Shannan Sinclair's Blog

Because the "It's My Birthday--Get My Book FREE!" Promotion of Dream Walker was such a success, with over 7,000 copies downloaded and a 1000% increase in sales afterward, I have decided to do it again!

I'm gonna double down this time, giving Dream Walker away for free for 2 days instead of 1, from midnight Friday, June 8th through midnight Sunday, June 10th.

It's an experiment in the R/Evolution of book publishing. Let us see if there is a corresponding increase in downloads and sales.

You can participate and help an Indie Author out by sharing this promotion with friends and family. Follow me on Twitter or "Like" my Facebook page, and SHARE SHARE SHARE.

Happy summer reading!!!!

Shannan

We live in the fiction.

I have been in denial the past few months. But more than one dear friend has mentioned it to me recently and I had to finally own up to the fact. I have been completely distracted.

Not a whole lot of writing for book 2 has been getting done. It's plotted, and three chapters are complete, but I have not been consistant with my daily writing as I should be. There is a lot of guilt and pressure associated with failing to meet my daily goals. And to avoid feeling bad about it, I avoid writing some more.

It all started when I published Dream Walker. After being cooped up in the corner alone for over a year, the thrill of getting out there, the rush of marketing and promoting the book, was invigorating. Ahhh... PEOPLE again.

Then came my birthday, and the Spring. The sunshine, the opportunities to hit the road, to see new landscapes, and to meet MORE people, was too tempting. And I embraced it. 

The final distraction came in the form of one person in particular. In the midst of meeting all these interesting, wonderful and inspiring people, one stood out. And it caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting it at all. But again, I went with it, got caught up in the flow of what the Universe had brought into my life. I took advantage a hike at the river, a concert road trip, saving kittens and the general hanging out.

In the back of my mind I questioned whether it is good for me -- if I am not meeting my goals -- if I am feeling sidetracked.

This morning, I was lounging in the bath contemplating it all and my Muse showed up. For those who haven't met Muse, he's what many would call an imaginary friend. I say he is real, he just isn't manifested fully in the 3D. Anyway, he lets me vent all this, lament my guilt about not being further along in Time Walker and emotionally vomit all over his cloak.

He was not fazed in the least. 

"You can't write about life, if you don't live it."

"If you were locked in your room writing Time Walker, you wouldn't have seen that dirty moon with a chunk of its head missing. You wouldn't have noticed how it looked hungover and grumpy after taking on too much Cinco de Mayo." 

"If you were staring at your computer, channeling disincarnate characters to the page, you would have missed that one REAL touch across your back and that kiss on your neck that stopped your breath and made you shiver."

"You have been emotionaly flatlined for too long. All those confused thoughts and intense feelings roiling in your mind and heart are a gift; a palette of vibrant color and flavor for you to paint with later. Savor it. Know it. Understand it. Then translate it to the page so others can see themself in the picture you paint with words."

"Roll around in the petri dish of life, absorb it all, because it is ALL SO FLEETING. Then put it in your writing so it can be immortal."

"And yes. It is good for you."

That's what Muse said.

Maybe he is right. Maybe distraction is part of the process, a fountian of unlimited inspiration, and I should not resist it so much. The writing will come, birthed organically and naturally from the furtile ground of experience, not forged from a dislocated idea and mere vocabulary.

So I am going to enjoy the fleeting things. Like taking this hot cup of coffee to my patio, letting the sun warm my skin and watching the trumpet vine bloom.

Shannan

We live in the fiction.

"Sometimes nature guards her secrets with the unbreakable grip of physical law. Sometimes the true nature of reality beckons from just beyond the horizon." Brian Greene

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

 Simone Weil

Source: flickr.com via Shannan on Pinterest

Storytelling is one hot business trend. You can use it to reposition and grow your company, champion a cause, or reboot your career. As entrepreneurs, visionaries, and heretics, we are transforming business, culture, and society – and living life on our own terms.

