Anna DeStefano's Blog, page 28

Things my Teenager Says: "Whoever designed this road was insane!"

No, that's not a Galaxy Quest quote. Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver) as she faced the gauntlet through the chompers said, "Whoever wrote this episode should DIE."

 

 

 

My teen on the other hand, while he's driving down his first truly twisting, maddening, winding path, all but bashing his head against the steering wheel, says, "Whoever designed this road was insane!"

Heh.

By this point, only a few minutes into a drive I know is challenging, because THAT'S THE POINT, I'm practically falling out of my seat laughing. Dangerous, what with the white-knuckled teen beside me who's still driving because I refuse to take back the wheel.

Why?

Because every day is a winding road, buddy!

 

 

 

I know, I know.

Videos are so lame.

But today's crazy teenage complaining moment demands more than words.

 

 

 

Let's take a little YouTube tour and get to the bottom of some of life's cruelest complexities, without all that back and forth banter that rolls your eyes into their sockets.

You're trying not to drive off the side of a mountain, and I'm along for the ride. I kind of like your eyes facing forward and on the road. And, after all, it's ALL about me.

 

 

 

Life moves pretty fast sometimes.

 

 

 

 

There be chompers and long and winding roads ahead.

 

 

 

Get over it.

 

 

Miring in the pit of despair is one option.

 

 

So is facing challenges head on, without complaining, so you can finally be free of that pesky baggageriding shot gun in your passenger seat.

 

 

Just saying.

Drive on, young man, drive on…

I'll just keep the lyrics of Puff the Magic Dragon to myself, as I help you grow up and away just a tiny bit more.

 

Sniffle.

Yeah, so much for the laughing…

Writing Beautiful…

Twelve days, immersed in writing and writers and the beauty of creative minds seeing and sharing the world around them. I've come back from my sabbatical to a flood of social media NANO page count mania, and I have the strongest urge to shout, "Stop the Insanity!!!" Not that writing daily and being prolific isn't my personal mantra, as a commercial fiction writer trying to make a living by producing pages that readers can't put down. But there's so much more to it than that, and my mind is still swirling with the other that sustains me. With images like this that inspire and guide and beguile you to make each word matter and resonate, even if it means less words that day:

Where I've been this last few weeks, a sunrise can look like this every day.This moment was mine, simply because I walked to the end of my friend's doc. But how do I make it yours? How can I possibly show you how to feel this color, this openness, this majestic infinity the way I did a few days ago?

And then, just minutes later, there was this:

How is it possible that light and air and water could shift around and inside me to become something wholly new, right before my eyes? Can I make you feel the wonder of it, too? Will you come with me to this place between one blink and the next, where discovery was being and breathing and knowing how small and very eternal every moment, every word, is?

And before my adventure into Middle Georgia, to meet young writing minds and catch up with writer friends I've gone too long without seeing, there was this:

And this:

And this:

Morning after morning of it, in a perfect retreat from noise and distraction and complications that take the writing away. The words were flowing through my mind, each time I woke and looked and walked and dreamed on endless beaches of sand. Did they make it, all of them, onto the page for a daily tally? No.

Most of them are still inside, calling to me to form them into images that will never rival their inspiration. They're working, though, these stolen moments, molding me into what my stories will become next.

I'm settling in today to finish sorting through the unpacking and reorganization that coming home demands. I have new pages, as a result of my time away. But there's so much more to it. Inspiration and excitement and joy and love for the words yet to be written. My writing isn't a grind this day. I'm not obsessed with how much I must produce to stay on target. My creating isn't a schedule. It's a celebration of the images and memories I've returned with, as I plug them into my now and see what we can come up with together.

My best advice to every NANO participant is to love each word, no matter how few. Respect each goal, even if you fall short. Live each experience as a writer, a creator, looking for just the right way to make a moment in your mind real for someone who longs to share where you've been. Stay focused on the mechanics of producing story, yes, but never at the expense of what you've seen and heard and experienced.

