A Dream Within A Dream

April 2, 2024

The Architect of Grayland Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE ARCHITECT OF GRAYLAND by Evelyn Arvey Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

THE ARCHITECT OF GRAYLAND
Author: Evelyn Arvey
Release Date: February 16, 2024
Publisher: Evelyn Arvey
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 498

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-ARCHITECT-OF-GRAYLAND

Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited membership!

SCIENTISTS FROM THE FAR FUTURE KIDNAPPED HER.
THREW HER INTO A HORRIFIC EXPERIMENT.
SHE REFUSED TO DIE.

Elaine, a modern-day woman, is abducted by elite Historical Anthropologists of the far-distant future. Spirited forward through time to their university laboratory, she is locked into a vast, empty, gray habitat built for the study of “primitive” humans.

Elaine awakens in this appalling place, alone, naked, and terrified. She has no idea that a hidden audience of university students is studying her every move. Forced to create food, clothing, and shelter using nothing but her ingenuity and her bare hands, she fights a constant battle to maintain her sanity.

Desperately lonely, Elaine searches for other people. After a journey across the featureless gray landscape, she locates two fellow captives: Marc, who might be her soulmate; and Adam, a brilliant but troubled fifteen-year-old. Together, they form a precarious yet vibrant and supportive community of three.

But now Elaine is about to lose it all. The Historical Anthropologist in charge of the experiment, Professor Mirri Daaha, is methodically destroying Elaine's carefully constructed world to study how her “primitive” test subjects will react to escalating threats to their existence. Elaine must confront the Professor and ultimately bring herself, Marc, and Adam safely home.

“GRAYLAND has left a big impression in my mind and heart. It’s truly an original, fascinating, and inspiring piece of work.” —Alan Rinzler, former Associate Editor of Rolling Stone Magazine

“So vibrant and full of life. This made me believe in the power of creativity to overcome the impossible.”—Susan Whiting Kemp, author of “The Climate Machine”

Book Trailer:

What are you working on now?

My next big project isn’t Science Fiction - it is a personal memoir about my amazing, weird, and breathtaking years of being an artist who is forever seeking the next great creative challenge.

Were any of the characters in the book inspired by people from your real life?

Who was your favorite character to write? What about your least favorite?

My favorite character to write was Elaine - I felt her desperation, I sorrowed with her, I celebrated her accomplishments. I really wanted her to succeed.

My least favorite character to write had to be Professor Mirri. But…that’s not exactly true! I had a lot of fun with her character. The difficult thing about writing Professor Mirri was I wanted to give her some humanity, although she actually had none. even though she might not have deserved it.

What is your favorite passage/scene in your book?

I am partial to the scene near the middle of the book, where Elaine and Marc are getting closer and closer to the “Hub,” the center of their world. They climb up on top of it and can see for endless miles in every direction, and they’re finally getting an idea what all of Grayland looks like. Every time I read this section, chills go up and down my arms.

What kind of research did you have to do for the story?

It all came from my imagination, augmented by my extensive history in working in ceramics, knitting, and painting.

Lightning Round Questions

What are you reading right now? Or what do you have on your TBR that you’re dying to read?

“Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by Gabrielle Zevin

Favorite social media site?

Facebook - It’s great for my various groups (weaving, knitting, writing, etc.)

Favorite Superhero or Villain?

I don’t like any of them, they seem so artificial to me.

Favorite TV show?

What We Do in The Shadows

Sweet or Salty?

Sweet! Definitely sweet. I’d like some warm brownies with ice cream right now, please.

Any Phobias?

There is a bridge over water near my home that I really don’t like going over. It has given me nightmares since I was a child.

Song you can’t get enough of right now?

Anything with classical guitar.

2024 Movie you’re most looking forward to?

Dune, Part Two

Do you play video games? If so, what are some of your favorites?

I played Stardew Valley obsessively for about a month… and then I had to quit because I started dreaming about it.

Evelyn Arvey is the author of five novels and many short stories. She works in several different genres: fiction, science fiction, and memoir, and is also the editor of two anthologies.

Website | Facebook | YouTube | Goodreads | Amazon

(1) winner will receive a finished copy of THE ARCHITECT OF GRAYLAND, US Only.

