The first draft, anyway. 106,000 words and a happy ending, although it’s a rough road for Sara to get to it. Is it weird to feel guilty about putting a fictional character through the wringer?
Hopefully everything she goes through is worth it to the readers.
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In anticipation of the visitors who will hopefully visit this site once the Dream books are available for sale, I’ll answer a question that several people who’ve read various drafts of the books have asked.
Why are they set 20 years in the past? “Dream Student” begins in the winter of 1989, and by the end of “Dream Family” we’re up to the summer of 1998.
There are two reasons. First, in “Dream Student” Sara attends Crewe University in Cleveland, Ohio. anyone who knows me personally, or who’s from Cleveland, will recognize Crewe as Case Western Reserve University with most of the building names changed. That’s where I went to college from 1987 through to 1991. As they say, write what you know. Basing Sara’s world on the real places I lived in and around helps to make it more believable, more real.
The second reason is technology-related. I often find it annoying in stories set in the present when characters don’t take advantage of the tools that are easily available to them, in order to deal with the situations they face. In some cases, writers come up with varyingly-credible explanations why the characters can’t simply use their cellphone or find the information they need on Google, to solve their problems. Maybe there’s bad cell service in their neighborhood. Or their laptop battery is dead, etc. And in other cases, the writer doesn’t bother at all, leaving readers (or viewers, as the case may be) to think that the characters just aren’t that smart, when a simple Google search would resolve everything.
I didn’t want to deal with that. There wouldn’t be much to the final four chapters of “Dream Student” if Sara could simply pul up all of Dr. Walters’ public records in two minutes from the safety of her room. And if she and Brian and Beth all had cell phones, there wouldn’t be much tension in the last chapter. Setting the story before cell phones were in general use, and certainly before virtually any information imaginable was available with one click of a mouse, eliminates that problem.
“Dream Doctor” is set just a year later, so the same things apply. It helps as well that the plot in that book is less amenable to that problem anyway. Sara knows who all the suspects in the poisoning of her profesor are, and where they live. Her problem is figuring out which of them hated the man enough to try and kill him, which isn’t something that’s likely to show up on a web search anyway.
“Dream Child” jumps ahead five years. Sara still doesn’t have a cell phone (they don’t really become ubiquitious until the end of the 1990’s), and her problem again isn’t one that lends itself to easy resolution by Google.
With “Dream Family” we’re in 1998, and I wavered on the idea of giving Sara a cell phone. But it really doesn’t matter for the story, since the main plot isn’t the mystery, but Sara’s recovery after a very traumatic experience that’s left her emotionally shattered. It doesn’t matter here what she can look up on her computer; the answers she needs to find in this book are in her own mind and heart.
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Only one chapter to go on “Dream Family”, and it’s also just gone over 100,000 words.
I’m not sure if readers who liked the other books will like this one as much. The mystery is really only a secondary part of the story. The main plot is Sara’s recovery from the traumatic experience of going to jail in chapters 2-3.
Quality-wise, I think the writing in this book is the best of the four, and it’s got the most emotional depth. I guess once all four books are out in the world, we’ll see what the reaction is.
Here’s a bit from the end of chapter 13; Sara has just come back from a visit to see Rebecca, the girl whom she rescued from being murdered by Dr. Walters in the climax of “Dream Student.” Sara hoped that Rebecca would have advice for her on dealing with the lingering effects of her abuse while in jail, and now she’s trying to explain to her daughter what she learned:
“Did she tell you?”
“Yes, honey. But do you want to know something? You might not understand it, because…”
“I’m not old enough?” I can hear the pouting in her voice. I don’t blame her a bit; I never liked hearing that when I was a kid, either.
“This is one time it’s better to be young, actually. I hope you don’t ever understand this.” She’s thoroughly confused. “When people get older, a lot of times, we make things more complicated than they really are. We don’t trust anything that’s simple or basic or obvious. And we definitely don’t trust it if we think of it ourselves.”
