“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.” – Carl Sagan

Dia Blake, a friend…actually, a “fan”-turned-friend, posted this quote by Carl Sagan on my Facebook page this week.  Mr. Sagan was brilliant American – an astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and predominantly a scientist, of course.  But, based on this quote, he was a scientist who also believed in things created outside of a lab, outside of the black and white fences which often border scientific thought.  In this quote, specifically, he supports his belief that we mere humans can, with thoughts and words, create magic.

In The Unlikely Savior, during at least one character discussion, the concept of the entire universe operating on one continuum is mentioned.  In certain areas of quantum physics, it has been suggested that the human psyche truly does not know the difference between what’s real and what is in one’s mind when registering a physical or emotional reaction–and that when we go somewhere in our mind – conscious or otherwise, we are as good as there and can gain the same benefit.  Some even believe the continuum knows no time, thus you can go or be anywhere, anytime and even manifest your desires.  I spend a lot of time in my future (and yet nonexistent) cabin in Alaska during meditation and I assure you, it’s way cheaper than the real thing–but I could describe every nook and cranny of that place!  But that’s another book(s).  But for the purposes of this blog, the quantum physics stuff works very nicely with the Sagan quote and I am, after all, at the wheel on this!

Whether or not you believe in Sagan’s brand of “magic” or the suggestions of quantum physics, I hope you would agree that a book – or more specifically, a story, should take you away.  I love books because of the escape and adventure they provide.   For me, the characters are easily the most critical part of any work of fiction.  You may be interested in a situation or a plot, but if you relate the characters, you are there.  A friend who recently finished The Unlikely Savior posted, “The hope of any author is to captivate their readers. I was captivated and felt the emotions of each of the characters in the story, and at times felt like I was “in” the story!”   Others suggested similar experiences…and that tells me that they and I found ourselves in that place Carl Sagan so aptly described; that wonderful place where people enter one another’s minds, breaking down barriers.  I think we can go so far as to add the minds of the characters to the minds of real people – because when you are with them, aren’t they just as real?

I can tell you that that “place” exists for the writer as well as the future reader.  It’s difficult to explain, but I am certain other writers know that place and that it is the location from which worlds are created.  If I sit at the computer to work on a story and the world around me doesn’t simply disappear – just like it does for you when you read a captivating book–then I need to switch gears or walk away for a while. 

Is the world the writer goes to, the world they “create,” and the one you enter when reading the story the same?  If you listen to Sagan and the millions of believers in a connected universe, then perhaps it is.  Or maybe it’s all speculation by people who just don’t believe what we see and touch can’t be all there is.  Or maybe it’s a bunch of hooey.  Maybe it all depends on the limits of your own heart and imagination.

As for me?  As a reader, I always knew I could go away on wings of a great story.  Now I know that through writing, I can spread my own wings and create the trip and destination – and those who live there.   But all journeys are best when shared. 

I know what I believe.  I hope you read The Unlikely Savior, Billet Doux from a Dead Prisoner and the many more worlds waiting for me and you.  And when you do, I’ll see you there.