We’ve talked before about the relationship between creativity and synchronicity. The Edgar Allan Poe story and the Titanic are two of the most astonishing.We’ve experienced our share of these weird synchronicities, where something we’re writing surfaces in real life.
On August 14, 1992, Trish mailed off a novel, Storm Surge, to her new editor at Hyperion. It revolved around a category five hurricane named Alphonso that slams into South Florida and flattens entire neighborhoods. On that same day, a tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa, one of many that roll away from that continent during hurricane season. It had completely escaped Trish’s notice.
But ten days later, that wave had grown into one of the most powerful hurricanes on record., At one point, its winds were estimated to be in excess of 200 mph.Hurricane Andrew walloped Homestead, Florida, wiped it off the map, and obliterated entire neighborhoods.
The synchronicity is striking in several regards. In fiction and real life, both hurricanes were the first named storms of the season and began with an ‘A.’ They were category fives, and were tightly compacted storms that targeted only a small area. Again, an example where creativity provided a venue for a premonition, an
++
One of the strangest synchronicities of this sort happened to writer Doug Moench, while he was writing the screenplay for one of the Planet of the Apes movies. This one is truly disturbing and is going to be part of a documentary film, Authors of the Impossible, that will “examine the paranormal and popular culture.” That story is here.
OK, weirded out – and very glad that I write fun contemporary romances.
What I feel is most profound when fiction that precedes current events is the length of time of the writing, then publishing, process only for the story to arrive on bookshelves (or the editors desk) in tandem with the event. Authors may be tapping into a pending energy like from the movie "The Mothman Prophesies."
The benefit to story that mirrors tragedy is that the story will hopefully focus on heroic achievements and positive transformation of some characters even though the victims are numerous. Following the journey of one character is often helpful when the big picture is too huge to process.
I imagine this sort of thing happens more frequently than we realize. Off to check out these book titles!
– Trish
That makes two interesting book mentioned today, neither of which I was aware of – Stalking the Trickster and Divine Tempest.
I have had similar things happen with paintings I have done.The images on the canvas unfold as news stories, or happens in my own life.
Moench's questions at the end of the segment would make an interesting book: are we creating the future? Is it ESP?, etc.
Has anyone read the book Divine Tempest; The Hurricane as Psychic Phenomenom, by David E Schoen?
That was one hell of a post! Creepy, awesome….gives me plenty of food for thought.
Thank You.
Remind me to never get on a ship with Titan anywhere in it's name.
I swore off writing about hurricanes after Category Five. The parallels with that one were just too uncomfortable. Now I'm wondering about the wisdom of writing a book where a quarter of it takes place in the afterworld – Esperanza, the one coming out 9/10. This afterworld, though, has its own mythology.
I posted before that when you wrote Category Five I bought it shortly after it's publication, but could not read it until nine months after Katrina. When I read either it or its sequel and you mentioned flashbacks by one of your characters about Andrew and some of the bureaucracy surrounding its aftermath it was just so creepy. It was as if I were there.
Ray
Musing – thanks for the link. Will check it out.
Nancy – you're talking about the vampire series, right? If so, I hadn't heard that story!
Gypsy – we were wondering the same thing. Wed love to know what happened with the Moench story!
good grief! what a story, trish! uh, and what's the story line of the novel you're working on now? anything to do with storms? 🙂
i watched the moench video twice – mesmerized – but couldn't believe he left it hanging without giving a clue as to how the scene with his wife ended! well, yes, i could believe, of course, but was just disappointed!
riveting post – loved it!
I had just heard from someone yesterday that the Twighlight series was started from a dream, that was turned into the 17th chapter of the first book.
Whew! That recounting by Doug Moench really **is** disturbing and evokes many more thoughts of the "Trickster" force or archetype. Recently discovered this fascinating interview on Radio Misterioso with author Chris O'Brien about his book "Stalking the Tricksters". It's a long 2-hour taping but the synchronicities he describes are pretty mind-boggling.
https://www.radiomisterioso.com/2009/10/05/chris-obrien-stalking-the-tricksters/