Midsummer Dreams...Alison May's launch and things wot I dream about

On 12th of June (which is this coming Friday, folks), Alison May, who is another lovely Choc Lit author (by which I mean that Alison is lovely, as are other Choc Lit authors, not that I am lovely and Alison is lovely as well as me, although of course I consider myself the epitome of Lovely as long as it is dark and your standards aren't too high)...anyway, Alison's fantastic new romantic comedy, Midsummer Dreams is being e-launched on the 12th.

Look at the beautiful cover...just look at it!

And, in celebration of this launch, Alison has co-opted a bunch of us to do some dream-related blog postings. Keep an eye open over the coming week for more of us - it's going to be interesting...

Alison has given us three prompts (I suspect to keep people like me on topic and to stop me rambling about my puppy or owls or random bits of paper, which, I admit, I am more than prone to doing), and here is the first:
 

I had a dream...Now, I dream a lot, in colour, and occasionally lucidly (which is where you sort of 'wake up' in a dream and realise it's a dream). When I'm lucid (which most people will tell you is infrequently...) and I attempt to tell another character in my dream that 'this is all a dream', I find that they are prone to turn to me with a smile that is hard to describe, but it's like a kind of evil-knowingness.  Impressive, since this is all created inside my head. But yesterday I was reading a report about 'phantom hitchikers' (where someone picks up a hitchhiker who, on subsequent examination, turns out to have vanished from the car whilst it's still moving. People try to do that when I'm driving too, but they are always real and nervous). Sometimes these 'phantoms' are reported as having an expression 'like an evil smile'. Which makes me wonder if they are the result of 'asleep at the wheel' syndrome.

Yeah. No. Nothing like this 'evil smile', this is just an excuse...

I had a nightmare…My nightmares are boring and tragically derivative. You know. running through fields of treacle away from a fanged beast, or trying to pay for something and realising my purse is empty. Or the 'teeth' one. Or the 'finding it's suddenly Christmas day and you haven't bought any presents' one. I've never had the 'naked in public' one, although that may be because I forget my trousers on a daily basis, so this is not so much a nightmare as 'another injunction'...

My dream for the future…I know, I know, I'm supposed to say 'world peace and enough food for all and no more disease'. Obviously, all these things would be great, but what I really dream of for the future? Rubber houses.  Or houses made of , like lego, so instead of moving when you need more space you just sort of push the walls out a bit. And computers that plug into your brain. And a brake for the rotary washing line so it doesn't go like a whippet after a sausage on a windy day when you're trying to hang out your socks.

My head is full of stuff like this. Quite frankly it's exhausting being me. It's probably quite exhausting being subjected to me as well, but since my head is on this side of it, I can only speak for the exhaustion of having to live inside me.

 Now I've dealt with my dreams...here are the details of Alison's book, because you are going to want to rush over on Friday and buy this book, cos, you know, brilliant and everything, and it's beautiful and Alison is lovely and, Reasons...

  

You can download the kindle edition of Midsummer Dreams here: http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00XJOEJTM

About Midsummer Dreams

Four people. Four messy lives. One party that changes everything …
Emily is obsessed with ending her father’s new relationship – but is blind to the fact that her own is far from perfect.
Dominic has spent so long making other people happy that he’s hardly noticed he’s not happy himself.
Helen has loved the same man, unrequitedly, for ten years. Now she may have to face up to the fact that he will never be hers.
Alex has always played the field. But when he finally meets a girl he wants to commit to, she is just out of his reach.
At a midsummer wedding party, the bonds that tie the four friends together begin to unravel and show them that, sometimes, the sensible choice is not always the right one.