Posts Tagged ‘Legacy Series’
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
Ever wake, overwhelmed by the emotion of what you’re dreaming? We’ve talked about feelings being the link between your sleeping and waking world. But how, exactly, does that happen, and what are we supposed learn from the residue of our fantasies, once we leave them behind?
Sheila English asked those very questions last week when, she interviewed me about Secret Legacy’s release for Blog Talk Radio. She LOVES talking about dream theory and lucid dreaming technique. So, naturally, we spent more time than we should have in the interview sharing our personal experiences. We just couldn’t help ourselves.
We both believe there’s something there, when we close our eyes and escape this reality. We both have experienced the power of that “something” crossing back into our everyday lives. And when you connect with someone who’s felt and believed the unbelievable things that have impacted your life, you don’t pass up the chance to revel ;o)
But where, exactly, does this energy come from? How is it that a dream can be so emotionally consuming and meaningful that it impacts your waking life?
Understanding the details of how some scientists believe this emotional connection works can help you better remember and process your dream work. And the more you know about how your mind’s working for you when you sleep, the more you can do with the wealth of information and emotion it’s helping you deal with.
An important start is to recognize the categories of emotional dreams we tend to have. This gives us a frame of reference for the powerful places we’re transported to when we sleep. And these places, remember, tell us a lot about the things in our waking lives, and within in us, which inspire them.
Don Kuiken, a Canadian researcher, found peoples’ emotionally intense dreams could impact their lives for days afterwards.
He categorized the emotional content of dreams in five distinct ways:
- Existential dreams, we’re told, are those where we’re dealing with feelings with separation and loss. These are emotionally distressing experiences that feel very real to the dreamer. They tend to contain strong sensations of sensory awareness (vision, touch and sound), as well as detailed references to the body, as you process the vividness of the emotions that you feel–feelings which often continue into waking, along with the knowledge for many that they were self-aware while they were dreaming. These are the dreams about dying or nearly dying, about losing something important and searching for it (a purse or a wallet), about giving birth or being born, etc.
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Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream interpretation, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
Posted in Dream Theories | 3 Comments »
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Dorchester’s abrupt shift from a mass market publishing model to focusing on digital and trade paperback releases has been dissected and discussed and bandied about for kicks and giggles by just about everyone. Mostly by folks not involved in the ongoing change. But was it so abrupt? Was it Dorchester’s choice alone? Was the story really simple enough to be covered in a tweet or a Facebook update?
The emotions running high then and now were real enough. The circumstances weren’t great for anyone involved, either before Dorchester’s move or since. The publishing industry itself, never a source of enduring security for most who challenge it, was has been in a very public tailspin for the last few years.
Exactly how much of Dorchester’s move was about one publishing house’s floundering dynamic? How much of it was industry trends playing out on a small enough stage for us to dissect every bit of it and hopefully learn something new?
From the start, I wanted Publishing Isn’t for Sissies to be about seeing the bigger picture. There’s a larger story here. Every publisher and author is playing it out, in various arenas, trying to find their place in what we’re all about to become. I applaud the brave approach Vice President Tim DeYoung and the rest of Dorchester’s staff are taking to innovate and pioneer an uncharted path they’re determined to make work for their authors.
To see a bit more of that bigger picture for yourself, spend a few minutes looking at our publishing world through Tim’s eyes…
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Some people have asked me why Dorchester turned from mass market centric publishing to a digital and trade model. The response to this question involves an understanding of the marketplace and the changes within.
I don’t think anyone will disagree with the statement that the biggest trend in the publishing industry is the extraordinary growth of the e-book. Articles, blogs, and editorials are everywhere you turn, trumpeting the demise of print. There is no question that e-books seem to be the future, what with all the new platforms springing up, some that feature interactive participation or even the use of color. Still, even with the fantastic growth in the last couple of years, e-book sales are far overshadowed by the sales of physical books.
Several years ago, the wholesale marketplace started going through very real upheaval. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, digital promotion, digital publishing, Dorchester Publishing, ebooks, ePublishing, gallies, indie publishing, Legacy Series, PR, promotion, reviews, Secret Legacy, writer, writer resource, writing, writing articles
Posted in Publishing Isn't for Sissies | 2 Comments »
Monday, May 16th, 2011
I’m talking psychic twins, paranormal phenomenon, and parallel realities–but also straddling different worlds in my career (writing both classic romance and psychic thrillers)–on Dorchester’s Community Blog today.
Join us for your chance to win a trade paperback or digital copy copy of Dark Legacy AND Secret Legacy!
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream interpretation, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
Posted in What About Everything Else? | No Comments »
Friday, May 13th, 2011
Dream Interpretation… NOT an exact science. But there’s so much our minds are trying to do and tell us while we sleep, we can’t afford not to listen. Look at it as work. How well do you understand the issues you’re consciously and subconsciously dealing with? Your sleeping world(s) might just know more than you do.
