Remember this dream?

"It was two people in kind of a little circular meadow with really bright sunlight, and one of them was a beautiful, sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal, and they were having this conversation. The boy was a vampire, which is so bizarre that I'd be dreaming about vampires, and he was trying to explain to her how much he cared about her and yet at the same time how much he wanted to kill her.”

That’s the dream that started Twilight - Stephenie Meyer woke up, recognised she had something special, and wrote it down.

My dreams are not nearly that helpful for writing purposes1. I once dreamed a perfect locked-door murder mystery, fiendishly difficult, but logically sound once all was revealed. I woke up excited, determined to get this brilliant puzzle down.

Reader, the amazing solution to this cunning murder was “he came through the window”.

Ngaio Marsh, I am not.

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Lately, I’ve been dreaming of snow, despite the sweaty heat suffusing the New Zealand summer. I know why - it’s not inspiration, but what I’m pouring into my brain. Ask Cassandra takes place on a rural vineyard, in that unpleasant transition from winter to spring, where a fresh future is just a distant glimmer as you trudge through the slush and mud of your present life.

(If you were wondering, no, I will never abandon the pathetic fallacy, especially when I’m writing about characters whose original mythologies were closely tied to the personification of natural forces.)

A lot of my research recently has been scrolling through wintry vineyard photos, all very picturesque, and wondering what it would be like to actually be there in the less romantic reality, to feel the ground icy-hard or precariously slippery underfoot, to have the cold air bite at your face. No surprises that such wondering has snuck into my sleep.

I occasionally describe my job as “sitting at home and making up adventures with my imaginary friends.” A lot of what I do is the (slightly) more grown-up equivalent of rubbing two Barbie doll’s heads together and proclaiming, “Look, they’re kissing!” It is work2, but it’s also play, and it’s a joy to play with love stories.

What I do is not, perhaps, “serious” writing, but I take it seriously. How to recognise and nurture love, how to negotiate desire, how to communicate and unite with others, how to behave with integrity and honesty in work, love, and life, how to turn the dream of romance into the reality of living love — these are issues of huge importance to many of us.

The real fantasy I offer is of a confirmed happy ending. In real life, we strive for those things with no surety of outcome. We might find ourselves in the dark days of late winter with no certain hope of spring. But why not indulge in hope anyway? Imagine that story ending well for someone else, and make it easier to find it yourself.

I’ve got some dreams to sell.

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Pre-orders are immensely helpful for authors. Pre-order Ask Cassandra to earn my eternal gratitude today (happy ending guaranteed!)

The Love Month Romance Giveaway is still going strong (hi, new readers!) and you can find literally hundreds of FREE novels, novellas, prologues and excerpts there, including my own Penelope Pops the Question.

If you’re here from that giveaway, great news! The first full novel in the Olympus Inc. series, Persephone in Bloom, is only 99 cents (USD) this Feburary!

If you’re like me, then you’re anticipating Feb 14th will send you a FLURRY of romance author newsletters and deals. Mine most certainly included, because I have newwwws. More soon!

My brain has the delightful habit of noting I am anxious about something—say, an upcoming deadline—and then translating that into an anxiety dream about a different thing, like running late for the airport, or standing in front of a class without a lesson plan, so that I then wake up anxious about TWO situations. Thanks, brain!

After outlining and roughly plotting, I have FINALLY finished the first full chapter of Ask Cassandra. It was kind of a slog! But now I have a firmer grip on Cassie and Manny, and things should proceed forthwith!