Awakening the dream with Lola Ellen LaForge’s new book

Lola Ellen LaForge, an international compliance specialist at MSU, works in an office in the basement of the library — a space few have explored, much like the dream states she examines in her writing.

LaForge, a newly published author, brings her dreams to life through poems, art and sketch-prose. The main character in her debut novel, “A Girl Called Forever: Poetry and Prose from the Oasis,” incorporates different aspects of LaForge’s life.

Her book is inspired by a place she calls the oasis. Much of the collection grew from dream journals she has kept throughout her life. She weaves her personal experiences into the story of a young girl navigating hardships and pivotal moments.

“It's been my lifelong dream to publish a book because I'm a writer, but I didn't know what it would be or when it would be,” she said.

LaForge said she has been writing and journaling since her 20s. However, she spent the past decade exploring the world and searching for inspiration.

“I traveled, lived in different places. I started doing things I always wanted to do as a kid or a younger person, and going to places I always wanted to see, and wherever I went, [the dreams] went with me,” she said.

In 2014, her mother passed away. At this time, LaForge said she was navigating profound personal change.

“I went through a period of just intense dreaming, and I was writing them down — I wrote to process,” she said. “I started writing poetry from them, because the images in my dreams were beautiful; they were terrifying; they were just a very cathartic period of my life.”

LaForge said that, for a while, she rarely revisited her journals. However, on an April evening this year, she began noticing that the entries connected. She organized them into a sequence on her wall, then into chapters and finally into sections.

“The poems were telling a story that I could not, and it just felt so magical,” she said. “So, I started weaving together the story.”

Throughout the story, LaForge examines various perceptions of herself, including her spirit animal: the white weasel. What was originally a name her stepfather gave her when she was younger grew into something she connected with.

“The white weasel became a [large] part of those dreams, because it was right about the time when [I was] going through personal change, taking stock of my life,” she said.

LaForge encountered several challenges while publishing her book. She learned to design and format the cover and edit the poems to convey their intended meaning while staying true to her memories and dream journals.

“It wasn't easy, but every time I crossed a hurdle, I was like, ‘OK, now what?’” she said. “And I would figure out the next thing to do. More than anything, the cover was so challenging.”

She said writing pieces based on her personal experiences was not easy either, and that sharing her dreams with the public felt vulnerable.

Although she spent over a decade compiling the book, LaForge said she only recently published it because of her personal attachment to the stories.

“It took courage to do it. Once it was done, I was like, ‘Yeah, it's done, there it is.’ I let it go out into the world and see if somebody says, ‘Oh, I get this,’” she said. “For a long time, I thought nobody would be interested in this. It's just my dreams — and then it didn't matter if anybody was interested or not, it's my book.”

She said that she thinks people should reflect on their dreams in everyday life and work to ground themselves through nature and moments of stillness.

“Whatever we're dreaming is what we're thinking about,” she said. “Walk into the woods, deep into the woods, and listen. It’s metaphorical: walk into your own woods, and if you listen, messages come. But we have to want them, we have to look for them.”

She currently has four projects in progress: a collection of short stories, a memoir about living in a national park, a novel and a book of essays.

LaForge offered some final advice for aspiring writers: trust yourself, write every day and welcome feedback.

“Sometimes you have to take a chance. A book comes in its own time. Any story comes in its own time,” she said.

“A Girl Called Forever: Poetry and Prose from the Oasis” can be found on Amazon at https://a.co/d/4WHUjvS.