Anna DeStefano's Blog, page 35

Dream Theories: Color Your Emotional Truth

Do we dream in color? Can the colors in our dreams function like an internal mood ring? My research writing my new sci-fi / fantasy Secret Legacy tells  me so. So much so, that color becomes an important clue to revealing the Temple Legacy's volatile, potentially deadly secrets. Because color reveals mood in our sleeping worlds.

Whether you remember them or not, most agree that we see our dreaming realities like we do our waking ones–in color. So why do so many people believe they only see things in black and white while they sleep? Since dream images fade quickly, unless we work on remembering them as quickly after waking as possible, the colors just as easily disappear with them. Also, how often do we actually stop and notice color in our daily lives? How aware are we of the hues in our environment while we're awake? The answer tends to be "not often" for most people. Why would our dreaming awareness of color be any different?

Plus, there's the emotional tie between dream colors and our awareness of a sleeping vision's meaning. Remember from past Dream Theories posts that emotion is the single, strongest, most universal tie between a dream and the dreamer's reality. Our feelings and emotional reactions to what we're seeing are often our only "real world" connection to the crazy stuff our minds obsess about while we're asleep.

When I encourage people to work on techniques that allow for more lucid dreaming, I always start with making you more aware of your feelings before you sleep, while you're dreaming, and immediately after you wake.  Many people are uncomfortable at first, connecting with the strong emotion that feeds the creation of our sleeping realities, but making the conscious decision to do it can be an exciting step toward understanding what our dreams are trying to tell us. Color works the same. Color is your mind's way of reflecting emotion and mood within a dream. Which in turn can mirror the emotion and mood of our waking reality, and how we feel about things we need to do to make our lives better. Things we often avoid or resist or are too worried or scared to attempt.

Think about it. In our dreams, we have the power and freedom to tackle difficult choices and challenges.What if our minds are giving us this safe space to experiment and take risks and confront what we're not ready to embrace completey what we're not ready to yet in waking life?

Of COURSE, in the Legacy Series, in Secret Legacy particularly, the stakes are higher ;o) Learning to control their own dreaming, so others can't manipulate them and their other powers, is the only way the Temple twins will survive. It's the only way the world will be safe from the unstoppable weapon a covert group of government scientists want to develop from their minds.

Sarah Temple doesn't want to remember her dreams, just like many of us. They're too disturbing (and in her case, too deadly at times). But, they're also too closely tied to memories of the childhood that both shaped and destroyed her mind. She never learned to deal with her psychic Legacy or your gifts, and running from them and her family and her past has already caused too much destruction. She doesn't want to look back–at least not during her waking life.

But when she dreams, a secret child's voice calls to her for help. Then the colors swirling around Sarah in her watery visions guide her deeper into their deadly reality. And the more she avoids understanding what the dreams are trying to show her, the more unstable she herself becomes when she's awake.  Searching her dreams and her past for answers, and finding the child she begins to hear beyond her dreams, becomes the only way to free Sarah and her twin and the child who's somehow a part of their Legacy from the scientists' control. Looking back and connecting with the emotions and memories she's avoided dealing with, before Sarah loses complete control, is the only way to save the world from the unstoppable psychic weapon the government is close to completing.

Pretty cool, huh? I LOVE starting with something as seemingly simple as dreams and color and seeing how a story can take those concepts to exciting new level ;o) I can't wait until you get the chance to read the latest result for yourself, when Secret Legacy hits stores and is released digitally next month!

But back to you and me and our not so psychically challenged realities… Connecting more closely to the images and emotions your dreams reflect back to you is important for us, too. Our minds work on this stuff for a reason, even if the resulting dreams are either startling or quirky or downright wacky. Remember that what's actually happening in the dreams is most often less important than the recurring images and colors your sleeping mind seems fixated on.

We'll talk more abut dream symbols this month. But for now, let's start with color.

Try stopping once or twice a day to focus on the colors in your waking life.

 

What do you see the most of, what do you react the most strongly to, which colors are more friendly, and which ones do you tend to avoid? What's your relationship to color while you're awake? Then, as you're practicing being more "lucid" or aware of your dreaming while it's happening, and then while you work to remember dream images as soon as possible after you wake, see if color doesn't become a stronger part of that story, too, the more you focus on color while you wake.