Living fully has been my challenge these last few weeks, not tracking word count. As a result, I'm 50 pages further along in story than when I left, and the discovery I encountered in that 50 page journey is a magic I couldn't have imagined before I embarked.

So, I'm encouraging my NANO friends to live this month with abandon, engaging with life as you write, rather than hiding from it for the sake of word count. Scroll back up and look at the pictures again. Then go make some vivid, unforgettable memories of your own, that will inspire words you've never strung together in quite the same way before.

Don't make the number of the words your challenge this November. Make what they say, what they show, what they reveal to you and others your goal. Make them beautiful, even if it slows your progress. Take a magical journey of your own, and let's see what this NANO can really make happen for you ;o)

Revising a Year: Being Still…

We all need to regularly regroup, re-evaluate, and refocus. My sabbatical from blogging since September has been just that for me–a long-awaited escape, even though I've been here all along, lurking and watching and enjoying the rest of you while I watch ;o) A year ago, I was a writer desperately needing an infusion of energy and courage. So I went on a retreat with other writers and recharged. This year, that "being still" place came before the trip, which I leave for in just a few days. This year, I'm bringing the peace with me.

Being still, in preparation for being still. That's what this time away has felt like. Last year, I was seeking courage. This year, as I walk the surf on a barrier island in South Carolina, my retreat will be about breathing in the life I've spent the last twelve months living, and knowing that even more abundance is awaiting me going forward. What will I be? How will what I've become grow even more? What amazing things from this last year will feed into all that is to come? These are the things that being quiet brings to me. To all of us, I suspect.

When we step away, consciously, we honor what we're leaving as well as what we withdraw to contemplate. We're focusing on both ourselves and all the wonderful things we're temporarily letting go. We're giving ourselves a chance to be grateful and to long to return. The perspective it gives me and my creative work, no matter how little or much time I have to step away, is priceless.

So many of you have emailed or FB messaged or sent Tweet DMs to ask when I'll be back, and to say that my posts and updates comments have been missed. Bless you. Know that the feeling is mutual. I have so much to share: waterfall pics from trips I've taken; new dream theory and Psychic Realm discoveries; my take on crazy things I hear and the laugh-out-loud (and poignant) things my teenager says; How We Write craft and industry updates; exciting things that are happening in my publishing life.

But most importantly, I find myself longing to come back with even more excitement than I realized I needed to away. I'm missing the energy and flow of talking with the world every day, instead feeling drained by it. I'm craving this connection that feeds my creativity, and hopefully yours as well.

[image error]

You've been missed, in my life. As I leave soon for the retreat that began a year of healing for me last November, I'm so excited to be taking you with me.

You, my friends and readers and social media family are, quite simply, the best!

How We Write Wednesdays: James Scott Bell's Doorway of No Return

  James Scott Bell  Writer's Page is a wonderful resource to explore, and Jenni and I are thrilled to have him at How We Write to discuss what he sees as the core of every successful novel. Ever wonder why one story sings and another falls flat? Check out this week's inspiring guest blog!

Come back next weekto hear #weWrite regular PW Creighton's take on Setting Moods!  

***

I believe a successful novel is the record of a character dealing with death. There are three kinds of death: physical, professional, psychological. One of these needs to be in play, at least as far as the lead character is concerned. Physical death is the hallmark of thrillers, and obviously means high stakes.

But there's also psychological death. In a romance, for example, if the two soul mates don't end up together, it will be a kind of death—their lives won't be complete, ever (we sometimes say someone "died on the inside"). Professional death: An FBI agent on a case might have her entire career on the line, as Clarice Starling does in The Silence of the Lambs.

Death should be hovering even in comedic writing. Think about it: the characters in a comedy think they're in a tragedy (psychological death) over something trivial. Oscar's life as a happy slob is threatened by neat-freak Felix. Every Seinfeld episode is about some minor pursuit blown out of all proportion (e.g., the soup in "The Soup Nazi" episode).

This is fundamental to understanding the 3 Act structure and what I call the Doorways of No Return. 

