Blog Hop – All About Character

Here’s another blog hop.  This one is all about characters, and I was tagged by Renee Meland…so, without further ado…

 

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

Sara Barnes (at least in DREAM STUDENT; once she’s married, it’s Sara Alderson).  She’s completely fictional.

2) When and where is the story set?

DREAM STUDENT is set in the winter of 1989-90, mainly at the (fictional) campus of Crewe University, where Sara’s a junior pre-med student.  The second book, DREAM DOCTOR, is set in August-September 1991, on the same campus.  Book three, DREAM CHILD, is set in December of 1996, partly in Washington, DC and partly in suburban Philadelphia.  Book four, DREAM FAMILY, is set in September of 1998, and it takes place in Washington, DC, as do book five, WAKING DREAM (taking place in the winter of 2000-2001) and book six, DREAM REUNION (which takes place in October of 2001).  Finally, the most recent book, DREAM HOME, takes place in November of 2003, in the fictional town of Aisling, NY (if you look on a map, Aisling would be pretty much where the real-life town of Cold Spring is, on the Hudson River, directly across from the campus of West Point)

3) What should we know about him/her?

Sara is very shy and bookish, at least when we first meet her.  She’s very smart, and also very compassionate.  But she’s also not always adept at figuring out social situations.  She’s often the last person to get a joke, or to realize what’s going on with other people.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Her “gift” (or curse, sometimes) – the ability to step into other people’s dreams.  She never asked for it; it just manifested itself during college.  And it’s led her into life-threatening situations on many occasions.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?

In DREAM STUDENT and DREAM DOCTOR, it’s to fulfill her childhood ambition and become a doctor.  Later on, it’s to save lives as a practicing doctor (and with her dreaming talent), and to keep her children safe and raise them the best she can.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

The next book in the series will be DREAM VACATION.  There’s not much to read about it yet (with only two chapters written), but you can see all the previous seven books at the links above and at the top menu bar here on this site, or at my Amazon author page.  What I can say about DREAM VACATION is that it will follow Sara and her family on a European trip, where she’s going to be the Matron of Honor at a friend’s wedding.  And it’s going to involve one (ormore!) of Sara’s children getting themselves into trouble that only Sara’s ability to see dreams will be able to get them out of.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

DREAM VACATION will be out on October 31, 2014.  The previous seven books are all available RIGHT NOW!

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