Note from the Author

by J.M.Barrie

January 2020 | Clear sight

Writing this story was much like falling backwards through a dream. For most of my life creativity unfurled in the art of painting. But when a recurring dream began to haunt me I was led to write.

I could recall only a single scene from the dream and one character.

Eventually a full picture formed — a place with atmosphere;

As other characters came into the story I struggled.

How would I name them? I did not know what they were who they were.

Here, I surrendered to the Jungian practice of Soul Collage.

This practice of archetypal alchemy uses the art of collage to release what is lurking in one’s subconscious.

Cutting and pasting images from magazines I initially felt childish. But suddenly my characters came to life. Once I knew what they looked like and what they carried with them, the story took off.

Yes, one of the main characters is a bird. That certainly took me by surprise. He initially came in with a small role as an element of comic relief then pushed himself into a place of prominence.

I would write in the morning and work my day job in the afternoon. I pushed through— three pages a day, as my hero Philip Pullman, author of the Golden compass said he had done.

I did not stop to look up, I just kept writing.

Whispers and bits of dialogue came in dreams.

Doubts came too.

This story was too big for me to write!

When I escaped into a hot bath the words came on their own, written in the fog of my bathroom mirror. Signs came too. Stunning fragments of my story started showing up in everyday life to encourage me.

I became completely absorbed in the story and had difficulty coming out of it. I chose to sit at my desk until the book was brought to a close. My biggest concern was, of course, how to make a “good ending.”

This process was full of surrender. As a painter I have spent many hours in battle with my artistic ego. I found the writing process wholly incomparable. I never felt the story was my work. The story was writing me. I heard the story as it was being told, I was just the listener.

Reading this story you will enter a landscape of the imagination. As an arm chair traveler you will encounter a brave new world in a story full of heart and soul. The captivating tale is suitable for the young and the young at heart, who are willing to unlock the door to a dimension of the mind.