Color was such a central part of the psychic world I continued into Secret Legacy, I spent a lot of time understanding what each hue meant not just to Sarah Temple, but to me as well. Once you begin to more carefully see the colors of your own waking and sleeping worlds, I suspect you'll want to do the same. So here are a few places to start your own exploring–

a great beginning guide to the potential meaning of dream colors
a more fun/alternative article on dream color symbolism

Of course there's lots more out there, so keep searching for your own answers, while I research how I'll torment my Legacy families. Bwahahahahaha…

And keep coming back each week for more Dream Theories and cool insights into Secret Legacy's Psychic Realm!

Publishing Isn't for Sissies: Michelle Grajkowski–An Agent's Perspective on the Digital Wave

Yesterday's PIFSsummarized several best selling author's perspective on the indie-traditional publishing debate. And Publisher's Weekly's thoughts on what makes indie work. Today–let's talk to agent Michelle Grajkowski of 3 Seas Literary Agency,a 10-year industry insider who's seen this coming (while she launched NYT's best selling careers), navigated her and her author's way through the early stages of it, and is now shifting her own business now that the digital wave is crashing over, to better help those same authors.

Yes, she's my agent. No, I'm not one of her A-List clients. Yet. But she's fighting just like I am to get me and all of her authors there, wherever there is and whichever publishing path their own. I believe with all sincerity that she's an author advocate in this business. She's tough and insightful, understanding and flexible, level-headed but determined to negotiate for everything her clients should have, every step of their career. In short, she's an amazing business partner and advisor and friend.

And those are just a few of the reasons I hope everyone who's panicking and pointing fingers and pushing to the extreme and making rash decisions because the publishing sky is apparently falling, again–or just those of you who are open to and curious about a savvy insider's perspective–take a few minutes to read on. You won't be disappointed ;o)

Everyone welcome Michelle Grajkowski to Publishing Isn't for Sissies !

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Twenty years before Julie Andrews floated down from a cloudy sky into London to save a dysfunctional family in Mary Poppins, the movie industry was shaking in its boots.

Studio executives in the 50's were very worried that their blockbuster movies were a thing of the past – thanks to the hit new box that sent pictures straight into people's homes. And, they weren't the only ones sweating.

Radio stations across the globe were frightened because no longer were families gathering around the radio to hear great classic like The Bob Hope Show, when they could tune in and see him live in their living room.

Flash forward to 2011. Publishers, authors and agents are feeling these same concerns in regards to the publishing industry. Bookstores are closing and bankrupting, e-readers are selling at all time highs, and buying habits of the readers are changing.

And, that, my friends, is the key word – CHANGE.

Did Hollywood studios or radio stations around the county collapse because of television? In most cases, no. And, why? Because the studio and radio executives knew they had to adapt. They had to roll with the changes and figure out ways to still be a viable entity in a world filled with new adventures.

Studios realized that the days of Golden Age musical productions were numbered. Movie goers were going gaga over other types of films. Radio stations started to focus more on music. who knew that teens could have so much advertising power? Gone were radio dramas, and up were bubble gum classics.

Taking a lesson from pop culture, I truly believe that the publishing industry will grow in this new world of e-publishing.

However, publishers, agents and authors need to adapt in order to stay on the wave.

First, publishers must recognize that authors may not need to rely on them as much to help their books reach the masses. Companies like Smashwords are changing the face of self-published novels. In years past, an author could self-publish a book. But the costs were high, and the quality of the physical book often times did not meet that of a traditionally published book. And, bookstores generally would not carry these books which made it hard for authors to actually get them into the hands of readers. Now, however, authors are able to load their books onto many different websites at a minimal cost to themselves.

And, some authors are hitting it big doing just that. Amanda Hocking has reportedly made over a million dollars on her self-published e-books. But, interestingly enough, Amanda has since landed an agent and sold a series to St. Martin's Press in a multi-million dollar deal. So, even though she is widely successful on her own merit, she acknowledged that in order to reach an even greater audience, she wanted to sign a traditional publishing contract so her books would be accessible in all formats.

As the ebook sales continue to rise, publishers are starting to beef up their own publishing programs – they are changing with the times. Dorchester Publishing shocked the writing community last year when they announced that they were going direct to digital. Harlequin started a trend with the large houses when they formed Carina Press, their digital publishing arm. And, just last month, Harper Collins announced the same with their digital imprint, Impulse.

