Fiction Married to Fiction

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

from touchdrawing

The other night in Rob’s meditation class, he said or did something that prompted me to think of Will Lansa, his Native American character. Will has now been featured in four books – Prophecy Rock, which won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for best YA novel in 1996; Hawk Moon, nominated for the award the next year;  and now Double Heart and Time Catcher.  And that’s when it struck me that the characters created by a pair of married fiction writers aren’t just confined to the pages of books.

Writers spend thousands of hours creating characters, plots, and stories for their novels. If you’re a Dan Brown writing in The DaVinci Code or The Lost Symbol, or Jeff Lindsay writing about blood splatter expert and serial killer Dexter, then you’re spending hundreds of hours doing research before you even begin your novel. Once you’ve got your characters, you need to come up with  story that’s  in alignment with the characters you’ve developed.

So with two married fiction writers, your breakfast conversation goes something like this:

“I’m making headway on what happens to the tulpas in part two,” Rob says.

“I think Dominica is going to be disappeared to the dawn of time. But what are the tulpas doing right now?”

“The same thing your brujos are doing, creating havoc.”

Any outsider who overhears this conversation probably relegates us to some psyche ward. Fortunately, it’s our daughter who overhears this as she walks into the kitchen. She looks at us, long, deliberate looks,  rolls her eyes, grabs her coffee yogurt, and sits down with the newspaper’s daily puzzle. She then  ignores everything she has just overhead.

She already knows that she shares this house with Will Lansa, Nick from Crystal Skull, Mira Morales from Tango Key,  Tess Livingston and the ghosts of Esperanza, Indiana Jones, and all the human and animals characters we’ve created. She has her own characters struggling to be born; our guys are probably an irritant for her.

During that meditation when I recognized Will Lansa in Rob, I thought, Oh wow, he needs to meet Mira, the psychic bookstore owner from my Tango Key series. Or: Tess from Esperanza should travel to the Hopi  rez to meet  meet Will. Uh-huh, sure. Given the state of publishing these days, that’s not going to happen. And yet, the characters who dominate our creative lives also lurk in the corridors of our real lives. They are the heroes, the antagonists, the archetypes  that define us as human beings. Even if you don’t write fiction, these characters are alive, somewhere, within you.

As human beings, we live in a collective soup. We’re connected in ways we don’t yet understand. Perhaps fiction is one venue through which we explore those connections. So when Tess Livingston sits down for coffee with Will Lansa, what do they talk about?

Well, ask Megan.

But she’ll probably ask you not to interrupt her as she works out the daily Suduko.

We recently started a blog on our fiction writing.  It is  a huge part of our married lives, with more than 50 novels between us, and all these odd fictional characters running around in our psyches. On the blog, we talk about anything related to writing, publishing, stories, characters… and the changing face of the publishing industry.  Rob’s post today talks about the lost Indiana Jones novel.

Posted in creativity, synchronicity | 14 Comments

333 and the Paranormal Ring – or Perhaps Not

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

This story comes from Mike Perry in the U.K. When I first read it on his blog, I was intrigued not only by what happened, but by the time it occurred: 3:33 AM. In UFO lore, this time is important.

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With the curtains tightly drawn the room was almost pitch black and all was quiet. Without warning there was a clattering sound as something hit the wooden floor and rolled towards the far wall.

“What on earth was that?” said my wife, suddenly awake.

It had woken me too and as I glanced at the digital clock it read 3:33.

I snapped on my bedside lamp to look around our bedroom.  The noise seemed to have traveled across the room to my side of  our bed. I saw nothing at first until I spotted my wife’s wedding ring standing on end near to the window,

“It’s your wedding ring,” I said, and Karin looked at her finger to make sure.

“How on earth did it get over there?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.

“No idea.”

I retrieved the ring, handed it to her and she slid it onto her finger where it usually resides quite happily.

Karin was soon fast asleep again but I kept wondering about what had happened. How could a ring have rolled across the floor and then remained upright, as per the photo? (I took the photo this morning to illustrate the post).

I thought about the number 3, the ring or circle and so on, but nothing of any real significance came to mind and … I fell asleep.

In the morning my wife said, “I think I know what must have happened. I put some hand cream on before going to bed and must have taken my ring off to do so and left it on the bed cover. It probably got kicked off during the night and rolled across the floor.”

Okay, but to roll right across the floor on its edge, at precisely 3:33? I don’t know.

I Googled the number 333 and most sources seem to say it represents something similar to:

“333 – The Ascended Masters are near you, desiring you to know that you have their help, love, and companionship. Call upon the Ascended Masters often, especially when you see the number 3 patterns around you. Some of the more famous Ascended Masters include: Jesus, Moses, Mary, Quan Yin, and Yogananda.

