Column 13 - Toward A Circle of Dreams
It's January (but you knew that) and the second edition of A Dream Across Time has been formally launched. (Maybe you didn't know that.) If you will look back over prior posts you will find numbered columns mixed in which discuss our characters, the setting of the book and our thoughts about writing. These columns help bring out other dimensions of the book.
You may not be aware that A Dream Across Time is the first book in a saga. In the columns which will now be posted we are discussing themes, characters, and background material related to the second book in the series, A Circle of Dreams, which will debut in June.
And now, Column 13, the first in the series of columns about A Circle of Dreams,the second book in the series.
Column 13 - I don't believe in ghosts.
In a former incarnation I was a clinical psychologist. As an undergraduate I took the inevitable first psychology course, Psych 101. It was at the University of Michigan which has been a bastion of experimental psychology. In the first class the lecturer took the stage and dramatically proclaimed the fateful words, "Psychology is a science!" So, clinical psychologist or not, it seems I am a scientist and, naturally, I do not believe in such silly things as ghosts. Not me. Oh no!
Except of course, I lived in a house with a ghost.
I left North Carolina with my young wife, brand new baby girl, an antique Jaguar which inevitably leaked oil and my newly minted Ph.D. from Duke and moved to Maryland. We had found a really neat three story stone farmhouse for rent right in the middle of a 300 acre farm. Worn floors, creaking stairs and several fireplaces. We absolutely loved it.
But in the evening when we had settled in we began to feel we were being watched. It was a strange sensation. Our laid back dogs would suddenly come to alert. At the top of the house was an attic room with a hasp. I fixed it shut with a peg of wood in the hasp. Next time I checked the peg was on the floor. This happened repeatedly. Finally my wife said, "It feels like we have a ghost." I felt exactly the same way. We set up a series of questions and wrote down our answers so that we did not contaminate each others responses.
We agreed it was an elderly man who came from the attic down the stairs and he went to a small "study" adjacent to the livingroom. He never came into the livingroom or the upstairs bedrooms. But he did stop at the door to the livingroom. We never actually saw him. But we certainly could feel him, hear the creaks on the stairs and the dogs clearly were taking note of something.
The funny thing was that it did not feel like he was an ominous presence. In fact, since we loved the house, we felt a sense of protection. As if he loved his house and wanted people there who loved it as well. So, we settled in to live with our "nonexistent" ghost.
Finally I summoned the courage to ask our landlady about the house and people's reactions to it. She said it was quite curious. Renters either loved the house or fled suddenly after staying only a short time. Some left in the middle of the night. As far as I was concerned that fit. If they were iffy about the house or didn't like it then they were virtually driven out. If you loved the house, you were quite welcome. Great. We loved it there.
And then we found our very own 18th. century stone house in the country to buy and set about preparing to leave. All hell broke loose.
The house was not just noisy. It was nuts. The dogs would not settle down. They were constantly patrolling and on alert. We felt a presence in the hallways much more frequently. It seemed the old gentleman was not happy about our decision to leave.
It was with some regret that we moved on to our new home which we loved but had nothing even suggesting the feel of a ghost. At least inside the house. It was another matter outside on the old road from Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania. But that's another story.
So, that's an interesting story you might say. What does that have to do with anything?
It has to do with suspending your disbelief. A true scientist is not dismissive. All of us have to consider the "what if". Go to our website www.annierogers.com and read the prologue and first chapter of A Circle of Dreams. See what you might conclude about what might happen to our little family in St. Lucia and how it might play itself out. Look for A Circle of Dreams in its entirety in June.
It's January (but you knew that) and the second edition of A Dream Across Time has been formally launched. (Maybe you didn't know that.) If you will look back over prior posts you will find numbered columns mixed in which discuss our characters, the setting of the book and our thoughts about writing. These columns help bring out other dimensions of the book.
You may not be aware that A Dream Across Time is the first book in a saga. In the columns which will now be posted we are discussing themes, characters, and background material related to the second book in the series, A Circle of Dreams, which will debut in June.
And now, Column 13, the first in the series of columns about A Circle of Dreams,the second book in the series.
Column 13 - I don't believe in ghosts.
In a former incarnation I was a clinical psychologist. As an undergraduate I took the inevitable first psychology course, Psych 101. It was at the University of Michigan which has been a bastion of experimental psychology. In the first class the lecturer took the stage and dramatically proclaimed the fateful words, "Psychology is a science!" So, clinical psychologist or not, it seems I am a scientist and, naturally, I do not believe in such silly things as ghosts. Not me. Oh no!
Except of course, I lived in a house with a ghost.
I left North Carolina with my young wife, brand new baby girl, an antique Jaguar which inevitably leaked oil and my newly minted Ph.D. from Duke and moved to Maryland. We had found a really neat three story stone farmhouse for rent right in the middle of a 300 acre farm. Worn floors, creaking stairs and several fireplaces. We absolutely loved it.
But in the evening when we had settled in we began to feel we were being watched. It was a strange sensation. Our laid back dogs would suddenly come to alert. At the top of the house was an attic room with a hasp. I fixed it shut with a peg of wood in the hasp. Next time I checked the peg was on the floor. This happened repeatedly. Finally my wife said, "It feels like we have a ghost." I felt exactly the same way. We set up a series of questions and wrote down our answers so that we did not contaminate each others responses.
We agreed it was an elderly man who came from the attic down the stairs and he went to a small "study" adjacent to the livingroom. He never came into the livingroom or the upstairs bedrooms. But he did stop at the door to the livingroom. We never actually saw him. But we certainly could feel him, hear the creaks on the stairs and the dogs clearly were taking note of something.
The funny thing was that it did not feel like he was an ominous presence. In fact, since we loved the house, we felt a sense of protection. As if he loved his house and wanted people there who loved it as well. So, we settled in to live with our "nonexistent" ghost.
Finally I summoned the courage to ask our landlady about the house and people's reactions to it. She said it was quite curious. Renters either loved the house or fled suddenly after staying only a short time. Some left in the middle of the night. As far as I was concerned that fit. If they were iffy about the house or didn't like it then they were virtually driven out. If you loved the house, you were quite welcome. Great. We loved it there.
And then we found our very own 18th. century stone house in the country to buy and set about preparing to leave. All hell broke loose.
The house was not just noisy. It was nuts. The dogs would not settle down. They were constantly patrolling and on alert. We felt a presence in the hallways much more frequently. It seemed the old gentleman was not happy about our decision to leave.
It was with some regret that we moved on to our new home which we loved but had nothing even suggesting the feel of a ghost. At least inside the house. It was another matter outside on the old road from Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania. But that's another story.
So, that's an interesting story you might say. What does that have to do with anything?
It has to do with suspending your disbelief. A true scientist is not dismissive. All of us have to consider the "what if". Go to our website www.annierogers.com and read the prologue and first chapter of A Circle of Dreams. See what you might conclude about what might happen to our little family in St. Lucia and how it might play itself out. Look for A Circle of Dreams in its entirety in June.
posted by Roger | 3:48 PM
<< Home