What does this mean to the authors? It means more opportunities to break into a large publishing program electronically while still receiving the fantastic editorial and marketing support of their traditional publishing counterparts. And, both Carina and Harper Collins Impulse editors agree that if a book or series takes off successfully, they will try to move those books into print. Carina just announced this week that one of their authors was just picked up by HQN, and that her books will be released as mass market editions. It's exciting times!

But, where does all this change and flexibility leave agents?

Right where we are! Agents are so much more than salespeople. Yes, we market our authors' books and try to find the right home. But, our biggest goal is, and always will be, to help our authors build long term, serious careers in publishing. We are big picture people — before one of my clients and I sign into a deal, I'm not just focusing on that particular deal. I'm looking into the future. Will this decision make sense for my client's career 5 years from now? Ten? We've walked away from deals before (as hard as that is!) if it looks like it won't be a good step in my client's career.

And, in this digital age of publishing and self-publishing, those same long-term questions still need to be answered today. Every decision you make as an author today should benefit your career ten years down the road. Every. Single. Decision.

However, my role as an agent IS changing. No longer can agents only look at one traditional path for publication. The world is opening, and I've spent countless hours discussing the state of publishing with my clients. Staying on top of, and being informed on all the changes is crucial. If we stop, we're going to fall off the ride. So, I'm constantly tracking the new venues for publication and looking for new ways to shop client material.

I mentioned earlier that I believe that the changes in the digital platform is going to help publishing numbers grow. And, I mean that. I think that as more readers buy e-reading devices the number of actual books sold throughout the industry is also going to increase. Rather than having to physically drive into a bookstore or to log onto Amazon to have a book mailed to you, instead if you want a book, you download it and magically it's in your hands. Instantly. And, when you finish one book, you can quickly download another. Impulse buys are going to grow book sales.

So, as scary as change feels, in publishing, I think this change is a huge opportunity for growth. Yes, we will have battles along the way (epublishing royalty percentages), but we also have a bright future in front of us. The bottom line is this is your career. The one constant throughout the years is that no one author's career is the same as another. You have to decide what's right for you. And, I truly believe having a strong advocate by your side to help you reach your goals is still paramount. So, as nervous as change can make anyone feel, I, for one, am so excited to be part of this ever changing publishing tide!

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Thanks for coming today, Michelle!

She'll be back out today, to answer any questions you leave in the comments. And she'll pop up in PIFS again before you know it, tackling more specific topics that are affecting authors, agents and publishers. So  keep ckecking back to see what's ahead!

In the mean time, look back at some of the most recent PIFS posts if you've missed them:

Best Selling Authors' take on the Indie Wave
Build Your Own Community
A Reality Check
A Team Approach
NetGalley
Borders, Dorchester and You
Embracing the Obvious

Publishing Isn't For Sissies: Indie Update–Read THIS!

It's been a crazy few weeks in Indie publishing, so it's time for a new PIFS Read THIS! How does a writer find your place in the midst of such rapid change? How does this affect readers, both now and down the road? Good news: the hardworking, talented author will still published, the reader will have great stories to read, and the publishing industry will continue, regardless of which book format prevails. More questionable news:no one really knows anything for sure right now, except that traditional publishers are behind the curve, still, and the top authors who are more savvy and willing to tolerate change for the chance to reach more readers and build more successful careers are leading the way.

My Reality Check post from two weeks ago is the top PIFS post so far. Agent Michelle Grajkowski will be back next week, to share more of her perspective, from an industry insider's viewpoint.

In the mean time you might be asking, what do authors think? Well, here's an author-driven Indie update, with links for you to follow to info and discussions from the last few weeks:

Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath discuss Barry walking away from a $500k book contract to self publish .

In the Self Publishing Review, Eisler crunches numbers and breaks out why he can make more money digitally releasing his next book homself.

 

Two-time RITA and best-selling romance author Connie Brockway's made a similar decision–publishing future sequels to a best-selling series herself, after turning down her latest publishing contract offer.

Does this mean all authors are set?

Like these industry leaders, should we all assume we'll make more money going it alone, and, thus feel justified turning away from pursuing traditional publishing options that we've been taught are our only way to achieve success? In my opinion, no.

Because we likely won't all deliver digital sales at Eisler, Konrath and Brockway's level. We're not all branded authors who sell out on bookstore shelves as soon as our latest title releases. If we were to crunch our own numbers, the break-even point for us wouldn't be the same. We're aren't all going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, no matter how we sell our next novel.

