The Reoccurring Dream

Sometimes it’s hard being an author. And when I say ‘hard’ what I mean is that I’ve got all these story ideas and all of these characters screaming at me in my head to get their stories written, so I have a hard time sticking to one story at a time. I’ve noticed that when I try too hard to stick to one story at a time, say for one week I force myself to focus on one story, I don’t want to write anything for days after that.

So, I’ve been giving into my little ideas and writing them all down like I always have. Most recently this last week, I’ve focused a lot on formatting Love so that I can get a physical proof and complete my last round of edits. I’m at a bit of a stall at this point, as I’m waiting for my cover artist to adjust the size of the cover to fit the printing company’s requirements. However, because I’ve focused so much on only one story, I haven’t wanted to write book two.

I’ve actually been working slowly on another book idea, one that won’t be coming out until The Barrenmire Lights collection is complete, which will hopefully not take as long as I’ve originally planned. I’d love to get my next books out before their original planned release dates.

This next book idea is the first one to come to me because of a dream. Now, that’s not to say that this dream inspired the entire story—not at all. This dream is more of a… I don’t want to call it a nightmare, exactly, but it’s never truly pleasant. It’s been somewhat of a recurring dream for almost a decade now, but every dream has new aspects to it. There’s always something different happening, but it always includes the same people. And now, I’ve decided that the only way I’m never going to dream about this again is to write it down and make it a novel.

Do I want this dream to never happen again? I’m not sure, honestly. The dreams might not be pleasant and most of the time I wake up rather disappointed. But then, I remember who the dream is about, and in my mind, I don’t want to lose the memories we share, even if I do regret some of the things I’ve done.

Reading Recommendations

Same recommendations as last week, to be honest.

I am “booked out,” if you know what I mean. As I mentioned last week, I’ve read nine books since the beginning of November, and I can say that at the present time, that number is now ten. I have read so many books this month to try to reach my reading goal that I feel wiped out, and my brain needs a break.

My Current Read

Well, I took that break for a few days, and I started reading something new: Pretty Wicked Secrets by Callie Rose, the second book in the Ruthless Hearts series. My opinion on this book is like a roller coaster: I loved 95% of the first book, hated the last 5% and didn’t think it was redeemable. I took a break from starting the next book and read a few other things, and I decided that I’d begin the second book. So far, again, it’s like a roller coaster. Honestly, most of it is frustrating to read because of the FMC’s narrative and her current way of thinking (I’m 30% in), but then Dante comes around and makes it all better and makes me want to keep reading. Maddoc and Logan still need some extra time with the FMC to make me feel better about seeing them.

I’m still technically in the middle of reading two other books, but because my brain is overwhelmed with trying to read and process so many books this month, I set those two aside.

Recent Movies & TV Shows

The Summit has gotten so good!

Okay, so this TV show gripped me from the beginning. Sixteen people started off climbing up a mountain for one million dollars. Then, it started to turn into Survivor but without the blind elimination, and that frustrates me to watch. Everyone basically looks around at each other before putting their hand up to vote, waiting for someone else to put their hand up first. It just becomes this circle-jerk of “are you voting for this person? No? Okay, I won’t either. Are you voting for this person? Oh wait, yeah, I’ll raise my hand” and vice versa. I’d rather everyone turn around, not face each other, the host calls a name, and then people raise their hands to vote. I think that would make it really interesting. We as the audience would get to see how the alliances are truly playing out, but the competitors could continue their lies or loyalties however they see hit.

Now, the reason I’m still watching this, even though the voting frustrates me, is because now it truly is turning into Survivor, and unbeknownst to the remaining players, those who have been eliminated are coming back as a “jury of peers” to decide who ultimately wins the money in the end, even though more than one person is going to make it to the summit.

The other TV show that I’ve been watching recently is Ink Masters. As a fan of tattoos, it’s a fun show to get to see all the designs that people come up with and all the ideas that the canvases have. Again though, the frustrating thing for me here is that there is rarely a blind judging of tattoos. It just creates so much bias when judging a tattoo, and I don’t think it ends up fair at all. It becomes more of a popularity contest, and that isn’t what the show should really be about.

But I still watch it, because I love the designs too much and I love getting tattoos and seeing other people get this beautiful artwork. I also really like Nikko Hurtado as a judge, and Joel Madden as the host is awesome.