In the classic 3 Act Structure there are two major turning points, the breaks into Act 2 and Act 3, respectively.  I refer to these breaks as "doorways of no return." That's because I want to convey the idea of being forced through the doorways, and once that's done, the Lead can't go back again. Life will never be the same for her again. So if you understand Act 2 as a "death struggle," you'll see why there has to be a major "push" into Act 2. No one wants to go out, and possibly die, if they can help it.

So Doorway #1 is an event that thrusts the Lead into the conflict of Act 2. It is not, and this is crucial, just a decision to go looking around in the "dark world" (to use mythic terms). That's weak. That's not being forced.

A good example of a first doorway is when Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle are murdered by the forces of the Empire in Star Wars. That compels Luke to leave his home planet and seek to become a Jedi, to fight the evil forces.

In Gone With the Wind it's the outbreak of the Civil War. Hard to miss that one. No one can go back again to the way things were. Scarlett O'Hara is going to be forced to deal with life in a way she never wanted or anticipated.

In The Wizard of Oz, it's the twister.

In The Fugitive, the first doorway is the train wreck that enables Richard Kimble to escape, a long sequence that ends at the 30 minute mark (perfect structure) and has U. S. Marshal Sam Gerard declaring, "Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble. Go get him!" Kimble doesn't want to be a fugitive. But he is forced into it now, and must stay ahead of the law long enough to find the one-armed man who murdered his wife.

Look at classic films and search for that Doorway #1 event at around the 25 minute mark, give or take. You'll start to get a feel for it.  And you know what? Once you get it you'll be set up for a solid structure throughout your novel, each and every one you write.

***

JAMES SCOTT BELL is the bestselling author of Watch Your Back and many other thrillers. Under the pen name K. Bennett, he is also the author of the Mallory Caine zombie legal thriller series, which begins with Pay Me in Flesh.

 Jim  served as fiction columnist for Writer's Digest magazine, to which he frequently contributes, and has written three bestselling craft books for Writers Digest, including the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure.

 Jim attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where he studied writing with Raymond Carver. He graduated with honors from the University of Southern California law school, and has written over 300 articles and numerous books for the legal profession.

 A former trial lawyer, Jim now writes and speaks full time. He lives in Los Angeles. His website is http://www.JamesScottBell.com .

How We Write Wednesday: Kara Lennox asks, Is Your Black Moment Enough?

Kara Lennox has published over sixty novels for Harlequin Books and Bantam Books, plus ten screenplays (three of which have been optioned). She's a lot of fun and super talented and here to talk about raising the stakes at the darkest moment in your story. I've know here and her husband for years, and I'm thrilled to have Kara join us for this week's HoWW guest blog.

Come back to HoWWnext Wednesday for James Scott Bell 's "1st Doorway of No Return"! 

****************

Is Your Black Moment Black Enough?

There must be a point in your book when all seems lost. The hero is about to fail in his quest; the heroine is about to be thrown off a building; the villain has gotten hold of the secret weapon. Your hero and heroine are breaking up and there appears to be no way to work out their differences.

One common flaw in books that fail (my own stack of rejected manuscripts included) is that the stakes aren't high enough. So from the beginning of your book, ask yourself what is at stake. If your hero/heroine fails to reach his goal, what will happen, and is it really, really bad? Is someone going to die?

There are other high stakes besides loss of life. Loss of love, of course, is always a risk in a romance novel. But to make it work, you have to convince your reader that this is a once-in-a-lifetime love, that it's special, epic love, and if the characters can't make it work their futures will be meaningless. Other high stakes include loss of identity (your character can no longer be the person he/she wants to be), loss of family, loss of home (but only if it's a special home, like a ranch that's been in the family for generations) loss of sanity. This is just a partial list.

 

If your stakes are high, the black moment (roughly three-quarters of the way through the book) is the time to play that up.Literary agent Donald Maass, in his bestselling book Writing the Breakout Novel (and his seminar of the same name), recommends you keep asking yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen? How can I make it even worse?"