Then there are the break-out wonderkinds like Amanda Hocking. In case you've been living under a rock, here's a Huffington Post nugget on Amanda's decision, after selling millions of copies of her series over the last year (after a modest launch) and landing a top agent and optioning movie deals, to go traditional by signing a 7-figure contract with St. Martin's Press. Because she wants to become a brand like Brockway, beyond digital publishing, and the traditional route is the way she's decided to go to do that–even if it means not making as much money on the four new books she just signed rights away for.

Again, readers, you're safe. Digitally or print published…your favorite authors are going to keep writing and putting books that you love into the market.

But less-than-branded writers…how do you become one of those favorites?

NYT Best-selling author Bob Mayer, after 20 years trying to make it big in traditional publishing, has an epic historical fiction launching this month, but he's not a brand yet. Not in the genre he wants to write now. He's going in the opposite direction of hocking, and here's his take on why.

Confused yet?

That's because the answer to the question–what should I DO NOW as a writer–isn't so straight forward. It's individual. It's all on you. These authors have made their choice. Not it's your turn. What's best for you? Which takes us full circle back to my original premise that no one really knows for certain what's going on, except that everything we did know is clearly changing.

For me, I'm firmly a hybrid. For now. There's no straight forward answer for me, yet, and I suspect there isn't for most of the rest of you. I still write for a traditional publisher (Harlequin/Silhouette) but I also have my first direct-to-digital release, Secret Legacy, out in May/June, from a NY publisher who's moved away from the mass market model. SL is launching nationally in trade, too, in stores like B&N and independents all over the country. As sci-fi/fantasy, which is a totally new audience for me.

Will it sell? How will I promote it? Will there be strong enough digital numbers for me to be able to make a more confident choice for the three-book continuation of the series I'm writing proposals for??? All I know for sure at this point is that neither straight traditional nor indie publishing is either all right or all wrong for me.

Time alone will tell what mixture of traditional and indie tactics will work best as I keep writing and publishing. I have to give it my best shot, like the more successful authors above, and see where my choice gets me. Then I'll have to revise my plan from there and strike out in yet another direction. All I know for sure for now, is that I'll be blogging about the experience each Thursday here on PIFS.

And I'll keep reading posts like this from Publishers Weekly, discussing expert's opions on how to indie publish successfully . Why? Because, this is all about me, all of the above, whether I'm ready to take the plunge myself. It's all about you, too, if you're trying to figure out your next step.

As I've said from the very beginning of PIFS, it's our job to stay informed and plugged in and to help one another understand what's happened, happening, and getting ready to break over our heads. Keep joining me here each Thursday, and I'll keep doing my part ;o)

Next week–agent Michelle Grajkowski's  take on all the above and more. You don't want to miss it!

How We Write Wednesdays: Draft Done? The REAL Work begins!

Rewwriting time! Jenni  and I have been taking planning for two months now on HoWW. How to craft characters . And let's not forget plot, because Jenni gets cranky when we do, and you won't like her when she's cranky. Now, it's time to rewrite, because as David Kaplan says in A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction, "The purpose of writing a story is to rewrite it."

Yep, that's right. No book's done with just a single draft in your pocket. Not even two drafts, if you aks me. You're not done, just because you have your first thoughts down on paper (or in the computer). Once you've got that good stuff behind you, it's time to make it even better!

Feeling a little cranky yourself yet?

Yeah, this motivational post is going to be a little heavier on the tough love than most.

Finishing  your first draft (and we'll talk drafting in May), is just the beginning. It's merely the end of your planning. For those of you who don't outline your plot and character ahead of time (I'm shaking my head now. Can you hear the tense spots in my neck popping while I do it?), the draft is your only planning. But for even those of us who put serious thought into what we're going to write before we actually do, we still don't know for SURE what's going to happen until that magical creative thing that is putting words onto paper happens, and the story itself takes over.

I'm a firm believer in the creative flow of drafting. The power of discovery. The synergy of planning and experience and momentum combining to create something magical. BUT… That something magical, that completed draft, is only the beginning. It's not everything it could be. It's not ready to leave your mind and your heart behind. It's not all it can be. Which means, it's time for the REAL work to begin…

Kaplan tells us that "You need three things to be a good fiction writer…talent…a knowledge of craft…and just as necessary, a devotion to revision, to the merciless re-working of your writing until it is the best it can be." And he (and Jenni and I) aren't talking about looking for typos or grammar errors or tweaking your prose so it pops just so, though all that's important eventually.

