Guest Post and Excerpt by Jacqueline Paige
There’s a little psychic in all of
us…
I don’t think I’ve met a single
person in my life (yet) that can’t say they haven’t had a moment
where something they saw in a dream (awake or asleep) didn’t ring
true at some point.
Ever walk in some place that you’ve
never been but there’s that thing you can’t explain that makes it
feel familiar? You’re doing something that you’ve never done,
but you know exactly what to do? You see someone that you’ve never
met but there’s something familiar about them? That nagging feeling
that something is wrong but you can’t define it?
I’m not an expert on dreams or how
the mind works, but I believe dreams are there for a reason. Yes
sometimes it’s just a little too much stimulant (sugar, caffeine)
before bed that has you reliving that moment in the movie you watched
before going to bed. Or you bit you tongue all day long when you
wanted to tell that co-worker off so it was still weighing heavily in
your mine when you finally fell asleep – and then fed them through
the paper shredder in your dream, or had them as your groveling
gopher acknowledging your superior skill… the subconscious mind is
an amazing thing.
With my writing I’ve explored all
sorts of dream like occurrences, after all I get my best ideas for
stories when I’m almost asleep, just at that point where I’m not
conscious of anything going on and a few seconds from drifting off
(which, by the way can be annoying if all you want it sleep and not
characters popping into your head). In the second book of the Hidden
Senses Trilogy , Dream Visions, I have a character that connects
with others in high emotional moments while she’s in a Dream like
trans. In my soon to be released Ancestor’s Enchantment
Trilogy, The Witch Within, the character is seeing her ancestor’s
in her dreams. So it wasn’t much of a leap to take things in a new
direction with the Dream Series and have the characters
actually meet in a dream.
Without giving away everything in the
story, I’ll share part of the opening from Part 1 in the series -
In Our Dream:
“Tell me your name.”
The unfamiliar voice was
intense, yet gentle, and it resonated in all the right places inside
of her. “Jennah Best.” She glanced around, trying to place where
they were.
“I’m Dominic.”
His voice was so close
to her ear, she jumped and looked behind her. Several inches above
her face, she peered into dark, mesmerizing brown eyes. “Where are
we?” She skimmed over his short, black hair and broad, shadowed
jaw as she waited for an answer.
He smiled at her. “Where
would you like to be?”
She laughed. “A
thousand places, but that’s not the point—where are we?” She
tried again to recognize something, everything seemed obscured, yet
he was right in front of her and very clear. “Do I know you?”
He shook his head
slowly. “No, but we are changing that.” He smiled at her again
and she couldn’t help but smile back. He held out one large hand
to her. “Walk with me.”
It wasn’t really a
question, or an order, and she did want to know what was going on, so
she put her hand in his and flushed a little when she felt the heat
as his large hand close around hers. She had almost been thinking
she was dreaming this. “I don’t mean to sound repetitive, but
where are we, Dominic?”
He walked slowly beside
her for a few moments and then stopped and gazed down at her again.
“It’s difficult to explain, but we’re in a place where few can
go.”
That wasn’t exactly
the answer she wanted. She peered around him and almost sighed in
relief when she saw a window seat in the old library. What she was
doing in the library’s reading room with a strange man, she didn’t
know. At least she knew where she was now. A place where few can
go? The library?
“Shall we sit?”
She nodded, not wanting
to say something odd again. She let him lead her over to the window
where he stood waiting until she sat down. She glanced out the
window to see the large snowflakes falling gently to the ground. She
tried not to notice how close he sat to her, but it was hard not to
when the man was so large. She tried also not to notice how wide his
shoulders were. Her biggest weakness seemed to be men with broad
shoulders. Even though he was dressed in dark pants and a tasteful
sweater, he seemed almost dangerous, and the well controlled female
inside her liked this too much.
“What do you do,
Jennah?”
She looked quickly from
his broad shoulders to those dark eyes. “I, ah, work for the
police department here in town.”
“A detective?”
She grinned and shook
her head. “No, I thought about trying it a few times, but got too
old to pursue it by the time I decided.”
He grinned. “I can’t
see your age being the problem. You can’t be more than
twenty-eight, twenty-nine.”
She knew she grinned at
him like an infatuated idiot, but couldn’t help it. “Oh, I’m
afraid I’m quite a bit older than that, but I’m going to take
that as a compliment.” She fought the urge to brush her long, wavy
hair back off her shoulder. She didn’t want to appear like she was
flirting. She smiled at him again before looking back toward the
window.
