Hijacked another title.

I woke up at three something this morning to dreams of seeing old high-school friends at a book signing I was holding at a cook-book conference. At the author-talk I spoke to an audience consisting of veterans, my dad, and Hillary Clinton.

From there I retired to a suite surrounded by people I hadn’t seen in twenty years. Deciding I needed some carrots, I descended steps to an underground pool set in the living room floor and held my breath as I perused the fully submerged, fully stocked kitchen. An old friend sat at a kitchen counter in scuba gear drinking some sort of shake between bursts of  bubbles from his regulator.

After waking and grasping the discrepancy between my clock and my mind I gave up.

Bathrobe, coffee, and eventually lights could be found by my half functioning hindbrain, even as my eyes fought to peel themselves open.

Early morning is not my thing. Carl Winderl, my father and my mentor, operates in that realm of pre-dawn creativity. Not I. I stumble around with eyes gummed shut trying to make sense of my surroundings.

But, what preludes that early bumbling is often where my most creative epiphanies occur.

The journal beside my bed is full of half-crazed rantings. Some seem pointless ramblings, others dark manifestations of primal fears, but mixed into the delirium of dream-speech I can point out the seedlings of every one of my stories.

Creativity comes from my dreams.

I can look back on my undated journal and tell you I had watched Underworld in the days leading up to this entry. Or taught my class Romeo and Juliet and bought a book about vertical farming as a precursor to another dream. The death of my friend’s father crafted a picture of me sitting before a well of souls.

My brain sucks in much that I don’t register in my daily life only to spit it out in dream form.

Dreams are seeds.

@     @     @

Now that my eyes are starting to wake up, I think I’ll have that cup of coffee and wander up to my office to fly the Black some more. Atom & Go Deux is slowly entering the winding down phase, but as most of you readers know, that means the action is ramping up. Unlike the first book in the series I have actually used a second POV in this one and feel that it only enhances Atom’s tale.

For now I have the ending outlined and feel confident that I’m close to the final story.

But who knows, the characters have a mind of their own and have broken from my story-line on many occasions.

I’m closing in on that July publication date and the to-do list Three Furies gave me is looming. I never realized how much leg-work went into the publishing process. Ignorance is bliss. Oh, for the days when I thought writers just wrote stories.

But I have a new cover coming out soon and I can’t wait to show you guys some of the concept drawing.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime keep on reading and keep flying the Black.