I’ll be giving it some more thought. Any interpretations welcome!

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It’s synchro weirdness, the most mysterious kind!

 

Posted in 333, synchronicity | 6 Comments

Lunar Eclipse in Gemini – 12/10/11

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

On November 24-25, there was a solar eclipse in Sagittarius. On December 10, there’s a lunar eclipse in Gemini. Where solar eclipses usually concern external events, lunar eclipses are about inner events, our emotional reactions, our deeper feelings.

On December 10, at 9:36 AM EST, the lunar eclipse in Gemini is at 18 degrees. Before we talk about it, go here first to see your own natal chart. You’re looking specifically for the Gemini glyph so that you can tell in which house the eclipse falls.  Let’s say Gemini appears on the cusp of your 10th house at 23 degrees. Since the eclipse is at 18 degrees Gemini, your ninth house rather than your tenth would be the impacted. For what the houses mean, click here.

Lunar eclipses not only impact our inner lives, but also the women in our lives. (The moon in astrology is considered to be feminine and the sun is thought of as masculine.) Gemini rules communication, travel, our conscious minds. So with a lunar eclipse, our inner worlds become more conscious. Whatever we need to know becomes glaringly obvious. It could concern a relationship, something about your job or profession, some element of your personal life. Something – or someone – is “eclipsed,” marginalized, and that’s what you see.

The solar eclipse of November 24-25 and this eclipse occur on an axis of energy. If the SE fell in your first house of self, then this one falls in your seventh house of partnerships.  If the SE fell in your second house of money and values, this one falls in the eighth, the house of shared resources and your partner’s income, and so on around the zodiac. For me, these two eclipses fall on my financial axis – the second house of money and values and the eighth house of shared resources, partner’s income, and things that go bump in the night. Sometimes, lunar eclipses spell a culmination or the end of something. For me, it could be that a source of income is reaching an end. Or, equally likely given my interests, I have some sort of powerful psychic experience that answers questions I have.

So once you determine which house is affected by the lunar eclipse, look to the opposite side of your chart to see where the SE hit on November 24-25.  Let’s say the lunar eclipse occurs in your tenth house – your professional life and career. That means the SE in November  occurred in your fourth house – your domestic environment, home, family. One house is very public, the other very private.

Both Saturn and Neptune form strong, beneficial angles to the eclipse degree. Saturn’s angle suggests a stabilizing influence of some kind; Neptune’s angle suggests higher inspiration, spiritual issues, creativity that comes from deep within.   Mars, the warrior, forms a challenging angle to the eclipse degree, so it’s best to avoid confrontation on or around the time of this eclipse. Uranus, the planet of sudden, unexpected events, turns direct the same day as the eclipse, in Aries, so there’s an explosion of intense internal energy.

Mercury is still retrograde until December 13 and forms a  close, beneficial angle to Uranus. Sudden, unforeseen – and positive news – is a distinct possibility.

This evening, we came up with a good thing to do on the day of the eclipse – a virtual Abraham/Hicks workshop. This workshop will the first Esther has done sine her husband, Jerry, passed away several weeks ago from leukemia. We’ve tried to sign up four or five times for this workshop and, true to Mercury retro, the Google checkout doesn’t seem to be working. We’ll keep trying.

Wishing everyone a positive, happy lunar eclipse!

 

Posted in lunar eclipse, synchronicity | 9 Comments

Plan B

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Trish and Rob

If you’re a young woman of child bearing age, then Plan B is what you rely on if you’ve had unprotected sex.

That age group – young women – is where things get murky. Here’s why. Plan B is the morning after pill. It’s a hormonal contraceptive that has been shown to be 89 percent effective at safely preventing pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex. The current law  requires women ages 17 and older to ask a pharmacist for the pill. Women aged 16 and younger must obtain a doctor’s prescription to access Plan B. Reproductive health advocates contend that the law may make it logistically difficult for the age 16 and under group to prevent pregnancy.

After nearly a year of reviewing the evidence on Plan B, the FDA determined it should be made available to everyone over the counter. But here’s the shocker: Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s U.S. Department Health and Human Services Secretary, vetoed the Plan B decision. Why?  Because “adolescent girls may not have the behavioral maturity to understand how to use the morning after pill.”

Really? Adolescent girls are  illiterate? Stupid?  Can’t follow directions?

This is one of the lamest excuses I’ve ever heard for restrictions on a woman’s right to determined the fate of her own body. Nancy Keenan, president of the NARAl Pro-Choice America organization, said: “We had every confidence that this Bush-era policy would come to an end. The Obama administration has broken a key promise to the American people that it would base its decisions on sound science and what’s in the best interest of women’s health. In short, this is a failure to deliver change.”

