novels at a South Carolina sea shore, when I had no idea if I could execute something so challenging. Was this really the type of story I could thrive telling? Two years ago, at a retreat on another SC beach, I began detailing the synopsis my agent said she’d have to see before she could tell if I had something she could sell. Last November, we’d sold the series and I was drafting the first book with ocean waves rolling outside my window again. And now, I was rough drafting and reworking it’s sequel at the same magical place. My ocean dreams are coming true…

From the very first page of Secret Legacy, Sarah Temple’s dreaming about the ocean–you’ve seen a very rough draft that I’ve revised at least a dozen times since. And there you have it–Sarah’s obsession with the sea… What they say about pieces of an author finding their way into story is true. What’s surprising is how long it’s taken my love of the shore to find it’s way into the series I dreamed into being there.  But from that simple beginning, Sarah’s responsible for her own journey ;o) So, what would that be? (more…)

Posted in Anna's Dream Theories, Anna's Secret Legacy | 3 Comments »

Legacies and Secret Babies and Blogs…

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Rule of thumb to keep in mind… When you go away to recharge from the stress of your life, stress builds up to fill every available second once you’re back ;o)

That’s okay, because I have visions like this (my last day at the beach) to sustain me…

sun from the porch

And I’ll need it. 

In my office waiting for me this fine Monday (while sea sounds play on my white noise machine) are:

  • The galley proofs of The Firefighter’s Secret Baby (to celebrate, I’m sharing a new excerpt below ;o) that need to be printed and read and commented on.
  • Drafts of THREE blog posts that go live this week: my I Write THOSE Books out Wed, including thoughts from literary agent Michelle Grajkowski; a Fresh Fiction guest blog, also out Wednesday; and a Borders True Romance guest blog that should be up on Friday.
  • The first half of Secret Legacy that I worked my butt off drafting on retreat, which needs to be printed and rewritten like the dickens, so I can draft the second half (to celebrate, I’m including a new play list I hope you’ll enjoy ;o).
  • The Dark Legacy contest prizes you’ve all been waiting so patiently for, which WILL get mailed out tomorrow…

So, I’m back and not going to be bored any time soon.

But I’m also feeling better and determined not to let stress take so firm a hold again. We need to breathe easy, if we’re going to be all that we’re meant to be. At least I do.

Here’s me breathing… And sharing some of the bounty with my blog buddies (enjoy a playlist AND an excerpt, while I clear my desk…):

(more…)

Posted in Anna's Atlanta Heroes, Anna's Secret Legacy, Excerpts, Visit with Anna | 2 Comments »

Secret Legacy Excerpt and Playlist

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Okay, I’m scrambling to write Secret Legacy’s draft and to prep for the retreat I’m teaching this weekend with my agent, and to ship out all the prizes I’ve announced so far. Sooooo….

Bear with me, and I’ll announce the winner of the Godiva Lollies soon. You guys were wonderful with your helpful insights into your Dark Legacy experiences. I cherish each and every comment, and they’re all helping me as I craft the sequel!

To keep my blog friends happy, I’m sharing a very brief, very early excerpt from Secret Legacy’s opening. This is the recurring dream sequence that will drive the entire book, and it will change/be tweaked over time as I write the rest of the book (at the moment I’m tweaking daily, as I write/rewrite each subsquent scene). But I think you’ll get the idea ;o)

And before we jump into the excerpt, as promised here are a few tidbits from the iTunes Playlist I’m building as I draft the story. These are a few of Sarah’s songs (in no particular order), since the excerpt is hers. (more…)

Posted in Anna's Dream Theories, Anna's Secret Legacy, Excerpts | 5 Comments »

Help Assess Dark Legacy and WIN!!!

Friday, October 16th, 2009

I’m starting to get psyched about writing the second book in my Legacy series.A week of solid planning behind me, and I’m ready to dive into the first few chapters of the book. Then I’ll review and FINALLY, hopefully, be ready to write a detailed synopsis/outline for the rest of the book. That’s how this series has worked for me. I have so many ideas and the storie ideas are so large at this point in the process, I need to be firmly entrenched in character and relationships first–then I can pair down the planning and focus on a story arc that is tight enough to work from.

But first, before I get too far into Book 2, I want to asses Book 1–Dark Legacy: what worked and what didn’t and what I’d planned and what I actually produced and where the story and themes and relationships sparkled and where I wished I’d had more time and space to do more…I do this with ever new book, especially books in an ongoing series, where the world is set so now I can really mine for something magical with the new story dynamic. I’ve just never done it in public before. Or asked others to join in the brainstorming before. Or offered a prize, to be awarded randomly to one of the commenters before… ;o) Like another set of the Godiva Halloween suckers I’m giving away on Fresh Fiction right now ;o)

So, here are the high points of all I’ve thought and heard and learned, then some of the questions I’m asking myself as I begin drafting Secret Legacy. Feel free to add to, answer, challenge or inspire. Even if it’s something that TOTALLY didn’t work for you, that will help me as I stand back and look objectively at everything I have to work with. All feedback is welcome. It will all make Secret Legacy better. (more…)

Posted in Anna's Secret Legacy | 24 Comments »

Lyric/Quote of the Day & Playlists

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Music’s inspired me for as long as I can remember.Before I picked up my first instrument or bought my first album. My tastes are so eclectic, they drive my teenager crazy because he covets a lot of my iTunes downloads but despises the rest, so he hast to pick and choose what he mooches instead of taking the whole list.

R&B, pop, hard rock, classic jazz, alternative, folk, classic, you name it. Anything, really, but country–well, some contemporary country I can get into, but I was raised on the traditional Nashville sound and WON’T go back there again. Ever ;o)

It’s the emotion that gets me. Not just the lyrics, though that’s what I’m writing about today. The emotion of the music itself. The mood and rhythm and soul of the way the notes and melodies are strung together. How it affects your breathing and your heart rate and your thoughts and dreams. Always has… But since nobody, ever, wants to hear me sing, lyrics are the way I share musical emotion. Talking lyrics, and swapping playlists with friends. (more…)

Posted in Anna's Secret Legacy, Articles, Lyrics and Quotes, Visit with Anna | 6 Comments »