“I think you’re
exaggerating. So, what do you do within the department?”
She shrugged. “Mostly
desk work and gopher runs.”
He nodded. “What does
that involve?”
“Transports, mostly.”
“To Wyestate prison?”
“Quite often, or to
the court and next counties.” Jennah watched his eyes move over
her face.
“Do you have a
partner?”
She shook her head.
“Not often, unless it’s a high profile I’m transporting.”
She glanced at the clock on the wall and frowned. It must need
repairing. It couldn’t possibly be almost five in the morning.
“Are you from here?” She gazed around when she heard an odd
buzzing, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“No.” He just sat
there, studying her.
She tried to focus on
him and then blinked. He seemed to be fading.
“I’ll see you again,
Jennah.”
The buzzing grew louder.
Jennah opened her eyes.
Her alarm clock was going off. She reached over and slapped a hand
on the snooze button and then focused to make sure she was in her
room. She blew out a breath and tried to shake the fog from her
mind. That explained a few things. The dream was so real, but not
at the same time. Too bad, really. That man, Dominic, her mind had
invented was quite nice to look at. No
more chocolate caramel popcorn for you before bed,
she thought as she slowly sat up.
Excerpt
The nerve of that man! Why won’t he just accept things and go away? She paced back and forth, trying to control the frustration that was pumping through her. Every time she saw him, every hurt moment came flooding back to her and she just wanted him gone. She wanted to move on and live her own life and try her damndest to be happy!“Jennah?”
She spun around, expecting someone to be behind her. There was no one there. Was that Dominic’s voice? Oh no, she was hallucinating now! Should she call her doctor? Maybe the stress had finally caught up to her. Was she going to end up spending her holidays alone in the psych ward?
“Jennah, why are you so upset?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. I am not hearing voices! I am not losing my mind!
She heard his deep chuckle. “No, you’re not losing your mind. This is really happening. I should have told you, but in our dream...it’s not really a dream. We’re connecting.”
Her eyes flew open. What? “What?” She stood perfectly still, waiting to see if she could hear him again.
“I can explain it better later. I just picked up on how upset you were...”
She squinted. “Picked up? How? How are you inside my head when I’m completely awake? How can we talk inside my head?”
She heard him chuckle again. “Inside mine, as well. I don’t have time right now. Are you all right?”
She laughed out loud, not knowing if he would hear it in her head too. “Clearly not! I’m talking to a man from my dream inside my head while I’m wide awake standing in the locker room at work!”
“Jennah...”
Dream Series
Part 1
Jacqueline Paige
Release date December 10 2013
She’s a small town cop. He’s an inmate undercover. They meet in a dream.
Book Description:
Jennah Best left the adrenaline packed life of being a cop on the edge for a more peaceful place. She escaped a marriage that almost destroyed her and now lives her life working for a small police station in the town of Ridge. At her age, she’s accepted that it’s too late and too much work to start all over again, until she meets a man in a dream...
While young, Dominic Palmer has always proven he can get the job done. Or at least, that was the case before he accepted a job and agreed to go undercover as an inmate. When months go by and there’s no word from his outside contact he wonders if he’s been left on the inside for good. He’s fighting to stay alive and keep his sanity, but finds himself completely distracted by a mysterious woman he met in a dream...
Previously released in Dreams anthology
Part 2 From A Dream will be released in February 2014
About the Author:
Jacqueline Paige lives in Ontario in a small town that’s part of the popular Georgian Triangle area. No one has ever heard of Stayner, so she usually tells people she lives “near Collingwood” and no, she doesn’t ski at Blue Mountain or at all, in fact she’s not even fond of snow.
She began her writing career in 2006 and since her first published works in 2009 she hasn’t stopped. Jacqueline describes her writing as “all things paranormal”, which she has proven is her niche with stories of witches, ghosts, physics and shifters now on the shelves.
When Jacqueline isn’t working at her ‘reality job’ or lost in her writing she spends time with her five children, most of whom are finally able to look after her instead of the other way around. Together they do random road trips, that usually end up with them lost, shopping trips where they push every button in the toy aisle, hiking when there’s enough time to escape and bizarre things like creating new daring recipes in the kitchen. She’s a grandmother to four (so far) and looks forward to corrupting many more in the years to come.
Jacqueline loves to hear from her readers, you can find her at www.jacqpaige.webs.com , www.jacqpaige.blogspot.ca or http://magicseasonsbooks.blogspot.ca
Thanks for having me here today!
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