BooksChatter: ☀ℚ♫ Lucid Dreaming

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Lucid Dreaming, a New adult urban fantasy novel by Cassandra Page (3 November 2015, Cassandra Page, 257 pages).

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below, as well as the promotional Q&A with the author. Read various excerpts with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Cassandra Page will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Synopsis | Teaser | Author Q&A | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

Who would have thought your dreams could kill you?

Melaina makes the best of her peculiar heritage: half human and half Oneiroi, or dream spirit, she can manipulate others’ dreams. At least working out the back of a new age store as a ‘dream therapist’ pays the bills. Barely.

But when Melaina treats a client for possession by a nightmare creature, she unleashes the murderous wrath of the creature’s master. He could be anywhere, inside anyone: a complete stranger or her dearest friend. Melaina must figure out who this hidden adversary is and what he’s planning – before the nightmares come for her.

Teaser: Excerpt

     Despite my mixed heritage, I still dreamed. But, like my mother, I was a lucid dreamer: I knew I was dreaming and could alter the dream if it didn’t suit me. Because it was my dream, it didn’t cost me anything to do it either. It defanged my nightmares, and meant my dreams were usually pleasant.
     Unless I got a gatecrasher.
     That night, seeking to escape the winter chill, I conjured up a summer beach. The sun shone down yellow rather than white, as if I were wearing sunglasses. The golden sand was soft and squeaked, pleasantly warm between my toes, as I walked down to the sighing waterline. A breeze scented with saltwater and hot eucalyptus stirred my hair against the nape of my neck and caressed my bare belly and arms. I wore a bikini, and the towel wrapped around my waist draped down my long legs.
     The beach was deserted, the only footprints my own. Perfect. I unhitched the towel, let it drop to the dry sand beyond the waves’ foam-laced fingers, and stepped into the briny water.
     “You look good,” a voice said behind me.
     I whirled, almost falling into the water. My arms flailed, ungainly, as I caught my balance. “Leander!”

     He wore emerald green board shorts that clung a little too tightly to his thighs, and his chest was bare so I could admire his lightly muscled physique. If I wanted to. Which I didn’t. His wings fanned gently in the breeze, stirring up eddies in the sand. Locks of warm brown hair brushed the top of his shoulders.
     “The one and the same. Have you missed me?” He puffed out his chest as my gaze ran over him. Leander was pretty and he knew it. If he could, he’d trade his grey moth wings for something vivid. Butterfly-like.
     “No,” I said.
     “Not even a little bit?” His smile said he didn’t believe me.
     I folded my arms. The bikini that had been entirely appropriate a moment ago now seemed scandalously bare. I considered conjuring up a more concealing outfit—perhaps a nun’s habit—but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he bothered me. “What do you want?” It was the same question I’d asked him the day before, and I suspected I’d get the same answer.

     His wings drooped, but he regrouped fast. “Aren’t you going to ask me where I was all these months?”
     “Where have you been?” I picked up my towel and shook the sand out of it. He stepped back to avoid the scattered grains.
     “I got summoned back to Greece by the Morpheus.”
     That got my attention; the towel fell still in my hands. Even the waves paused in their slide up and down the beach, casting a hush over the little stretch of coastline. “The god of dreams?”
     He snorted a laugh, wings quivering like an insect in a pollen-gathering ecstasy. “No. Where did you hear that?”
     “Oh, you know, ancient Greek myths about the Oneiroi. I can’t imagine why I’d want to read them.” I rewrapped the towel around my waist, tucking the ends in tightly so it wouldn’t fall open.
     “Well, you can’t believe everything you read.” He flicked a few grains of sand off his shoulder.

Lucid Dreaming - available NOW!

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Author Q&A

Can you tell us a little about LUCID DREAMING?

"As the blurb says, Lucid Dreaming tells the story of Melaina Armstrong, who is half human and half Oneiroi, or dream spirit. That is something that had always been impossible, for rather obvious anatomical reasons; her birth caused a significant amount of consternation among the Oneiroi and caused her non-human father to go into hiding rather than reveal how it had happened…

Melaina is a character that appeared in my head one day, almost wholesale, as I was driving home after work. I’d just finished another project, and had intended to sit down and try my hand at a straight fantasy (rather than its urban fantasy cousin), when she came stomping out of my subconscious complete with steel-capped boots and a nose piercing. I loved her instantly, and put my fantasy novel plans aside to tell her story instead!"

Are all your books set in Australia?

"The urban fantasies are, including Lucid Dreaming—although part of the third book in my other trilogy also has a handful of scenes set in London and Edinburgh. I’ve thought about setting a book entirely overseas, but there are several reasons I haven’t. One is that I’ve only ever been on one overseas holiday (to Scotland and Spain), and I didn’t think I could fake it. Another is that I’m acutely aware that I not only write in Australian English, but that I don’t always know when a phrase I use is uniquely Australian. If I tried to write a character with an American or British voice, for example, readers would be onto me faster than you can say “g’day, mate”.

Besides, I love Australia and thought there wasn’t enough supernatural fiction set here, so I decided to put my money where my mouth is!"

Are you inspired by music? What songs do you associate with LUCID DREAMING?

"I don’t write to music. I’m one of those people who, if they hear a song and know the lyrics, will start singing along, usually with great gusto … all of which makes trying to craft new words impossible. I’m a little bit jealous of people who have not just songs but entire playlists for their novels. I don’t have that sort of list, but there are a couple of songs that remind me of Lucid Dreaming.

The first is a classic: Enter Sandman by Metallica. But it has to be the version with the San Francisco Symphonic Orchestra, because violins. VIOLINS!

The second is more recent (though not that recent): Imaginary by Evanescence. (Which also has violins and thrashing guitar—coincidence?) This song specifically makes me think of Davina, Melaina’s mother."

What is the favourite part of your writing process?

"If I can’t say “the moment where I type THE END”, then it’d have to be editing. Having something there to shape and hone is so much fun, and comes much more easily to me since I’m also an editor in my day job. Drafting is sometimes such a word vomit process that by the end of a writing session I’m convinced what I’ve set down is all a bit rubbish. It’s taken me years to learn to just keep drafting, and then to come back and fix it later.

My second-favourite part is writing the last few chapters of a book. I’ve drafted five novels now, and that’s always been a fun part of the experience. It’s such a heady rush, seeing all the plot threads come together and the plot accelerate. Also, usually by that point I’m doing mean things to my characters, which is also fun!"

About the Author

Cassandra Page is a mother, author, editor and geek.

She lives in Canberra, Australia’s bush capital, with her son and two Cairn Terriers. She has a serious coffee addiction and a tattoo of a cat — which is ironic, as she’s allergic to cats.

When she’s not reading or writing, she engages in geekery, from Doctor Who to AD&D. Because who said you need to grow up?

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