Before the world falls, the dreamers will rise –
carrying stories no darkness can erase.
What if, over a vast expanse of time, our innate ability to access the Dreaming Realm has diminished, leaving us with a vague or maybe even a strong sense of disconnection – a deep knowing that there has to be something more?
This is the underlying theme of my new novel, Raven’s Daughter: The Story Keeper – a visionary story that emerged from a series of seemingly unrelated waking dreams I’d had over the last 15 years.
“This book is fun, edgy, quick cadenced, and colorful – just like the author herself. Raven’s Daughter brings the depths of spirit to the palm of the reader’s hand. It’s a brilliant book – accessible to anyone willing to pause, look within, and see beyond.”
– Kevin Hancock, author of Not For Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse
Set in the near future, where artificial intelligence has been quietly corrupted by an ancient, insidious virus of deception, Raven’s Daughter follows Charlie – a receptionist haunted by a painful past and yearning for the safety of an ordinary life. But when her dreams begin to unveil uncanny truths, Charlie is forced to reckon with a deeper reality: she may be far more than she appears. As a shapeshifter and story keeper, she becomes the unlikely key to restoring balance between nature, humanity, and machine.
Where dreams crumble, and lies take root, a Story Keeper rises.
Charlie is a creature of habit, longing, and loss. She’s plagued by recurring nightmares and later unsettling waking dreams that pull her into the Dreaming Realm, a place that’s both familiar and strange, where she can heal her wounds and reconnect with an ancient, wise part of herself. This is an invitation that sits in the recesses of each of our dreaming selves. To me, Charlie is all of us.
“Charlie is a complexly human and wildly mythological heroine, who makes superpowers from both her weakness and her strength. Raven’s Daughter is a story to help spark our remembering and save our world.”
– Meredith Heller, author of Write a Poem, Save Your Life and Writing By Heart
Since the origins of this story are a bit on the unusual side, I thought it might be helpful to offer a little background. In 1998 I had a series of brief, spontaneous waking dreams that were both intense and intriguing. I was a newly licensed mental health clinician at the time, so I tucked those experiences away for fear of being judged. (I am technically delusional by Western psychological standards!) Little did I know, those initial visionary experiences were a taste of what was to come.
Over the next two years a progression of mind-blowing synchronicities led me to explore and eventually study shamanism, a practice I had only a Hollywood notion of at the time. That initiatory period was rife with magic, wonderment, and ego-shattering challenges as my worldview was flipped on its head.
Learning how to intentionally connect with the varied and expansive landscapes of the Dreaming Realm was like accessing a missing limb I didn’t realize I was missing. Everything started making sense.
“…a beautifully written and deeply imaginative story that weaves myth, spirit, and nature into something truly memorable. The story feels realistic, like an ancient tale passed down.
– Gail Lynn, Inventor, Author, Filmmaker, harmonicegg.com
When I started feeling an almost urgent pull to write Raven’s Daughter five or so years ago, I was reunited with the First Mother, the Spirit of the Earth, and understood that she would be a Dreamtime coauthor of sorts. I’d met the First Mother briefly many years ago and was deeply moved by her unconditional love for us despite our collective estrangement from her. She truly is the archetypal mother who wants nothing but the best for us, forever supportive and accepting despite our shortcomings. I’ve come to see Raven’s Daughter as her love letter to us, her human children.
As I wrote, I’d get nudges, reminders of previous Dreamtime experiences – specifically the experiences where I thought I was just following a “random” curiosity – that became vital themes and storylines. Looking back, I can see now that a part of me was dreaming this story into existence over the span of many years without me consciously knowing it.
Though it’s a work of fiction, my hope is that Raven’s Daughter offers an imaginative lens for reflecting on the challenges of our time. The story explores many of the themes we seem to be broadly struggling with at this intense time of transition, including our complicated relationship with truth and deception, the influence of artificial intelligence, and our growing disconnection from ourselves and the natural world. My deepest hope is that readers will receive this story as an invitation to dream again – like our ancient ancestors once did – and in doing so, open the doors of possibility through which a kinder world can be dreamed into being.
