Captain No Beard revisited

I babysat last night for Alexander and Cayla. We sent their parents out for dinner and settled in to watch Inside Out, which I have to say, was a wonderful movie. But that's a post for another day.

After Cayla went off to bed, Alex and I considered what to do. We had a lengthy discussion about Mount Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii. He read about it in school. I showed him pictures of the site and he was fascinated, as I knew he would be. No surprises there. We decided against a game of Stratego, and I suggested we read a book. 

He's seven, and is reading beautifully. He reads at night, and sometimes my son videos him practicing this new skill with his school books. He sends them in a message and we delight in watching him challenge himself with each new word. So, my thoughtful little guy disappeared to his room for a while, and I was afraid he got distracted. He came back, pouncing on the couch, holding the very first Captain No Beard, his face had a sweet smile. He knew I wasn't expecting one of my own books. That made my eyes water more than the movie, and I thought it couldn't get much better than that moment. 

You see, I have always read those books to him. This was a new experience. I have only heard him read books he is given for schoolwork, or books from the library. 

Well, Alexander began reading. He stumbled a bit on the harder words, but he read Captain No Beard from the beginning to end. It was a novel experience, having him read it to me, watching his face light up with laughter at the captain and crew's antics. 

I wrote that particular book for him. Alexander pulled me out from the doldrums when I lost my mother. He made me think about and then reinvent my life, so I could feel part of it again. Listening to him read my words, made me relive writing those same words. Watching him smile and giggle made me realize why I did it. 

Happy Reading,

Carole P. Roman

Dreaming Fiction

“I had the strangest dream,” my friend told me the other day. “It was like I watching an action movie.”

“You should write it down,” I told her.

She scoffed at me. “It was just a stupid dream.”

If Stephanie Meyers said that then there would be no Twilight Series.

Dreams, the usually nonsensical ramblings of our subconscious, are often dismissed by dreamers upon waking. “So an alligator strolled into the room wearing a pair of shoes he said was made from an old lady. Can you believe I dreamed that?” A dreamer might remark to a friend. Laughs will be had and then the dream will fade into the hustle of the waking world where it may never surface again.

No one will argue that dreams are strange and maybe most of the time just some babbling we need to release to make room for more information. However, the act of dreaming, the actual REM state, has been touted for maintaining plasticity and chemical balances within the brain. So since the act of dreaming is so critical to our wellbeing, maybe we should entertain the idea that the product is also of value—in some cases at least.

As I mentioned before, Stephanie Meyers claims she awoke from a dream with the idea for a vampire novel. She is not alone in drawing inspiration from her dreams for fictional works. Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelly, and Charlotte Bronte all credit dreams for parts of their stories.

Robert Louis Stevenson actually crafted the riveting novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from a nightmare. That’s one way to turn the tables on the usual aggravation that comes after bolting awake from a night terror. Stevenson was reported to be quite irritated with his wife for rousing him from the dream which inspired the classic story. “Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale,” he said to his wife.

My research on this topic made me realize that what lines the shelves of libraries are not just novels, but dream journals. Countless volumes were inspired by the strangeness that fills dreamer’s heads at night. Some authors have claimed a single dream inspired their entire story, whereas others only attribute a single character or idea. Still the takeaway remains the same: the strangeness of dreams can be woven into the greatest of stories. It does take a creative mind to catch a dream upon waking and spin it into something that is less ethereal and more suited for the average reader, but it has been done time and time again.

So maybe the next time you awake from a fantastical dream, before you laugh about it with a friend, write it down. Take it seriously. You might have captured a masterpiece as great as Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.

Sarah Noffke is the author of two YA series which are both heavily centered around the power of dreams. The Lucidites and Reverians series follow the lives of the powerful and extraordinary Dream Traveler race. Check out her books here: http://www.sarahnoffke.com

About this author:

Sarah Noffke is the author of The Lucidites and Reverians series. She’s been everything from a corporate manager to a hippie. Her taste for adventure has taken her all over the world. If you can’t find her at the gym, then she’s probably at the frozen yogurt shop. If you can’t find her there then she probably doesn’t want to be found. She is a self-proclaimed hermit, with spontaneous urges to socialize during full moons and when Mercury is in retrograde. Sarah lives in Central California with her family. Explore her books here: http://amzn.to/1GVgnB6

What it takes...

What does it take to be an Author? 

Best way to know is to ask successful ones ..... like Carole P. Roman

Author of the Award Winning Captain No Beard Series and the

Award Winning "If You Were Me And Lived In" Multi-Cultural Educational Series 

What challenges come up as an Author and how do you navigate in the literary world as a new Author?

Host: Lady Selah SuJuris

Guest: Carole P. Roman

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Unexpected

I really enjoyed this book. Anna and her charge TJ are the sole survivors of a plane crash. They wash up on a deserted island and carve out a life for themselves. A sweet romance develops, and oddly their age difference didn't bother me one bit. Told in alternating points of view, the voices feel real, TJ's young voice delightfully enamored with his beautiful teacher. When all of the conditions of society are ripped away, leaving raw survival, things that separate people, cease to exist.When they return to society, Anna must decide whether she loves TJ enough to let him have the life she thinks he might miss and is afraid that if he stays with her, he will be cheated from those experiences. They learn that age is just a number, and the need for human contact overrides preconceptions and prejudices. This is a book about survival, and our need for love and companionship. It's also a book about sacrifice, and what we are willing to do for the ones we love.

Happy Reading!
Carole P. Roman

Their stories are sometimes not pretty, yet she imbues their tales with courage

Sandra Dallas writes about the women who won the west. She relates the stories of the people of the plains, the settlers who built homes on the raw land, everyday a fight for survival. Their stories are sometimes not pretty, yet she imbues their tales with courage, loyalty, and friendship- making their histories vibrant as the colorful, prairie sunrise.
Accused of a heinous crime, Gracy, the local mid-wife must choose between her honor or try to save herself by revealing the dark secrets of the community where she lives. Her wiliness to sacrifice her own freedom reflects the tightness of the sisterhood where she resides.
I love Sandra Dallas's books. They paint a detailed and three dimensional portrait of frontier life. The deep-rooted relationships create a network of sisters who share their secrets knowing they are in safe hands. The story meanders through the town, touching down to include different threads, that seem almost unrelated, but slowly the story weaves it way back to a combustible conclusion. You may think you know where the author is going, and you may think it's predictable. I thought I did too and was surprised with the Dallas twist.

Happy Reading!
Carole P. Roman