{"id":1183,"date":"2012-03-09T22:37:51","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T03:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unfoldingseries.com\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2013-04-13T16:08:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-13T21:08:13","slug":"peeling-back-the-unfolding-curtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unfoldingseries.com\/uf9\/peeling-back-the-unfolding-curtain\/","title":{"rendered":"Peeling Back the Unfolding Curtain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Start of a Writer’s Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

I lay awake, feeling rested. My wife sleeping beside me, I allowed my mind to drift \u2026 recalling the places I\u2019d been.<\/p>\n

There was a thought somewhere \u2013 Ah \u2026 here.<\/p>\n

A Greek theater, Yes \u2026 Dionysus \u2026 I\u2019ve stood here 40 years earlier and now return.<\/p>\n

I look at the seats filled with my readers. They are months and years out of sync with my experience.<\/p>\n

There is a bubble, a force-field, between us. They look, but cannot really see the play. They have to use the completed novels and watch the stage through the pages yet to be finalized.<\/p>\n

I leave the bedroom and return to my keyboard; the other characters file across the stage, taking their places, to stand nearby in cliques. The women on this project form a chorus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s tension you wanted, you\u2019ve created it!\u201d begins one of them.<\/p>\n

I laugh at her remark, knowing what\u2019s coming, for I have heard it from others.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyler! I hate him!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t tell anyone,\u201d I plead, \u201cHe\u2019s fictional and exists only in your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a reprise form the chorus, \u201cIf its tension you wanted you\u2019ve created it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are on a journey, but I am not allowed to tell you. Forgive me.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of my oldest friends steps forward, \u201cThis is the mystical experience \u2013 psychic awareness. Polish the first chapter. Maybe make Tyler more controlling. If he can show up anywhere you are, he has issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another voice from the chorus, \u201cToo many ellipses and hyphens! They keep pulling me out of the story. I want to take a hammer to them!\u201d<\/p>\n

Together the chorus sings, \u201cConfusion, fear mystery, conflict\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Old Friend: asks, \u201cWho is this Candice? I don\u2019t know her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chorus answers, \u201cShe\u2019s a character representing several women. The latest is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candice steps forward through the parting women, \u201cYou can do whatever you want with me. This is fiction and I trust you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are safe,\u201d I offer. \u201cYour magic protected me that one summer day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. It helped you. You were protected because of who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chorus encircles Candice, \u201cHe took the high moral ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo!\u201d I shout. \u201cNot me! It was Drew who took the high ground. I only stopped to see a friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ghost of Tyler steps forward, \u201cI can\u2019t read your work. It\u2019s not me. I\u2019m afraid to find out what you will decide to tell people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, Nobel Friend. I\u2019ve had to break your character to tell a story. If I could reveal the truth differently and not hurt you, I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have told everyone I have an affair with Andrea!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do, Tyler, and it was most beautiful to behold as it became apparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrea\u2019s ghost enters and moves across the stage to stand on his right, on the side of my desk opposite from Old Friend, \u201cI didn\u2019t mean for any of this to happen. I knew you would understand when you came to visit, but I was still afraid \u2026 unsure.\u201d<\/p>\n

I try to touch her hand, but pass through meeting no resistance. \u201cYou and Carol and Candice and Tyler have unlocked the author in me. I hope you are not disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI did nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither did I, other than moving what we did into a place where we can share it with other souls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candice stepped forward a second time to be heard. \u201cYou are the author. You visited me then Andrea. Nothing from the last two years would have followed, if you hadn\u2019t started to write.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the chorus escort her back into their fold. \u201cThere is resistance and a struggle to awakening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Old Friend sets his coffee cup on the side of my desk, \u201cIt\u2019s interesting that you see the astral as part of the dreaming. I just go there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe temple is real, so is The Lady, the guardian. There are mountains, but not as you describe them in that place that exists beyond the \u2018physical\u2019 reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first woman from the chorus steps forward, \u201cI do enjoy the dream scene. I don\u2019t trust Drew. I thought I could, but not now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her companion moves next to her and takes her hand, leading her back to the female chorus, \u201cHe\u2019s using the metric system. Dear, if you\u2019re going to use \u2018dream\u2019 be consistent and try to say \u2018dreamt\u2019 it sounds international that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

