An Interpretation of Dreams Guest Post by YA Author Heather Reid

I'm so excited to have my Month9Books publishing house sister Heather Reid with me today. Ever since seeing Heather's gorgeous cover and reading the blurb, I've been dying to get my hands on Pretty Dark Nothing.

Seventeen-year-old Quinn hadn’t slept a full night in twenty-three days. She’s terrified of the demons that stalk her dreams, pull her into a deep dark nothingness and whisper hauntingly of her death. Exhausted, Quinn dozes off in the school hallway, and Aaron, an amnesiac with a psychic ability, accidentally enters her nightmare. If Quinn can learn to trust her heart, and Aaron can discover the secret locked away in his fragile memory, their combined power could banish the darkness back to the underworld for good. That is, unless the demons kill them first.

Heather L. Reid is both American and British and has called six different cities in three different countries, home. Her strong sense of wanderlust and craving for a new adventure mean you might find her wandering the moors of her beloved Scotland, exploring haunted castles, or hiking through a magical forest in search of fairies and sprites. When she’s not venturing into the unknown in her real life, she loves getting lost in the worlds of video games or curling up by the fire with good story. For now, this native Texan is back in the Lone Star State, settling down with her Scottish husband and dreaming up new novels to write.

Purchase on Amazon or B&N

Find Heather on Twitter: @HeatherLReid and check out her website: www.heatherlreid.com.

Take it away, Heather!

An Interpretation of Dreams

"Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before."
Edgar Allan Poe

Last night, fireworks exploded in the sky around our house. Millions of red and blue lights streaked across the night sky. The windows rattled from the concussion echoing across the neighbourhood and I was frightened. I ran for my husband and begged him to wake up. Something strange was going on and we needed to get out of here. Turning on the news, we were shocked to find entire cities had been destroyed by an eerie green death ray (think War of The Worlds). The Earth was under attack and all we could do was watch the devastation play out around us. That’s when I woke myself up.

I’ve always been a vivid dreamer. As a child, I suffered from night terrors and sleep walking. Although I eventually grew out of the sleep walking, the nightmares never went away. I would dream of faceless entities and demons on a reoccurring basis. I spent my pre-teen years trying to rationalize my fear while I spent my nights huddled under my covers with a book and a flash light afraid to fall asleep for fear of what would greet me in my dreams. There were even nights I suffered from severe and terrifying sleep paralysis as well as out of body experiences.

When I got older, I started to control my dreams instead of letting my dreams control me. As I slept, I became aware that I was dreaming and would make choices to change the outcome. Sometimes I would choose to run from whatever was chasing me, or sometimes I would stop the dream and change it completely. It wasn’t until I started reading books about dreams and dream interpretation that I found out about lucid dreaming and became fascinated with the meaning of dreams. Keeping a dream journal helped me reflect on what was going on in my everyday life that might affect me. It helped me take control and understand what my unconscious was trying to tell me. I still have nightmares every now and then, but I understand them now, and I rarely wake up in a cold sweat anymore.

Want to know about lucid dreaming, false awakenings, and dream interpretation? Check out some of these links.

http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/p/dream-interpret.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

http://www.dreammoods.com/

http://www.dreambible.com/

Are you a lucid dreamer? What are your thoughts on the meanings of dreams?

Monday Mishmash 5/20/13

Happy Monday! Here's my mishmash of thoughts:

1. Scholastic Book Fair  I'm working the Scholastic Book Fair at my daughter's school again this week. Even though I just placed an online order, I'm sure I'll be buying more books.
2. Cricket's Drive Around Town  This weekend I got the color illustrations for my upcoming picture book and they blew my mind. This book is going to be so adorable!
3. Into the Fire  I just sent my edits off to my editor this past weekend for Into the Fire, which is coming in January 2014 through Month9Books. And I updated my FB author page so the gorgeous cover is on there. :)
4. Stalked by Death ARC  My Stalked by Death ARC arrived on Saturday! Squee! I thought I wasn't getting it until BEA, so I'm really excited to get to hold my pretty book!
5. Advantage: Heartbreak  Less than 10 days until the release of Advantage: Heartbreak, novella #2 in the Game. Set. Match. Heartbreak series. Yay!

That's it for me. What's on your mind today?

Beware of the White by Kai Strand

Launch Day for BEWARE OF THE WHITE by Kai Strand!

As is tradition, Terra learns on the Saturday past her twelfth birthday that she is a Natures Spirit. It is her legacy to serve in the peaceful underground city of Concord. Learning she is named in a prophecy and being threatened by the leader of the death tribe…that part breaks tradition.

