Is writer’s block always a creativity problem—or can it mean your attention has moved to the wrong project? In this episode of Author’s Notes with Lula Starling, I talk about writer’s block, indie publishing, creative process, self-imposed deadlines, and the difference between avoiding the work and being creatively redirected. Using my Haven Hollow series as the starting point, I ask what happens when the ideas are still flowing—just somewhere else.

What if some of the places we think are thousands of miles apart are not quite as far apart as we have been taught?

We interpret weather systems, geography, migration, oceans, and even seemingly unrelated natural events through a particular picture of the Earth. But historical maps have not always shown the continents the way our modern maps do, and today’s coastline does not necessarily represent the full landmass beneath the water.

In this Author’s Notes conversation, Lula Starling is not trying to prove that one particular old map is correct. The question is what happens when we stop assuming the modern map is the one part of the conversation that cannot be questioned.

What would Saharan dust look like if the journey were shorter than we think? What might submerged land change? Why could one cartographer depict the world so differently only nine years apart? And what if some events look disconnected simply because of the map we are using to understand them?

Maybe the map we know is right.

But what if there is another possibility?

This episode is speculative inquiry, not an attempt to establish an alternative geographic model as fact. Historical and scientific material is used to explore the questions, not to prove that unrelated events share a cause.

Follow Author’s Notes with Lula Starling for more conversations exploring history, belief, unusual ideas, creativity, and the questions hiding underneath what we think we know.

Sources & further exploration

Library of Congress — Martin Waldseemüller Maps
1507 Universalis Cosmographia and 1516 Carta Marina
The Library of Congress notes that the 1507 map depicted a separate Western Hemisphere and Pacific Ocean, while the later Carta Marina reduced the New World, eliminated the Pacific from the depiction, and showed North America joined to Asia.

U.S. Geological Survey — Florida Basement Geology
USGS research identifies the ancient basement beneath Florida as including the Gondwanan Suwannee terrane with West African origins.

NOAA — Saharan Air Layer
NOAA tracks Saharan dust traveling across the Atlantic and reaching the Caribbean, Florida, Central America, and during stronger outbreaks, Texas.

Recent weather context
The August 2026 Nepal/Tibet flooding and Grand Canyon flash flooding were among the recent events that inspired the broader question explored in this episode. They are not presented as evidence that the events shared a cause.

What if the early 1900s were not simply when society became modern?

What if that was when a new system became permanent?

In Part 3 of this speculative-history series, Author’s Notes with Lula Starling looks at the period when more of everyday life became formalized through deeds, banks, government records, compulsory systems, institutions, and paperwork.

Family land that may once have depended on agreements increasingly required documentation. Money moved more deeply into banking systems. Records became the official version of identity, ownership, and history.

During this same broad period, fires destroyed buildings and records while large institutions classified and managed growing populations.

None of that by itself proves a Great Reset.

But together, it raises a larger question:

Were these simply signs of progress, or were we watching one version of society being replaced by another?

Then there is the present.

If so much of our identity, money, property, and history now exists digitally, what would another major transition even look like?

This episode is speculative inquiry, not a claim that one theory has been established as historical fact.

If you would rather investigate something safely fictional afterward, step into the Haven Hollow Mysteries by Lula Starling.

Step into Haven Hollow:
https://sites.google.com/brinixholdings.com/lula-starling-author/haven-hollow-mystery-books

This is Part 3 of a three-part speculative-history conversation.

Follow Author’s Notes with Lula Starling for more conversations about books, creativity, history, speculation, and alternative ways of understanding the world.