Earthquakes & Elevators: NOT a Fun Combo

Sorry for the long hiatus; I got busy finishing the draft to IMMORAL MAGIC, then the holidays snuck up on me! Meanwhile, I had another elevator dream around the time my busy season began . . .

In this latest edition, I was riding up alone in an elevator when I suddenly felt disoriented, like the elevator was tilting sideways. Within a few seconds I realized there was a major earthquake, and I was trapped. Being a Californian, I don't generally panic in the face of ground shift, but here I was gripped by an overwhelming sense of helplessness and fear because of my precarious position. I was certain the elevator would give way, plunging me to the bottom. (It did not, and when the quake was over I managed to escape somehow and into a dream shift that is another interpretation unto itself.)

What's with all the ups, downs, and shaking in my dream world? Elevators represent our position in life and career, and ascending means we are climbing the ladder of success. Yay me. Except the elevator tips sideways, gets shaken up, and threatened to not take me where I needed to be. Earthquakes represent a "shaking up" of our life and emotions, a threat to our stability, dire ends, and feelings of helplessness, the latter echoing the overriding feeling experienced in the dream.

This most closely mirrored some feelings about my writing career over the past months, as I sought to promote my first novel while seeing a second published. At the time, I'd heard my next full-length novel was pushed to the back burner and other full lengths were still in progress or under consideration. In the back of my mind, I struggled with the issue of wondering whether that first novel was just a fluke. I wanted to prove to myself that getting published wasn't just a lucky one-time dream. To boot, the reading public (and well meaning friends) aren't about to let a writer rest on their laurels! When I talk about the first novel people respond with, "That's great. When's your next book coming out?" Though in waking times I can tell myself logically that I'm right where I need to be, it's obvious that some subconscious pressure needs a release valve in my dreams. Isn't it great that we can have that?

Fortunately, not long after this dream I got word that another of my books, A Grand Seduction, was accepted for a 2008 release. So we'll see if that puts the brakes on nights like this for the time being!

What are YOUR natural disaster dreams? Post here and I'll interpret your wildest dreams...FREE. Until then, may your best dreams come true...