This poem captures the theme of The Dreamspeaker’s Diary…(and is currently pinned to the wall above my desk)
“What if you slept?
And what if,
In your sleep
You dreamed?
And what if,
In your dream,
You went to Heaven
And there plucked
A strange and
Beautiful flower?
And what if,
When you awoke,
You had the flower
In your hand?
Ah, what then?”
–Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Speaking of poetry…A writing mentor once told me that the best writers are the best thinkers; they have a gift for observing people and life that translate in their prose. I think this is especially true of poets. I have stumbled across poems that encapsulate an idea or thought or feeling so well that it moves me to tears. You will see this influence in both my novels. In The Descended, Kieran’s character feels kinship with Richard Lovelace:
‘If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.’
Writing (and re-writing) The Descended, I couldn’t get enough of “All we Are” and “Prodigal” by One Republic. I wrote the dance scene between Kieran and Kylei (in the cavernous Roche Rock) to “All that I Am” by The Afters. Something about the passion of that song and that 3/4 time…The fighting scenes I owe to Fireflight, Paramore, and 30 Seconds to Mars.
Songs are just poetry set to music, and there is something about that combination that awakens my soul and unlocks the words that pour onto my pages…
