I’ve
had a lot of correspondence with my editor, Mike, at Black Opal Books, about my
novel, VETS, which BOB will publish
in 2015, so I guess it’s not surprising that an editor showed up in last
night’s dream. Yes, the Dream Editor, the dreaded DE.
I
first learned of the DE from Kathy Roberts, when the DE showed up just as her
dream was almost done and told her she was dreaming wrong and had to start
over.
My
dreams often occur on a college campus. The first and most frequent of those
dreams is the one where you suddenly realize it is time for the final exam and
you haven’t even been to class yet because you forgot you were in that class.
My
final exam dream is all the more embarrassing because the professor is always
my friend, political philosopher Dr. Walter Mead, who writes books with titles
like Extremism and Cognition. I never
took a class from Wally, even though I like books with titles like that, but because
we are contemporaries. That doesn’t stop my dream writer from putting him in as
a character, though.
Wally
and I live a long way from each other now, but I saw him in person recently at
a memorial service. Afterward I told him about his role in my dreams.
“Remember,” he said, “if that happens again, I’ll give you an Incomplete so you
don’t lose credit.” Now, that’s a real friend, one who has your back even in
your dreams.
Last
night’s dream, though, was my other campus dream, where I have been to class
but now can’t find my car. I look all over, conclude it’s stolen, call the
police to report it, then remember where I parked it. Each occasion of this
dream, the car is in a different place. Last night it was in the lot behind my
rooming house.
I
go to get it, but there is a new lock on the gate, three locks to be precise. I
discover the keys for the locks in my mail box and try to use them, but the
emblems on the keys, to match the emblems on the locks, are all the same. But
wait, they are not all the same. There are small, subtle differences. I can do
this… and then I woke up.
I
begged the DE for more time, so that I could figure out the locks and get my
car, my way of going places, but DEs aren’t much good if you are awake.
My
waking editor, Mike, did not tell me that I was writing wrong and had to start
over, but he did say I needed more action along about chapter 3. I had already
agreed with him. I had a great action scene in there, but an agent had told me
to take it out. I did so, but the agent declined to represent VETS anyway. Now it’s back in, and I
appreciate Mike for understanding it needs to be there, because it moves the
story and characterizations along, just like my car would if the durn DE would
ever let me get to it!
John
Robert McFarland
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2015.
In case
you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: “There are no words left in the English language
that can’t be used for sexual innuendo, including innuendo, if you know what I
mean.
I tweet
as yooper1721.
I also
write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the
Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY
OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER
I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who
Love Them
[AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and Japanese translations] Paul K.
Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount, called it “The best book for
cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a
preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really
a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know,
I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN
FATHER RODE THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN
978-1-300-38566-0
If
you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty & the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment