Author Notes: The Quiet Before the Burn

I don’t think enough of us get silence in our lives.

When I first wrote Dreyma’s scenes in Where the Dust Still Glows, there was a lot of noise and I couldn’t really connect with her. But as soon as I shut the noise off - she was there. I felt really connected with her, and I really got the sense of where she was and where we needed to go.

Her opening scene came to me because she needed to get out of the noise. She stepped out onto the roof of her building and a storm was blowing in. It was just this magical moment, and I really hope it’s one that resonates with you. It’s a peace offering.

Silence vs Noise in Where the Dust Glows

I was talking to a business coach yesterday and I mentioned something about how chaotic my life was in some aspects and how it was just busy in others, and she challenged me. She asked what that meant and what that looked like. OMG. I gotta say. I love Shyla. She gets me.

For me, chaos is my emotions. They’re big and feel like emotion noodles I can’t control or breathe through sometimes. But if I can get them out of my head and put them on paper, I become just busy and in control.

I think a lot of people feel this, which is why they prefer noise over silence. Noise gives us the ability to ignore or brush aside the thoughts that don’t make sense, the big emotions that threaten to overwhelm us, the fears and anxieties that threaten to topple us even if they have no or very little merit.

In silence, we have to sit with that. All of that.

I think that’s why I love Dreyma’s scenes in the first half of the book because she has to sit in that silence. She has to deal with it. She can’t escape. She can’t run. She just has to sit there and face how she got here and figure out how to get out of it.

What This Means for the Story Going Forward

Given the chance, Dreyma faces herself inside her silence and finds a way to rebuild herself in a way that feels right to her. It’s not easy. She sacrifices a part of herself - well, closes the door to that old version of herself and rebuilds something of value from it. She wouldn’t have been able to do that if she’d kept pushing, kept charging forward without rest. She would have just exhausted herself and ended up dead with a shriveled soul.

I’m excited to see where Dreyma goes after she’s awakened. I still have to get Lixiss to her, but when she gets out of her own dream sludge, I’m looking forward to experiencing what she builds from this silence.

I’m tentatively excited to see what I build from my own.