Notes on Emma Pattee's Novel Tilt

In Emma Pattee's Tilt, a young, heavily pregnant mother is in an IKEA in Portland, Oregon searching for a baby bassinet when a major earthquake levels parts of Portland and all but one bridge over the Willamette river. At first trapped, she's rescued but loses her purse and phone in the rubble.

Her rescue can also be viewed as a metaphor, a birth into a new life.

Her first goal is to track down her husband at his job working at a cafe. When she reaches the cafe, she finds out he lied about working and instead is auditioning for a play, something he said he wouldn't do with the baby's birth immanent. To find him, now she must find a way to cross the Willamette river on the only standing bridge.

The novel is organized around going from the present to the past, meeting her actor husband when she's had a first play produced and has a fantasy about becoming a famous playwright. When she meets her later husband, he has a fantasy about becoming a famous actor.

Each jump to the past brings us nearer to the present. We learn how she gives up her fantasy, but her husband has clung tightly to the idea that somehow he can become a famous actor.

The chapters in the past collectively operate as a series of jolts that affect her marriage; mini earthquakes, so to speak.

When she finally reaches the last bridge standing across the Willamette river, it's blocked. The metaphor is that it's one of the last bridges that connected her to her marriage to her husband.

The novel makes the young woman's grueling journey heart-felt, compelling, and painful. By the end of the novel, she's ready to begin a new life.

I very much enjoyed the soon to be mother's journey through the broken city, passing by many, many landmarks I'm familiar with.

Recommended.

For more of my novel reviews, visit https://www.storyispromise.com

Introduction to Experiences With the Energy Body

This journal is an account of my experiences of my energy body, also known as prana or life force.

I began this exploration at a time I had started to practice hatha yoga postures. It opened a door I passed through to learn about my energy body over a period of a year, with 3-4 hours a day of meditative work.

I considered this the first quest of my life.

Later I did some visualization and energy body work that opened a tight band of energy around the crown. I considered that the second quest of my life, and my experiences were detailed in the first edition of this work.

This 3rd edition of my journal conveys the beginning of a third quest, to understand the flow of energy around my face and head, including some drawings with renditions of energy flow.

I'm now including drawings of principle lines of energy throughout my body in this edition created July 2025.

My explanations of my understanding of my energy body will be interspersed with details of my life.

The journal is my attempt to share what I have learned.

Facebook Posts

As I began this quest in May of 2025 to map the energy flow around my face and head, I decided in August to begin offering posts on Facebook that tracked my progress. I will continue to add those posts here.

July 27th, 2025

For the last week I've been feeling two currents of energy running on both sides of my chest and over my heart. I enjoy it when I can feel the energy flow in part of my body. It's part of the process of fully opening the flow of energy.

I've been walking on a treadmill in a gym. While walking I visualize two bands of current running up the back and top of my head.

I expect this to be a slow process to open the energy flow in those channels.

Here's an image of my initial map of the energy flow around the top of my head. The map becomes more detailed as I continue this work.

August 4, 2025

In my energy body work, I'd spent time visualizing currents running through channels that came down my face. My goal was to open those constricted channels. I was surprised when those channels ran down my body and met at the base of the lumbar spine. There are also channels of current that run down each arm and leg. I knew about that from my energy body work in my twenties, when I did bellows breathing 3-4 hours a day for a year.

Interesting path to be on.

One way to understand energy flow in the body, think of a new house. Turn on water faucet, full flow. House 30 years old, turn on faucet, 50% flow. 60 year old house, 25%.

Various things constrict the energy flow in the body over time. Diet, lack of exercise, aging, dumping life force into negative thought patterns, just giving up.

Here's a map of my full body, front view.

Experiences With the Energy Body Available in Print and in Color

Bill Johnson offers a detailed account of how he developed and expanded an awareness of his energy body. In his twenties, Bill did bellows breathing for a year. That experience helped him to open restrictions in his body's energy flow. In this 2nd edition available in print and color from Amazon, Bill maps the energy flow around his face, head, and body and records his experiences and suggests techniques others can use to experience their energy bodies.

His book offers an insider's peek to those who struggle with managing and learning from the integration of body, mind, and energy body and what it means for the creative process.

Additionally, he provides some biographical details and endeavors that add color and insight into his treatment of this little-explored realm.

Available at https://www.amazon.com/Experiences-Energy-Body-Understanding-Together/dp/B0F5P47FK5/