Lockdown Dreams

I want to expand our BVS blog to include a wider variety of views and thoughts.  What better way to do that than open the forum to the talent of our authors?  It is with great pleasure I introduce Alice Renaud……….

Lockdown Dreams

When my life was busy and full of work, friends, church, outings, etc., I sometimes thought, “How nice it would be to be at home, with nothing to do except relax, watch TV and read books.” Hmm… We have been in lockdown now since 20 March, and I realize I quite liked my busy life. I would rather be stuck at home than anywhere else, for sure. But while I may have believed I was a very domestic person, there is a wandering element in my soul. Something that longs for new, and different, experiences.

Perhaps because my daily life is restricted, my dreams have become more interesting. No sniggering at the back, I don’t mean sexy… though sometimes there are romantic elements. In my dreams, I travel. Back to my childhood home, to a different world, or even another planet. I’m not the only one – apparently, people have been dreaming more in the lockdown. I trained myself when I was still young to remember my dreams (tip: wake up at the same time every day and write them down as soon as you wake up). I even experimented with “lucid dreaming”, where you try to take control of your dreams. It sort of worked – for example, I could make myself dream a story by thinking about it every night before going to sleep.

For a writer of paranormal and fantasy romance like myself, dreams can be a great source of inspiration. My next short story is inspired by a dream I had a few weeks ago. An Earthman arrived on a planet, and was welcomed in a luxurious hotel by smooth-faced local women, who brought him drinks and pastries (yes, cakes do feature heavily in my dreams). There were no local men in sight. That planet had such high levels of radiation it wasn’t safe for Earth people to go out during the day. They had to wait until nightfall and wear a protective suit, gloves, and a mask (definitely a lockdown dream). The Earth man stepped outside, into an ancient city. Six thousand years old, the jewel of a civilization now gone. The buildings looked like luminous pebbles stacked together, all different colours, a little like this picture. It was magical. Then the Earth man realized that he had forgotten to put on his gloves. He rushed back to his hotel, and discovered that his hands had been irradiated and were turning blue… like the hands of the local inhabitants.

To know more, you will have to wait for my short story to come out in the next BVS anthology! In the meantime, you can discover the world of shape shifting mermen in my Sea of Love series. Books 1 and 2 are out now, Book 3, Mermaids Marry in Green, will be out later this year. Each book in the series is a standalone story.

Book 1 A Merman’s Choice $1.99 https://books2read.com/u/31xw7a

For centuries the shape-shifting mermen of the Morvann Islands have lived incognito among humans. But one of them, Yann, has developed some bad habits. Like rescuing humans, even when doing so risks revealing his true nature. When he fishes Alex out of the sea, he doesn’t expect her to reappear eight months later, and turn his life upside down by asking him to be her guide.

Alex is determined to fulfill a promise to her dying grandmother, by gathering pictures and stories of the Morvanns. But she soon discovers that, on these remote Welsh islands, legends have a habit of becoming true!

Over the course of a few days, Yann and Alex grow close. But some mermen hate humans. Their hostility, and Yann’s secret, threaten to tear the couple apart just as they are discovering that they are soul mates. Can Yann overcome the obstacles in his path and make the right choice?

Book 2 Music for a Merman $1.99 https://books2read.com/u/mdG7Bw

Rob Regor knew that humans were trouble. All the shape shifting mermen of the Morvann Islands knew it. And human women were double trouble… especially when they were lying on the road in front of a digger.

Rob has a mission. Go to the mainland. Work as a policeman. Spy on humans. Report back to his father, the head of the Regor Merman Clan. It should be easy. Until he has to arrest Charlie. Rob can’t fight his attraction to the sexy eco-warrior, and it puts him on one hell of a collision course with his family and his Clan. Will he break the rules – or break her heart, and his?

Love ‘em and leave ‘em, that was Charlie’s motto. It had served her well until now. But Rob is different… Can she open up her heart to Rob – when a secret buried in her past surfaces and changes her completely?

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