Kathleen Harsch is author of Dreaming Dangerously and she has been so kind as to join us today for a guest post as part of her blog tour for Dreaming Dangerously!
Thank you Kathleen for taking the time to stop by! <3
Dreaming Up Dreaming Dangerously
An author guest post by Kathleen
Suzette Harsch
A common question that I’m asked is how I came up with the
idea for Dreaming Dangerously, my
first novel in the Children of the Psi series.
The premise of the book is basically this: Telepathic teen
girl meets a handsome jock, who is also telepathic. She doesn’t trust him.
After they experiment with their telepathy, she begins having dreams that come
true. Her dreams become more and more horrifying, as people she knows die in
her dreams. She must learn to trust him or she won’t prevent be able to prevent
the tragedy she sees coming.
About three years ago, I had this magnificent dream about
two teenagers who were crushing on each other, and they both find out they are
telepathic. So, Dreaming Dangerously,
came from a dream. About three years ago, sometime in the early morning hours
before dawn, I dreamed the following:
Two girls meet in a hallway on the way to the gym of my
middle school, as they pass through the double glass doors into the bright
sunlight, one of them, a student of mine says, “I’m so glad you’re here!” The
two walk arm in arm until a couple of guys begin to flirt with them. My former
student goes off to flirt with the one boy, while the other girl laughs and
plays around with the second guy. They are having fun together until she leg
sweeps him and he crashes to the ground, making everyone around them laugh.
The scene changes and everyone is sitting on the gym floor.
The coach is lecturing them about the broken hair clips that he keeps finding
on the field of the track. A girl had been sent to the ER for stitches because
she fell on a broken hair clip and ripped open her leg. The coach passes a shoe
box full of clips around so students could see how sharp they are. Meanwhile,
the second couple sits next to each other, and she apologizes to him in her
mind.
He hears her and think’s, I’m
okay, it just stings a little.
Are you mad at me? The girl asks.
No, more mad at myself.
Then, the two of them both stare at each other, realizing
they’ve just communicated telepathically.
You can hear my
thoughts? he asks her.
Yeah, she smiles. You can hear mine, too?
We’re both telepathic!
His eyes light up and he is filled with excitement. He grabs her face and
kisses her. They talk for a few more minutes.
Then, I woke up and could still remember the dream. I could
still feel their thrill at finding each other, and I realized:
THIS IS THE STORY IDEA I’VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR!
So, I just stayed in bed, replaying the dream in my mind
over and over again, so I wouldn’t lose it. Finally, when I thought the idea
was firmly planted in my conscious mind, I got out of bed and immediately went
to my computer. It was about 4:30 in the morning, and I began typing out my
dream. I titled it “Telepathic Love Story.” With my first few drafts, I named
the book, Unwilling, playing with
Will’s name. It wasn’t until later, when I added a bunch of dreams that I
changed the name of the book to Dreaming
Dangerously.
After I typed up what I could remember from my dream, I
began to add ideas for how I could develop this idea into a novel. Then, I
spent a few hours coming up with their names. His name became William, which
means “savior” and “leader of people.” Hers became Cassandra, which comes from
the Illiad in which Cassandra is the prophetess
who foretold the fall of Troy to the Athenians. Cassandra also means “savior of
the people.” That’s how this dream couple of mine became Will and Cassie.
What I tried to capture in Dreaming Dangerously is that blush and thrill of a first love, and
all the doubts and conflicts that go along with it, which I’ve amped up with
the complications caused by their psychic gifts.
The dream that I had is almost in its entirety in the
chapter entitled, “Mind Drop.” I changed the leg sweep into Cassie tripping and
falling. Girls in high school wouldn’t just leg sweep a high school guy, like a
middle school girl would. Of course the ideas are more fully developed here
with Cassie and Will both dealing with their own conflicts. Here’s an excerpt:
Mind
Drop “excerpt”
In the gym Coach Meyers struts back
and forth in front of us with his clipboard, like the typical football coach he
is. “Park it on the floor, ladies and gents.” He waits for all of us to quiet
down before he continues. “I have some things I need to talk to y’all about.”
I slump down onto the floor and hug
my knees, glad to be wearing jeans, instead of a skirt. My knees are still
stinging from the sidewalk smashing into them. Will settles on the floor facing
me. The toes of his shoes touch the toes of my sneakers, and he smiles at me. I
can feel a little of the vibration that happens every time he touches me. Heat
prickles the back of my neck, and I glance away, staring at the wood grain in
the floor.
“Earlier today,” Coach Meyers
informs us, “a broken piece of a girl’s hair clip jabbed into Annalisa
Sanchez’s kneecap…” He drones on and on about what happened, but I can’t really
attention.
I drop my head onto my bent knees.
My heart pounds out of control. Will is going to hear it soon. Everybody in the
gym will hear it soon.
Will taps his finger on my leg a
few times, and then he runs his knuckles, along my shin. I can feel his light
touch through the thick denim of my jeans. Silken shivers slide through me. His
fingers find mine, and he tugs on them to get my attention. A happy energy zips
through me as I feel the soft, vibrating hum coming from him.
When I look up at his wide hazel
eyes, he mouths, ‘You okay?’
Those eyes, those dimples, and that
uncontrollable hair. I just want to ribbon my fingers through his hair. Just
once. Look at him, all dark curls and hazel-eyed and filling out that t-shirt.
I feel very odd as if I’ve spun myself around too many times in one direction,
like I did when I was a little kid trying to make the world tilt. When I can no
longer stand the intense gaze of his eyes, I look away.
I’m so glad I can read his thoughts, but he
can’t read mine.
A sharp pinch jerks my attention
back to him again. His fingers are clamped to mine. YOU CAN READ MY THOUGHTS?
My heart stops.
I can’t believe it! Oh, my God! He hears me!
His mind hears me!
The pupils of his eyes widen, and
his jaw clenches. Unclenches. Face reddens. His humming sound pulses through my
ears, crescendoing.
ANSWER
ME, CASSIE! CAN YOU READ MY MIND???
I stare at him, stunned. I always wondered how
I’d react if someone ever discovered my telepathy, discovered my secret. Now
that person sits inches from me and I’m trembling and I despise myself for
disclosing my own secret. How much does he know?
So,
you CAN read my thoughts?
Yes.
He loosens his grip on my fingers.
The vibrations soften into a calm purr. His lips curve upward slowly, and my
awareness of everyone else in the gym fades away from us.
This
changes everything, absolutely everything between Will and me.
Will’s eyes are mesmerizing. His
mouth, so perfect. He leans forward, cradling my face in the palms of his
hands, and he kisses me. A flood of warmth travels through me, as his lips,
soft and urgent, send swirls of shivers through me. Vibrations from his
fingertips, his hands, his lips, all harmonize in perfect unison, singing their
unique song. The kiss is over before I really want it to be, and I stare into
hazel eyes, as he continues to hold my face in his hands.
Because
Dreaming
Dangerously was my first YA book and only the second book I’d ever written,
I took it through more than twenty revisions. I wanted to make sure the book
was as good as it could be.
At first, I only intended the audience to be young high
school girls, but with the huge appeal of Twilight
and Hunger Games, now woman of all ages seem to love YA, and I’ve gotten some
wonderful reviews from goodreads.com readers and other bloggers. I’m so happy
that I took the plunge and not only wrote the novel, but also indie published
it. Other than raising my children and teaching, writing this series has been
the most fulfilling experience for me.
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