The Dream Sequence Blogfest

Amalia at the Good To Begin Well, Better To End Well blog sponsors today's blogfest about dreams.

I'll either be winging my way to Cincinnati or at Lori Foster's readers and writer's conference as you read this, but I'll try to check in after the festivities tonight.

http://hellia.blogspot.com/2010/04/dream-sequence-blogfest-in-honor-of-100.html

Here's my dream scene. It's from my erotic vampire romance "Carnal Lust". Be warned, this is an X-rated excerpt.

Excerpt:


Kes languished in the arms of her lover, a man she knew not by name but by his deep, sexy voice and his intoxicating kisses. She bade the sun not to set so she could steal more time in his arms, for when the moon chased the sun out of the sky, her lover would evaporate and she would be thrust back into the real world. And the real world was hell.

But this was heaven, if a vampire could be in heaven. She writhed and twisted in his arms, pressing her naked flesh to his. He was lithe and strong for a human, and he never failed to pleasure her.

“Are you in the mood to play, milady?” her lover murmured against her flesh.

She tilted her lips into a smile and nodded. “Wild and rough.”

He beamed at her with a sparkle in his eyes. “Whatever milady wishes.”

When he shackled her to the bed posts, her stomach pressed to the mattress, her legs spread wide, she didn’t demur. She squirmed with anticipation, her pussy clenching.

She turned her head and watched as he spread oil over his beautiful cock and then climbed aboard the bed. She lay there helpless, swaying with the motion as he approached stealthily. Her ass clenched, too, yearning for his touch. When he delivered a stinging slap to her bare buttocks, she screamed in a mixture of pain and pleasure. Never before had anyone spanked her, and she tingled.

Titillated, she rubbed her breasts against the bed, cajoling him to unite with her. But he sat beside her and ran the tips of his fingers across her back, to the edges of her breasts then pulled back. He walked them to the small of her back and withdrew again.

“Do you not wish to make love to me? To fuck me?”

“Are you that anxious to feel my cock move inside you? To be one with me?” He drew himself up to his knees and drew the tip of his cock along her side.

He bent by her ear and dipped his tongue inside. Then he whispered huskily, “Does that feel good? How bad do you want it?”

Her rear throbbed with an exquisite ache but not enough. She yearned for much more. “I crave your cock. I want you to fill me, to be inside me. Now.”

http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=780


Recent posts you might like to read:

Author Interview: Wendi Zwaduk 

Author Interview: Frances Pauli


Author Interview: Marcia James

Author Interview: Elaine Hopper

Weathering A Bad Review

What Do You Want in a Romance Hero & What Do You Want in a Real Life Husband?

Rejection: Where Do You Go Next?

Procrastination

Cliche or Coincidence?

Incognito: free short story

Dedicating Books

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Wendi Zwaduk are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Please don't scare me

I don't have my Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Acrobat available at the moment or I'd lable this pic "Please don't scare me." Cute little guy, isn't he? This was taken after an earthquake in China.

He reminds me of my younger daughter, newly graduated from high school, 18 years-old, but not yet ready to be an adult.

She's excited and happy to be out of school, and yet, she's not. She's scared of the big world and possible earthquakes.

Above are both my daughters, 25 and 18, M and S. The 25 year-old isn't quite sure what she wants to be yet when she grows up, either.

Heck, sometimes I feel that way.

I always wanted to be a writer. Along the way I was also an accountant, cost-pricing analyst, soldier ("Airman" since I was in the Air Force), waitress, hostess, cashier, and finally a customer service rep and manager. I took Accounting in college so I never dreamed my path would wind up in customer service but it's right for me. And writing.

Sometimes I still have doubts if I've chosen the right paths, if working two jobs, meeting book deadlines, and promoting my books is what I still want to do. Stress is wearing on me. I know it is when I feel like I'm the panda pictured above, backing away and a little scared.

Last night I thought about stopping, but I couldn't find anything else I'd rather do to fill my time. I like to learn new things. I thrive on multi-tasking and creating new things. I have characters running around in my head that would drive me crazy if I didn't let them out.

It's time for a vacation and a change of scenery, but not to give up my dreams and goals.

I wish I could renew myself at Lori Foster's readers and writers get together in Cincinnati this weekend, but I can't get away right now. I don't have the financial wherewithal to even splurge on a movie.

But I need to find ways to relax and fill my well.

How do you renew your spirit?

How do you keep going when you can't get away from work much less travel to distant, exciting places?

A trip to the swimming pool at the gym sounds refreshing, but that will have to wait for another night. I have to take the graduate to softball practice at the park this evening.

I Want To Fly!