But really, the bottom line is this: what gives the government the right to determine the decisions a woman makes about her own body? To my knowledge, there aren’t any such laws for men. And really, let’s get bottom line honest here. If men were the ones getting pregnant, giving birth, and nurturing the child in the subsequent year, Plan B wouldn’t even be an issue. Abortion wouldn’t be an issue.

Years ago, I had an English professor who actually indulged my ridiculous discussions about life, weirdness, and all the rest of it.  Dr. Millett. He was thin, tall, a consummate communicator, and a fantastic teacher who made literature come alive. And one afternoon when we were sitting in his office, he said, he said, “Trish, here’s the secret. You women have all the power because you can give birth.”

These words were uttered with the utmost sincerity, but I burst out laughing. “Hey, Doc, we can be fertile, we can be ready or not. But without the guy, there’s no baby.”

He thought about  this for a moment, then laughed, too.  “I’d better inform all those male literary writers who believe otherwise.”

I believe this conversation took place round 1969.  We’re now at the tail end of  2011.

I recently read a story about an Afghan woman who was sentenced to 12 years in prison after her cousin’s husband raped her. She’s now been released so she can marry her rapist.  Sounds like something out of the Handmaid’s Tale, but set to Afghan standards.

In Saudi Arabia, considered to be among our staunchest allies, women aren’t allowed to drive and can’t even leave their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.  Why not? How do women in burkas present any threat at all to men? Are men so hormonally ramped up that they would be tempted to do unspeakable things to  a woman driving a car? Walking home alone through a neighborhood? What are these Saudi guys afraid of, anyway?

I don’t mean to make this post a feminist rant, but honestly, it wasn’t that long ago that women in the U.S. had the right to vote.  We still have a male-dominated world, where war and aggression are business as usual, and where mostly male politicians are still trying to regulate what a woman does with her body.

Sorry, boys.  Our bodies belong to us, not to you – Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, John Huntsman, or hey, Newt Gingritch, you, too. Guys, go pound sand. You don’t own us or our bodies and never will.

Posted in morning after pill, synchronicity | 14 Comments

JFK AND UFOs

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Trish and Rob

John F. Kennedy apparently had some unusual interests. Ten days before his assassination, on November 12, 1963, Kennedy wrote two letters concerning UFOs.

The first was written to the CIA director and requested all UFO files. In the other letter, to the NASA administrator, Kennedy expressed his desire  for cooperation with the Soviet Union “in the field of outer space.”

These letters, which have been classified, were part of a Freedom of Information Act request made by William Lester, while he was researching materials for his new book, A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier.”

“One of his concerns was that a lot of these UFOs were being seen over the Soviet Union and he was very concerned that the Soviets might misinterpret these UFOs as U.S. aggression, believing that it was some of our technology,” Lester told AOL News.

In fact, Lee Spiegel, who has written about UFOs for Huffington Post and other publications, writes in AOL News that JFK’s interest in UFOs may have been responsible for his assassination.

The article is long, but fascinating reading and covers MJ12 and government coverups. There’s  a great interview with Robert Wood,  a physicist/aeronautical engineer  and former deputy director of McDonnell Douglas — a major aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor. In the 1960s, Wood headed a team to study UFOs.  Here’s his conclusion, as he discussed with Lee Spiegel:

“The most important idea that people have not grasped at all is that this program started in early 1942. The second most important idea is that the program is not under the control of the president and when the president was about to leak it, they bumped him off.”

The YouTube interview is worth your time. This man’s credentials are tough to dismiss. He has a remarkable collection of MJ12 documents  on his website.

 

 

Posted in MJ12, synchronicity, UFO | 10 Comments

A Nine-Spotted Ladybug synchro

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Trish and Rob

Ladybugs are usually considered a sign of luck, just as dragonflies signify that you’ll be hearing about important news. Ladybugs are also seen as a symbol of protection and of wisdom.

Here’s a synchro story from Tracy Rivas related to ladybugs, including a special and rare none-spotted one.

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Ladybugs always used to cluster at my grandmother’s house and after her passing ladybugs came to be associated with her. In fact, when we see one we say “hello” to her knowing she is contacting us from the other side.

When my dad was in the hospital after emergency surgery we saw a ladybug walking along the crack in the sidewalk even though it was late fall. When my mom was really missing her mother she went to the mailbox to get the mail and there was a ladybug inside the mailbox.