Ends April 16th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/1/2024	@darkfantasyreviews	Guest Post/IG Post
4/1/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
4/2/2024	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Blog Spotlight/IG Post
4/2/2024	A Dream Within A Dream	Interview
4/3/2024	Fire and Ice Reads	Guest Post/IG Post
4/3/2024	Comic Book Yeti	Guest Post/IG Post
4/4/2024	nerdophiles	Guest Post
4/4/2024	Writer of Wrongs	Guest Post
4/5/2024	Ilovebooksandstuffblog	Excerpt/IG Post
4/5/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

4/8/2024	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
4/8/2024	GryffindorBookishnerd	IG Review
4/9/2024	MoonShineArtSpot	Review/IG Post
4/9/2024	@stargirls.magical.tale	IG Review
4/10/2024	Fiction Fuss	Review/IG Post
4/10/2024	@evergirl200	IG Review
4/11/2024	Books and Zebras	IG Review
4/11/2024	@callistoscalling	IG Review
4/12/2024	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
4/12/2024	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post

February 21, 2024

The Nightmare Machine Blog Tour: Excerpt + Giveaway

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE NIGHTMARE MACHINE by Tim White Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

THE NIGHTMARE MACHINE
Author: Tim White
Release Date: February 20, 2024
Publisher: Ocean Scribe Publishing
Formats: Paperback, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 600

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-NIGHTMARE-MACHINE

Purchase the book directly from Tim! There’s also a prequel novella!

What is The Nightmare Machine? Think Silent Hill meets Inception and Monster Hunter International.

Five millennia of suffering. A pilgrimage steeped in terror. Will her quest bring redemption or only a false promise of salvation?

Bangor, Maine. Sara Holcomb knows what she must do. Raised within a secret order devoted to protecting humanity from a malevolent god, the dutiful seventeen-year-old prepares for a terrifying expedition through a world of nightmares. So when the time comes, she convinces three close friends to escort her on a perilous journey to an otherworldly cathedral of bone and blood.

Transported to a land of chaos and horror while they sleep, Sara wrestles with guilt at bringing people she holds dear to this hell from which they may not escape. And as vicious traps and pitiless creatures tear at their bodies and minds, the honor-bound young woman fears they won’t be strong enough to complete the mission that will preserve mankind.

Dreams

December 17, 2021

Bangor, Maine

It was a typical teenage girl’s bedroom, if neater than most. Strips of LED lights, switched off for the evening, ran along the edges of the ceiling. The window in the eastern wall had a broad sill, upon which rested several well-tended potted plants, carefully arranged to soak up the morning sun. The posters of actors and bands were perfectly vertical and precisely aligned next to one another.

Similarly, the books and papers on the desk were stacked neatly and arranged at ninety-degree angles. The white carpet was free of clothes and freshly vacuumed. The walls were a soft pink—a color the paint store called Rose Dust.

In one corner, a pair of tangled headphones lay on top of a hastily discarded backpack, the only sign of mild untidiness. On the wall above the backpack, three shelves displayed various awards for academic achievement and community service. The trophies were meticulously polished, the wooden plaques free of dust.

The alarm clock on the nightstand read 10:00 p.m. The girl asleep in the bed looked like the proper owner of the bedroom. Like the room, she was all right angles, one knee drawn up, the other leg straight, one arm down at her side, the other tucked under the pillow. Her pajama top was white, the bottoms light pink, matching the walls and carpet. Her breathing was slow, even, and perfectly consistent. Like the backpack tossed in the corner, her red hair splayed wildly over the pillow was the only thing that suggested disorder.

An hour passed. She remained motionless, perfectly at peace.

Down the hall, her father slept less peacefully. His room was more sparsely decorated but equally tidy. A few framed vinyl records adorned one wall; an autographed bass guitar hung on another.

The bed was big enough for two, but he slept alone. A single framed photo on the nightstand showed a smiling couple on a beach—him and a woman who hadn’t slept in his bed for twelve years.

A beautifully hand-painted urn on a high shelf held her ashes.

The man often had vivid dreams. Some nights, he dreamed of his wife, waking with moisture in his eyes and a smile on his face. Other nights, his dreams were plagued by dark forms and whispered promises of perdition.

Tonight, he had no dreams. Even so, he slept fitfully. He always did. Another hour passed.

His eyes flew open at the sound of an ear-splitting scream from down the hallway. “Sara!” he shouted, as if by reflex, before he’d even come fully awake. His feet hit the floor as he yanked open the nightstand drawer and closed his fingers around the loaded pistol. He was at his bedroom door in a flash. It opened outward, and even though it was unlocked, he shouldered it open forcefully, causing the knob on the opposite side to punch a large hole in the drywall. His daughter needed him.

At a running pace, her bedroom door was only six steps away. Many thoughts raced through his mind in that brief distance.

At first, he wondered if she had merely had a bad dream, the same sort of bad dream that every teenager has once in a while. He dismissed that notion immediately. Her scream carried discordant notes of heart-wrenching terror far beyond anything that a normal nightmare caused.

Then he thought—hoped—that she’d screamed because someone had broken into the house. That seemed a horrible thing for a father to hope for, that an intruder was in his daughter’s bedroom. But he was armed, he was reasonably strong, and he’d been taking Krav Maga classes twice a week for years; so had Sara. They could defend themselves against an intruder.

