Dreams and nightmares

The Six Sentence Sunday site is taking a vacation weekend Sunday.

After 34 weeks, I've got the habit of posting something, so I thought I would share how dreams sometimes make their way into my books. We talked about this a little during the last Pearlsong Conversation. The entire call is available at Pearlsong Conversations

Sometimes a dream just offers a fragment or an attitude that I use the way a quilter would cut up and stitch in an interesting fabric to contribute to an overall pattern. I think they actually do serve a purpose but I don't always know what it is for quite a long time afterwards.

While I was writing Larger Than Death I had a dream that I pretty much put verbatim into the book. Josephine Fuller has just rescued Raoul, the cat, from his hiding place from her murdered friend's apartment, and both she and the cat are on edge.

From Larger Than Death:

I lay down for a moment on the day bed. Suddenly a mass of aches and pains surfaced that I hadn't felt until then. The cat put his paws up on the bed and gave a meow of inquiry. "Well, I'll forgive you for scratching me, if you'll forgive me for scaring you," I told him. He regarded me steadily for several seconds and then hopped up beside me. His coat was slightly matted. "I'll get a brush for you," I promised. He purred in answer and I slipped into a dream.

In the dream I was trying to take Elvis Presley to detox. I was helping him down the front steps of a mansion very much like Claude Rains' mansion in Rio from the last scene from Hitchcock's Notorious. Like Ingrid Bergman in the film he was too drugged to cooperate or resist. I kept encouraging him, "Come on, Elvis, we're going to the Betty Ford Clinic. You'll meet lots of other famous people and you'll feel much better." But it was hopeless. His handlers spirited him away as a crowd of screaming fans drove up.

I woke up. The shrieking was Groucho, the Macaw, demanding attention in the front room. The cat had deserted me. I heard him in the kitchen row-ow-owling at Maxine, probably begging food. Maxine said something. A man's voice replied. I got up and went to investigate.

I'm still not sure what it meant, but it made me smile and I couldn't resist using it. After seven years I think it expresses Josephine's wish to help and frustration at not being able to do anything.

Now about nightmares. I'm not going to quote from The Falstaff Vampire Files, but the really shuddery critters in that book came from a nightmare that scared the hell out of me.

Oddly enough fearsome things from my nightmares don't terrify me as much as my basic homegrown phobias. Those things scare me so much that I'll never use them in my stories. I also refuse to read about them when other writers use them. And no, I am not going to tell you what they are. But using material from my nightmares somehow takes away the reality factor enough that I can handle the material.

26th Six Sentence Sunday - Josephine's new job delays a visit to her old friend

Six sentences from Larger Than Death. Jo accepts a job investigating charity groups for multibillionaire philanthropist Alica Madrone, unfortunately she will be reporting directly to Ambrose, Mrs. Madrone's very exacting assistant, which makes her hesitate to take time off to visit Nina, a troubled friend.

The idea of telling Ambrose I would be late with the report made a chill run down my spine. Mrs. Madrone's special assistant never warmed to me and I was not about to do less than my best under his critical eye. The day of the actual report came and Mrs. Madrone seemed pleased with it, so finally I could go see my best friend.

As I drove the rental car into Seattle I realized that although we spoke by phone every few weeks, I hadn't laid eyes on Nina in the nearly two years since my marriage broke up. I wanted to get an infusion of her splendid vitality.

I never expected to find the police on her doorstep.

For more fun from many gifted writers in six sentences segments, check out the main site at Sixsunday.com.

25th Week of Six Sunday Sentences - help from an unexpected source

In Larger Than Death, Josephine manages to impress Mrs. Madrone with her confidence, and Jo's ex-husband turns out to be a good reference.

"If you could work and travel with Griffin Fuller and sleep with him as well for five years, I suspect you must be organized, capable of great self-restraint--a formidable diplomat. The fact that you had to break away argues that common sense must be working like yeast somewhere in your character. You may have the job—if you think you can do the work."

"You haven't said what the work is yet."

She laughed delightedly. "See?" she said to no one in particular, "A diplomat; she doesn't come close to committing herself."

For more action of all kinds, check out the action with links to other writers' six sentence snippets at http://sixsunday.com/

24th Week of Six Sentence Sunday - the ex-husband factor

From Larger Than Death, Josephine's job interview with a multibillionaire takes an unexpected turn:

When I stood in front of her, Alicia Madrone motioned me into a straight-backed Mission chair a few feet away. The sharp brown eyes she turned on me seemed to come from a distracted world of pain where the healthy could not and would not want to follow.

