The plots of my novels come from dreams I have at night. I’ve mentioned this before. During the dreams of Touch the Sky (my first novel), I saw megalithic stone formations. I saw panoramic scenes of the Scottish Highlands, the English countryside, and the Lake Area. I wrote the first, rough draft of Touch the Sky without having visited those areas.
Fortunately, prior to publishing Touch the Sky, I was able to visit the UK several times. On each trip, I was able to fill in details that would appear later in Touch the Sky. I was, however, unprepared for the spooky stones.
Other than Stonehenge, I didn’t recognize the stone formations I saw in my dreams. When writing the novel, I just described the megaliths as I had seen them whilst dreaming. Imagine my surprise when, on the advice of the locals, I trekked up an obscure winding trail to come face-to-face with a megalithic stone formation that I had seen in my dreams years before! Spooky doesn’t begin to describe it! I’m a normal person, a scientist, rooted in logic and reality, but now I’m actually seeing the stone formation that I saw in my dreams! How’s this possible? I felt the goosebumps on my skin and my heart pounding in my chest. Then I remembered what the psychic had said (discussed in the previous blog Vampires, Werewolves, and Psychics). “Your angels have been giving you these wonderful stories in your dreams. When are you going to start writing those novels?”
All right. So if I accept the premise that its angels who brought me to these stones, it will be okay, right? Angels are good. Nothing to fear. Not so spooky after all. Nope, I’m not scared. I’ll just say thank you, turn around slowly, relax my breathing, carefully make my way back down the trail, hop in the car, and—head for the nearest pub! And that’s exactly what I did.
