The Blog

"I fall asleep and I see miracles. I see a thousand adventures written and a million more still to come. I look around, and… I see home."

I've been looking forward to talking about this one.

For those who don't know, The Dream Sanctum trilogy was the first series I ever wrote, with the first book in the series being the third book I ever officially completed. I started it when I was eighteen and then finally finished it over the course of several years in between all sorts of administrative issues and delays. I was a new author and it showed. To this day at least conceptually it's one of the series I'm most proud of—it's what you get when you mix lucid dreams with an MMO, creating a giant dream world in which you can see other people from real life when you're asleep, and where you can do almost anything you imagine.

But after writing many more books and getting better in all kinds of ways, the series was showing its age. I didn't know what to do with it and so I just kind of left it there. I didn't advertise it or share it, thinking that I'd have to re-edit it a little first before I ever did that. But I wasn't sure when I'd ever have the time and probably money to sink into giving it what it really needed.

But then recently I decided I was finally going to do just that, and what started as a quick edit for polishing purposes quickly turned into something much more substantial. I am nothing if not predictable. So with that being said, I'm happy to finally announce its return.

This is the product of many months of work. The most noticeable is actually the work that didn't involve me, but the spectacular artist I found. Once I realized I was dreaming big I thought I'd look at the possibility of illustrated covers, and I'm so glad I did. She brought the books to life in these covers better than I thought was possible.

In addition to the covers was the edits, which turned out to be everything just short of a total rewrite. The vast majority of the content is still the same, often just polished or rewritten to reflect the better writing I'm now capable of. There are a couple brand new scenes that pretty much needed to be added, but otherwise it's the same story original readers will be familiar with. But it still took months, because I was going chapter by chapter, line by line, making sure that I was going to make it worth it since I was choosing to invest this time.

I tried to take an artsy photo of some of my research. My main folder alone had at least a dozen studies and lots of additional writing, tabs, highlights, and sticky notes. I'm basically a doctor now. (I am not, ignore this.)

The other big thing was research. When I started this series I was big into lucid dreaming after starting to do it myself, and I started learning all about how lucid dreams and memory worked, which spearheaded a general fascination with cognitive science and neuroscience. That was part of the need for it, but the other reason is because one of the main characters is a literal prodigy, and I realized that if I was going to write a smart character I had to actually be smart myself. This edit was a great opportunity to dive back into the studies I'd since let lapse, and as a nice bonus I got to read about how the science has changed in the time between the series' original publishing and now. A lot of my research came from studies published within just the last few years, and it was super fascinating. I've always loved this subject and I'm happy to be back to it.

Personally speaking, the series is deeply important to me in a way no other book I've written has managed to be. The first book was inspired by a song called The Howling by Within Temptation, which is one of my favorite bands, but it took on so much more than just my interest in dreams. The first book in particular has a secondary arc with a focus on themes of depression, death, and grief (so be sure to check the content warning within the first few pages if you're thinking about reading it), a lot of which was entirely unintentional and unplanned. I began writing it during one of the most challenging times in my life, and the writing reflected that. The other books as a whole also focus on friendship, bravery and fear, and love and loss, and the length of a series really let me explore character development more than I ever had in my writing before. I didn't expect anyone to relate to something so personal, but in the years that followed I saw a very positive reception and got many messages from readers about how the first book in particular really hit home for them. I think that reception is what really encouraged me to keep writing and to get me thinking I might be okay at this.

It's not a total rewrite, but I still think I've largely given the series what it deserves even if it took longer than I wanted. It's one that's very important to me, so it's long overdue. If this series isn't something you've heard of before and are thinking of checking it out, I hope it's to your tastes! And for all those who read the series originally and want to explore again... welcome back.