I am starting a new series based on my short story “Sweet Dreams’ that was published in 2014. It was based  both on a close high school friend and my spiritual journey. It was suggested by the publisher that I write it as fiction. I did this and shortened the story.  This series will have the back story to some of the actual events.  

I was inspired to write the series this summer while I was listening to Billy Squier’s ‘Don’t Say No’ album (actually CD,  while driving in my car) which figures in part of  this story.  I love Billy Squier’s music. .  So did my friend. In fact, the day of her funeral in the late summer of 1981 I saw that album on the shelf in her bedroom. It was opened on the side so I knew she’d played the record and the plastic covering was still on the album jacket to protect the artwork. The same was true for  Journey’s album ‘Escape’ which had been released the month prior. 

We both loved rock music. A lot. I still do, though my music palette has expanded to different genres. I like to say whatever moves me at the moment. 

My friends name was Jeannine. In the story, she is known as Janie and her nickname, Spacey.

‘Sweet Dreams’  was inspired by her. I remember writing about our brief friendship  when this book was only an idea.  Recalling a few details  but then glimpses of something that happened or something she said or did.  Wonderful memories came flooding back to me. I know that I hadn’t really forgotten her, only certain specifics and experiences. Remembering her and  healing. The more I recalled these memories, the more emotional I got. Crying, laughing, sadness, joy.

Jeannine and I first met during lunch period in high school. I nicknamed her ‘Spacey’ after Space Ace Frehley. She was – we both were – KISS fans.  She had a homemade book cover that was personally decorated by her. That is,  doodles and stickers and in particular, a lightening bolt and some other drawings and references to the heavy metal rock band. We clicked immediately. 

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I also wanted to incorporate my experiences  such as using tarot cards as divination, visiting psychic mediums and of course, dreams.  I wrote about  my first teachers – those who shared their knowledge with me, the books they gave me to read.  ‘When the student is ready, the teacher appears.’ And I was ready…long before ‘woo woo’ became part of the vernacular. 

My first experience with losing someone I personally knew was very hard. I  knew she was dead and it was difficult to understand that she wasn’t coming back. That I would never see her again. No one had talked with me about death. No one talked about death at all in the early 1980’s. It was something that just happened. When Jeannine said to me at the school lunch table, one day, that she had a premonition that she was going to die, I didn’t take it seriously. But she was serious. I didn’t ask her to elaborate or ask her if she wanted to talk about it. It scared me. It scared me that she could die. I didn’t have the tools to have this conversation. I simply said something like “No you won’t. You’ll be fine.” 

A huge part of my spiritual path has been wanting to understand what happens to us when we die. Is it the end when someone passes? I explore that in ‘Sweet Dreams’.  What I have come to believe is that dying is not the end. 

What is all in the mainstream now wasn’t forty years ago.