I want to fly. We discussed dreams at lunch Friday. My boss told us he often flies in his dreams. I teased him that he was "Superman". Well, he is in lots of ways so I shouldn't be surprised. Another friend admitted that she has enough presence in her dreams to tell villains and monsters or bad things "Stop" and they listen to her and stop. Me? Unfortunately, I've been chased by ravenous T-Rex's more than once. I've seen them eat (quite grossly) some of my unluckier dream companions. At least they haven't eaten me - yet. I've had houses crumble beneath me. I've ridden busses to the tops of garbage dumps. Why are my dreams so much less glamorous or self-fulfilling? Are they trying to tell me something? God, if they are, what? I bought a dream analysis book awhile back but it didn't explain much to me. There were at least three ways to interpret dreams and they left it up to the reader. So that tells me we have to go with our gut instinct. Right now my gut is telling me I must be in trouble. Instead of flying and taking charge of my dreams (my life), I'm falling prey to bad things. So how do I learn to fly in my dreams? In real life? How do I learn to take charge of my dreams? My real life? What about you? Do you fly in your dreams? You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Dream Journals

Last week I started keeping a dream journal as versus a personal journal. It's a journal in which I log my dreams from the previous night's sleep. My younger daughter suggested it because she claims I have very unusual dreams and she thinks I can get some good story ideas from it. Hopefully she's right. Unfortunately, I don't always remember my dreams in much detail and I'm not good at interpreting them. At least not yet. So far, each dream has been unique, unlike my daughter and my mom who claim to have a recurring dream. Some of my dreams are similar to things going on in my life or a TV show I watched that day. However, others seem to have no connection to anything whatsoever. For instance, the first dream I logged was that a bunch of people I didn't know went into a big amusement park with real T-Rex's. The people stayed on a big rectangular walking track while the T-Rex's snatched them up at random intervals and ate them. The people didn't try to avoid them too much as it was some sorority thing. I don't recall that I was eaten, but I did awake during that dream so maybe I would have been had it kept going. I have no earthly clue what that dream meant. Later that same night, I dreamed about two people I know, one a critique partner I've met in real life and the other a lady in my department at my day job. We were riding on some stand up motorized scooter and we kept losing our shoes and finding ourselves either barefoot or wearing a pair of white shoes none of us recognized. Again, I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. The following night, I dreamed I was looking for my husband late at night. I thought he was across town in a really bad part of town and I was scared to walk those streets. So I hopped a city bus to get across town. However, one of the other passengers wanted to be let off on top of a mountain of garbage. So the bus drove on top of the garbage and let him out. But then the bus started sliding down the hill of garbage. My daughter thinks this dream means I'm suspicious of her dad but that my suspicions are unfounded. I'm not sure on either count. Maybe it means I'm full of garbage? LOL Last night I dreamed about having to find a new place to live and that we couldn't afford anything but in a bad part of town in an awful and scary tenement building. I didn't recognize which town. But after my gut reaction of hating it and being scared, I started to find things I liked about the new neighborhood. My really good friend Jo was in another apartment in the building and I met other really nice people there I started to bond with. Then I ventured further into the old, formerly scary part of town and I found really neat things. I happened upon the library that had a lot of great programs and I stayed there till closing. Again, the same coworker from my day job was at the library volunteering and having a grand old time. It was actually a pretty uplifting dream in the end and I didn't want to wake up. I have no idea why this same coworker has shown up twice in my dreams within the same week now. None of the other people from my department have, at least not to my recollection. Whereas I like this person a lot, we're not best friends or even lunch buddies like some of the others. I don't dislike her. So I'm stumped why her so often? Why not the others? So far, I don't think I see any wonderful story ideas in my dreams, but I'll keep at it. I think this journal is turning out better than my other daily journals for interest factor. And I do relate them to daily events and past things in my life a bit so it'll probably end up being a good genealogical tool for my descendants. Of course they'll probably think I'm nuts after reading my goofy dreams. Then again, what will they think of my mom's recurring dream? She dreamed she was part of the fated Donner Pass Party in the 1800s US, the one where they got snowed in with insufficient food to last the winter so they cannibalized one another to survive. A few made it out alive. Anyway, it freaked her out so badly, she hopped on a plane and flew over the Donner Pass instead of driving through it with my step father when they went out to California for my wedding back in 1980. She couldn't bear to "go through it again". Can you imagine having a dream about cannibalization over and over? <> Sooooooo, do you dream a lot? Do you have recurring dreams or themes in the dreams? Or are you like me and have a lot of unique, weird dreams? Do you interpret your dreams? That's my next project, to see if I can learn to do that. Maybe I can be another Joseph. Why do women like to read erotic romance? One of my loops is discussing this topic this week. Personally, I'm an emotion junkie - romantic emotions, that is. I want to feel as if I'm falling in love and maybe I'm oversexed, but I like those feelings, too. When I was a kid reading Harlequins and Silhouettes, I used to cheat and read that back of the book to make sure there was a happy ending which of course there always was. I also dog-eared the pages where the hot sex was so I could re-read those parts. I know some women profess sex is dirty, that it should be secret and hidden behind the closed bedroom door. Some of those same women have 8 kids. Hmmmm. That makes me think they're not so against sex. I'm sure others are like me and enjoy sex - both the real deal and the emotions it evokes. I'm sure I have at least one kid as a result of getting hot from reading a fictional sexy romance. For some reason, we don't want our mothers, grandmothers, and aunts to read our erotic stuff - at least not most of us. For some odd reason, we don't like to think of them as sexual creatures but obviously they were at least once if we're here - well, maybe not the aunts, but usually. I was in a workshop listening to a famous author a few years ago who is hilarious in person as well as in writing. Maybe more so in person. Anyway, she had me laughing so hard when she told this confession. She had told us that her mother professed to be shocked (I don't recall exact words) about her erotic romance scenes, but then she'd catch her sneaking to read them. She then told us that she was afraid her mother would get so hot she'd jump her father and she'd wind up with a new baby brother. It happens. That's life. :) If you like to read them, why? What are your reasons? Do you mind if other people know you like them? I imagine a lot of women like to read them but don't want other people to know. That's one reason they're so hot in e-book format. No one else gets to see a cover with naked, entangled bodies - a dead give away. Try explaining that one to your pastor or Bertha-better-than-thou if they see you reading it at Borders. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Racing Death

