Did you ever dream a story?
I almost never dream.
My husband has vivid ones.
While I sometimes wish I could, there is
one dream I cannot forget.
Dream a story. Sounds fascinating.
But this one scared me.
When You Dream a Story...
I started writing the Bringer of Chaos series when I was seventeen years old. I was sound asleep at home, dreaming about walking the length of a vast receiving chamber, heading for a woman who sat on the throne at the end. The empress was the twin sister of a dangerous man who was not present. He was older than she but he wasn't the king. I didn't know why he wasn't at the time, but that fact worried me. Honestly, to dream a story was never something I thought I could do, but there it was.
I had to walk through rows of soldiers who stood at attention, facing forward. I could not see their faces. I was not afraid to approach the throne. The woman looked amused at how long it took me to reach her. I kept walking and walking but never seemed to get closer. I turned around to see how far I had come. That's when I saw the faces of the soldiers, and my breath caught.
Every one of them had the heads of gray cats.
I woke up and sat straight up in bed.
Why that image should have been so frightening, I don't know. No one was attacking me. No one glared at me. They just looked right at me, and that was enough. To this day, I can see that image.
From that dream was born most of the Tarthian Empire series. The woman on the throne became Empress Rheyn Destoiya. The cat-headed soldiers became the Praetorian Guard, peopled with the Kin, a feline-humanoid race. My Kin do not have cat-heads but they are quite catlike and have pointed ears higher up on their heads than a human's.
Her missing, older brother became Pietas, hero of the Bringer of Chaos series. Discovering Pietas has been a lifelong attempt. Below is an excerpt from the book for you to sample, and you can download the entire first three chapters here.
Excerpt from Forged in Fire
In this scene, Pietas discovers that his friend, Six, has been taken hostage.
"Are you looking for this?" His father's unmistakable voice came to him before the man's faint outline revealed itself in the dark.
Mahikos had captured Six and pressed a knife blade to the ghost's throat. At the point where the blade dug into him, blood oozed.
The blank passivity on his friend's face revealed what Pietas had feared. Six had been compelled into submission. He would stand there and let Mahikos kill him.
Rage propelled Pietas forward.
"That's far enough, Son." He dragged Six backward. "Unless you want your own hands covered in this human's blood."
Pietas ground his teeth. "I will end you, old man."
"Will you?" Mahikos dug the knife edge into Six's neck. "You dared bring this abomination into our camp after it threatened your mother--the woman I love--and you want to end me? This thing is going to die by my hands!"
Origin of Pietas
To save his people, a genetically enhanced warrior must do the one thing he detests... trust a human.
Origin of Pietas
https://books2read.com/u/4DovO7
An exiled, immortal king and his not-quite human friend join a ginormous panther "kitty" and the most dysfunctional family since forever.
Forged in Fire
https://books2read.com/u/bpW7Kg
Forged in Fire
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A dream when you were seventeen! That’s astonishing – that those images, the buried story, has propelled your creativity for such a long time.
I have definitely dreamed stories. Several of them have actually made it on to the page. I do believe in the wisdom and depth of dreams.
What a terrifying dream and yet one that led you to writing a great story. Have I dreamed a book. Probably not but I put myself to sleep dreaming up stories of thesmes and wake in the morning ready to write
Yeah, a very long time. Literally half a century. I only wish I’d had the courage to start writing it sooner!
Terrifying yes. Still to this day don’t know why. Sometimes I will think of story ideas or scenes as I’m drifting off to sleep, but forget them in the morning. I keep paper/pen by the bed, but have been known to jump up and go write in my office for a while too. 🙂
Cool dream, Kayelle. I think Pietas might look good with a cat’s head.
I dreamed the setup for a book once, though once it was written it was changed almost beyond recognition, like yours. My dream became my first science fiction book, The Trial of Tompa Lee, after a few years of writing category romances.
He’s definitely a cat person. 🙂 How nice you wrote it! That’s awesome.
Great stories arise from dreams. I’ve written more than one story that originated while I slept. Got to say, though, I empathize with Pietas’ father in this scene. If someone threatened my life, I’d hope my husband would react in much the same way.
Thank you. 🙂 This scene shows Mahikos out of context — as a hook to read. There is so much more here than this little bit can reveal. Mahikos is not at all what he seems.