From Dream to Book: How I Wrote Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah



Like many of the real-life characters in its pages, including me, the author, Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah is a survivor. It has endured several powerful hurricanes, withstood the terror of too many computer crashes to count, eluded theft, and dodged falling ceilings.

The real miracle is the book not only survived these successions of turmoil but managed to steadily evolve with the addition of my artwork to the nonfiction stories. To appreciate how truly exceptional that is, please note that when I first began writing the book I did not consider myself a visual artist of any kind at all: not an amateur digital craftsman, acrylic stylist, photographer, or portraitist. I was the author of Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player and co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance beginning a new literary adventure.

Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah started with the experience of an actual dream in 1989. It had to do with a group of friends banding together, up in the sky, for a very crucial battle. I decided the dream was interesting enough to write down in a journal but not so fascinating I needed to dwell on it.




But then time began to do what time does and the dream slowly started to reveal its hidden meanings. With the revelation of possible meanings came the expansion of the narrative in the form of entire memoir essays derived from my fully-awake conscious life. Intriguing themes like forgiving people we don’t love so very much because of the pain they have caused, correcting social injustices, and weighing the value of practicing compassion toward the earth as well as humans, started crystallizing. As they did, I began to realize I was wrestling with issues—immigration, global warming, care-giving, racism, multiculturalism, family politics, shifting demographics––in which I may have had some individual stake at different times in my up-and-down life but which reached far beyond my kingdom of self.

To enjoy this essay in its entirety for free please visit the book page at: Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah.

Author-Artist-Poet Aberjhani

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