The Trepidus are the death janitors of the Underworld, responsible for delivering fatalities with a smile and cleaning up after themselves until Blanco, recent leader of the Trepidus, decides the day of reckoning for his species is coming. He begins organizing the creatures and leads them toward an uprising. The prophecy says there is one person who can stop him. Terra.

With Spirit of Security, Frank, protecting her, Terra attempts to complete her training and discover her Spirit talents. Together, they go on a rogue investigation to learn how to defeat Blanco. In the end, it comes down to a battle of the minds. The future of Concord is at stake. Will Blanco, the older, more experienced being win? Or will Terra, the young, new Spirit earn back the peace of the city?

Excerpt:

The creature’s direct gaze caused her to shudder. Pushing off the wall, it seemed to float across the room toward her. No characteristic slapping sound registered when its bare feet flopped with each step. It never blinked and never broke eye contact. A chill enveloped Terra as it stopped an arm’s length away. She wanted to curl up in a ball, sob and plead for it to leave, but Terra instinctively suppressed her fear and stared back at it, erasing all emotion from her face.

“I have come to warn you.” The horrible voice sounded like a thick gel bubbling up through a pipe full of gravel and coarse sand.

The creature’s throat buckled and undulated as if the words physically worked their way up through its vocal cords. Terra expected the words to tumble from its mouth and plunk to the floor, a sort of sick word vomit. She shook from the effort of swallowing past her gag reflex and fought the impulse to turn away.

“You’ve come to warn me? Warn me about what?” Terra asked.

“You have been figured to be the enemy of my beings. My leader has sworn to destroy you.”

Buy it:

MuseItUp Publishing 
Amazon
Kobo
Barnes & Noble

About the author

Kai Strand writes fiction for kids and teens. Her debut novel, The Weaver, was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards. She is a (very lucky) wife and the mother of four amazing kids. The most common sound in her household is laughter. The second most common is, "Do your dishes!" She and her family hike, geocache, and canoe in beautiful Central Oregon, where they call home. Find Kai’s books, links to short stories, download companion documents, and discover all the places to find Kai both virtually and in person on her website: www.kaistrand.com. She loves to hear from readers, so feel free to send her an email or visit her facebook page, Kai Strand, Author.

Spontaneous Book Giveaway!

This is your lucky day. Kelly’s site has been chosen to host a spontaneous book giveaway. But be quick, your window for opportunity is short.

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Like giveaways? There is more to be had on Kai’s blog and be sure to follow her tour for more Spontaneous Giveaways. Those won't be announced, so only virtual stalkers will have a chance at the extra fun!

Editing For Yourself Vs. Editing For Others

It's no surprise that I love to edit. I talk about it a lot on my blog, and being that I'm an English major and former English teacher, it's kind of a given that I love red pens and the screen equivalent—Track Changes.

Today topic came by request. :) I edit my own work and the work of others, and the two are very different. Here's why. When I edit for myself, I'm too close to the story. I know things about my characters that my readers don't. That means when I fail to mention something that's key to the plot, I may not realize it until my editor points it out. Then I have a moment where I want to smack myself in the forehead. To try to cut down on those moments, I've done the following things when revising my own work:

• I keep track of the passage of time: what day it is, what time it is, etc.
• I keep track of major events and key reveals. *This is important because it's what I need my reader to see and know.
• I keep character profiles to make sure eye color, hair color, height, etc are consistent throughout my manuscript. I also mark where they are mentioned in the document.
• I mark overly used words and replace or delete them.
• I read my work backwards (not word by word, but sentence by sentence) to check for spelling and missing words.

When I edit for others, plot holes jump out at me because I don't know the story. It's so much easier to pose questions to my clients than it is to myself because I don't have the backstory in my head like the writer does. Here's a short list of how I edit for clients:

• I highlight overly used words.
• I bring up any questions I get from a reader's point of view. If I have those questions, the reader will too. Now sometimes, the questions get answered later and I'll comment that the questions are answered. But if not, we have a problem for the writer to address.
• I check for consistency with the spelling of words. Gray/grey and toward/towards are the two biggest culprits I find. Either way is acceptable, but consistency is needed throughout the manuscript. The same goes for capitalization. If you create a term and capitalize it once, you should continue to capitalize it throughout.
• I mark any shifts in POV. If you are writing 1st person, don't leave that person's head. If you have dual POV, make sure you are only in one character's head at a time. Etc.
• I check contractions and read them as two separate words. So many times I see "you're" when it should be "your". If you read the contractions as two words, you'll see when you really meant to say "your" instead of "you are".
• I read my work backwards (not word by word, but sentence by sentence) to check for spelling and missing words.