Deep in his heart, he knew there was no intruder. The gun in his hand would be useless against this threat. In seventeen years, he’d never heard Sara scream that way before.

Only one thing could make her scream like that.

He reached her bedroom door and flung it open. His eyes weren’t fully adjusted to the darkness, but he could see her sitting up in bed, clutching the sides of her head as though she were suffering the worst headache imaginable. She screamed again, so loudly that he half-expected the window to shatter. He dropped the gun on the floor and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her.

“Sara! It’s okay, I’m here!”

She screamed again. Blood dripped from her nose onto her white shirt. Her eyes were screwed shut so tightly that, in the darkness, it looked like she had no eyes at all. Jesus, she’s still asleep, he thought. He shook her again, more violently, shouting her name over and over. He fumbled around on her nightstand until he found the small lamp, switching it on so he could see better.

She was turning blue. She just kept screaming, hunched over, hands clapped over her ears. He tried to move her hands so she could hear him, but she resisted with strength that seemed impossible for her petite frame. His mind raced, trying to think of how he could snap her out of it.

An idea came to him. He swept her up in his arms and jogged back down the hall, toward the bathroom. With an elbow, he clicked on the light, then gently laid her in the bathtub, careful not to bang her head on the porcelain. Hesitating only for a moment, he turned on the cold tap full blast.

Frigid water erupted from the shower head, drenching her instantly. The water was barely above freezing, liquid only because the pipes were wrapped. It had the desired effect. Sara’s eyes shot open, and she gasped in a breath, choking off another scream. She spluttered and began to thrash. She probably thought she was drowning.

Before she could hurt herself, he dragged her out of the tub and sat next to her on the floor. She blinked once, twice, three times, slowly regaining her senses. Her green eyes focused on him, and finally, she saw him.

“Dad?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I’m here, baby,” he said, moving her wet hair out of her face.

She collapsed against him, sobbing. He held her and said nothing, letting her come out of it slowly. He didn’t ask what had done this to her. He knew. An icy chill ran up his spine.

She said nothing either, as though it wouldn’t be true as long as neither of them spoke it aloud.

Gradually, her sobs tapered off, and she began to shiver violently against him. He realized that she was probably freezing in her soaked pajamas. “Go get changed,” he said softly, “before you turn into an ice cube.”

She looked up at him. He could see a question in her eyes that she seemed embarrassed to ask.

“I’ll wait right outside your door,” he said.

That seemed to give her the strength she needed to stand up. He followed her back to her room, retrieved the gun from the floor, and quietly shut the door behind him as he left.

He stood in silence in the dark hallway, his eyes unfocused. He’d known this day was coming, but now that it was here, it seemed unreal.

He wept, silently, just for a minute. It would be the last time he’d allow himself to cry.

His daughter was strong, but she would need his strength as well. He prayed that it would be enough.

Tim White is an author, editor, writing coach, and game designer in Phoenix, Arizona. He started writing fiction in 1996 and nonfiction in 2006. As of 2023, he has published more than 1,000 nonfiction articles and three nonfiction books. He has written three novels, four novellas, dozens of tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) scripts, and hundreds of short stories.

Tim is a zealous crusader for the power of storytelling to promote human flourishing. He writes fiction in several genres, particularly one that he calls “Romantic horror” (as in “Romantic-era novelists” such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, not as in “romance novel”). This little-known genre is unique in that it uses fear as a backdrop against which heroism is sharply contrasted, dramatized, and elevated.

Tim’s storytelling philosophy is summed up eloquently by one of his favorite authors:

“I often hear people say that they read to escape reality, but I believe that what they’re really doing is reading to find reason for hope, to find strength. While a bad book leaves readers with a sense of hopelessness and despair, a good novel, through stories of values realized, of wrongs righted, can bring to readers a connection to the wonder of life. A good novel shows how life can and ought to be lived. It not only entertains but energizes and uplifts readers.” ― Terry Goodkind

Before transitioning to writing full time, Tim was an Army combat medic, and later, a nurse paramedic specializing in trauma and surgery. He is a lifelong shooter and has ranked moderately well in state-level 3-gun competitions. He loves board games, video games, and role-playing games; cats; Pembroke Corgis; good coffee; good books; and escape rooms. He owns an escape room venue in Arizona, where he designs and builds every prop and puzzle in-house.

Website | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

Giveaway Details: (there are 2 giveaways)

Bargain Booksy Giveaway:

One winner will be chosen at random on 4/15/2024 and notified via email that they have won the 20 eBooks and a Kindle.

Giveaway Link: https://www.bargainbooksy.com/thriller-giveaway-021524/

Rockstar Book Tours Giveaway:

(1) winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of Rockstar Book Tours - International.

Ends March 5th, midnight EST.