“I don’t understand,” she says. I’m not explaining it well.
“Let me put it this way. I already knew everything that Rebecca told me tonight. But I didn’t believe it, until I heard it from her. I thought of most of it myself, but I had to hear it from someone else before I really trusted it. See, this is where you’re better off. When you think of something, and it’s right and it’s true, you know it. You don’t need anybody else to tell you.”
“I still don’t understand, Mommy.”
“Good,” I say, tickling her until she can’t help herself and she bursts out laughing. “I hope you never do.”
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Only two chapters or so to go on “Dream Family”. I’ve got the ending written, and after all the unpleasant Sara goes through, she gets a happy ending, as well as learning that she her ability to see dreams is more powerful than she imagined (leaving room for a fifth book, although I’ve got another story I want to try and write before I get to that).
So it’s on to get those last two chapters written, start editing and revising, and make another pass through the first three books while I’m waiting for the final covers to be completed. And then…watch this space, because the books will be ready and on sale for interested readers everywhere to buy!
That’s the plan, anyway…
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Twelve chapters written, four (and the epilogue) to go. Over 80,000 words already.
I’m really happy with this book; it might be the best of the four so far.
With any luck, the first draft should be finished in a week or two, and then it’s on to editing…and trying to sell it!
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Nine chapters finished, almost 63,000 words. This one is going to be the longest of the books so far. They’ve each got 16 chapters plus a prologue and epilogue. Dream Student came in at 94,000 words, and both Dream Doctor and Dream Child ended up around 87,000.
This one is looking more like 100,000 words or so. And – I’d like to believe – they’re pretty good words. In the most recent chapter, the legal troubles from Sara’s mistaken arrest are finally resolved (her personal troubles aren’t quite done yet, though), and her father gets a nice moment to stand up for her. Sara and her family have just walked out of the hearing at which the charges against her were formally dropped:
In the hallway outside, just a few feet away, stands the prosecutor. I’m happy to just turn my back and walk away, but – oh, God, I don’t want him to! – my father wants a word with him. “Excuse me, sir,” he says. The “sir” has an edge that could cut glass. “I think you owe us an explanation.” I’ve never heard this from my father, this cold rage.
Mr. Watson takes a step back, and I don’t blame him. I would, too, if those words, in that voice, were directed at me. “Excuse me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, sir.” The way he says “sir” this time, it could cut steel. “You tried to ruin my daughter’s life without any investigation at all. You didn’t ask any questions, you didn’t do a thing. My wife figured out what really happened in an hour. You,” Dad has to take a deep breath before he can continue, “you wanted to put this beautiful, compassionate woman, who’s never done anything her entire life but help other people – you wanted to put her in prison for ten years, without making the slightest effort to check if you had the right person or not.”
Mr. Watson stands his ground. “The system worked. Your daughter is free to go. What more do you want?”
Mom is holding Dad now; she’s afraid he might go after Mr. Watson physically, and I think she’s right. Dad stares hard at Mr. Watson, and if I had to guess what’s going through his head, he’s weighing the satisfaction of killing the man with his bare hands, right now, versus the consequences of doing it.
Dad finally comes to a decision. “You’re right. There isn’t anything I want from you. You’re a cowardly, dishonorable son of a bitch and you’ve got the morals of a sewer rat. Nothing you say could possibly be worth hearing.” And with those words, he turns his back on Mr. Watson. “Let’s go home,” he says to me, and before Mr. Watson recovers his wits, we’re already in the elevator and on our way out.
I really like her father, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to use him a little more in this book. He had a very nice moment in Dream Student, and a smaller one in Dream Doctor, but he doesn’t get much to do in the third book, so I’m happy to give him some “screen time” here.
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Ami Low, the wonderfully talented artist who’s helping me with my covers, recently gave me the sketch for the cover of the third book, “Dream Child.” And here it is!
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