Don't hold back. Your black moment isn't black enough until the reader, and possibly even you as the writer, can't see a way out. In some cases, your hero might actually fail in his/her quest. That's okay, so long as he/she ends up gaining something even better in the end.

The black moment is when your characters must resolve to make that ultimate sacrifice. Throughout the book they've been growing and learning; now, when nothing is working, their only choices is to somehow apply the lessons they've learned to get out of the fix they're in. Maybe they put together the final clue of the mystery and figure out where the kidnapped child is hidden. Maybe the heroine realizes the only way she can be with her vampire hero is to become a vampire. Maybe the heroine learns that she had the tools she needed to vanquish the villain all along.

Escaping from the black moment might require all of your skills as a writer and a good bit of brainstorming. Sometimes, once you know how you want the characters to escape, you'll have to go back and plant the tools, or the knowledge, or the clue that is needed.

One thing you do not want is some heretofore never mentioned element to swoop in and save the day. No angels suddenly appearing out of nowhere to vanquish a demon; no rich uncle suddenly dying and leaving the heroine enough money to save her failing company; no suddenly, conveniently remembering a secret password. Also, no abrupt, unmotivated changes of heart. I have read many books where the hero is a complete jerk throughout the whole story, until the very end when he suddenly turns all mushy and says something like, "Didn't you know all along that I loved you?" This might have flown in years past, but not today.

Likewise, this is also not the time to reveal that the "other woman" is actually the hero's sister. The black moment must stem from something worse than a simple misunderstanding that could be cleared up with a short conversation. You don't want your reader screaming at your book, "Just tell him, already!"

 

If you're struggling for a black moment, look at your characters for a clue. Ask yourself what is the one thing your heroine would never, ever do? If the heroine is a daddy's girl, she loves her father and trusts him and would never, ever betray him, the black moment might involve her discovering he is a criminal. And her ultimate sacrifice is that she has to turn him in, possibly to save the hero from being convicted of the crime.

Now that's a black moment!

*****************

Best-selling author Kara Lennoxhas written more than 60 contemporary category romance novels for two major publishers, Harlequin Books and Bantam Books.  Her books have been translated into 19 languages and published in twenty-plus countries around the world.  Currently she writes romantic suspense books for Harlequin Super Romance. Books 4, 5 and 6 of the Project Justice series are scheduled for next year. She anticipates seeing several of her classic Loveswept novels re-issued in the near future as e-books under the resurrected Bantam Loveswept banner.

Kara has also written ten screenplays, three of which have been optioned.

 She is a frequent speaker and workshop presenter at writers' conferences around the country, including an all-day craft intensive seminar.  Her frequently teaches online classes as well. Kara has written hundreds of magazine articles as well as brochures, press releases, business plans and advertising copy.  She is an artist and entrepreneur, selling her own paintings and collages as well as vintage jewelry in her two online stores. Kara lives in Southern California with her writer-publisher husband, a neurotic cat, and a geriatric, obsessive-compulsive cockatiel.

The Psychic Realm: Spirit Guides. Like camp, only better…

The easiest way to remember you way around spirit guides is to think of them like camp counselors, only you're choosing the camp and the counselors of your next life (told you we'd get around to past life theory), not your parents. And the counselors (spirit guides) have to be dead before you're born, and are typically from your family line or the immediate acquaintance of someone in your family, so they'll understand your world.

Okay, dipping my toes into past life theory for just a paragraph. Let's say for the same of argument that after we die, our spirits are still very much active and aware of our past life history, and some of us do in fact return to learn what we haven't yet or explore something we've missed or make a difference only we can make. Except we won't remember (explicitly) everything we've fought so hard to learn in past lives, or our purpose for returning, at least not at first. Enter Spirit Guides: spirits from that realm we stay in, in between lives, who knew us before we came back and advise, support, and guide us on our newest path.

Whether you believe the above or not, many of us would have a hard time arguing that there are times when we know for sure that we're not alone. That there's someone with us, someone who seems to know us better than we do ourselves, helping us sort through alternatives and find our way. Almost as if that's their job.