What I teach to craft students is re-writing, not copy editing or proof reading. Deconstructing what you've done. Figuring out why it works and why it doesn't. Asking yourself questions like:

What did you do the way you planned to do it?
What took on a life of its own while you drafted, and how did things evolve from your planning.
Does the opening, the middle, and the end work?
Does your antagonist's POV and conflict and motivation arc convincingly throughout the story?
How about your antagonist?
How about your external plot? Your subplots?
Secondary characters and themes and symbols and setting? How effectively do you use these?

And then once you've pulled all that and more out of your story and looked at each piece individually:

How do you decide what to do with what you have?
How you want to make it better?
How do you make this beginning you have the best they can be?
How do you get the pieces of your story to work with each other?
How do you put them back together again, into an even better story than you first drafted?

THAT's rewriting a novel.  Not an easy process. Not a path for the faint of heart. In fact, it makes a mess of your story while you're doing the work. It has to, so you can see exactly where what you've done needs the  most work.

But rewiting is a process that, if you master it, can take your writing and storytelling to a level you never thought you'd achieve.

Just like with the planning phase of storytelling HoWW has focused on the last two months, some great writers will tell you they don't revise.And they'll be telling the truth. Except the vast majority of them ARE rewriting, they're just doing it while they draft. By going back and reworking each scene they've already written, over and over, instead of pushing forward in the story they've yet to create. They're rewriting WHILE they're drafting. Which might be great for the reworking part of their process, but how does it limit the creation that happens when they draft, or prolong the time it takes to produce that final story?

When I teach draft writing (again, come back in May), I'll encourage you to not break up that forward momentum and opportunity for discovery into shorter bouts. I'll ask you NOT to go back and rewrite until you have your beginning, middle and end down on paper. I could go on and on, but I won't tempt the crank-o-meter more than I already have for now…

Until May, let's talk about the rewriting that is so closely tied to your planning. Let's see how you can overcome your fear of it. And if you already embrace the power of reworking the great work you've already done, let's spend April seeing how to get you even deeper into your process and your characters and plot.

So, to wrap up this introduction… You should make time in your writing process for the rewriting that must be done before you send a draft in. You should hone your rewriting skills just  as proactively as you develop your skill at writing great characters and point of view and dialogue and plot and setting. Because it's the rewriting that makes all these things better. It's how an author makes a completed story seem effortless to the reader, when the writer's spent months or years creating that world. Rewriting is how you know you're getting the most bang for your buck out of every sentence and scene and chapter and part of your story. It's how you are, in my opinion, at your MOST creative–when you're mining for the very best your draft can be.

There's so much to cover:

Self-editing (I could do a month on this alone)
Editorial revisions (how do you work with someone else's vision for your story)
Critiquing (which will be a month-long topic all it's own, but we'll touch on it in April)

We'll try to fit it all in. Keep coming back each Wednesday and share your questions and comments.So many of you are stopping by each week now, and it's great to hear from you. Thanks for letting us know in the comments and in emails how much HoWW is help.

Jenni's taking the reins again next week, no doubt talking smack about recent reworking/critiquing we've done on my latest proposals. Aren't I a generous girl, making sure she's got fun new material to share? Then I'll pick things back up, sharing my personal method for deconstructing a novel that you're rewriting, and some of the self-editing tips I learned as a, believe it or not, technical writer. By then we'll be well into the middle of the month and getting sassy, and who wants to miss that?

Don't forget to check out these earlier HoWW posts if you need to catch up!

March's HoWW plot speak:

Intro to the importance of Narrative Structure: Even the Best Characters Need a Plot
A closer look at how hard this can be for a character-driven writer: Plot THIS…
Intro to Conflict Lock: No Conflict, No Story and External Conflict: Lock and Load
A character-driven author goes deeper into the Conflict Box: Failing and Fixing
The REAL secret to plotting best selling novels

February's Character (and critique/brainstorming) posts:

Mining for motivation
Layering motivation into plot
The Character Chart
Making characters realistic YOUR way
Character is just the beginning

The Psychic Realm: Trending Topics

I blog weekly about the Dream Theories behind my Secret Legacy and the rest of my paranormal fantasies. And about the Psychic Realm I've created for my characters' world. When you  need another boost of psychic, paranormal, fantasy fun, check out my Psychic Realm Daily! Another paper that pulls articles and links and so forth from my social media feeds.

