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…

Oh, yeah, Secret Legacy is lovely (says the world’s BEST editor says), but there are some amazing suggestions, too, for making it an even more exciting read for fans. So begins the BEST part of my job–reworking a completed draft. Shaping it. Spinning turning points. Honing characters. Upping tension and conflict and the impact of every scene. Adding new ones that create richness and depth I couldn’t see while fighting to make the first draft work.

It’s a lot like life, revising a manuscript. I like to think we live out each decade with a playbook that continuously evolves., kind of like an outline for a book. We draft out our currently life, learn and grow, then as the years turn we see more and understand more and kick things up a notch into the next ten years or so. We work on who we are, what we do, how we live, and whom we expend our energy and experiences with. Just as we learn to deal with the crisis or conflict at hand, there’s a new level of tension waiting around the next corner. There’s no time for a total rewrite (not that we’d go back and start over, anyway), but there’s always our next chance to make everything that “is” work better and everything that “will be” as exciting and successful as possible…

So, now I’m revising my year (and my manuscript). I’m breathing new life into both, thanks to my guides (like my editor and friends) and the stardust their help and advice and friendships offer my world.This book and this life of mine won’t rock on it’s own–I need others to get me to the next level. That’s the “collaborative” approach I teach writers to follow as they learn their craft and learn to revise. Publishing, like life, is a team sport. Go it alone, and let me know how much stardust comes your way. It’s also the “don’t try to go it alone” techniques I taught folks for years, when I was training crisis and grief intervention. It’s the principle I’m working hard to follow in my life as a whole since facing the surgery in January and the after-effects I’m still not finished dealing with. Thank God that’s not something I’ve had to face alone. Don’t know where I’d be if I’d tried.

To sum up, my editor rocks for standing with me and digging deeper into my beautiful SL for the good stuff still waiting to shine. My friends and family and fans rock for waiting out the mess of the first part of this year, so we can bask in the stardust I believe is coming, just around the next corner. And I’m still here, still writing and creating and dreaming up story, because they’ve been by my side every step of the way.

Scary times? Yes. Truth be told, all authors are terrified at some point that their next story won’t measure up, and all folks facing health issues are afraid of what might come next. And there will always be more fear to come, never doubt it. But never, NEVER, have I felt alone on this journey of my life. Which makes me a truly lucky woman.

My hope is you’re building your own support systems/teams in both your work and personal lives. Give as much energy to them as often as you can. One day you’ll be amazed, as I am now, at how much comes back to you when you need it most!

Revision is life. It’s not for the faint of heart. Don’t try this stuff on your own…

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…

A NEW Spring to enjoy…

A NEW novel to revise…and it’s already a “Guaranteed Read” from Dorchester–learn more about this amazing publishing program I’m lucky enough to have been chosen for, and look for Secret Legacy in stores in November!

A NEW Harlequin Superromance release on shelves 4/10…and there’s already only one left on Amazon, so don’t miss your chance to pick on up on B&N or in your local bookstore/section of choice. Cool!

New contests to offer…win $20 Amazon Gift Certificates here AND here  (AND out here the week of the 10th, when I launch my blog release contest for everyone who visits and comments the rest of the month).

New travels to share…from the two weeks in March that saved my sanity and got me back to one (where I could relax into Secret Legacy and make it sing for you).

Of course I have more pictures to share than just this one with cover model and friend Bill Freda, but what a lovely place to start, right ;o) All week, I’ll be uploading pics to the blog so you can see why I’m feeling so amazing and new this Spring morning, while my teenager is upstairs sleeping ’til noon because it’s Spring Break, and my body’s luxuriously tired from hiking all day yesterday on a nearby mountain and my mind is dreaming up dream things to write so you can feel this new, too…

(NOTE: Many of these pics and stories were posted from the road last month on my Facebook feed and Twitter profile, where I do more frequent updates. Part of my new and improved “revised” year is to put content up when it’s happening, and social media seems to be the way to go for that for me. So, if you want to see the news while it’s happening, friend me on Facebook or join the 1,800+ strong (wow, really???) already following me on Twitter!)

To open this week’s picture show with more of what I KNOW you love most–NEW HUNKY GUY Photos!!!

I committed to several teaching gigs scheduled for early this year, BEFORE I learned I’d be having January surgery. It wasn’t easy to get packed up and hit the road for nearly two weeks, but lots of friends were there to make the experience amazing and liberating rather than just exhausting.

When cover model friend Bill Freda learned I’d be teaching at an event near him, he hopped over the night of the book signing to give me a hug and make me smile, and to wow the crowds as usual:

Of course, I taught while I was there, too, with my agent Michelle Grajkowski, and I spoke on a Romance panel with fab authors Virginia Kantra and Tara Nina. See–I was working. Really I was!

What I am is mired in the writing, and rewriting of Secret Legacy  (what do you think of the cover and my C. L. Wilson quote???).  

AND I’ve been travelling like a nutcase fulfilling teaching obligations I made before my surgery, even though I have the SL deadline looming and need every minute I can spare to write. AND it’s Bunny Day and Spring Break season, so my son’s busy life is making mine even crazier.

Which isn’t to whine, but to explain my absence. But I’ve reached a happy place with drafting (just the BIG FINISH to complete now in my latest paranormal romantic thriller) and am taking an extended break from the writing cave to revise and enjoy holiday/family time.

So, while I’m out and about amongst you muggles, I wanted to share:

–this article about bonding between fathers and daughters that made me cry,

–and that I have a new romantic suspense (that rocks an “In Plain Site” theme) on shelves in April–the long-awaited The Firefighter’s Secret Baby,

–and that to celebrate I’m giving away a $20 Gift Certificate over at Fresh Fiction  (who will be handling my contests from now on, because they do such a good job of keeping up with all the details and entries, and I’m working hard to revise my life and my year of the guilt of NOT doing a good job of it lately around here ;o)

If you follow the Fresh Fiction link to the contest, you’ll see the bunnies. See, no naughty. Just cute bunnies and a chance to win free $$$ for books and fun stuff. Aren’t you ashamed for assuming differently???

Enjoy, everyone! I’ll be back in the next couple of days with lots of pics from my travels (including cover models ;o), and some fun news and teasers about cool stuff to come. And, of course, more Secret Legacy excerpts now that things are firming up!

Happy April, my friends ;o)