Dreams and Nightmares

Hi everyone! Just as a reminder, I'll be at The Literary Nymphs TOMORROW for a chat from 12pm-6pm EST. And now on to the fun stuff!

Dreams... I'm pretty much known in my household for my wacky dreams. My husband and mother raise their eyebrows at me when I tell them, but I am so serious about what happened because it's beyond belief, but I really do dream crazy things. I guess I'll give you guys a couple of dreams I've had and then y'all can be the judge of what you think.

This first one is one I'd had the night before Sierra and I had our discussion on dreams, which is what brought up the topic in the first place. *grins* Before I had gone to bed I'd played peek-a-boo with one of my cats. He was sitting in the tub, and I was outside of the tub with the shower curtain partially closed. I would open the shower curtain and say "peek-a-boo!" and he would sit there and stare at me. Then I'd close the curtain, wait a few moments, and do it again with the same result. In my dream, I was in my bathroom outside of the tub, and I opened the shower curtain and there was a strange monster in the tub that would leer at me and make hissing noises. I opened and closed the shower curtain a few times and it was still there. I attacked it and then I don't really remember much after that. Weird, huh?

My other dream is one I had a few years ago, but I still remember it. I was running through a graveyard and trying to fight these obese zombies, but I didn't have anymore bullets in my gun in the dream or whatnot. I had a spoon though, which I had to use to behead them. I didn't do too bad at it, but it was odd! I was getting overwhelmed with the task and climbed onto a mausoleum, but they could get to me. I have no idea what had brought that dream on.

I don't consider those dreams nightmares. I try to think of them as inspiration and fodder for my novels. For me, a nightmare is something that invokes sadness or pain that stays with me a little when I wake up. I've had a few of those recently, too, but they weren't noteworthy or paranormal in nature.

So! Leave me a comment about what you think of my strange dreams. I'd love to hear from you!

Nightmares or Inspiration?

Sarah and I got talking the other day about our dreams and I was telling her about my nightmares. I rarely dream, but when I do it’s always a nightmare. There have been very few exceptions to this rule. I’ve had a few premonition type dreams as I mentioned in my earlier blog about paranormal experiences.

One dream I had was about the old house I mentioned in that earlier blog, the house that belonged to my great grandparents that we tried to stay in on Halloween night. Anyway, I had a dream one time that I went in the house to explore (which I frequently did, alone no less) and I walked up to an old dresser. The bottom drawer of the dresser was pulled out and when I looked inside, there was a dead body with maggots all over it. I screamed and the dead body got up and started chasing me. I ran out of the house and for some reason, my dad’s truck was waiting outside for me (odd because I’d walked there). So I jump in the truck and try to drive away. All of a sudden a fence is there and I drive around and around in circles trying to find a way out, the dead body is chasing me the whole time.

Another time I was dreaming that I was in a cemetery and zombies were chasing me around the graveyard, through a crypt, and around again. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t make a sound. I woke up in a panic and when I went back to sleep, I resumed my dream. This happened several times that night. And for the next few.

I was talking about my nightmares to my mom one day and she reminded me that even as a kid I had those kind of dreams and it’s true, I did. I wouldn’t sleep when I was little because I always dreamed about the one-eyed, white haired monster. I had that dream frequently as a child. I can remember his face to this day.

So the more I think about it, there are several reasons behind my obsession with the paranormal. Do I use my dreams as inspiration for my writing? No, I don’t think I do. At least, so far I haven’t. I’m not into zombies, but some day I may use them in a story, you never know.