Dream Casters: Light by Author Adrienne Woods #PNRThursday

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Today’s Paranormal Thursday Tour focuses on Dream Casters: Light by Author Adrienne Woods.

AW-Dreamcasters-600x917Blurb:

Mr. Sandman, send me a dream, ta da da da…..Seventeen year old Chasity Blake knows the Sandman is just a silly children’s story parents tell their children to get them to sleep. At least she thought it was, until the day a mysterious, light golden sand appeared in her hands during a high school prank that went horribly wrong. A sand that has the power to send anyone it touches into a deep, sound sleep.

Fearing she had lost her mind, Chasity soon discovers the shocking truth of her heritage- she is a Dream Caster. Chasity was never supposed to be raised on the Domain, or what humans call Earth and she is forced to return to her true birth place, Revera – the world of Dreams.

However, in Revera there is no balance between good, the Light Casters, and darkness, the Shadow Casters, and Chasity is caught square in the middle. She soon learns that there is no place for anyone containing both the light and the darkness within them, and the shocking truth that if anyone in Revera ever discovered her shadow self, Chasity would be thrown into the Oblivion – the world of Nightmares.

Dreams are always more than they seem, and this time Chasity is going to discover just how different they can be.

Buy links:

Amazon Kindle: http://amazon.com/dp/B00YBBTBYU

Excerpt:

TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS made barely a sound on the rough and weathered wood as they walked across the bridge that led from Main Pacific to the Glands. The streetlights were dimmed as dusk began to settle and last vestiges of light from the setting sun were fading to night. The lumbering clouds were moving in, blocking out any light from the two moons that shone overhead, even the stars seemed less bright dotted across their velvet backdrop. With his golden dust Graig Chen could conjure and wield anything by simply believing in its reality. If he wanted it to be real, it would be.

The Reverse was the most painful thing either of them had ever experienced, but Liam, a healer and Graig’s only confidant, had promised him that they would be able to live in the Domain like normal Nomads, humans.

Graig and his pregnant fiancé, were fleeing from their home world in secret, having no other choice if they desired a normal life for their unborn child.

They knew neither of their families would ever understand, even though it had been his grandmother who had always said, the heart wants, what the heart wants. How could he have known that his heart would want a Shadow Caster, and not just any ordinary Shadow Caster. She was special, or at least her family was. She was expected to uphold the family line with her offspring, Graig knew that did not include carrying the child of a Light Caster.

The two lovers could never live in peace, not since the balance between good and evil inside Revera was thrown into upheaval. There were only two choices for casters like them, either light or dark. The balance could not accommodate a person containing both, so for his child’s sake they had no choice but to leave Revera. Live like normal humans in the Domain, or what humans would call reality. He’d found a perfect place, one he’d made sure no one would ever find, not even his two best friends.

They knew about the relationship, they’d been there when he’d first laid eyes on her, tried to talk him out of it, to forget the blonde bombshell that would only cause him darkness and misery, but without her his life would be spent in darkness and misery.

Her silver blonde hair and bright blue eyes had done him in, if only he’d seen the bow that she’d aimed straight at his heart. If it hadn’t been for his love when arrow hit, and for Liam, a healer, he wouldn’t be in his current predicament; trying to get him and her off this dimensional world that most people would call make-believe, but Revera was far from that. It was the world of dreams, and Graig was a Level Four Caster whose mission was to seek out Selene, their only live Somnium. It was on one of these very missions that he had met the love of his live, the one woman he couldn’t live without, and he didn’t care if she had black dust, he didn’t care that she was a Shadow Caster, or what some would call a nightmare wielder. Yes, those horrible dreams that leave you paralyzed with fear are actually wielded by Caster’s, not some grave impression of ones subconscious. They are responsible for doubts and forgotten dreams. She was his nightmare, and a nightmare he was prepared to die for.

He knew deep down that she would would never survive living in Revera and he was unable to cope with the Oblivion, wherever it was. Oblivion was the realm of the Shadow Casters, created when Selene casted out Magdelena, one of the first Shadow Casters, who was the third Somnium, as a consequence for the death of her brother, Darius, the second Somnium. Magdelena had no realm to call her own, so she created Oblivion by focusing her hatred toward Selene, a world that could exist inside Revera, far from Selene’s sight. For years, Selene tried to find it, but as long as the Sodivic bloodline flowed through Shadow Caster’s vanes, Oblivion would never be found by a Light Caster.