My friend Michael Margolis over at Get Storied has put together a totally inspiring (and totally practical) 5-part video series on storytelling. And the best part is that it’s completely free!

–> Go check it out! <–

This awesome complimentary video series is all part of the run up to Reinvention Summit 2, which is world’s largest online conference on storytelling.

That’s right, it’s all online. And there are some incredible speakers coming as well. If you’d like more information about the Summit, you can get it here.

Don’t wait to check out the amazing FREE video series and learn why storytelling is KEY to your reinvention.

Shannan

We live in the fiction.

Do you have what it takes? The elusive quality that is required to achieve your goals and realize your dreams?

I am not talking about talent or creativity; plenty of people are oozing with that. It isn’t just having a vision or a plan either. No, I am talking about a very rare characteristic. Not everyone has it. I am talking about the inner pit bull to bite down, latch on with all your might and not let go.

Persistence. That’s what I’m talking ‘bout. Because that is the struggle.

It’s easy to be creative, to have a flash of inspiration, to START a project, but the lack of tenacity is what will doom you to failure. And when I say failure, I mean ultimate failure. We all fall down. We all have setbacks. But the difference between the people who get up, dust themselves off and go at it again and those who give up is not even measurable.

Persistence is not a gift. It is a skill. And isn’t even a skill that you ever really master, either. It is one you have to earn every day, over and over again.

To be honest, I struggle with it, especially as a writer…especially lately. It actually takes a lot of effort for me to move from my bed to my desk, sit down and write every day and I hate to confess, I have not been very consistent with that lately.

For inspiration, I look to runners.

I admire runners, especially marathon runners and tri-athletes. First of all, they do something that I will never do in this lifetime. Run. I will walk. Very rarely I will jog…one block…then walk again. The mere thought of running makes my side hurt. I don’t like the impact. I don’t like feeling myself jiggle that much. I hate the pain.

Runners are the most persistent people on the planet. They aren’t just running in races. They run every freakin’ day! They run in the rain, in the cold, in the heat! And it isn’t just about the glory of winning the race, or just finishing the race, or even beating their best time from the last race. And besides the pay off of a kickass body, I just don’t get it. But they do it--with insane, enthusiastic persistence.

So as I look over at my laptop, sitting cold on my desk, I think of those nutty runners and crack my knuckles. (Actually…no I don’t…knuckle cracking freaks me out…but you know what I mean.)

I have a second book to write over there. I have only finished one book, and my vision for this story is three of them. I am only 8.73 miles in my personal marathon. And yes, the chapter I am on right now is like Mt. Everest, but I am going to sit down and make that mountain my bitch. And I am going to do it with a crazy endorphin-induced smile on my damn face!

Shannan

We live in the fiction.

Remote Veiwing and the OOB experience - a primer.

Shannan

We live in the fiction.

Me and the great I AM have a secret code that we have worked out. It's used when S/He/It wants me to stop the bitching that I tend to call "prayer" and listen for a change.

It works like this. If I hear, see, or come across something 3 times, that is the Alpha/Omega's sign for me to shut up and pay attention. It is synchronicity on steroids, used in place of a cosmic 2x4.

Has it ever happened to you? You see the same numbers every time you look at a clock and wonder why? You hear the same quote or song on the radio again and again and it speaks perfectly to a situation you are going through? Or three different people tell you about a great new hemorrhoid medication and you just happen to have hemorhoids? How did they know!

That's the Almighty at work right there.

So the Prime Mover & Shaker has really been at it this week, bombarding me above and beyond the requisite 3 occurences, which is tells me I am particularly dense in this case and I am just not getting it.

So a little back story...

In recent days I have experienced a resurfacing of some emotions. Things I have purposefully buried in an attempt to "Stay Positive" and "Put on a Happy Face!" On the surface is a calm serene demeanor mixed with my particular brand of snarky with a smile attitude. I got this! Life is good! I am on top of the world! And mostly - that's really true.

But underneath, something darker lurks.

