Speaking of dreams...

In order to write my novel, WAKE, I had to do a good deal of research on dreams. A lucid dream is a dream in which you are aware that you are dreaming and you will remember the dream. Lucid dreams come into play in this book, and they have in my own life as well. I get a lot of my ideas for plots and events in my books from my own dreams.

There are lots of "typical" dreams. Who hasn't had a "falling" dream? I'm no expert at interpreting dreams, but some seem obvious in their meanings.

Last night, I had a dream that I was in my senior high English classroom. The only weird thing about the dream was that Mr. VanDenBerge was the teacher -- he was my math teacher back in the day. What's he doing teaching English, huh?

Anyway, Mr. VanDenBerge (a teacher I liked) gave me a "D" on a writing assignment. Pfft. Can you guess that I'm anxious to see what readers and reviewers think about my book?

Misc.

Look! I won a badge and I didn't have to do anything. Isn't it cute? Thanks to Lisa McGlaun for thinking of me.




In the writing world, things are winding down. I'm on little break from writing at the moment. Working on some marketing ideas. Speaking of that, if you aren't my friend on myspace, facebook, or goodreads, why not? The links are in the side bar. Come be my BFF.

I am trying to decide what to cook for Christmas dinner. It'll be just the four of us, so I hate to put a ton of effort into it. I may have my new favorite place, Midwestern Meats, deliver me one of those "just put it in the oven" meals. If you live in the Mesa area, they are wonderful butchers and they know everything.

And as for Survivor last night... plah. I wish Courtney had won.

Best Book You've Read This Year

I've read a lot of books this year. More than most years. Mostly I read young adult novels, and some of my favorites this year were:

Every Crooked Pot by Rene Rosen
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
by Chris Crutcher (which came out years ago but I just re-read it last month)

Also by Crutcher -- his latest, called DEADLINE. I'm in the middle of this one right now.

What have you read this year that you'd recommend?