Not to be confused with guardian angels (we'll do a Psychic Realm post on angels soon, promise), spirit guides aren't our protectors as much as their our, well, counselors.They don't intervene or interfere. The theory goes that we start a new life with predetermined purpose and goals that we don't explicitly remember. Our spirit guide's job is to, somehow, communicate our purpose to us when we need most to remember the path we chose to take.

It's a fun concept to play with, and I use it extensively in my next Legacy novel. Call spirit "knowledge" instinct, hunches, or problem-solving dreams, but don't you wonder sometimes where these amazing clues come from? Is it really our subconscious working out our problems for us, or is someone, some spiritual influence, nudging us along in the right direction?

The key to walking down the road of believing this theory with more conviction is that we all retain a "spirit mind" that recognizes the core truth or our journey on this earth when we see it. All we need is someone, some guide, beating us over the head with that truth often enough not too stray to far from our life's original intent ;o)

Children talking to imaginary friends–could these be their spirit guides? Remember, children are closer to their purest spirit selves, past lifer's believe, because their worldly minds aren't yet mature enough to ignore their instinctive connection to what they were before becoming earthbound again. That car problem that keeps you from taking a trip to the store and out of the intersection where a horrible accident happens just moments after you break down–could this be a guide blocking a path you're not meant to travel? The people, whom you've never met and never will again, who cross your path with just the right information at the right time–could they be spirit sent?

Spirit guides are said to be able to  move objects to get your attention, as well as use each other's charges to more directly communicate with us when we need them the most.This is the most fun dynamic I'm currently working with–how I'm getting my protagonist's attention, through a series of seemingly random encounters and mishaps that slowly begin to seem more and more intentional and spookily directly by someone or something she can't yet see.

Spirit guides are also said to appear as whatever age will most help us understand their message. Remember, this wouldn't be someone you knew from your life who died, but rather someone who was already dead before you were born (thus you were able to communicate with them before your current life began). There are instances where children have said they've spoken with great-grandparents long gone before they were born, remembering key details of their lives and appearances that no one's been able to find a connection to in old photo books or stories. How else could these living children know what they know, their families were forced to ask, unless they did in fact have some kind of encounter with their long-dead family?

Whether you choose to believe this metaphysical phenomenon or not, it's nice to think (and many religions insist) that our path here on earth is pre-determined. That we're not just a series of loosely connected experiences, spiralling in and out of each other until we're some day gone. It's also encouraging on a lot of levels (and every religion proclaims this one) to believe that messages and knowledge are flowing to us from a spiritual realm where others are looking out for us and communicating with those who chose to be receptive.

Spirit guides (and past life theory) are another way that man's attempted to explain that we're not alone, and that benevolent beings are banding together to help us and one another find our purpose and higher selves here on this earth. That we're all connected at a spiritual level, for the soul purpose of bringing each other to a higher state of awareness and completeness than we could attain on our own.

Not a bad theory to play with as I create my psychic fantasy. Not a bad theme at all…

Tuesday the 13th (afte we've taken a break for Labor Day, and DRAGONCON!!!), let's talk Children and Angels in The Psychic Realm ;o)

Dream Theories: Animals show us the way!

It's going to take a few Mondays to cover animal themes in dreams. It's one of the most frequent symbols I'm asked about. There's so much to study when you try to analyze animal dreams: your age, gender, current life circumstances, as well as the animal content itself. Ready to dive in?

Monday Sept 12th (after we break for Labor Day in between), we'll do specific animals, so come back in two weeks for fun imagery tips and trade secrets. But before we get into categories of animal symbols, let's talk about you.The dreamer. Who are you, what in your life is calling these animal images out of your subconscious and into your dream states, and how might even your age be shaping what you see when you sleep?

