Dreams to Reality

I suppose one expects from the title that I’m going to talk about how writing is the coolest thing ever. How writing has been a dream of mine, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Actually it’s more about origins of my stories. As the group “We’re about 9” sings, “I had to dream all night to keep the dark away. ” That pretty well explains why I write, but maybe it needs some explaining.

Back in the 00s as a teenager I sat in study hall in a little backwater town in the Midwest and wrote to keep my brain from atrophying into oblivion. Too odd to fit in with the cliches that ruled the halls and after school activities, I spent most of my free time, writing or drawing.

Funny thing is, no matter where I moved. Those old tattered journals and notebooks went with me. I still have all those stories now to convert to digital eBooks so someone else, like you, my faithful readers, get to enjoy them.

But where do the dreams come in? Over the years I have always had vivid dreams, complete stories in bright exciting realism. Dreams that wouldn’t leave my consciousness day or night, until I dropped ink onto paper and wrote them down. Some dreams lasted days, over and over again, leaving behind manuscripts that could fill an entire series of novels.

I like paper and pen, it’s substantial, textural and solidly real. It can’t be deleted. It can’t be lost in the cloud. What it can be, is damn hard to read after 20 years. My handwriting was always atrocious, but the dreams were so real. If I sit and meditate I can still recall them. From the colors of clothes to the smell of dragon’s breath. The lost worlds of my youth.

But what about the dark? Didn’t I mention keeping the dark away? I love the night. The starry clear skies and the brilliant wonder of Northern Lights over a snowy landscape. Maybe that is the dark I mentioned. Maybe, but not entirely. The darkness in my fantastic worlds comes from knowing what true darkness of the human soul looks like. Sometimes that knowing leaks out in certain tales. Sometimes, just a little bit.

But isn’t that what dreams are about, aren’t they? Escapism? Release from reality. Maybe.

I’m hoping my stories stir the ancient mysteries in my readers or stir the longing for the new frontiers of space. Either way.
May you immerse yourself in the splendors of fantasy’s domain.

XO XO

Lovisa