My son was falsely arrested and while he was being held in jail prior to a bond hearing I was worried about what would happen when a lone ladybug went walking across my kitchen window screen directly in my line of sight (I was doing dishes), even though it was October 17th.

I took it as a sign everything would be fine and later charges were dropped. Today I saw the comment where Trish had come by my website and read my review of your book “Synchronicity and the Other Side.”.She had invited me to stop by your blog and share my stories of synchronicities. I was debating whether I should when I opened an email whose opening line was “9 Spotted Ladybug Sighted after 29 Years” and knew immediately I should come by.

One final thing, I looked up the 9 Spotted Ladybug out of curiosity and discovered it is the official insect of New York State where I used to live. A final item to the synchronicity, the nine-spotted ladybug was thought to be extinct in New York State. It’s discovery there is what lead to the article I received in my inbox today.

Posted in ladybugs, synchronicity | 4 Comments

Carl Sagan, ETs, and Crop Circles

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Trish and Rob

An article in The Canadian, begins with this intriguing premise: “Did Scientists in 2001 translate an Extraterrestrial message implicitly designed to warn humanity about the ‘9/11 deception’?”

Read the article by clicking above and then watch the video. Very interesting stuff, for sure.

Posted in crop circles, synchronicity, UFOs | 7 Comments

Mercury Retro Check-in

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Trish and Rob

Map of Orlando’s Sea World

I’m kind of curious about this. Midway through the Mercury retro, what sorts of experiences have you had?

Ours have been varied – some that were expected, some not. Since this retro falls on the financial axis in our individual charts, its not surprising that checks for our joint projects are delayed. Not only did they never reach the agent – but the  checks have to be reissued. OK, figure on January with those checks. Good, we pay taxes on them next year. Silver linings and all that.

OK, on to the other stuff. We had plumbing issues with two sinks. In the kitchen, we had a major leak under the sink that turned out to be the result of a misaligned faucet. Rob corrected it, the leak went away. With the clothes dryer, the sucker took multiple cycles to dry a single load of clothes. Solution? We checked the silver tubing that connects to the wall. It had broken away from the wall…Once Rob got the tube in the wall again, the dryer worked like new.  The key idea in both instances was connection.

So far, so good. The “problems” definitely aren’t related to what I expected for a Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius.  And there are some unexpected silver linings.  Our neighbor calls us. Can we use four chairs? Her sister has four leather/suede chairs that she thinks will fit perfectly into our family room and that don’t fit in her new house. Are we interested? Well, sure. How much? They’re free.

So the next day we drive ten miles south and pick up a four chairs that are probably the nicest we’ve ever owned. Then I got fed up the old furniture we’ve owned for decades, pull a couch and a table out to the curb to be picked up, and buy a new thing for the kitchen at 50% off;  there’s an imperfection in a right corner.

Our daughter, Megan, and I drove to Orlando the other day for her interview at Sea World as an assistant animal trainer.  There were plenty of Merc retro incidents.  For instance, we neglected to move the Sun Pass from one car to the other. This handy gizmo allows you to zip through toll booths because the toll is deducted electronically from the gizmo. Inconvenience. Then we got lost as soon as we got off the turnpike in Orlando, wandered around for awhile, kept trying to bring up the right maps on our cell phones. Fortunately, we finally made it to where we were supposed to be and she wasn’t late for her 10 AM interview.

I waited for her in the employee parking lot, going through the copyedits for Ghost Key, the sequel to Esperanza, a positive Merc retro thing to do.  But by 11:30, I started wondering where she was. I knew there was a show at 10:45 and had expected her interview to be over by then. I walked up to the security gate to ask if there was a restroom I could use. I chatted with the guards, who hadn’t seen any blonde named Megan.

My imagination instantly slammed into overdrive  and coughed up an entire plot about what had happened, where she was, and how, if she hadn’t shown up by 2 PM, I was going to call the cops. The entire novel unfolded in my head.

At noon, she drove up with one of the Sea World trainers.  She got to see the 10:45 show – and meanwhile, I had her kidnapped and taken to some secret location.  I’m beginning to think that fiction writers probably shouldn’t have children!

We had decided before the trip that we would go to Sea World after her interview. So off we drove to the SW parking lot. The fee was $14, just to park. Then we got to the ticket booth and learned that a single ticket is about $80, way too much for the few hours we were going to spend there.  So we left and went in search of lunch. No Sea World amusement park, but Megan and I got to spend the day together and perhaps one day I’ll be able to use the plot I imagined.

As Vonnegut used to say, So it goes.  This retro, which ends December 13, seems to be about small things going wrong, plans being rearranged. But there have been unexpected bonuses, as well.