Sodivic blood was the key to Oblivion’s secrecy, and Magdalena’s family line. There were many Sodivic’s since the dawning of Oblivion but Magdelena reigned over them all. Graig had met many Sodivic’s on his quests, each meeting always ended up in a bloody mess, and in all the years he had encountered them, not one had ever shown any kind of mercy or remorse. They were sadistic and couldn’t be reasoned with. He had been taught from a young age, if you see a Sodivic, you kill it. That was the number one rule taught to the Level One Dream Casters.

His fiancé was the only one that proved his theory wrong. Over the past century, their bloodline had been busy dying out, leaving her one of the few powerful Shadow Casters left.

Graig would pay dearly for loving her if her father ever found them, and he couldn’t even think about what would happen to the unborn child she carried.

Craig squeezed the hand that was resting tightly inside his own grip as they neared the end of the bridge.

“Were almost there, my love. Not much longer.”

“You’re sure nobody followed us?” Her eyes were wild, searching everywhere in the darkness.

“I’m sure. Besides, they won’t be able to see us, remember.” He opened his hand, just to make sure she hadn’t forgotten what he was, and threw more golden sand into the air, shielding them from anything that tried to followed them.

Then he heard it, a crunch. He stopped abruptly and she slammed into him. One second of doubt was all it took to break the spell, and before he could realize that doubt, they were surrounded by Nimgolians, the biggest and wicked shadow hounds ever imagined. They were veil, and reminded him of a Rottweiler that had chased him once in the Domain.

Find Adrienne Woods online:

Blog

Other authors participating in the tour:

Carmen Stefanescu: http://shadowspastmystery.blogspot.ro/
Daisy Banks: https://daisybanks.wordpress.com/
Flossie Benton Rogers: http://flossiebentonrogers.com/blog/
M. S. Kaye: http://booksbymsk.com/
Kim Kasch: http://www.kimkasch.blogspot.com
Cassandra Ulrich: http://cassandraulrich.blogspot.com/
Julie Dárcy: http://juliedarcystoryweaver.blogspot.com.au/
Margo Bond Collins: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Adrienne Woods: https://woodsadrienne.wordpress.com/
N. N. Light: http://princessofthelight.wordpress.com
Penny Estelle: http://www.pennyestelle.blogspot.com

Normandy: Valor and Sacrifice #TuesdayTravels

Tuesday Travels

My new Tuesday Travels banner.

Since tomorrow is Veteran’s Day, I thought it appropriate for today’s Tuesday Travels topic to be the valor and sacrifice of the men who landed on the beaches at Normandy.

Omaha Beach Memorial

VIERVILLE SUR MER – APRIL 6: the memorial on Omaha Beach in Normandy on April 6, 2015 Vierville Sur Mer, France

On my July 2015 cruise, our first Port of Call was Le Havre, France. According to our guide, the correct pronunciation is “L’Avruh”, not “Le Harv”. The name simply means the harbor. We were one of the first groups off the ship, mustering at 7:30AM after a very short nice. (We lost an hour between London and Le Harve.) I hadn’t yet bought my new camera, so today’s photos are from bigstockphoto.com. (So happy I had credits left this summer.)

The motor coach took us to Normandy where we saw the beaches and cliffs the Allied forces were forced to assault. It’s no wonder there was such tremendous loss of life. We toured the Museum of the Landing Day at Arromanches, a lovely beach town, where we saw a film about the building of two artificial harbors developed by the British, called Mulberries, that were used to unload the heavy equipment needed for the campaign: jeeps, trucks, tanks, etc. A storm blew up shortly after the invasion and destroyed the Mulberry in the American sector. You can still see remnants of the British Mulberry near Arromanche les Bains.

Arromanche Beach

Arromanches les Bains seafront beach and remains of the artificial harbour used on D-Day in World War II. Normandy France.

After lunch we visited Pointe du Hoc where visitors can climb onto some of the German bunkers and imagine how overwhelming it must have been to land on an exposed beach, then climb cliffs to engage the enemy.

American cemetery

Grave markers at American cemetery, Colville, France

Rose left at grave

Rose left at grave of unknown soldier, American cemetery, Colville, France, July 2015

Our tour ended at the American Cemetery in Colleville, a very moving experience. Some of the markers are for unknown solders and read

“Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God”.

I teared up when I saw that someone had left a pink rosebud by one of these markers.

Veteran’s Day used to be known as Armistice Day, the day World War I, the “war to end all wars,” came to its conclusion. Unfortunately, the Treaty of Versailles the followed planted the seeds for the next war. I wish WWI had been the war to end all wars, but sadly that did not happen. And that is why it’s important to reflect on the sacrifices of our men and women, and not just on Veteran’s Day.

Linda

Note: This may be the only Tuesday Travels this month as I have signed up for National Novel Writing Month for the first time this November. So the plan is to work on my next Regency romance instead of blogging.