Link to the paper and it's stories here.I started building the content, because I wanted to keep up with trending topics in psychic phenomenon. Now, you can too ;o)

To subscribe to it or any of the other digital papers I'll regularly feature (click back to yesterday's post to peak at my Sci-Fi/Fantasy Daily),  navigate to each of the papers' Headlines page and click the Subscribe button.

Then navigate around the paper using the top menu and let me know what you think!

Sci-Fi/Fantasy Daily

I'm heads-down into promotion planning for Secret Legacy, and I'm psyched (no pun intended) about the cool opportunities out there to plug into social media and viral marketing. Including eNewsletters like my Sci-Fi/Fantasy Daily .

It's one of the ways I'm networking on Twitter and Facebook, by releasing daily glimpses of cool sci-fi/fantasy, psychic and paranormal articles and links shared by others in obsessed with the same topics. The format is fun and easy to read, very much like an digital newspaper. Well, actually, that's exactly what these cool things are ;o)

I'll be sharing them here throughout the next week or two, so you can hook up with the ones you like.

So for now, let me know what you think of my Sci-fi/Fantasy Daily.

Enjoy!

I Hear The Craziest Things: Apple wants to help you help them…

I'm typing on my new iPad. Call me a happy girl ;0)

But you know me well enough now. You're expecting that's not the end of this Sunday story. How much fun would that be, right?

There we are at the Apple Genius Bar, while this great kid, Adam, is showing me the standard bells and whistles of my new toy–which will replace my laptop for most travel and work I do away from home from now on.

He's confident and in his element, as a genius should be, thinking I'm cute for saying I'm a GA Tech grad and know computers (at least IBM hardware and operating systems). He's digging that I'm an author and asking me about what I write while he puts my new toy through it's paces.

But here's the thing, I say, pulling out my laptop. I need to pull MS Word documents from this to the iPad for travel, work on them while I'm gone, then port them back.

His cheerful enthusiasm dims just a little, but he rallies with, Have you considered signing up for Mobile Me (a service that's an additional monthly fee on top of all the rest) so you can sync everything on all your Apple devices wherever you are all over the wold.

Don't you just love that genius bar of never-ending add-ons???

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Yeah. No. I need a wireless keyboard, I repeat, and my MS word documents easily moving back and forth between being used on either my IBM or iPad, so the iPad is my new travel computer, or I'm going to have to return it.

At this point my genius gathers reinforcements. More fine young men join us–I, of course, find it annoying that there don't seem to be any fine young women to troubleshoot my bizarre request… We boot up my laptop and sync in the iPad and get into the crunchier stuff of my now atypical set-up. I've become a genius lab exercise for everyone milling around the bar. Add peanuts and some pretzles and it will be a real party!

An iTunes system message asks me if I'd like to help Steve Jobs help me by giving Apple free rein to all my iPod information any time they want it, so they could learn more about how users are using their product (so they can design even niftier and expensive add-ons, I can only assume).

Um… No.I'm looking around for Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr. And, no, don't ever ask me again, I say as my genius click's that cancel button, too.

Adam appears for a moment as if he wants to change my mind, as I'm sure he's been trained, too, but wisely ducks his head and gets back to figuring out my not-so-cute-and-graphical request to make my iPad a writing workhorse.

Fast forward half an hour of us using real documents of mine and (I kid you not, Googling to look up possible answers to problems my geniuses have never encountered),we're joined by yet another confident young man who shows us the iTunes setting that's been there all along (only you have to scroll down to the bottom of the synced apps screen to see shared documents…like it's an afterthought that this might be needed more than stuff for more fun apps that, say, play music and books and videos and pictures).

Then he teaches all the other geniuses and me how to share the document back to my laptop or email or whatever from the app I've had to pay for and download to be able to create and modify documents on my the iPad. We're all crowded around the bar at this point, gathering an even bigger crowd, high on this amazing solution.

Tadaaaaaa!

I'm so thrilled I wanna hug and kiss everyone. Adam ducks his head again. The solution appears to be slightly limited, but we're on our way and everyone's giddy, particularly my genius, because I have helped him help me, and others, and now he has another problem he can fix for Apple-deficient ladies like me. Happy to be of service training your staff, Mr. Jobs!

But the absolute most amazing part of the night???

