Have you ever asked for a dream that would help answer a question in your waking life? I routinely do. In fact, it's common for me to ask to remember dreams that would help my storylines.

Recently I was asked to do the author review for “Facades” and “Back to Salem,” my first and second novel. This work was originally published in 2000 and 2001 is being reincarnated, as Bella Books returns them to print.  In both cases I was given the chance to edit the original work published by Haworth Press.

As a recovering perfectionist I struggled a bit with the question -- when is good, good enough?  Both books were written at the dawn of my writing career over ten years ago.   Needless to say my writing has changed since that time and it wasn’t easy to review the books. As we grow and our writing evolves, I wondered if we have a responsibility to improve our earlier work. With great consideration, I realized there’s a fine line between dishonoring the original work by completely rewriting it, and honoring it by tweaking it.

While I tweaked a lot and was tempted to rewrite both stories, I resisted and honored the voice and feelings I had while writing these books … except I have to admit I changed the ending of “Back to Salem” … a bit.

I wrapped up the edits on “Back to Salem” on Friday.  Perhaps I had that change on my mind because on Saturday I had a dream. In my dream I was rewriting a section of the book, the section I had changed only hours earlier, only this time an instant message abruptly popped up on my monitor with one word, “POWERFUL.”

I woke up and lay still, wondering if it was real or a dream.  Realizing I was in bed, not in my office, I took it as a sign that the changes I made to “Back to Salem” made the book better and I look forward to sharing more information on the release of the new “Back to Salem.”

Do you ask to remember your dreams to help answer your questions?