"I've met your ex-husband when he took a portrait of me," she said in a voice that was light and very sweet, almost girlish.

Uh oh. "I didn't know Griff did portraits." When I realized my ex-husband's love affairs were a cunningly practiced obsession rather than an occasional temptation, I began to dread meeting women who introduced themselves by announcing they had known him as the next word was like as not to be "biblically."

At last count this week 165 writers are sharing six sentence slices of their work covering a broad range of genres. To sample them check out http://sixsunday.com/

23rd six sentence Sunday, Meeting the Multibillionaire

From Larger Than Death, Josephine is led up a spectacular staircase by Mrs. Madrone's openly unimpressed personal assistant to meet with a woman whose name adorns a museum, a hospital, and half a dozen other edifices around the state:

My guide was gone without a word and I stepped toward the woman who sat in a wheelchair next to a heavy mahogany desk that probably had belonged to some Spanish grandee.

Alicia Madrone was in her sixties and narrow as a whippet, with pewter hair pulled into a chignon. Despite the flood of sunshine from the windows that looked out over the Bay, she wore a heavy sweater and wool skirt. The lilac point Siamese on her lap raised his head and stared at me for a moment before settling back down into the blue blanket that matched the color of his eyes.

I reached into my pocket to peel a tissue off the pack I'd brought. I was starting to sweat.


This week at least 170 writers signed up to share six sentence snippets from works in a broad range of genres. Check them out over at Six Sunday!

Week 22 of Six Sentence Sunday - job interview with a billionaire

More from the first book in my murder mystery series featuring Josephine Fuller Larger Than Death, our heroine answers an ad and is told to report to a Pacific Heights mansion for a job interview. A word to the wise, in true mystery fashion nothing is what it seems.

"Josephine Fuller, here for a one o'clock appointment," I said to the tall, slender man who answered the door. His hair was bright auburn and his eyes a penetrating blue, which together with a cynical twist to his mouth gave his handsome face a startling intensity. He wore a full-sleeved white shirt and black trousers as if ready to pick up a fencing foil and resume his role opposite Errol Flynn in a pirate movie. Both ears were pierced but had no rings in them, so I concluded it must be a conservative place.

He seemed disappointed to see me. Clearly if he'd had the clout to screen candidates he would have installed a revolving door to replace the massive oak one.


This Sunday 142 writers signed up to share six sentence snippets--for more fun check them out at Six Sunday

21st Six Sentence Sunday, celebrating a Larger Than Death new edition

After 20 weeks of sharing snippets Bride of the Living Dead, I'm shifting over to share a few lines from Larger Than Death, the first in the Josephine Fuller mystery series, reissued July 15th by Pearlsong Press and now available in ebook for the first time.

At booksignings when Larger Than Death came out some people gasped when I read the first line. I think that might still happen. I spent more time writing and polishing the first line than on any other line in the book.

That said, I'm starting the snippet below with the SECOND line in the book. You can read all of Chapter 1 on my web page.

Friends sometimes call me Donna Quixote because tilting windmills is what I do for a living. I got started when I answered an ad in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Need person of substance for special assignments: part bloodhound, part bulldog, part lone wolf. Job requires quick study, travel and communication skills. Must genuinely care about the advancement of women.

As a matter of fact, I was feeling quite concerned about the advancement of women in general and myself in particular at the moment I read the ad.


To explore a wealth of other six sentence excepts from 168 writers (at last count) click on over to Six Sunday and enjoy!

20th Six Sentence Sunday - Sky's opinion on Reverend Uncle Walt

Has it really been 20 weeks since I started spending my Sundays in six-sentence slices? Wow, it seems like longer and also like I've just started.

On July 15th the first book in my Josephine Fuller series, Larger Than Death, will be issued for the first time in ebook and trade paperback, so I plan to share some sentences from it. But first, from Bride of the Living Dead, Daria's sister Sky insisted on giving her opinion about their uncle officiating at Daria's wedding:

           "Are you sure you want our dear old deranged Uncle Walt to do this ceremony?  You know that crazy old man could ruin your wedding?"

            "Sky, the only thing that would ruin my wedding would be if Oscar didn't show up."

            Sky gasped and stared at me in horror. "Don’t even joke about such a thing."

            I wasn't worried because I couldn't imagine Oscar disappearing on our wedding day--which goes to show you how limited my imagination can be.

For more six sentence fun check out the talented writets sharing snippets from their work spanning a wide variety of genres at http://www.sixsunday.com/