Here is the trick of the creative mind. Even when writing my first book, a fantasy novel through and through, I would say, 'I'm not making it up, I'm just writing it down,' because the story began to feel so real to me. I did assure my mother that the dreams I wrote about were not made up. Many of the dreams referenced in Ancestral Notes preceded the literary effort by months or years. I don't see why it shouldn't be both.
Dreams have that quality of unlimited potential in which the fantastic has become familiar.
Ancestral Notes was a process that took place over the course of four years, from inception to publication. I knew it was just one piece of a lifelong investigation. I have a third novel in progress. So I'm alternating between fiction and creative nonfiction, with some visual art projects intermixed. The themes and subjects of these works often overlap, or evolve out of previous efforts.