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?