Hey All,

It’s my day to post, which means I’ve gone into brain freeze and all creativity is out the window. This is a ‘minor’ (ha!) problem when I have a contract deadline! So short of sticking my head into a microwave to try to thaw my brain, I started considering all the weird stuff that’s come out in my writing over the years. And found it *very* scary. Heather Waters has a great blog site where guest authors discuss where their story ideas come from. You can visit that at http://www.ideaboutique.blogspot.com/ It’s very interesting and insightful.

But this post isn’t actually about where my story ideas come from. It’s about the fact that apparently there is some really weird stuff in my subconscious. Often, when I’m writing, this stuff comes pouring out, and I read it and think, “Where did that come from?” Like the first book I wrote, a futuristic (now safely ensconced under my bed, keeping the dust bunnies company). In that book, I have an alien encounter where the hunky alien comes into the intrepid heroine’s bedroom in the middle of the night. She thinks it’s a dream, but it’s not. He ends up abducting her. When a friend read the story, she said that she had read a book written by people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens, and that my descriptions had matched theirs exactly (and no, I had never read any alien abduction books). Janet decided I must have been abducted and returned, but didn’t consciously remember the experience. Hey, I’m not ruling it out! But how creepy is that?

Or the fact that I re-created the Holocaust in my Shielder series, and didn’t even realize it until someone pointed it out? Or that my hero in Shadow Fires is half reptile (????), or that when I wrote my vampire prostitute heroine for an upcoming anthology (Demon’s Delight, March 2007), all these dark and very graphic sex scenes came pouring out (boy, would my husband be surprised!). Who knows where all this stuff came from, or how it got in my head? It’s all news to me.

My point? Our subconscious is like a sponge. It remembers everything that goes into it—everything—every thought, word, impression, everything we see, hear, feel. And as I firmly maintain, “Thoughts are things.” That’s why I don’t watch the news or read a newspaper. Why should I dump horrendous and negative events into my psyche when I can’t do a darned thing about them? It also means we should be careful about what we think and say. The “I’m fat”, “I’m stupid”, “I’m worthless”, “I can’t do it”, “I can’t write”, “It’s hopeless” type of statements should be an absolute no-no. Instead, how about turning them around? “I’m losing weight”, “I’m learning new things”, “I do have value”, “I can do anything I set my mind to”, “I’m a creative child of the Universe” and “There is always hope”. See how much better that sounds and feels? And trust me, your subconscious is listening.

This brings me to another point: Read romances! They’re empowering, show protagonists overcoming problems, and are ultimately uplifting with a happily ever after ending. What positive things to put into your psyche. And if you can add some chocolate and a nice merlot to the mix, what an enjoyable experience.

So, got romance books? What’s on your TBR pile?