 

 

Posted in mercury retro, synchronicity | 23 Comments

An American Tale

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

The other day our next door neighbor asked me if I wanted to split a pallet of sod. Both of our lawns had patches of dead grass and weeds and I quickly agreed. I began clearing out the old grass and prepping the ground for the new sod.

We were supposed to leave the next morning taking K’s trailer to Odom’s, a company that sells sod grown on the edge of the Florida Everglades. The next day came and went. I only saw  K once walking away talking on his cell. Two more days passed and on the second evening I spotted him in his backyard. K seemed distracted as I approached and before I said anything he muttered that we could get the sod in the morning.

K’s usually an early riser so I was surprised when I didn’t see him at eight the next morning. He came out at 9:30 and we drove off. I was a bit annoyed by the way he’d put off our plans without even saying anything about it. I just figured he was preoccupied with something.

By the time we reached Odom’s I found out what it was. The airline where he works as a pilot had filed for bankruptcy. As a result, he was taking a big pay cut, the second since 2003, and there was something else.

The company, like many large corporations, matched deposits in a 401K account. In other words, for every dollar that K saved in his pension plan, the company also put a dollar in the account. A good deal. The catch, though, was that if the company went belly up, employees might lose their entire pension. That’s exactly what happened, K confided as we waited for the sod.

Now I knew why he hadn’t been too concerned with our plans. He was expecting to retire with about $1 million in his pension fund. He’d just lost the entire thing.

I mentioned that, sadly, his story sounded like an increasingly typical American tale with middle class people taking the blows when companies were mismanaged. Meanwhile, the executives responsible for the collapse would escape with golden parachutes, maybe even handsome year-end bonuses.

It’s a synchronicity because this American tale involved a company named American Airlines.

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PS Are we looking at the demise of the middle class? It certainly seems that way. Today, the U.S. senate rejected a bill that would extend the payroll tax – FICA deductions (Social Security). It means that most Americans will be paying about $1,000 more in taxes while the one percent continues to benefits from the Bush tax cuts. Interestingly, it revealed that Republicans will raise taxes – in spite of their pledge – as long as the rich are spared.

 

Posted in synchronicity | 15 Comments

The Comalcalco Brick and 12/21/12

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Trish and Rob

With all the hoopla about December 21, 2012, I found this particular article intriguing. I initially ran across a reference to it on Whitley Strieber’s site, then went looking for the original article and found it at The Guardian.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History  has long downplayed the apocalyptic references to the Mayan calendar. Most Mayan experts contend there’s only one surviving reference to the December 21, 2012 in Mayan glyphs, a stone tablet from the Tortuguero site in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.

But now the institute has announced that there is another apparent reference to the date in the nearby Comalcalco ruin.  The ruin is unusual among Mayan temples because it was constructed of brick and the inscription is on the molded face of one such brick.

The government has known about this inscription for years and, according to Arturo Mendez, a spokesman for the  institute, it’s been thoroughly studied by experts. The Comalcalco brick, as the fragment is called, isn’t on display and is kept in storage at the institute.

Interestingly, the brick coincides with the “end of the 13th Baktun; Baktuns were roughly 394-year periods and 13 was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas. The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3114 B.C., and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012. “

David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin is skeptical. “Some have proposed it as another reference to 2012, but I remain rather unconvinced. But the  date on the brick could also correspond to similar dates in the past. There’s no reason it couldn’t be also a date in ancient times, describing some important historical event in the Classic period. In fact, the third glyph on the brick seems to read as the verb huli, “he/she/it arrives.”

I took a double take at this point. He/she/it arrives??

The Tortuguero inscription – the first reference to 12/21/12 – and the Comalcalco brick are believed to have been carved 1,300 years ago and both are odd in some way.  The Tortuguero inscription supposedly describes an event that’s supposed to occur in 2012 which involves Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with both war and creation. “However, erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible, though some read the last eroded glyphs as perhaps saying, He will descend from the sky.

The inscribed faces of the Comalcalco brick were probably laid facing inward or covered with stucco, suggesting they were not meant to be seen.

Given all the hoopla and rumors swirling around the end of the Mayan calendar, the institute is organizing a special panel of Mayan experts who will meet at Palenque, another famous archaeological site in Mexico, next week. They hope to “dispel some of the doubts about the end of one era and the beginning of another, in the Mayan Long Count calendar.”

So we have two interesting interpretations that are eerily similar about 12/21/12: he/she/it arrives and He will descend from the sky.

To a fundamentalist, it might sound like the rapture. To me, it sounds ore like UFOs, maybe a fleet of them, darkening the sky. Now that would be a game changer.

 

Posted in 12/21/12, synchronicity | 6 Comments