Since my psychic twins’ books launched and their dream adventures become fan favorites, I’ve gotten a good bit email and questions about dream interpretation.Now first, a disclaimer. I’m not a dream scientist, but I do play one on TV… No, I’ve been studying and fascinated with dreams my whole life, and I’m fascinated with my own and others’ dream worlds. I’m happy to chat with anyone about what they’re remembering of what their sleeping minds explore, and about how to use and access even more of that valuable insight.
It’s hidden gold, what we don’t see until we turn the rest of the world off. This is the first of three Dream Theory posts about some of the ways that I look more deeply into my own and others’ dream memories.
Anna Faraday, in her 1970’s books, Dream Power and The Dream Game, pioneered much of modern dream work. She believed dreams have three potential meanings, on three different levels of understanding, that all should be explored.
Level 1, Looking Outward:Does the dream and its symbols or setting or actions tell you anything about the dreamer’s world? I’ve talked about this a good bit in Dream Theory and Psychic Realm blog posts and comments. If we don’t deal with external events while we’re awake, they (or some symbolic reflection of them) are likely to show up in our dreams. Voila! There you have the simplest explanation for the basis of my first to Legacy books.
The key? Looking outward from a dream, especially when the outward meaning is a direct one, can serve as a warning or a reminder. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream interpretation, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
Posted in Dream Theories, What About Everything Else? | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
The emotion in our dreams is the key. Not what you see, or even what you remember when awake, but what you feel. Emotions are the common thread between the waking and the sleeping worlds. In my psychic fantasy novels, this is how scientists and psychics develop the brainwashing techniques that threaten to become global weapons. In real life, this is merely the power of our minds leading us through the work we need to do.
I’m on an emotional rant this week–most of my posts will touch on the psyche, I’ll just be coming at you from different directions. So be warned ;o)
Longing and disappointments and fear and hope and anxiety and excitement…and all of that is all of who we are, in our waking an sleeping worlds.
Think about it–what’s the one dream you can remember most? Why is that dream so easy for you to recall, when others have slipped away? Was it frightening? Special and supremely happy? Were you seeing someone again for the first time in a long time, or travelling somewhere meaningful, or facing your sworn enemy or struggling through your worst nightmare come true, etc.?
All of that is about the emotion still lingering, and bout how it was still scaring or thrilling you when you woke.
It’s been largely accepted by scientists that dreams are a method for us to process emotional information (among other things). Some go so far as to suggest you write a dream report immediately upon waking–and that you focus on feelings and emotions first, before getting to the lingering visible sights and symbols that remain.
The most common emotion experienced during a dream?
Fear.
Does this mean we’re being threatened by either the sleeping or the waking world. Not at all. (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
Posted in Dream Theories, What About Everything Else? | 3 Comments »
Monday, May 9th, 2011
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.
(more…)
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
Posted in What About Everything Else? | 6 Comments »
Friday, May 6th, 2011
Dorchester Publshing’s gotten a lot of press in the seven months that I’ve waited for Secret Legacy to release. The Dorchester staff has made some tough choices about their business, as have I. PIFS has been about the story behind the drama playing out on social media’s myopic stage. Tough realities and decisions must be faced once emotions cool. I wanted this to be a place where we could share experiences and take those next steps together.
Our industry is a lightening-fast spiral of change at the moment. We’ve talked here about challenging things. We’ve kept things honest but positive and forward-thinking. We’ve already heard from a PR professional and an industry-leading agent. Now let’s dig a little deeper.
My personal impression observing Dorchester Senior Editor Chris Keeslar in my six years as a published author is that he’s widely respected by professionals in every corner of our industry.
Every author I know who’s worked with him loves how much he loves working with story and the minds that craft it. With Dorchester’s shift in publishing model, I suspect Chris is more involved than ever with the management of getting books to market. But reading his thoughts below, it’s clear that story and nurturing an author’s voice and career are still Chris’ ultimate focus.
He’s put a public face on each issue Dorchester has encountered. He’s handled these complex situations as best he could as quickly as he could, providing whatever information and action and answers were needed. I can’t imagine the journey’s been any easier for him than the authors he continues to champion. But he’s never publicly reacted in anger or frustration. I find it inspirational, his brand of integrity and optimism in the face of these challenges.
I’m thrilled that Chris is sharing his thoughts with us today on how a traditional publisher can help a digitally published author…
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“I’ve been thinking about the changing landscape of publishing recently. Here’s what I’ve decided: (more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, digital promotion, digital publishing, Dorchester Publishing, ebooks, ePublishing, gallies, indie publishing, Legacy Series, PR, promotion, reviews, Secret Legacy, writer, writer resource, writing, writing articles
Posted in Publishing Isn't for Sissies | 10 Comments »
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
I’m psyched (pun intended) to be guest blogging at SCIFIGUY today. I’m equally psyched to have Chris Keeslar joining us in Publishing Isn’t for Sissies here tomorrow. I’m getting to talk about a creative passion and a passionate colleague the last two days of this week. Excellent!
