Emily here, coming to you from my hotel balcony in the Great Smoky Mountains! I always love running away to the mountains whenever I have a bunch of writing work to do, and this trip is no exception. I’m hoping to get a look of work done on the first draft of Project Clockwork with this lovely view, and the sound of gallons of water rushing down the river, making its grand escape down the mountains and to the sea.

The Smoky Mountains have always been quite inspiring for my writing. I think it’s just the change of pace—the morning hikes up mountains as the sun rises, all the different things to do from where I live…It’s also just a lot less hot than it is in Florida, so I can actually sit outside and write and not be barricaded indoors to not die of a heatstroke. 

For this mini writing retreat, I’m going to be working on the first draft of Project Clockwork, and have been brainstorming for my next novel, Project Starseekers. While I can’t share much of anything about Project Starseekers yet (I still don’t have all the details myself yet. Brainstorming is what takes the most time for me), I can tell you that one of the reasons I came up here is to go visit Astra Lumina, as that place was what initially inspired me to come up with the world of Project Starseekers.

As to what ways Astra Lumina inspired the project, I cannot say yet. But I can at least share with you all what Astra Lumina is, and let you start theorizing what I might have planned 😉

What is Astra Lumina at Anakeesta?

Astra Lumina is an interactive story and night walk put on by Moment Factory, a company that creates multimedia experiences that allow them to tell immersive stories through lights, music, projections, and the natural world.

I first went to Astra Lumina in 2024, and it was definitely one of the greatest storytelling moments I’ve ever experienced. I might be biased though, because I love a good fantasy-celestial story (as you can probably tell by my website!) But I also love experiencing unique storytelling mediums. And through light, shadows, music, and the natural world around it, Astra Lumina is able to tell a touching story of how a little band of stars find their way back to the cosmos.

I don’t want to make this into a travel review or extensive guide about everything there is to see within Astra Lumina. Instead, I’m really just going to be ranting about the things I enjoy the most. But if anything I talk about in this post sound interesting to you, then you can click right here to find more information about the experience from Moment Factory’s own website, and see where the closest Astra Lumina is to you (because by the end of this post, you’ll definitely want to go—just saying). 

What is the story of Astra Lumina at Anakeesta?

Upon first walking through the entrance and past the first large sign, guests are met with the question: “We’re always told to reach for the stars, but what if the stars could reach for us?” 

Throughout the self-paced immersive walk through the forest, that question is answered, as in the second “chapter,” guests watch a group of stars fall from the sky. The following chapters are spent watching the stars play through the forest, regain their strength, and then with your help, launch back into space. 

How Long is Astra Lumina at Anakeesta?

There are roughly nine chapters of the story guests will experience (“roughly” because they sometimes change/add sections), and it’s about a mile walk from the start to the end.

Each chapter is on a roughly four-minute cycle. Everyone online claims that the walk should only take around forty-five minutes to walk, even with seeing everything from each chapter.

I started the walk right when it opened on the day I went, at 8:30 p.m. I completed the final chapter right at 10:00 p.m., when they were kicking people out for the night. So…a little more than fourty-five minutes. 

Obviously, that’s not normal, because I watched every cycle at least twice. I wanted to get the full experience, and a lot of the time I would be walking up as a chapter was halfway through being complete. So I’d wait for it to end, watch the chapter twice in a row, and then move on to the next chapter. In that way, I’m actually surprised I was able to get through it all in only an hour and a half, especially accounting for the walk to each chapter.

My Favorite Astra Lumina Chapters

Easily Stardust Rays and Rise of the Stars. 

Astra Lumina Stardust Rays

Stardust Rays is the type of experience that simply cannot be captured on camera. You genuinely feel as though you are walking through glowing stardust as it swirls around in the air around you.

The only way I think I can explain this is by pulling back the technical curtain a bit, so look to the next paragraph if you prefer to keep the magic. It’s done by projecting thousands of laser light beams in a little clearing in the forest, where smoke is pumped into the area. The laser light is only visible when it hits the smoke, meaning that it creates thousands of tiny stars swirling around in the air. The laser trails you see in photos are invisible to the human eye.

Astra Lumina Rise of the Stars

Rise of the Stars is the finale sequence, and I don’t know if it was the lights, the music, or the fact that it was 10:00 p.m. and I had been traveling around Tennessee in the mid-summer heat since 9 a.m. that morning, but I actually got a bit emotional at the finale. When you become really invested in the story, it’s satisfying to see the stars you’ve been traveling through the forest with and watching slowly regain their strength finally leap up into the air and return to space.

Also, the music in this chapter, and also all of the other chapters, is just incredible. A lot of the story is told primarily through the music itself, and Astra Lumina’s sweeping orchestral score pulls you in the moment you step foot on the trail. 

That’s That

Well, I think I’ve ranted long enough now, so it’s time for me to head out and get back to writing the first draft of Project Clockwork. Hopefully, I’ve convinced at least one or two people out there to go see Astra Lumina. If so, I hope you love it, and I hope you take your time getting through it.

Emily