Watching the geniuses trying to use the eraser mouse on my laptop and me (helpless on an Apple but a warrior with an IBM) having to "drive" and help them through it. And could these guys navigate for Microsoft files on an operating system that doesn't have a pretty interface smoothing the way??? Forget about it.

I got to be the genius, too, for a few minutes.

VERY frustrating for them.

But I must say, it warmed my antiquated IBM heart ;0)

Dream Theory: Interpreting dream time travel…

It's easy to forget our feelings. In fact, many of us prefer it. Except… Our dreams tend to take their own path when we sleep, and often they time travel–as my psychic twins experience all over again in Secret Legacy. Things that we've forgotten we've thought or felt in the past come back to us in our dreams. Something in life turns our mind back, and our sleeping world follows. There's something we haven't dealt with, something we must feel from that time.

In Dark Legacy, yesterday dreams were how one twin (the psychotic one ;o) finds her sister again and begs for her help. You know, while she's trying to kill her and everyone she feels has abandoned her to her terrifying gifts and the government scientists experimenting on them. In Book 2,  Secret Legacy, now that Sarah Temple's free of her mad scientists and her mind is healing (or so she thinks), dreams from the past come for her again–only this time under someone else's control. Discovering who's using a secret child to send Sarah to the brink of madness once more becomes an odyssey in facing the past and the emotions and the near childhood breakdown she's forgotten all these years is the only way she'll save herself and her twin, the child whose amazing mind is being weaponized, and every dreamer that could become the next dream target.

Lucky for us, others aren't driving what we remember in dreams (at least, most of the time they're not). Unlucky for us, we don't have a brotherhood of watchers helping us decode the symbols and images, the clues, our sleeping minds leave to help us figure out what we need to deal with so we can see more clearly how our past is forming our future.

Our dreams are, more often than not, showing us what's happening in our subconscious  minds when we're awake. In these first two Legacy series books, I'm using psychics to control the subconscious minds of innocents, by first driving dreams to a particular emotional place. Again, think of the premise of the movie Inception (but remember, as always, that my Dark Legacy came first ;o) Their premise: where the sleeping mind goes, so goes waking thought and behavior.

In your life, it works the other way around. Someone or something you see or hear or witness in your every day triggers a past memory or emotion that you're not consciously dealing with, and if the anchor to your yesterday is strong enough, your sleeping mind will begin to puzzle over the memory and twist and turn it and embark on whatever journey you need to in order to face what you've shoved aside. And often, just like even my fictional psychic characters, we mere mortals have NO IDEA why we're dreaming the crazy things that come to us when we sleep, or why things we'd rather forget seem to be attacking us.

Key questions my characters had to face that might be helpful to you in your less psychotic dream travels back:

What's happened recently that is triggering the memory you're re-living in your dreams?

What have you been thinking about in your waking life, that triggered the same emotions that flooded the past event you're dreaming about?

What is changing in your life now that circles all the way back to that before time, when a possibly different experience made you feel the same way (or when you avoided feeling this way)?

The idea, if you're inclined to try to interpret time travel dreams, is to consciously look more closely at the origins of the  emotions and thoughts that a particular dream of the past brings back to you.As I've said before, emotion is the strongest, clearest traveler between our dreaming minds and our awake world. The rest of what you see while asleep is more symbol and metaphor than reality. And often we're too terrified of whatever our subconscious is doing while we're sleeping, to look beyond the obvious.

But if you have the time and interest and discipline to focus on how your memory of a dream makes you feel once you've returned from it, even if you can no longer remember the specifics, this kind of interpretation can become a healing, motivational, incredibly positive exercise. Even if the dream themselves is quite scary when it happens.

Sarah and Maddie Temple in the first two Legacy novels either confront their dreams or sacrifice their gifts, a magical child, and their futures. Our reasons for embracing rather than dismissing our dreams is far less dire. But their are still amazing worlds for us to revel in, while we're sleeping. And magical things for us to learn about our own minds and hopes and desires.

Where does your subconscious take you when you sleep?

How high can you fly, once you embrace the magic that your  mind's offering you while it dreams?

Come back next Friday for more from the Psychic Realm and Dream Theories.

Before you go, follow some of these fun links about time travel in dreams:

Time travel pondering from the World Dream Bank
A bit too literal but nonetheless fun personal interpretation
Check out this cool Dream Dictionary
I've been talking about looking back, but some (and I'll get to this more in future Psychic Realm posts) believe time dreams can be premonitions, too.