Did you know that research shows children's dreams are more likely to reference animals than adult's? Those who follow my Psychic Realm posts have heard me say that in metaphysics many believe animals are the closest beings on this earth to pure spirits, and that children have a closer connection to spiritual realms/dimensions than adults. Could this be playing out in our young one's dream cycles? Also, we haven't gotten to "familiars" in my Psychic series (where I'm researching parapsychology, etc. for a future fantasy series), but in general the theory goes that we all have a totem/animal spirit that's most attached to us. We tend to gravitate toward these creatures as pets. Is it significant, then, that the majority of animal dreams amongst children (dreams being where our spirits often feel most free) tend to be about their pets? Hmmmm…

A less spiritual way to look at animals dreams is to consider that we've grown up associating certain traits, behaviors and emotions to the animals we see and read about. You've heard the cliches: stubborn as a mule; sly as a fox; sneaky as a snake.We also tend to treat our pets as human beings. Is it too much of a stretch, then, to dig deeper into animal dreams for clues to how we're feeling about ourselves and others? Our human relationships? It's a fun exercise I highly recommend. Again, more on basic animal symbolism in two weeks!

Another general note: in children's dreams, the animal tends to take on the starring roll. They're the point of view from which the dream world is seen. Adults? Our animals are more often dangerous creatures with which we interact aggressively. My take on this–as children, we're still exploring our world, an innocense every adult should be striving to reclaim. Adults are perhaps more often trying to conquer and control, than we are relinquishing ourselves to purest discovery, even in our dreams. Pity.

And finally, how we treat the animals in our dreams is telling. This dynamic can say a lot about the physical and psychological state of the dreamer. If we dream of neglecting an animal, for instance, this can symbolize that we're neglecting  parts of our own life that the creature represents. If we're afraid for/of the symbol, what in our waking world corresponds to the image? What's needing our attention that we're hesitant to face? What's calling from our subconscious to be brought into our waking world and dealt with?

Having fun yet? Come back to Dream Theories Monday the 12th for the nitty gritty of animal dream images… I'll be here, fresh from hanging with the beasts and other-worldly creatures at DragonCon ;o)

How We Write: Joanne Rock Shouts Out About Voice…

HoWW is an amazing place today, thanks to Jenni's and my guest blogger, Joanne Rock. Joanne's skill as an author is equalled only by her excellence as a teacher, a friend, a mother, and an amazing human being… Yeah, she's a really good friend. And my "date" to publisher parties. And a beautiful person. But check out her bio below. She's published fifty novels. 5-0. When this woman talks about voice, listen. Soak in every word. Try the exercises she suggests. Do it. You'll be amazed what you'll learn.

Voice is every writer's bread and butter, and Joanne has nailed how to encourage and challenge and inspire the very heart of what you do. I'm so excited to have her join the How We Write guest blog family!

Check back with HoWW next Wednesday, for  Kara Lennox 's take on

your novel's Black Moment!

*****

In your writing journey, you may have come across books that say there are thirty-two basic storylines throughout fiction.  Or twelve master plots.  Or five core stories that we retell over and over.  One of those storylines is always "Boy Meets Girl."  It's the story that I tell along with a thousand other authors every year.  What makes one thousand different versions of "Boy Meets Girl" interesting?  The same thing that has made it interesting for centuries.  Voice.

A writer's voice is her single most powerful tool.  Without it, your story is flat and lifeless, destined for the rejection pile.  With it, your work comes alive.  Voice makes your story sing or weep.  It is the indelible stamp of the author on each and every page.  You can remove some characters and story threads from your book and still sell your manuscript.  Remove voice and you've committed the cardinal sin of writing.  You haven't been true to yourself.

Knowing voice is such a valuable tool, how do you find yours?  I recommend a few simple writing exercises to aid in the search.  If you're not sure what kind of writing voice you have – or if you've even discovered your voice – you need to visit a website like creative writing prompts. Scroll through some of the prompts to find a few that interest you.   Then, write the suggested stories with a comedic approach.  A Gothic tone.  A suspenseful sound.  Play around with darker and lighter versions.  Try writing the scene as a romance.  A thriller. A brooding literary piece.  You don't need to write long.  Try short pieces that are 250 or five hundred words and see how they feel.  What types of writing come most naturally?  What kinds of writing are difficult? 