I feel heavy. Grief and anger churn in my belly in alternating currents. I am bloated and potent with emotion. I would cry, but I might weep. I would yell, but I may rip someone's eyeballs out instead (and damn it that would feel so good!).

**smile** **laugh** **make a joke** **look pretty**

Well, The Big Mama/Poppa ain't having it.

So the first message came through my daughter, who reminded me about the Vernal Equinox and how the moon was moving into my sun sign Aries.

Then a friend sent me a video clip, a dark and stunning thirty seconds that resonated with those matching feelings in my bones. There was one haunting shot of the moon shining through the shadow of a tree. I have watched that clip a dozen times.

Then I had a conversation with another friend about the characters in Dream Walker and how I came up with their names. I told her I almost named Aislen, Chandra, instead. But Aislen means 'dream' and Chandra means 'moon'. I got a little inkling here... but it wasn't enough.

Then I did a tarot card reading and, you guessed it, pulled The Moon card. That was when I got the message.

The moon is a powerful presence in our lives. It tends to take a back seat to the more obvious glories of the sun, but in terms of its influence I think the moon holds sway.

When I contemplate the sun, I think of dynamic action. The sun has the power to warm the surface of things. When I think of the moon, I think of gravity, magnetism and reflection. The moon moves the tides, turns the lakes, and pulls things up out of the dark so they may be revealed.

And this new moon in Aries is doing that for me. A poisonous concoction of bitterness, resentment and hurt I have been choking down and covering up with denial, the guise of forgiveness, and the actions of trying to be a good person is regurgitating.

The Universe is telling me it is time. "Let the Moon work its medicine," it says. Because playing nice is not being real and faking it is keeping you from really healing. This moon is pulling the murky 'stuff' up from the depths of me so they can be revealed, so I can be honest, so I can get rid of it, so I can heal.

Message received. Loud and clear.

I would just like to say that sometime it would be nice if You, Oh Great ONE would just show up as a burning bush that speaks English... or maybe as Morgan Freeman. It might cut my learning curve in half.

Shannan

We live in the fiction.

Visionary Fiction speaks the language of the soul. It contains all the elements of modern storytelling yet there is a deeper layer, an archetypal level. This level invites a reader to personally undergo the mystical inner initiations that the book’s character experiences. Visionary Fiction not only entertains, it embeds esoteric wisdom and paranormal experiences in story. It is an ancient art of storytelling – but a fairly new genre in the publishing world.

Often relegated to the genre of Fantasy, Paranormal, Metaphysical, or Spirituality, Visionary Fiction contains elements of all four. But the story line is more concerned with how the character’s internal experiences of paranormal events – such as visions, dreams, psychic phenomena, past life remembrances, or forays into uncharted planes of existence – are the unique catalysts for transformation. These types of non-linear occurrences run parallel to our everyday conditioned reality. Visionary Fiction allows the reader to glimpse a doorway into these alternate realities.

Our Current Reality

We live in a world that operates under an imbalanced masculine-principle way of thinking. I am referring to the unhealthy attitude that produces greed, war, violence, domination, authority outside ourselves, and rational/linear thought to the exclusion of intuition and feelings. In general, society demeans the feminine principle of nurturance, receptivity, cooperation, emotions, our ‘sixth sense’ and intuition. I am not talking about gender when I speak about the masculine and feminine principles, but, rather, about ways of being and behaving. Both principles can act healthy or unhealthy; helpful or hurtful. In other words, you could say there’s an excess of unhealthy Yang, and a suppressed/restricted Yin. You need only examine the degeneration of our cultural institutions – the banks, church, the politics – to see that societal structures are crumbling under the effects of this imbalance.

I find it interesting that many ancient spiritual systems, such as the Hopi, Mayan, and Hindu, foretold a golden age. They predicted our current era in history as the transition point into this evolution of consciousness. As with all change, there is chaos and destruction before there is regeneration. This is simply the way our world works. If these ancient spiritual predictions are true, this explains the depth of turbulence we see and feel around us.