Again, this is a short list. I could go on, but I'd rather hear from you. What does your revision check list look like?

Monday Mishmash 5/13/13 and a Giveaway!

Happy Monday! Here's my mishmash of thoughts:

1. BEA  I'll be signing copies of Stalked by Death at the SHP booth (#2567) on Friday, May 31 from 9:30-10:30am. If you're there, come see me!
2. Field Day  I helped out with field day at my daughter's school last Friday. She had a blast, and I loved getting to see her with all her friends.
3. My dying Kindle  I had one good week where my Kindle worked great and now the big black bar is showing up across my screen again. :(
4. Editing  I'm editing again all week. :)
5. Runes Trailer and Giveaway!  I'm participating in the trailer reveal for Ednah Walter's YA paranormal, Runes.  

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That's it for me. What's on your mind today?

One Week Girlfriend by Monica Murphy (Review)

Summary:
Temporary. That one single word best describes my life these last few years. I'm working at a temporary job until I can finally break free. I'm my little brother's temporary mother since our mom doesn't give a crap about either of us. And I'm the temporary girl all the guys want to get with because I give it up so easily. According to the rumors, at least. But now I'm the temporary girlfriend of Drew Callahan, college football legend and all around golden guy. He's beautiful, sweet, and he's hiding way more secrets than I am. He's brought me into this fake life where everyone seems to hate me. And everyone seems to want something from him. The only thing he seems to want though is Me. I don't know what to believe anymore. All I know is, I think Drew needs me. And I want to be there for him. Forever.

My thoughts:
I'm on a New Adult kick lately and at $.99 on Kindle, I couldn't pass this one up. I'd heard really great things about it, and I wasn't disappointed. Fable is a girl with a reputation, though the rumors aren't exactly true. I really liked her right from the start. And Drew is broken in so many ways. While I quickly figured out one of the ways, another threw me for a loop—in a good way. It added the perfect amount of conflict and set up book two. The dynamic between Fable and Drew is incredible. Drew asks Fable to pretend to be his girlfriend for a week, while he goes home for Thanksgiving. Fable doesn't know Drew's motive, but since he pays her a lot of money, she doesn't really care. 

At first, Drew and Fable are faking their feelings for each other for the benefit of Drew's family. But very quickly, the feelings become real, and they are both fighting against them. Warning for those who don't like explicit sex scenes: Murphy tells all in this book. If you blush easily, this may not be the book for you. That aside, the romance is great. I'll definitely be checking out the next book in the Drew and Fable series, Second Chance Boyfriend.

Just for fun: Would you—or have you ever—pretend(ed) to be in a relationship with someone?

Cover Reveal: Come What May by Faith Sullivan

I'm really excited to take part in the cover reveal for Come What May (Heartbeat #2) by Faith Sullivan!

Title: Come What May (Heartbeat #2)
Author: Faith Sullivan
Expected release date: June 4, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Group: New Adult




Book Description:

Adam is through with love.

He unravels blaming himself for what happened with Katie.

His final moments with her echo through his nightmares.

She owns him body and soul.

To dull the pain, Adam invites a string of women into his bed. Fueled by alcohol and desperation, his meaningless hook-ups provide little comfort. When he closes his eyes, it's Katie he sees.

The only one who helps to ease his guilt somewhat is Jada. But as his new ambulance partner, Adam considers her off limits. He doesn't want to get seriously involved with anyone, much less her. Yet he can't stop fantasizing about the feel of her caramel skin against his.

Despite his intentions, Adam's bond with Jada deepens as they respond to a series of emotional calls. Their mutual attraction becomes undeniable. But how can he give his heart to Jada when it still belongs to Katie?

The first book of the HEARTBEAT series is only 99 cents on Amazon! 

Click cover to purchase.

Random Things about Author, Faith Sullivan:

- She was so much smarter as a teenager.

- She's a slow reader.

- She tends to like a book more for its characters rather than its plot.

- She appreciates people who are genuinely kind and come through when you need them.

- As a creative person, she's not always fun to live with, but she keeps things interesting.

- She misses the days when all she had was a rotary phone that didn't even have an answering machine.

- She's a child of the 1980s, and a teenager of the 1990s.

- She loves her dog.

- She likes to travel and see new places - when her limited budget allows.

- She thinks in another lifetime she lived in the UK somewhere by the coast.

- When she feels an emotion, she feels it deeply. It's a curse.

- She has an overactive imagination. Writing helps alleviate that problem.

- Nine times out of ten, she believes a good book trumps reality.


Author Links: Blog | Amazon | Twitter | Goodreads

So, what do you think?