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[EC2]

Originally Posted by Catherine Delors

EC2, I find your experience with Akashic records fascinating. I believe many writers, esp. of historical fiction, have similar contacts with their characters.

It was interesting when I gave an interview at Vulpes Libris the other week and a respondee in the comments said that she believed this form of research was going to become important as a future resource for getting at our past. I have to say that she does know me through the RNA and it was through me that her husband (a doctor) sought Akashic help to find ancestors who had been scattered in the Spanish Civil War. He found them, together with detailed descriptions of their looks and personalities. That Alison was able to do this for him in a totally different century and setting than the work she does for me, and furthermore have it validated because it's closer to now, only serves to firm up my belief.

CW did you get my PM if you read this reply?

[Catherine Delors]

Is it us getting to the past, or the past getting to us? I am beginning to wonder with the protagonist of my third novel. Of course, it's convenient to have him close by, but now he is getting too close. I would like him to return to the 18th century, where he belongs. I am thinking a bit along the lines of reverse Akashic. I am Catholic, so an exorcist might work...

[EC2]

Originally Posted by Catherine Delors

Is it us getting to the past, or the past getting to us? I am beginning to wonder with the protagonist of my third novel. Of course, it's convenient to have him close by, but now he is getting too close. I would like him to return to the 18th century, where he belongs. I am thinking a bit along the lines of reverse Akashic. I am Catholic, so an exorcist might work...

Alison, my Akashic friend (Akashic is for want of a better word) also does entity removal - as in she gently helps them on their way to where they are supposed to be. She has removed presences for quite a few clients now, and greatly helped John Marshal find peace re a certain aspect of his 12th C life. Perhaps your guy still has things to tell you that are important to him? Or perhaps you need to find out how to make that detachment from your end.
I wish you well with it!

[Catherine Delors]

Originally Posted by EC2

Perhaps your guy still has things to tell you that are important to him? Or perhaps you need to find out how to make that detachment from your end.
I wish you well with it!

Thank you, EC2! He certainly has more things to tell me, and the more I procrastinate, the nastier he gets. When this book is finally written, with your permission, I will send you a galley!

[EC2]

Originally Posted by Catherine Delors

Thank you, EC2! He certainly has more things to tell me, and the more I procrastinate, the nastier he gets. When this book is finally written, with your permission, I will send you a galley!

I've PM'd you - or I'm about to!

[cw gortner]

Nostradamus came to Catherine's notice when she heard about him treating plague victims with a concoction of his own invention - he was a physician - so she invited him to court to treat Henri's leg, which he had wounded during sword practice. Nostradamus took his sweet time getting there, but whatever happened between he and Catherine (I recreate their meeting fictionally, as she met with him alone in her closet at Blois - which raised some eyebrows!) she was impressed enough to offer him a post at court and protection for life. He also healed Henri's wound with a poultice of moldering bread.

Nostradamus did not stay at court for long; he got restless and returned to his home in Salon, Provence. But Catherine consulted him on several documented occasions after that and he received a stipend from her until his death. In my book, they meet four times, both before and after Henri II's death. His Prophesies were not easily decipherable even by him; so what he told C. was not immediatly identified as a bonafide prediction. Only later, after the event itself, did she make the connection.

He's a sage and rather distrubing presence in her life as I depict him; he unsettles her because Catherine herself was said to have a touch of the psychic but she never fully developed whatever she had. I imagine he stirs this dormant gift in her. Theirs is a meeting of kindred souls, only he has things to say that she doesn't necessarily want to hear.

I could have written an entire novel about Nostradamus and Catherine's relationship. Alas, there were so many events of equal importance in her life to cover!

[cw gortner]

Originally Posted by EC2

I then asked astrologer friend if she would cast William's horoscope via this info . . .It was an identical description of what we know of the man from history and I was slightly flabbergasted. Definitely an interesting exercise.

That is so cool! I did the same thing for Catherine de Medici, and what came back verified my impressions of her. It was integral to my writing, because I had until then been on the fence around certain key instances in which she'd been accused of murdering her enemies. Unbiased accounts were very hard to come by (Leonie Frieda's masterful bio had not been published yet) but the astrological chart as interpreted confirmed to me she was not a murderer. I had the astrologer describe her personality based on the chart to me, and her loyalty was a key element. She was an Aries, and they are reknowned for that quality.

Of course, this was just part of what I used to flesh her out. But you can see why I'd be so drawn to the idea of the Akashic Record.

[Catherine Delors]

CW, the notion of the poultice of moulding bread blows me away: Nostradamus used antibiotics to treat an open wound! I had no idea. He must have been an outstanding physician. Or was this commonly used in the 16th century?

I never did a astro chart for any of my characters, though I thought on occasion of Marie-Antoinette's sun sign. She was a Scorpio: a very forceful, decisive, charismatic personality. Like my male protagonist, Coffinhal, in Mistress of the Revolution.

And EC2, I am responding to your PM. Thanks so much.

[michellemoran]

Catherine - the molding bread was used in ancient Roman times as well!

[Catherine Delors]

Then I am still more impressed: it seems that people have long had an empirical understanding of the efficiency of antibiotics.