Talking with an Agent about My Writing

I had a strange but lovely dream last night. We were all at some sort of get-together for Chapter Book Challenge members. Jill Corcoran from Jill Corcoran Literary Agency was there and called many of us into another room. She then proceeded, one by one, to tell us what she thought of our books. She really liked them all, and offered to agent for four ChaBooCha members. Those members were Kelly McDonald, Melissa Gijsbers, Cecilia Clark and Becky Chevalier. For some reason, the books of mine she went over were actually two of my non-fiction books. She said they were marketable and well-written.

She mentioned a funny misspelling that was the kind you get with auto-correct (which was the only thing she found wrong in one of the books) - the word "testicles" used where it should have been "tentacles." Since these were my non-fiction books, I highly doubt I have either of those words in them, but I will do a "find word" search on my manuscripts today, just in case my subconscious was trying to warn me.

She was holding one of my manuscripts in book form, with a cover and all. I know I have not published this book yet, and definitely not in the hard back form that it was in within the dream, but I have taken note of the cover in the dream because it was pretty cool. It also meant that she went out of her way to find copies of my books. she actually went out of her way to find copies of all of our manuscripts so she could surprise us. In some cases, she asked our significant others for the manuscripts.

She didn't offer to represent me based on these two books as these two books of mine are already, mostly, published on the web, and she knew I planned to self-publish them. She offered to look at some of my fiction manuscripts though.

The strange bit was that I then woke up, making it possible for me to remember the dream and the great feeling I had at the time. I never wake up at this particular time of night and there was nothing going on in my house to cause me to wake. I think my subconscious mind just really knew I needed that good feeling about my writing to last for a little while.

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Family Reunion

The strange dream I had last night had to do with a family reunion.

In the dream, I was at a family reunion (on my mother's side). It was somewhere in the USA. My grandmother was there. (She died many years ago.) I had forgotten to bring a camera with me, so I had no way of taking photos of my kids with their rarely-seen relatives. My grandmother had brought her camera but didn't know how it worked, so she asked me if I could take some photos for her.

I started taking some random photos, many of which turned out really beautifully. Then I heard that my cousin Dana's wife was in labor at the hospital. Another cousin (one I don't remember having) told me he would drive me to the hospital so I could take photos of the new baby and congratulate the parents.

When we got to the hospital, we entered into a section that was mostly dark. One person was there. I don't know if he was a doctor or a lab assistant, but he gave us directions. We turned to leave, then turned to thank him for the directions but he had already disappeared. He'd told us to change into scrubs, and where to find the scrubs, before we entered the other part of the hospital, so we did.

I got lost and separated from my cousin on the way up to the room, but eventually found it. While lost, I kept wandering into parts of the hospital that were dark, abandoned run down and generally creepy.

Eventually, I found the right floor and entered the maternity ward. I was given directions to the waiting room when I told them I was there for Brandy. (When I asked who I was there to see, I said "Brandy," and the person who came into my mind was not my cousin's wife but another friend of mine named Brandy, and for a brief instant, I thought I had named the wrong person before remembering that they are both named Brandy.)

And, while I waited, I decided I needed to pee, but visitors weren't allowed to use the bathrooms, so I had to wait.

Then I woke up.

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The Love of My Son

I had another strange dream last night.

I was sitting with my five year old son Cameron, on bleachers around a stage. A travelling troupe were performing a play. One of the troupe members sat down beside me, but he didn't look well. Eventually, he slumped over into a more prone position.

As the play finished, the man told me he was very unwell. He said he'd been cursed. He then said that the only thing he needed to cure him and remove the curse was a kiss from a kind-hearted woman. He said, "Help me, please."

I didn't know what to think. I didn't believe in curses, but something about what he said rang true. He was obviously in a lot of pain and whatever was wrong with him had the feel of something otherworldly.

Cameron stood up and took my hand, trying to pull me away. "Don't go near him, Mommy. He's evil."

I looked at Cameron and said, "Don't be silly. He's not evil. He's just a man in pain, and he needs my help," I said.

"No, Mommy. He's a bad man, and he will hurt you. Stay away from him," Cameron said.

One of the actors, a young man who had been on the stage earlier, started running towards us, yelling, "Don't go near him! You're in danger! Get away from him!"

Startled, I took a step back and turned to face the cursed man to see if we were really in danger, but before I had fully turned, the man's arms wrapped around me and he pulled me into an unwilling kiss. I felt my energy leaving me and my skin began to wrinkle and thin with age.

When he let go of me, I was a frail, old woman, and I was in a lot of pain. I slumped down on the bleachers and lay there, without the energy or strength to move.

The man who had attacked me looked even younger than he had before. Instead of a man of about 45, he now looked like he was in his twenties.

The young  man who'd warned me reached us. He said, "I'm so sorry I wasn't in time. He's my father. He made a deal with a demon to stay forever young, but the demon tricked him and gave the gift with the condition that he had to consume the life essence of women in order to stay young, otherwise he would become very sick. I've been trying to keep him from hurting others, but sometimes he gets away. The only cure for this is a kiss of true love."

Cameron was stroking my face. "Mommy, the bad man hurt you," he said.

The young man, watching Cameron for a moment, then said, "You have a cure right in front of you. Your son. He loves you, and a kiss from him, because he loves you so purely, will cure you."

"No," I rasped out, my voice raspy and my breath wheezy. "I won't risk him. There is no guarantee that it will work. And what if it has the same effect that your father's kiss has? What if a kiss from my son just transfers his life essence to me while taking it from him? No."

But, despite my protests, Cameron leaned over and gently kissed my cheek. I was instantly healed, and the young man's father changed into a very old man, with very little strength.

"I am pleased that you are all right. I will make sure that my father cannot harm anyone else," the young man assured us as he carried his father away.

Cameron took my hand and we walked home. I wondered, along the way, how he had known that the man was evil.

Then I woke up.

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Lost in a town that doesn't exist

I don't remember too many details from last nights dream so I will try and summarize it.

I was driving on my motor scooter. (I haven't had a motor scooter since I was a teenager.) I was on a busy main road trying to get to the freeway. I was in California at the time, not too far from where I grew up and I knew where I was going, but somehow I missed the freeway exit. I drove too far along the road I was on and it slowly became a smaller road. I realized I had gone too far and decided to turn around, but when I did that, I found that I was on a very small village road, in a town center and surrounded by buildings. The main road I had been on not only had disappeared, but the road I was on no longer extended back in the way I had come.

I asked people for directions, but the directions they gave me didn't make sense, and when I tried to follow their directions, I wound up in worse neighborhoods, where the people wanted to hurt me. I always wound up back in the same place, in the center of a small village-type town, no matter which way I went or how I tried to get back out.

I entered the library and talked to the librarian, finding out that she had arrived here the same way I had - TWENTY YEARS AGO! She had never been able to find her way out, so she had made a life there. I went back outside and spoke to a policeman and found out he had a similar story.

I began to panic. Remaining there was not an option. I had family that I needed to get back to. I loved my husband and children and refused to accept that I would never see them again. Through my fearful tears, I continued to search for a way out.

Then I woke up.

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