February?? July???

I haven't posted in many months.

Time flies when you are writing and traveling? It must. Anyone interested in the pictures from Dubai and Abu Dhabi can see some of them on http://www.kathleenduey.com/ just scroll down past the puppies and all that has stacked up above them. Anyone who wants to see the whole messy slide show can email me at kathleen at kathleenduey dot com--and I will send you the easyshare link.

Worklife: I will turn in the draft of the second Resurrection of Magic book early Fall. Reviews are coming in on the first one and I am relieved--and thrilled. http://www.kathleenduey.com/content/view/161/11/
It is the oddest thing to read what other people think of your work... sometimes they see what you meant to paint, other times, they see something you didn't intend, which can be more interesting than the things you did intend...

The second book is taking turns I didn't expect. I feel like I am living in that world now, that I just visit this one a few times a day to eat, shower, maybe rest a little, before I go back. It is a harrowing place, but I love it there.

beginning a book

I am starting the second book of a YA trilogy. Starting any book is a leap off a high branch. I think most writers are like sugar gliders. We can't fly, but we have the illusion, for a while, that we can, and then it is time to look for a place to land. I usually land in the middle of chapter four or so and have to reground, rethink the logic of the emotions and the storyline. This is something like climbing back up to a place from which I can jump again. I am going to try to blog the process of writing a book here. We'll see.

The dream experiment is ongoing. It has been remarkable. I have not managed a recurring dream/second life yet. But I have gone from remembering almost none of my dreams to remembering what seems like most of them--or most of the one I have closest to waking anyway. Sometimes I can clearly see my personal emotional and intellectual junk in the characters/plots/surreality. Sometimes there is no connection to me that I can determine at all. Those are the most interesting, usually.

I have encountered some of my book characters in the dreams. Two from Skin Hunger, which has been the current project since midsummer, have appeared in the midst of a dream structure. It is weird to recognize them...oddly jarring to see them outside the story I have told about them. It's like seeing a grocery store checker you are friendly with in the library and not making the connection for a few awkward seconds. We have talked, a little. Nonsensical dream stuff. They seem reluctant.

Sorry for the delay. I have finally finished the first title of the YA fantasy.

Remembering my dreams is getting easier. Sometimes they contain characters from my books, usually not. The door back in, for me, has been learning to wakeup and pause, in neutral, for at least a few seconds before I begin thinking. If I can get the feeling--the last emotion of the dream--I can sometimes tug it back toward me and remember a lot of it.

My next step is going to be talking to the dream people, seeing if they will answer me. My characters do and I am not a bit unusual in that. Many fictionalists "hear the voice" of the character before they know what will happen in the book.

The Unicorn's Secret

I had the same dream, night after night, for almost two years when I was a girl. Every night, when I fell asleep, I went back to the same place. I had a life there, an amazing life that passed the way anyone's does, a day at a time. When I closed my eyes and fell asleep there I would wake up here. I wrote eight books for children recounting that life a few years ago. Since then, I have been trying to recreate the experience. Last night, I managed it. It isn't clear yet, but I have the important pieces; I know what the world looks like, I can remember the smells and sounds with great detail, and last night was my second visit. So maybe tonight I can go back there a third time. I am hoping.

ART: Copyright Omar Rayyan
from Moonsilver, Book One,
The Unicorn's Secret

too many thoughts

Things strike me, arrest me, and I think about them and come to conclusions, sometimes, or chase my tail or simply get distracted. I never know what to do with these thoughts about writing, life, stuff...

So a blog seems perfect. Perhaps it will be interesting. You never know.