First Woman, looks at the chorus, \u201cI wait for clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the chorus settles, First Woman turns to take her place asking, \u201cWho was Hisa? I mean you drop her in at the end of a chapter and then what? Nothing!<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a walk-on character,\u201d I explain – wondering if I\u2019ve used these last two hyphens correctly and why the word processor didn\u2019t make the second an em dash. \u201cShe shows us the world Drew inhabits is everywhere, a little out of sync with the everyday world.\u201d<\/p>\n

My readers\u2019 attention is drawn from the novel, shifting in their seats trying to peer into the bubble.<\/p>\n

The cold stone stage is affecting me. I haven\u2019t put my shoes on. It\u2019s almost noon in Athens and the middle of autumn. I shiver, it is almost as cool here as it is in Ohio today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not magic,\u201d begins Old Friend. \u201cEveryone needs to know that. The main thing is we cannot \u2018fix\u2019 other people. They must fix themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShhh.\u201d I urge him.<\/p>\n

Ignoring me he presses in, \u201cThe right people will be around. We can listen and help them help themselves. We have the present remembering of past lives. These can overlap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTyler is driving me nuts!\u201d screams First Woman. \u201cPerhaps this is what you intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her friend gasps, \u201c\u2026 I forgot, in chapter 3 on page 36 \u2026 You called it \u2018Crystal\u2019 and capitalized it. I looked and think you should just call it \u2018crystal meth,\u201d but don\u2019t hyphenate it. Your wife uses hyphens inconsistently when she corrects your writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019s all her. I sometimes delete her hyphens because when I went to school it was different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Professor storms onto the stage, \u201cYou have a nice story, but it\u2019s sanguine. If you want people outside of your family to read it you need grit!<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd look at everyone! They\u2019re all WASPS! Tyler and Andrea are from New York! Make Tyler either Italian, or Irish, then people will understand why he\u2019s the way he is! Those old families and first generation are real<\/strong> characters.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou spent time in New York didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

She nods and looks to the assembly, wanting to mingle, but unsure where to stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cStephan used to wear a leather Indian costume,\u201d suggests Old Friend distracting me from introducing The Professor to her peers.<\/p>\n

Forgetting the others, I am pulled to that memory, \u201cYes, yes \u2026 I had forgotten,\u201d and smile. \u201cI wish I could have put that into one of the Nexus<\/em> scenes. I\u2019m too far along now and it\u2019s not worth it.\u201d I looked at the audience, \u201cThey already have their pictures of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Tyler,\u201d First Woman reminds me. \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s a stalker, but I see him dressed like one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does a stalker look like?\u201d I ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnit hat \u2026 muscles \u2026 trim, but creepy \u2013 Oh, and he wears dark sunglasses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler\u2019s ghost stirs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want you to hold that thought, First Woman, and tell me what you think of him as you keep reading and again at the end. It\u2019s important I understand your impressions at each stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to break your illusion right now, you\u2019re doing so well with it, but Tyler is looking at me. You can\u2019t see him the way I can. As a special favor to me, just hold the thought somewhere that he\u2019s no different than you.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know that though\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d she admitted. \u201cI am Tyler. And thank you for using that em dash. I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you put that in your survey? It would be ever so helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Locking my laptop to prepare for breakfast, I watch the cast members exit.<\/p>\n

Old Friend asks a final question, \u201cDid you tell them about the crystal knife?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/strong>\u00a0Jeffrey A. Limpert<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

__________________<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Image Information:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/secure.flickr.com\/photos\/jes5199\/3279786442\/
\nBy: jes5199 Alec Hidell<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Start of a Writer’s Day I lay awake, feeling rested. My wife sleeping beside me, I allowed my mind<\/p>\n

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