Here’s a bit of the scifiguy post to wet your appetite. Come out, come out, wherever you are and hang over there with me a bit today… Then PIFS with Chris and me tomorrow, before we all hang with the mom’s this weekend.
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Sci-fi/Fantasy…I’ve had more conversations about the term in the last few years than I did in my entire geeky, Trekkie youth. On KindleBoards, on fantasy forums, through GoodReads networks, in person etc. Everyone has an opinion. Some are purist. Some enjoy variety. But everyone who digs what’s now considered speculative fiction is searching for more of what they love, and there so much variety on the market there’s little chance of the genre boring you.
Coming from a romantic suspense background already makes me an odd duck in many circles, including my growing involvement with International Thriller Writers. Especially there, since my thrillers are more psychic fantasy than mystery/suspense.
Well, they’re contemporary fantasies with a strong scientific basis for my world building that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Three-fourths of the action in my latest release, Secret Legacy, takes place in dream sequences shared between the protagonist and the scientists and psychic warriors battling for control of her mind. Think of the movie Inception, and you’ll get an idea of how the lucid dreaming and shared dreaming science behind these books plays out. Though, let me just say that Dark Legacy was written and published long before the movie hit theaters ;o)…
Read more here!
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
Posted in Publishing Isn't for Sissies, What About Everything Else? | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
The ITW Big Chill May newsletter is out, and Secret Legacy received a rave!
Austin Camacho says, “If you’re up for a horrifying mental nightmare of psychological suspense that’s like nothing else on your shelves, this is the book you’ve been waiting for,” while he talks about Book 2 in my Legacy series and my venturing into sci-fi/fantasy and even more genre breaking than ever before. I got to go more in depth about my characters and the metaphysics and parapsychology behind the spookiness I had so much fun creating.
Here’s the article.
Here’s the link to Secret Legacy on Amazon.
Here’s the FREE Amazon eBook of Dark Legacy.
It’s also free on B&N and Borders and others sites, so whatever digital reader you have, snag yourself the first book in the series.
Then when you get to the cliff hanger ending…you know what to do ;o)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, Austin Camacho, Legacy Series, Secret Legacy
Posted in What About Everything Else? | No Comments »
Monday, May 2nd, 2011
Since Secret Legacy’s out today (Yay!) and Dark Legacy’s a FREE EBOOK ALL WEEK, let’s get down and dirty about what makes this Psychic Fantasy series so different from other thrillers you’ve read. Yes, you’ll experience more of the dream theory you loved in Inception. But more than that, my psychic twins are being hunted and haunted by and eventually must stand and fight against covert government scientists who’re determined to turn their family’s Legacy of gifts into a direct-strike psychic weapon. How? Well, that’s the really cool part!
Long before Inception hit theaters, I turned my life-long fasciantion with dreams and the very real possiblity that lucid dreaming can be a learned technique into the beginning of a series of mainstream novels built around psychic talents. Of course I’ll write about other gifts, but the first two Legacy books were destined to spook me and everyone who read them about the potential and power of dreams.
What if dreams could be harnessed and programmed and ultimately harvested, triggered at exact moment in which they could do the most harm? What if psychics could train us through our dreams, unbeknownst to our conscious minds, to behave in uncharacteristic ways in our waking lives? What if, once that training was triggered in say a daydream state, there was nothing we could do to stop ourselves from carrying out our programming?
How exactly are the Temple Twins’ minds and psychic talents being manipulated to accomplish this? In case you haven’t had the chance to read Dark Legacy yet, let me catch you up:
- Sarah and Maddie Temple are powerful empaths.
- More than merely feeling others’ emotions, they can take on all the emotions of that person, to the point of taking over the person’s subconscious and through it their reactions/actions to the world around them. As their powers have grown over the years, they’ve unknowingly developed the ability to project emotion and associated behavior/perception as well as receive it.
- Pair that with advanced training in mind and body modeling using lucid dreaming techniques, and you’ve got a psychic who can design, embed, and target dream realities (which aren’t remembered by the “host” mind once it wakes) that prepare the dreamer to perform waking tasks when triggered.
(more…)
Tags: Anna DeStefano, contemporary fantasy, creativity & inspiration, Dark Legacy, dream color, dream emotion, dream programming, dream science, Dream Theories, dreams, fantasy author, Legacy Series, lucid dreaming, Secert Legacy
Posted in What About Everything Else? | 3 Comments »
