Does your WIP visit your sleep?

[Eva Ulian]

I don’t know if it was a dream or thinking half in sleep, but an episode which must have occurred sometimes in the summer of 2015 came to mind. When I woke this morning, I knew, I just had to include it in my WIP.

For those not familiar with my WIP: Satan in the Sanctuary, it is the story of our parish lay-nun who shows signs of attachment to a maleficent entity.

But back to my nightly adventures. In the summer of 2015, someone asked me to write an article on the church cleaners because they were short of volunteers and needed some publicity. So, one Friday morning our parish Priest asked them all to turn up so I could take a picture for the parish magazine.

The lay-nun turned up with a tank of liquid polish cleaner for the church floor, saying it was very effective; and as the Bishop was coming Sunday the church had to be really spic and span. So, they all set to work with mops and brushes. After a while I came back to take a photo and wanted to compliment them on a job well done so as to boost their morale. To my amazement, I found doors and windows were thrown wide open, even those that had been bolted for years! I stepped inside and almost fell backwards by what seemed the smell of rotten sewerage filling up the church. I held my breath and ran out.

For those not familiar with demonic influences; one recognisable feature of the demonic is the putrid smell which human knowledge cannot compare or identify.

Why that episode should suddenly emerge in the middle of the night, I have no idea, but to me it’s an omen, too good to ignore. It will add to the other tell-tale events in my WIP, because this smell is evidence of Satan at work- it had nothing to do with the cleaner- for heavens sake, who would sell such a thing, let alone buy it?

Like all the others, this episode must be included in my WIP because, should my MS one day be published, the people around here will certainly remember this particular incident. So a goodnight to all of you.

Do you dream about your WIP?

Have any of your night visitations been useful to the work in hand?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Yes, I 'sorted' out a chapter problem in my sleep last night.

But about this fascinating ghastly pong...how long did it last? Did the Bishop smell it? Can you pray it away, ask Michael to drop by?

 

[Eva Ulian]

Yes, I 'sorted' out a chapter problem in my sleep last night.

But about this fascinating ghastly pong...how long did it last? Did the Bishop smell it? Can you pray it away, ask Michael to drop by?

I believe the women went over the floors with water (holy water?) to get the stuff off and other things which drove them up the wall. They kept the doors wide open all of Friday till late and again from early on Saturday till night. I went on Sunday morning- the smell was nothing near to what it was, even so, I still noted traces like that of frogs. However, the nun does not clean the church, she just turned up to the meeting with her tank of liquid, I believe also to get her picture taken so as to be noted that she "sacrifices" herself for the parish- but also, I suspect, to get into the young parish priest's good books. The women were mad because she turned up and what the hell was she doing passing off as one who cleaned the church when she never even picked up a pin from the floor, they complained.

I remember too, I was talking to some nuns at our local convent and the priest was also there. At one point of the conversation I said "There's a stink in our church." Knowing my aversion towards that woman, the nuns thought I was talking about the lay-nun. The priest noticed that, and was quick to explain, that I didn't mean people but there had been an accident, the women used the wrong cleaner! Ha, I thought, he defended her even knowing she was blatantly being evil.

The priest is in the picture, so is she. She's the tall one, 4th one along away from the priest, with the white blouse and black skirt. Actually I was thinking of doing a portrait gallery of all the persons in real life which correspond to the characters in the book and send it along with my submission!

BTW I am not infringing anyone's privacy by publishing that picture here- it has been published in our parish magazine and is even now on our online parish magazine, so there's no need to put this in the back room. There is nothing to hide.

 

[Carol Rose]

The first book I ever finished (in 2001) still haunts my waking and sleeping dreams. It's a never-ending, always-evolving sweeping saga. If I ever sat down to write the story that way it was meant to be written, I'd have about five full-length novels.

 

[Eva Ulian]

The first book I ever finished (in 2001) still haunts my waking and sleeping dreams. It's a never-ending, always-evolving sweeping saga. If I ever sat down to write the story that way it was meant to be written, I'd have about five full-length novels.

And were all your others a tingling reminiscent of that one? What was it about that it took hold of you so much?

 

[Carol Rose]

And were all your others a tingling reminiscent of that one? What was it about that it took hold of you so much?

No, the others really have nothing to do with that one.

I really don't know why it took hold of me so much. I wish I did.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

'Blatant evil', I think it may be sensed or seen by others, but the person at the source of it may well not be at all conscious of it, themselves.

 

[Eva Ulian]

'Blatant evil', I think it may be sensed or seen by others, but the person at the source of it may well not be at all conscious of it, themselves.

You are absolutely right @Katie-Ellen Hazeldine, they have no idea, otherwise they would do something about it, I would think. And that is why they also are so dangerous. But that is when they are possessed by the Devil and are in a trance during an exorcism session- they remember nothing of what they do and once the bout is over, they return to being perfectly normal.

However, what I am experiencing is not something done during an exorcism session. This is everyday life. She is fully conscious... I think. However, that is not how an exorcist looks at it. When I told him, I could not accept what he asked me to do, namely forgive and forget because I consider that woman as if she were the Devil, and said I could not help thinking that, and it was beyond me thinking otherwise. He just said, we are free to think what we want or not to. There's no such thing as doing something "involuntarily" or without knowing it. So if that goes for me, it should also go for her. She must know she's doing wrong since there's no such thing as doing something "involuntary", given that we all possess free will.

The exorcist also told me that if we could all claim to do something because "we couldn't help it" then anyone could murder someone and say he was not aware of doing so, or couldn't help it. But obviously, he didn't seem to want to apply this to her, only to me.

The Church administrators apply some rules to us poor mortals but not to themselves, the religious. So you see this is a battle I have to fight on my own- no Church person will help me out of this dilemma, even less back me up.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I've met it three times. Felt physically ill. The person meant no harm, may have been perfectly pleasant, but was at that juncture in the grip of some great need, an obsession or addiction of some kind, often with some shock attached, not necessarily to do with substances at all. They create vortexes in their wake. I've never smelled that smell though.

But at least one of those did climb out of that bad place and has stayed out. Entirely thanks to her own courage and good will. But never discounting the power of prayer and its possibilities.

 

[Eva Ulian]

I can understand people may have something like a "fit" for want of a better word and as a result of some obsession or addiction, but this woman does not suffer from such things. She's quite normal, she just does things to spite others, in particular someone she is jealous of.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

The green eyed monster, eh. It really does have green eyes, too. Folk wisdom is right.

 

[Eva Ulian]

It's a puzzle! If it wasn't, it wouldn't be worth writing.

 

[Robert M Derry]

My next novel is set on Mars and I dream about it constantly. It drives me insane!