Visionary Fiction in today’s world

Humankind longs for a new story. A regenerative and hope filled rebirth. A world that joins the best that both the masculine and feminine principles have to offer. In the union of heart and head, and with wisdom, guardianship, and power that are infused with love, that golden age the ancients predicted can arrive.

One time honored way to open up to this alchemical change and explore humanity’s potential is through the vital act of storytelling. Visionary Fiction can rouse humanity’s new story – through story. The mystical encounters, paranormal abilities, and spiritual awakenings woven into Visionary Fiction provide the raw material for the transformation of not only the novel’s characters, but for readers as well. The invitation is to apply the embedded wisdom of the book into our own lives.

Yes, Visionary Fiction speaks the language of the soul. It offers a vision of humanity as we dream it could be. At a time where our world is going through so much tumultuous change, we need more Visionary Fiction.

*********************************

 Jodine Turner is an author of Young Adult/Adult fantasy, visionary, magical realism, and paranormal romance. She is a part of the Vistionary Fiction Web Ring, devoted to promoting the genre of Visionary Fiction.

Visionary Fiction speaks the language of the soul. It contains all the elements of modern storytelling yet there is a deeper layer, an archetypal level. This level invites a reader to personally undergo the mystical inner initiations that the book’s character experiences. Visionary Fiction not only entertains, it embeds esoteric wisdom and paranormal experiences in story. It is an ancient art of storytelling – but a fairly new genre in the publishing world.

Often relegated to the genre of Fantasy, Paranormal, Metaphysical, or Spirituality, Visionary Fiction contains elements of all four. But the story line is more concerned with how the character’s internal experiences of paranormal events – such as visions, dreams, psychic phenomena, past life remembrances, or forays into uncharted planes of existence – are the unique catalysts for transformation. These types of non-linear occurrences run parallel to our everyday conditioned reality. Visionary Fiction allows the reader to glimpse a doorway into these alternate realities.

Our Current Reality

We live in a world that operates under an imbalanced masculine-principle way of thinking. I am referring to the unhealthy attitude that produces greed, war, violence, domination, authority outside ourselves, and rational/linear thought to the exclusion of intuition and feelings. In general, society demeans the feminine principle of nurturance, receptivity, cooperation, emotions, our ‘sixth sense’ and intuition. I am not talking about gender when I speak about the masculine and feminine principles, but, rather, about ways of being and behaving. Both principles can act healthy or unhealthy; helpful or hurtful. In other words, you could say there’s an excess of unhealthy Yang, and a suppressed/restricted Yin. You need only examine the degeneration of our cultural institutions – the banks, church, the politics – to see that societal structures are crumbling under the effects of this imbalance.

I find it interesting that many ancient spiritual systems, such as the Hopi, Mayan, and Hindu, foretold a golden age. They predicted our current era in history as the transition point into this evolution of consciousness. As with all change, there is chaos and destruction before there is regeneration. This is simply the way our world works. If these ancient spiritual predictions are true, this explains the depth of turbulence we see and feel around us.

Visionary Fiction in today’s world

Humankind longs for a new story. A regenerative and hope filled rebirth. A world that joins the best that both the masculine and feminine principles have to offer. In the union of heart and head, and with wisdom, guardianship, and power that are infused with love, that golden age the ancients predicted can arrive.

One time honored way to open up to this alchemical change and explore humanity’s potential is through the vital act of storytelling. Visionary Fiction can rouse humanity’s new story – through story. The mystical encounters, paranormal abilities, and spiritual awakenings woven into Visionary Fiction provide the raw material for the transformation of not only the novel’s characters, but for readers as well. The invitation is to apply the embedded wisdom of the book into our own lives.

Yes, Visionary Fiction speaks the language of the soul. It offers a vision of humanity as we dream it could be. At a time where our world is going through so much tumultuous change, we need more Visionary Fiction.

*********************************

Jodine Turner is an author of Young Adult/Adult fantasy, visionary, magical realism, and paranormal romance. She is a part of the Vistionary Fiction Web Ring, devoted to promoting the genre of Visionary Fiction.