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Guest post and GIVEAWAY with Kerry Schafer – The Dream Effect
Today, MKR welcomes Kerry Schafer, author of the exciting new paranormal series beginning with Between. For your chance to win a free print copy, read the post and see below.
It’s mid morning and I’m engaged in some uneventful, every-day activity. I stretch out my hand to pick up a familiar object – a mug, say, or a shoe – and the physical act of touching that item in that moment of time shakes loose a forgotten dream fragment. For an instant I’m suspended between my reality and the world of dreams, the curtain lifted to let me catch a glimpse of what is usually hidden.
A person could get lost here, suspended between realities, with all of the unexamined riches of dreams opened for the conscious mind to explore. This point of intersection seems to me both dangerous and alluring. There is magic here, evidence of things unseen, hints of what cannot be explained. If it is too much for the mind to grasp, will it be shattered?
This is the space that gave rise to the Between – a reality that is neither waking or dreaming, but holds elements of both.
Dreams fascinate me. As a mental health counselor, I’m delighted when I get to work with a client who has an eventful dream life and wants to work through dreams. Such rich imagery and symbolism are to be found here, some of it unique and personal, some of it part of what Jung called “the collective unconscious.”
I’ve known people who report precognitive dreams. One of my friends swears that every time she dreams of a black dog, a death or a tragedy follows. There are people who can dream lucidly, guiding and directing the action while they are asleep. Some cultures teach their children the art of dreaming – how to make an enemy a friend, how to change a nightmare into a happier dream. The Australian Aboriginal peoples believe in a realm called Dreamtime, or The Dreaming, where each individual exists before and after their birth in what we think of as the real world.
My dream life is not quite so interesting, but I do have recurring themes, and when they emerge I am aware that I am dreaming, that I have dreamed this dream before. For me, these dreams are often about exploring unfamiliar houses and there are almost always secret passageways.
I suppose it’s not surprising that when I created the Between as a world in which my characters could move about and have adventures, it turned out to be full of secret passages and all manner of labyrinthine twistings and turnings. As for why my psyche always goes there, both in writing and in dreams, maybe someday I’ll have to explore that someday. For now, it provides the perfect fuel for writing.
Vivian’s life is finally on track. She has a job she loves as an ER doctor and has just met – literally – the man of her dreams. But when her eccentric grandfather is murdered and designates her as his next of kin, she discovers that she is the last of a race of beings known as dreamshifters. It is her task to guard the doorways between waking and dreaming, which have already begun to unravel, spilling dangerous creatures from dream into the waking world. When she sets out to close the open doors and protect her town and the people she loves, Vivian confronts dragons, intrigue, and the dark secrets of her own family history. In the end, she comes face to face with a sorceress seeking eternal life and ultimate power. Vivian must find a way to stop her, or reality will be forever altered.
- Publisher: Ace (January 29, 2013)
- ISBN-10: 042526114X
- ISBN-13: 978-0425261149
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About the Author
Kerry Schafer lives in Colville, Washington, with her family, which includes two cats, a rescue fish, and a preternaturally large black dog. A self-styled perpetual student, she earned an RN from Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta; a BA in English (Honours) from York University in Toronto, Ontario; and an M.Ed. in counseling psychology from Washington State University.
I had 2 reoccurring dreams for over 10 years based on HS and college academic & social anxiety. No fun! Lol
not really
I do find myself having recurring dreams. Sometimes it will be a continuation and other times same events repeat. It’s interesting and makes me wonder what my subconscious is trying to tell me.
Not really that I can remember