I recently read this term "racing death" and it struck a chord. All my life I've felt as if I've been racing death. It's not that I had any premonitions I would die young, but that I have so much I want to accomplish in this life that I wouldn't have nearly enough time. Two things I longed for the most was to have a loving family and to write and build a writing career. I definitely have the family (which I'm wondering why I wanted so bad listening to the two youngest fight behind me as I write this), and I do have the writing career - but I'm still racing to get to the level of my dreams. (NY Times best seller list. Write for Harlequin and Silhouette, etc.) There were other things as well I'm so glad I did. I served my country in the military - Air Force. I really wanted to see the world and thought the Air Force would be my vehicle. Unfortunately, I was plopped in the middle of the Deep South (Mississippi) and then the mid-western USA (Nebraska) instead of Germany, Australia, Japan, or some other exciting foreign place. Although Mississippi and Nebraska weren't my dream picks, I really enjoyed both and am glad I had the chance to experience more of my own country and to meet the wonderful people I did. Biloxi, Mississippi (way before Katrina) was so very beautiful I'll never forget it. I twirled flags in the AF Drum & Bugle Corps and even marched in the New Orleans and Biloxi Mardis Gras parades. I earned my MBA and now I'm actually the "Working Girl" I longed dreamed of being. I attend lots of important meetings. I find and fix a lot of problems. Best of all, I get to help a lot of people since I work for a charity that serves the poor - another one of my dreams fulfilled (helping people). As a kid I was an avid bowler, swimmer, bicyclist, roller skater, and rider (horses). I loved to attend summer camp - I tried to stay all summer and sometimes talked Mom into letting me stay as long as 3 weeks. A few years ago I even joined karate although I was already in my 40s. Karate hadn't been a lifelong goal of mine but once my son got involved it looked like a good way to exercise and stay in shape and seemed pretty cool. For a long time I thought all black belts were really admirable and I wanted to be one. That's one dream that fizzled, however, and on one level, I'm sorry but on another, I just couldn't admire some of the black belts I'd been meeting although I do want to go on record that some of them are some of the people I respect most. Anyway... That goes to show that we not all dreams and aspirations turn out to be something we wanted as much as we once thought we did. (Boy is that convoluted but I'm drained and failing fast tonight.) I've probably missed a few things, maybe even a biggie or two. But I always come back to writing, the love of my life. No matter what, I always come back to it even if I stray for a bit, even if my muse cheats on me. I heard and still hear a lot of people say, "I'm going to write a book one day," or "I want to write when the kids grow up" or "I'll write after I retire and I have more time." I knew I couldn't wait till the kids grew up or until I retired from my day job (the way this economy's going, I'll never get to retire from the day job). I knew I had to write NOW, every day. I knew I had to fit it into my life and to start it NOW ("NOW" being almost twenty years ago when my older children were still young). Even then, in my early twenties, I felt like I was racing death. That was way before I felt the weight of age I'm beginning to feel. Even then I was driven to reach for my dreams to make sure I achieved them. Now that my birthday is next week and the year after is a really big milestone of a birthday, I feel my mortality a lot more than I did then. Although I've achieved a lot and feel rather successful and happy, I've not reached my highest goals. I still have dozens, maybe hundreds of stories inside clamoring to be told. I still have mountains (publishers) to conquer. I still long to see the rest of the world (I've only been out of the US 3 times - to have lunch in Canada, a business trip to the worst slums in Haiti and another business trip to the worst slums in Jamaica). Sometimes I fear my dream of seeing the world is the one I won't achieve, that I'll be entombed in Florida the rest of my days (not that Florida is too bad if I have to be stranded - it's actually pretty darned terrific). Lately, I've been exhausted and wonder if I'm losing the race. I'm not suffering from any dire medical condition that I'm aware of except for low thyroid which isn't terrible compared to other illnesses. Of course maybe my thyroid's just out of whack again. It's usually the culprit when I'm extremely exhausted. Tired or not, I'm itching to finish at least six stories (very soon that is - and of course a WHOLE LOT MORE than that during the rest of my lifetime), to be accepted by my dream publishers, to be all that I can be.

