The Farmer's Daughter - Part 1

As my manuscript is being sent to Beta readers for a read through, I thought I'd take some time to talk about the novel. What it and the series is about, why you should reread it if you already read it the first time I published it, why I made some of the changes I did, and why I write about the subject matter that I do.

I think I'll start with the name of the overall series. It was originally called The Country Music Series because I had this cute idea to name the books after country songs thinking it would be 'ok' since the books had nothing to do with the story the song told. But, then I did some more research and realized I was flirting with trademark infringement. You know, trying to use the popularity of the song to promote my own work. Depending on the artist involved, they might not appreciate that.

For example, the song Farmer's Daughter is about a guy going to work for a farmer and falling in love with his daughter while my novel is about the farmer's daughter going to work in a general/grocery store and falling in love with the owner. By keeping the series name The Country Music series, I'm actually being dishonest and trying to trick readers into reading my books. I didn't realize it at first, but now that I've realized my mistake I'm going to do my best to fix it.

So, the series is now called: The Dragon Dream and this is why.

Number one...the male lead character, Craig Moore, suffers from a recurring nightmare he and his best friend Kevin dubbed the Dragon Dream while they were still sharing a dorm room in college. Because - it revolved around Craig's battle with a dragon. His damaged psyche cast his abuser in the role of a dragon which kills him repeatedly in his dreams. As the story progresses, the dream foreshadows events in the real world - it takes him a while to catch on, even after the demon known as the Beast enters them. Like, he's only 'kind of' figuring this out at the end of book two.

The dream/vision near the end of the book features both Craig and his love interest, Angela. The closest I've come to having a shared dream myself, are the few times my husband and I have dreamed about the same subject matter on the same night. However, this is fiction and I most decidedly ran with it. As the one deceased character answered when asked: Is it a dream? “No. It’s…some would call it purgatory, some heaven, some hell. It’s different for everyone. I call it the razor-thin edge between life and death, between dreams and reality."

Hence, the reason why I say I write fantasy as well as romance. Not to mention, one of my antagonists is a 'minor' demon...and the dog Princess is an angel in disguise. But that there is probably a whole other blog post!

Not my picture I'm afraid. Stole it. Jail me.
I can't even find a link for the original,

Sadly, different fonts don't translate into Kindle e-books, but I also give the Dragon Dream scenes an extra indent from the rest of the story. It's a separate battle in Craig's mind...and yet it is a battle between two worlds blending together. In his dream, Craig is battling for his freedom from the oppression of his abuse and the deep guilt it left him over his sexual desire and identity. As Cassie says in the second novel, in many ways he was struggling to come out as straight. Craig's actual dreams are the only time scenes in that realm are indented more. Any time Angela steps into the same realm, it is the same font and indentation because to her there is no separation of realities. Something none of the characters are aware of yet, but I'll tell you that much.

Also, since the story itself was birthed from a dream I had years ago...I figure it's only fitting! The dream was nowhere near as entertaining as the novel is, I'm afraid. The only thing which remains is the main character's life being in danger because she was dating the man she was working for. And that's about it. The dream I had was also a lot shorter - but that's because once I killed the seed the dream planted, the darn thing sprouted all over the place.

I'm too late for this to be my usual Monday blog, but I was busy tweaking stuff yesterday and every time I changed windows to try and start a post...my brain jammed up. So, as I'm waiting for feedback on the changes I've made I'm going to write up a few blogs posts, schedule them and get started on weeding out the dross in Ring of Fire.

Much love to all.

What Dreams May Come

I have an overactive imagination.  No, really.  See, I have to be careful what shows or movies I watch because a lot of the times, they seep into my nighttime dreams.

This last "episode" was caused by The Raven starring John Cusack and Alice Eve.  It was a good enough movie, though not quite as scary as I thought it was going to be.  But still - still - it was enough for me to have gory dreams.  Really?  And let me tell you, ew!!  says it all.  I don't remember much of the plot of my silly dream, just that the bad guy was skinning the corpses of the people he'd killed.  And this from a movie I liked!

It's not the first time.  I had the same problem with Pitch Black, the first Riddick movie.  I loved the movie - but it took me watching it at least three times before I could do so without dreaming about the demon-like aliens in them!

I will even dream about books I've read.  The ending of the Wheel of Time series left me so unsettled - hello, Robert Jordan left us hanging!!! - that I've dreamt at least twice trying to come up with a 'better' ending.  Only I can't seem to do it!

Some people don't like hearing what others have dreamed.  They get down right frustrated with it.  I am not one of them.  Nothing amuses me more than sharing my latest crazy nighttime adventure with Mr. Janney the next morning, and when he has a crazy dream - which is less often then me - he'll return the favor and share his.  He was telling me just this morning about the crazy ones he had last night.  Volcanoes and zombies predominated the dreams.  The best one of his that I remember was he had dreamt he was some kind of contract killer and was going to get paid $90million dollars for the job.  I think I liked that one the most not because of the payday, but because in his dream I was the sharpshooter covering his back!

One thing I've noticed on Facebook is that I have at least two friends that share their dreams in their statuses.  I find it fun.  One even shared a dream his mother had shared with him!  That lucky woman dreamt about Brad Pitt!  So I know I'm not the only one that gets a kick out of sharing the wacky dreams we have.

Dreams are funny things. Sometimes they are our subconscious trying to work out a problem, other times it's just our imaginations running away with us.

When I was growing up, I had a reoccurring nightmare. Nothing as dramatic as I gave my characters in my novels.  No, in my dream, I would do something simple, like go for a short walk on our dusty dirt road - maybe a hundred yards or so - and then I would turn around and my home would be  GONE!  A child's insecurity perhaps.  Other times - well, what possible explanation could there be for dreaming about dinosaurs in the trailer park???

What is the craziest thing you've ever dreamed?