Publishing Isn't for Sissies: Build Your Community

I'm guest blogging today with Kelly L. Stone: When Hard Work Meets Reality…Which Yellow Brick Road Will You Choose? I loved hearing her speak recently, I love what she has to say about authors, and she's just finishing up a 90-day writing challenge. So when she said, come on over, I couldn't resist.

The kind of community she's building is an amazing things. She's building the same type of support network we enjoy here, so head over and take a peak. I'm sharing a bit more of my journey this last year, and I'm encouraging her followers to find their unique path to staying motivated and determined and positive about their creativity.

In the ever-changing flux of our publishing industry, when we're not analyzing and debating which way things are spinning, we have to daily plug into fresh inspiration. We must take care of our own. But even more, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the writing is the one thing that we alone control. Amidst all the change and the uncertainty and the trends and the latest surprises, we create, or we no longer have a job.

Join me at Kelly's and share how you stay plugged into your muse.

Then come back to PIFS  next week, when Michelle Grajkowski of 3 Seas Literary joins us to give an agent's inside perspective of the digital publishing wave and where it's taking us and our stories, both now and into the future!

How We Write: Our Secret–Plot, Revise, Plot, Revise…

The REAL secret to writing best selling novels… That's what Jenni and I are talking about on How We Write. And what we're saying is, THERE IS NO SHORT CUT. Eh-hem. Sorry, didn't realize I was yelling.You might have noticed by now that this sort of thing torks me a bit. Folks who give/sell sure-fired advice, keys to the kingdom, THE WAY to your published Eden. They don't often work. They tend to demotivate over time, not lead us closer to our overall objective–success.

Too often once you follow these ten easy steps, you realize there's nothing of substance on the other side. And the guru you've gotten the list from has mysteriously moved on to giving advice like "how to be the most popular tweeter on the planet," and you begin to realize that this person's objective is to give advice. Because THAT'S what he/she thinks will make them a best selling author. God forbid that the person giving advice about writing personally follow through on any of what he/she's saying and get back to writing novels themselves.

I exaggerate. There's some great advice out there, and you should soak it all in. But always remember that this is work. This isn't a race. And you can't force your way into being "successful" at it by following a set of rules that promises to be the answer to all your problems.

We're not selling quick and easy in HoWW. We're talking about our processes (because Jenni's is different than mine), and how you need to discover your own. We spent a month exploring what character means to a real, in-progress novel. March has been about plotting and structure, and Jenni wraps up the discussion by touching once more on on narrative structure, and going just a little deeper than before. But she's also ranting, like me ;o) Because the point we try to make in each post is that narrative structure and conflict lock and character plotting and so forth are just frameworks in which your story needs to work. They're NOT your story, and too many people will tell you differently, and that gets us cranky.

Your story is what happens on the page and in the reader's mind, once the list of things that makes a good story, mechanically, are taken care of. Your story is your voice and imagination and whether or not it connects with the  mind your characters and plot touches. Your story will take more than ticking off plot points and conflict and character on your to-do list. A successful story comes from plotting (planning), writing, rewriting and more plotting (planning), then rewriting some more.

Writing successfully takes an ammount of work that few are willing to embrace.

We're here to share how we're going about doing it, and we're excited you're along for the ride!

So, scoot on over to Jenni's today for some structure talk and more ranting. Tomorrow, I'm be doing the motivational speaker thing over on Kelly Stone's blog, so be sure to check that out. Then come back to HoWW in April to see what we mean when we say revising.

I'm kicking things off next Wednesday, by talking about how I take the planning and plotting into a rewriting phase that, for me, is the most creative part of my process. I'm just back from a great Saturday morning with the Central New York RWA group talking rewriting, so I'm reved up and raring to go ;o)

And, as always, let us know what you think and what you'd like to hear more of.

Here's a summary of where HoWW has been in Jan. and Feb. Take a look back, as we prepare to look forward!

March's HoWW plot speak:

Intro to the importance of Narrative Structure: Even the Best Characters Need a Plot
A closer look at how hard this can be for a character-driven writer: Plot THIS…
Intro to Conflict Lock: No Conflict, No Story and External Conflict: Lock and Load
A character-driven author goes deeper into the Conflict Box: Failing and Fixing
The REAL secret to plotting best selling novels.

February's Character (and critique/brainstorming) posts:

Mining for motivation
Layering motivation into plot
The Character Chart
Making characters realistic YOUR way
Character is just the beginning