Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Tales of past lives reincarnate selves in book by Los Lunas woman

Brandy Slagle News-Bulletin Staff Writer; bslagle@news-bulletin.com

Anne Curry is something of a kindred spirit — just ask the women who have read her book.

The author has been flooded with responses about her novel, Lessons Through Time, the story of a young woman who finds solace from a domestically abusive relationship through dance and ends up tapping into a slew of memories about another lifetime.

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"All of the women I've given the book to have said they can identify with this. Either they know somebody or have gone through this themselves," she said. "There is also that element of being psychic in each and every one of us, a woman's intuition, and our society is getting better about recognizing it. My grandmother nurtured it in me, and I try to nurture in my grandchildren. You have to do it on an individual basis. But it's part of who we are and it's real. Like having freckles on my arm."

Growing up, as Curry said, in a traditional Roman Catholic household, she had to face the fact that some of the beliefs she had developed over the years were shocking.

Curry's main character in the novel is based heavily on the experiences in her life. She said since she was a young girl she had paranormal encounters that she didn't understand. When it came time to write the story, Curry set out to research the images she envisioned for years of life in medieval Ireland.

"I was bound and determined to go and find out because I kept having flashbacks and the doctors would say 'Well, you have post-traumatic stress syndrome.' No, they're not those kinds of flashbacks, they're from way back, I've never been to this place before," she said.

Curry boarded the plane to research her family history and said what she discovered was life shattering.

"There was no explanation. It was a validation. This is what I saw. I had never been there before. It was an oral history about the family tree that my grandmother had told me about; we had no pictures or anything. ... It was exactly what I'd seen in my dreams," she said.

Curry took photographs, visited towns and bought history books that all contained familiar information. She said that several of the details, like the designs on different family coat of arms, matched the images in her dreams.

"I can't think of anything more encouraging than finding out what you're dreaming is true," she said.

Curry had taken writing classes in college and even written some children's stories in the past, but she'd never written a novel, and she prepared herself to dive into the work.

"I had started journaling at 17. I wrote something everyday. I wrote a lot of poetry, a lot of really bad poetry. I kept all of the journals because, if I experienced something unique or new, then I would write about it. I kept track," she said.

Curry pulled out the boxes of old journals, sat down at the computer, and for the next year hammered away at her novel.

She said the years of tracking her life experiences helped the story come together rapidly. With the discoveries she made in Ireland, Curry was sure of how the story should develop and what lessons she needed to share with the world.

She was living with her new husband, who was supportive of her writing, in Sedona, Ariz., at the time the book was written. She credits the inspirational atmosphere and her husband for helping her to get the story out.

"It's scary to voice an opinion that's out of the norm. In Sedona, there were a lot of people that were way out there. I thought I was actually conservative, and that's the thing, I actually am quite conservative. All of these eccentric things that would happen to me really challenged my beliefs to the core and there has to be an explanation for all of that," she said.

While working as a massage therapist, Curry discovered that certain memories could be released during a massage that get stored inside a muscle. She began to think of the possibility that genetic memories can be stored inside cells.

Curry compared writing the novel to giving birth. She was unafraid to put her ideas out on the computer screen, but when the time came to send the manuscript to potential publishers, she grew nervous.

Her husband recommended she send the book to a publisher who was too busy to read the manuscript at the time, so he gave it to his wife to read. Curry said it was the best thing that could have happened because the wife loved it. The first publishing house she submitted her story to wanted to get it out on the shelves.

"When the publisher said that he loved this book, let's go with it, I was like, 'Oh my God! The world is going to see my baby now.' It was astronomical. It's hard to explain," she said. "I wasn't sure if I could have handled rejection. I had thought maybe I want to keep it at home, maybe I don't want the world to know about it or maybe it's something I should keep to myself."

Curry said she believes it was time for this story to be told. She wanted to do more than share past life experiences, she said. She also wanted to approach domestic violence and show women they can get out of bad situations.

Working part-time as a nurse, Curry said she sees domestic violence frequently.

"It's such a huge issue. I run into it a lot as a nurse .... I was always asking why. Why do we as women keep putting up with these kinds of things? For me when the answer was clear, the cycle ended," she said.

Curry said she is honored that women have approached her with gratitude since the book was published. While Curry is glad Lessons in Time is on the shelves, she isn't done with writing and is already at work on another novel.

"I believe that miracles are the stuff of our everyday lives. That divine thing, force, God, whoever you see it as, it's part of who you are, everyday. You walk with him every step of your day in your life," she said. "And I thought if I'm just plain, old me growing up in Deming, N.M., and I can have this experience and this closeness with God and being led through my life, if I can survive what a lot of people die going through, there has to be some good to come out of that."

Lessons in Time can be purchased at Hastings in Los Lunas and Albuquerque, Bound to be Read and on-line at amazon.com and hastings.com.

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