What dreams may come...
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Sometimes my midlife heroines experience dreams. My dreams. I always twist and blend the subconscious visions to fit the plot of the book. Donna's dreams of clutter in Storm Grove in the Legacy Witches of Shadow Cove and Maeve's dreams of finding secret spaces in the cottage on Witch Way in the Silver Sisters Paranormal Women's Fiction Romances all came from me. I figure if my brain was trying to tell me something basdly enough to twist it into a dream that I need to send it out there into the universe!
Here's an example of one of these dreams I gifted my heroine from Midlife Magic Monster, audiobook now in production!
Donna
I stood in front of Storm Grove Manor. Bonnie and Clyde sat on their perches the way they’d always done. I passed through the door and into the hall. The place was dusty and covered in cobwebs. No signs of life. I headed up the staircase to my childhood bedroom. The door stood ajar. I reached out a hand and pushed it open, ignoring the ominous sounding creak.
“You’re late.” A woman I’d never seen before stood just inside the room behind a counter. She had long dark hair shot through with white and intense blue eyes. Magic swirled around her. She had a thick German accent and something about her felt familiar though I knew we’d never met.
“I’m sorry…?” I raised a brow.
“Lina.” She gestured to the shelves behind herself that stretched on for what seemed like days. “It all has to go.” She handed me a basket and I tipped my head to the side as I realized that the room itself extended well past the point it normally would have.
This isn’t right.
My mind knew that the room had been dealt with, the clutter removed. But as I stepped up to the first shelf I forgot all about right and wrong as I beheld the makeup. Sticks of kohl, pots of rouge and bottles of scent unlike anything commercially available. A small mirror stood on the shelf. I picked up a pot of pearly pink lip gloss that smelled of strawberries and slicked some across my mouth. It matched my skin tone and caressed my lips like velvet.
“Can I take whatever I want?” I turned to ask Lina. But she was nowhere in sight. The next shelf held drawers full of jewelry. But instead of the garish stuff Grand had hoarded like a dragon, these items were delicate. Silver strands that formed intricate patterns of leaves made up an armlet. A silver ear cuff that came to a point like an elf ear that looked like strands of cobwebs. A beautiful silver crown made of daggers.
On I went finding beautiful leather-bound books, musical instruments, delicate China teacups with gold filling in the cracks. Crystal wine goblets and real silver and silks and linens. A sense of desperation came over me. I began to shove things into my basket. I had to save this stuff. This was more than the typical Sander’s hodgepodge. These items were treasures made for me. I ran to the door only to find it covered with bags stuffed full of more of the wonderous objects that spilled out into the hall and down the stairs. Too late! my mind screamed. I’ll never be able to keep it all.
I need more time.
“Time is the one thing you can never replace,” a disembodied voice hissed. I woke with a start. I was in Axel’s bed and the September sun spilled through the tall windows, blinding me.
My heart pounded. What the hell? I’d had plenty of dreams about stuff over the years. When I’d been young I’d dreamed of discovering extra rooms in Storm Grove itself, giving me the space my wonky brain craved. But never had I had one that delivered me items I was desperate to keep. And those objects were unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
“Lina,” I murmured the name out loud. Who was she. I tried to recall her features but the dream was already fading from my mind. When I looked up I spied Axel standing frozen in the doorway, holding a mug of coffee. He appeared deathly pale.
“You okay?” I asked him.
“Did you just say, Lina?” His voice sounded hoarse.
“Yeah. A woman in a dream I had told me that was her name.” I stood and took the mug from him. He’d added extra cream and had even gone to the trouble of frothing the half and half for me.
“Thank you.” His lips parted but he didn’t speak. That was when my gaze fell on the clock. “Oh shit, is that the time? I overslept.”
I squeezed past him and was halfway down the hall when he called my name.
“What?” My teeth sank into my lower lip and for a second I swore I tasted strawberries. “Nothing,” he rasped. I nodded and then booked it into the room. Whatever was on his mind would have to wait until later.
A chill crept over me as I recalled the final words in the dream. “Time is the one thing you can never replace.”