Dreams or Revelations?

One of my good friends told me yesterday she had a dream that she was told she had cancer and a soothing male voice told her “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.”

She’s not one to remember her dreams and this one actually startled her out of her sleep. She mentioned it to our other friend who now wants to pray over her.

Was that a dream, I wonder. Or a revelation?

One of my other coworkers interprets dreams. According to her, dreams usually mean something far different than what they tell us on the surface. For instance, someone dying in a dream doesn’t mean death at all. Someone who dreams of losing a tooth will die or have someone close to them die – according to my coworker anyway.

I’ll have to run L’s dream by M to see what she says about it.

I mean, if all dreams come true, does that mean I’m going to grow a penis? Or that Carrie Underwood is being chased by the Terminator? (Honest to God, I’ve dreamed both recently).

I’m rational enough (I think) to know I’m not going to grow a penis or that an Arnold Schwarzenneger is going to hunt down Miss Underwood.

So that makes me wonder about the validity of dreams – at least if we interpret them for exactly what they say.

Another friend, L2, interprets her dreams a lot, too. But she also doesn’t go on the surface meaning. She takes a differernt approach. She looks for deep intrinsic meaning, almost always spiritual in nature.

I find it fascinating, but beyond researching deeper to create a character who’s a dreamer like Joseph, I don’t know that I would try. Which method of analyses is right? Would I drive myself crazy worrying about wrong interpretations? Would I waste my day worrying that I’m going to grow a penis?

I just bought a book on dream interpretation, and like I thought, the literal things we see in dreams are almost never what they mean - if the book is correct, that is.

Obviously, I looked up "Cancer". Here's what my book says: "Very often this appears as cancer or illness in dreams and equally can represent something 'eating away' at us - usually a negative idea or concept. Cancer is one of the prime fears that a human being has to deal with, so to dream of a cancer indicates we are out of harmony with our body. It also indicates fear of illness."

L1 has been very concerned about her health recently. She's been to numerous doctors trying to find the cause of her stomach aches, so this makes sense to me.

Now, as per me dreaming about growing a penis. I wondered if it meant I needed to act more authoritatively like a man, perhaps with the kids or in my position as manager at work. However, when I look up "Penis" in the dream dictionary I just acquired it says: "Dreaming of a penis, either your own or someone elses, usually highlights the attitude to penetrative sex."

That doesn't give me any big spiritual or psychological meaning. Does it tell you much of anything?

As I think I was going to use the penis to penetrate something (I'm trying to be delicate as possible), I looked up "Penetration". Here's what the interpretation for "penetration" is: "In dreams it usually signifies getting to the heart of the matter. Inherent in the idea of penetration is a piercing of defenses and this meaning is one which arises frequently in dreams. When we are feeling particularly vulnerable or at risk, dreams such as castle walls being penetrated can occur. Any article that penetrates or pierces another, such as a knife or laser beam, signifies that the normal boundaries and limitations by which we live are illusions when viewed from a spiritual perspective."

I think dreamers are fascinating people. I love to watch "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" starring Donny Osmond. One of these days I'll create a dreamer character. I've said this for many years, but I'm getting closer to doing so. That's really why I bought the book. My friend just inspired me to move up the date as well as to try and comfort her that her dream most likely does not mean she has actual cancer.

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, and Sandra Cox are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)