Ask the Author: Jan Ferrigan
Answered Questions (1)
Jan Ferrigan
It sounds really trite, but it came from a dream. I don't recommend this approach, at least for myself, because most of my dreams are not good foundations for a story. But this was, at least in my dream experience, an extraordinary dream.
A few years ago, I worked on a website for Youth Advocate Program International, yapi.org. I was in a hurry to finish the site, and as a result was not paying too much attention to the content, which included information on the rather serious issue of child soldiers.
At least, I thought I wasn't paying much attention. The subconscious brain is often working differently from the conscious one. So one night after working on the site, I had an incredibly visceral dream, which essentially is the opening scene for Lightning in the Desert. I did not have a name in the dream, but I was a young teenager facing the gun of another teenager who I vaguely knew. The dream felt so real that when I woke, it not only took a few seconds to recognize where I was (my own bedroom), it also took a couple of seconds to remember who I was.
I wrote Lightning in the Desert, shortly after, edited it a number of times and decided at some point that it definitely felt like an audiobook. You can read it, but for some reason it will always be a better audio than paper story for me.
Amy Wisenfeld who narrates Lightning in the Desert works for a international youth arts organisation, The Complete Freedom of Truth, "Tolerance, inclusiveness, deeper learning and an understanding of the other are at the heart" of the work done by The Complete Freedom of Truth. For that reason, it felt like Amy was be a good fit for this story, and she is a wonderful narrator.
Working on producing part 2. Unfortunately, it did not come as a dream, so I am trying my best to draw from research and the real life stories of refugees to inform the story.
Thanks for your interest in my work.
A few years ago, I worked on a website for Youth Advocate Program International, yapi.org. I was in a hurry to finish the site, and as a result was not paying too much attention to the content, which included information on the rather serious issue of child soldiers.
At least, I thought I wasn't paying much attention. The subconscious brain is often working differently from the conscious one. So one night after working on the site, I had an incredibly visceral dream, which essentially is the opening scene for Lightning in the Desert. I did not have a name in the dream, but I was a young teenager facing the gun of another teenager who I vaguely knew. The dream felt so real that when I woke, it not only took a few seconds to recognize where I was (my own bedroom), it also took a couple of seconds to remember who I was.
I wrote Lightning in the Desert, shortly after, edited it a number of times and decided at some point that it definitely felt like an audiobook. You can read it, but for some reason it will always be a better audio than paper story for me.
Amy Wisenfeld who narrates Lightning in the Desert works for a international youth arts organisation, The Complete Freedom of Truth, "Tolerance, inclusiveness, deeper learning and an understanding of the other are at the heart" of the work done by The Complete Freedom of Truth. For that reason, it felt like Amy was be a good fit for this story, and she is a wonderful narrator.
Working on producing part 2. Unfortunately, it did not come as a dream, so I am trying my best to draw from research and the real life stories of refugees to inform the story.
Thanks for your interest in my work.
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