Then, try a completely different writing prompt and see what story quickly comes to mind.  A mystery?  A comedy?  These are clues to your voice style.  If you find the Gothic tone easy and fun, and you find yourself writing each prompt with a dark sound, you know you've found your natural voice.  I encourage you to try this exercise even if you enjoy whatever you're writing now.  You may find an aptitude for another kind of voice altogether.

Now that you've identified your voice, how can you strengthen and hone it?  Voice is like writing itself – it grows stronger with practice and use.  Write often and think about consciously using your voice. How can you insert more voice in a scene?  How can you tone down your voice when it becomes too prominent, interfering with the action?  We've all read stories like that, where the writer is too concerned about being entertaining, or about creating a certain kind of atmosphere, to pay enough attention to the plot.  That's when voice goes wrong. 

By playing with how much voice you use in a story, you make yourself more aware of voice.  This is a first step toward exercising control over this powerful story element.  You can also strengthen your voice by identifying it and playing to your strengths.  Once you know that your natural voice is comedic, try pushing the humor button harder.  Then, try being wry and amusing instead of uproarious.  These subtle shifts in your voice will give you all the more range and depth. 

Protect it! Once you've found your voice, you must safeguard it from well-meaning critique partners, editors and contest judges.  Often, when your voice is strongest, it stirs the most reaction.  So don't be surprised when contest judges hammer you for it.  Do not make changes in your manuscript just because outside readers told you to.  That results in whitewashing all the voice out of a book.   Lack of voice is the kiss of death for a manuscript, so protect that strong voice at all costs.  Remember, characters may come and go, but a powerful voice resonates long after a reader closes your book.

*****

Joanne Rock is the author of over fifty romance novels for a variety of Harlequin publishing programs, including HQ Blaze and HQ Historicals.  Look for her FREE online read Living the Fantasy and her 28th Blaze novel, Making a Splash in stores now.  Visit Joanne's website and  Facebook   page to keep up with all her events and releases.

The Psychic Realm: Imprints. I'm betting we've all felt them…

Imprints were the stepchild of last Tuesday's ghosts vs. spirits smackdown: because they're neither. Now they're having their day. Imprints are pure energy that we've all experienced. Admit it. Ever walked into a room or a building or even an open area, shivered, and known something or someone had been there before you? What you're likely experiencing isn't a haunting or a visit from some other dimension–it's the residual energy from the past.

Imprints happen to a specific place, where a very dramatic event or series of events has occurred.  The theory goes that the emotional impact and sometimes even the imagery from the event(s) literally imprint on the physical space and atmosphere. Future persons who visit the imprint and react to it (many are deeply affected, others find themselves merely uncomfortable in an odd way, but almost everyone has some kind of reaction to these places) then feed even more energy into the powerful phenomenon.

Think of them as energy vortexes. Human like images can be part of them, only adding tot he disturbing, dramatic illusion you experience when you find one. Shadows. Something there out of the corner of your eye, while emotions that aren't yours flow. But these images aren't earthbound or alive. They're echoes. My research tells me that the actual participants in the events that cause imprints are long gone and of no threat to you. Imagine if you will a three-dimensional hologram trapped in a never-ending, never-changing movie scene. One final affirmation that you're not actually interacting with a ghost or spirit–an imprint's image never interacts with or even notices the humans that have stumbled across its space.

Examples of how I'm contemplating using imprints in my next Legacy series (dealing with ghosts and hauntings and harnessing the spirit world)?  I read an account of a devestating fire centuries ago in a now historic house that was rebuilt on the site of the event.

There are rooms still where you can feel the heat of the flames and the panic of those who were trapped inside. There's a prominent home in the story I'm drawing around Charleston's historic district (where hauntings are thought to be frequent), where the sound of doors slamming and people running and fire roaring comes and goes. Except I don't want a regular everyday haunting to be my protagonist's experience. Instead, imprinting seems more appropriate for a character who doesn't believe in the spirit world, but who keeps being left clues and evidence from the past that she eventually can't refute (because she's able to communicate with and see spirits, whether she wants to or not). Cool, right?

Imprints exist indefinitely, fed by generations of terrified people who either were in danger during the initial event or who have visited since. Unlike ghosts, images in imprints cannot be reasoned with or defeated or sent on their way. Because they're not "there." Making imprints one of the most powerful and enduring events we're ever likely to experience in our everyday lives.

Oh, and one more clue. The cold spots you see people in movies and books experiencing in haunted houses. These are common signs of energy vortexes/imprints. So the next time you shiver and look around you wondering if you've just heard something that wasn't there…maybe, just maybe you have ;o)

Bwahahahahahaha!

Next Tuesday's Psychic Realm adventure… Spirit Guides, and what past life theories can really mean to your view of the spirit world!

Dream Theories: Changing Gender. The flip side…

Ever shock yourself in a dream by realizing that you're experiencing that night's vision as the opposite sex? Why do we do that? What is our mind's agenda? Is it more important to focus on the physiology of what we "are" in our dreams, or the psychology of how we're thinking and behaving differently? Let's find out–you know, beyond Freud's obvious interpretation ;o)

Let's face it, these can be bizarre dreams. First of all, what's going on in all the grey matter that we'd even notice something so strange and disorienting as seeing/experiencing/walking through the world in a different body? You know, it's our body, but it's different. We're different. Almost as if the "me" we know is disappearing and being replaced with someone else. And maybe that's our first clue.

Could this be an imbalance bubbling to the surface, begging us to take notice? A mask we need to drop? Another part of our personality (masculine of feminine) that needs to take a stronger hold? That's what I meant with my question about whether the gender change you notice has more meaning to you emotionally, than it does physiologically. In gender-switching dreams, be on the look out for what parts of yourself might be fighting their way out of obscurity. This tends to be so much more important than the outward, glandular appearance of something being different.

The strong emotional reaction we have to a shocking dream like looking down and noticing that our bodies are changing before our eyes can be an opportunity to explore and change and grow. And NOT just in the phallic, penis envy way that Freud and his cocaine addiction would have us believe.I don't know how to break it to our dead, addicted friend, but nowadays, women are more aware than ever at a much younger age that we don't have a penis. And at least in industrialized nations, most of us don't need masculine dangly parts to take control of our lives. So nix with the we wanna be a man to realize our most advanced and powerful selves.

Also, don't worry overmuch if you're wondering that these types of dreams are indicating that you're experiencing gender confusion in your waking life. Stay focused on the emotions you're feeling in the dream. The sleeping mind itself is most likely confused and presenting more masculine (or feminine) feelings through gender images that represent an emotional conflict you're subconsciously working through.

 

What are you seeing (besides yourself) when you first notice the change? What's going on in the world around you, and how is it making you feel? More importantly, are these feelings that you'd typically express outside the dream? If not, take a look at the reasons surrounding what you're holding back and what you really need to be saying.

You might find it easier in your sleeping reality, to role play your reaction to emotional stress. The mind can use gender-bending (and other types of dreams) to help you work through something you're not ready to face when awake.

I do this a lot in my two dream-based Legacy books. Not the gender bending stuff, but in the "Who am I, and who are you, and are we both me?" thing. My characters never know what in their vivid dream lives is about the present, the past, the future, or really what's about them. It's not a coincidence that I wrote those two books about psychic twins pushing either other's mental (and dreaming) boundaries, or that there's a secret child thrown into the mix that at different times each of the twins thinks might actually represent her as a little girl.

Why? Because that, my research tells me, is the way our sleeping minds walk us through difficult journeys we're resisting taking. It's all metaphor and allegory and hints and suggestions and fertile ground for working on ourselves in wondrous ways that will open new doors. If we let our dreams do their jobs.

Which I hope you do ;o) Regardless of how startling the imagery can be, embrace it and learn from yourself and grow in your dream work. You won't be sorry!

Next Monday–Animals in dreams. Totally cool theories, and I'm betting stories you're just dying to share…