The Trajectory of Dreams: A Character Profile

March 19, 2013March 17, 2013 by Jen Barry, posted in Authors, Books, Guest Post

Welcome Nicole Wolverton, Author of The Trajectory of Dreams

To begin with, I’d like to extend the biggest of congratulations to Nicole Wolverton, whose novel The Trajectory of Dreams was released this month. Nicole agreed to stop by with a character profile, and if you know anything at all about me or my husband, you’ll understand why this particular character was chosen for this particular blog. Without further comment, I turn this space over to Nicole and Nike.

Every superhero needs a sidekick. Wonder Woman has Wonder Girl. The Tick has Arthur the Moth. And Lela White, the main character in my novel THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS and a hero in her own mind—has Nike. Nike is a giant, yellow cat . . . and he communicates to Lela via Morse code eye blinks.

You read that correctly. It sounds a little nutty, maybe a little satirical. It definitely doesn’t make it sound as though THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS is a serious book, and yet it is: it’s a fairly dark psychological thriller. Lela, though, definitely believes that Nike is her adviser. Perhaps it would be a good time to bring up the fact that Lela also has a mental disorder that leads to some fairly magical thinking, including the idea that if she breaks into the homes of astronauts to monitor their sleep patterns, she somehow keeps the space program safe.

Mental illness notwithstanding, most of us with pets—particularly those of us with cats—do hold a deep belief that they’re talking to us in some way. Nike is based (at least in appearance) on one of my cats, Mayor McCheese. The Mayor will look at me, and I know he’s thinking I’m a moron. And I’m fairly certain both of my cats convene while my husband and I are out and scheme to plop their butts in our faces while we sleep.

Assuming that Lela is right, and Nike serves as her Alfred (think Batman), what is Nike like? Well, he’s a cat. He’s sort of a less funny Stewie Griffin without the English accent. Nike is smart and observant, and—like all good sidekicks—he’s totally committed to Lela’s mission in life:

Nike slinked into the room and settled on the desk amid a cloud of long, shedding fur and twitched his pink nose. Nicely done, he blinked out.

“The new camera lens really helps with the low light conditions, don’t you think?” I asked.

Yes, and you were very thorough. Do you think there’s any significance to his choice of vitamins?

“I seriously doubt it,” I said. “Zinc is pretty common, particularly if he’s trying to ward off colds before the launch.”

Zinc deficiency can mean a few things. Impotence. Hair loss.

“Does it matter? It’s not any of my business whether Meehan can get an erection, and he has a full head of hair. Neither one of those things impact whether he can sleep during lift-off.”

Nike’s baleful glare made me turn away to again study the photographs I’d taken.

Would you want your cat to be your life coach? While I’m sure Mayor McCheese would have interesting things to say, I think a lot of his advice would center on feeding him more catnip. Comment below and enter the raffle for a chance to win two THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS cookie cutters and a beaded bookmark!

Reviews for The Trajectory of Dreams

Publishers Weekly calls THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS (Bitingduck Press, ISBN 9781938463440) a “skillful mainstream examination of a psychotic woman’s final descent into insanity.” The novel exposes the chaotic inner life of Lela White, a sleep lab technician and mentally ill insomniac who believes she has been tasked with protecting the safety of the revitalized U.S. space shuttle program. She breaks into the homes of astronauts to watch them sleep, and she is prepared to kill to keep those with sleep problems from the shuttle launch. Her delicate grasp on reality becomes more tenuous when annoying co-worker Trina Shook insists on moving into her house and visiting Russian cosmonaut Zory Korchagin inserts himself into Lela’s life. Korchagin’s increasing interest puts her carefully-constructed world at risk of an explosion as surely as he does his own upcoming launch. Lela’s tragic childhood unfolds throughout the novel, revealing the beginnings of her illness and long-buried secrets, and as Lela’s universe unravels, no one is safe. Buy a copy of THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS at your local independent bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or anywhere books are sold. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Goodreads | LibraryThing | Shelfari

About the Author

THE AUTHOR: Nicole Wolverton fears many things, chief amongst them that something lurks in the dark. From ghosts to stalkers, her adult and young adult fiction plays on the mundane and not-so-mundane things that frighten us all. THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS is her debut novel. She is a freelance writer and editor and lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband, dog, and two cats.

MORE STOPS ON THE BOOK TOUR FOR THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS=MORE CHANCES TO WIN!

Ahem…Attention Please

January 23, 2013January 22, 2013 by Jen Barry, posted in Authors, Books, Final Score, Let's Get Serious, Melissa Fox, Uncategorized

I have some fun news of the book variety, and probably a bit of a surprise for many. For the past nine months or so, Melissa Fox and I have been working on a contemporary romance novel about a fiery chef and a hot hockey player. We were tagged by Lisa Hanna Wells in The Next Big Thing blog hop and thought this would be the perfect time to unveil the book. There was just one small problem.

We had no title.

Never fear! I work with a team of skilled writers who were all too happy to share their inspired suggestions. Thanks to Robert Coles, Jasmine Henry, Richard Foshee, and Jonathan Illig, we had the following possibilities from which to choose:

Trapped In The Penalty Box

Love Between the Blue Lines

Forking and Pucking

Of Pucks and Men

Icing the Cake

Pucks and Prejudice

Crosscheck My Heart

Pucks and Petit Fours

Love in Slippery Places

As brilliant as these titles are, we’re happy to announce the working title is Final Score, and we have a little blurb to share with you.

Chef Anna Bloom studied and sacrificed for years to open her own restaurant. Her dream finally within her grasp, she doesn’t have time to get knocked on her ass by a NHL bad boy, no matter how gorgeous he—and his abs—might be.

Connecticut Clippers star Brody Clark likes his life just fine. He’s put his wild rookie days behind him and has the Stanley Cup in his sights. But when he gets checked by a pretty redheaded cook, his free agent days might be over.

‪Crazy schedules and roaming paparazzi are just part of the deal, until Brody gets mixed up with the wrong publicity-seeker on the biggest night of Anna’s life. Anna’s star rises, while Brody’s takes a hit and crashes the boards.

In the midst of a celebrity machine hungry for scandal, Anna and Brody reach for the most ambitious goal of all: falling in love.

Next week, Melissa and I will be back to answer some questions about Final Score, and we’ll tag some more authors so you can go see what their Next Big Thing is. In the meantime, take a trip over to Melissa’s site and check out her debut, Wraith Redeemed, which will be released in print in just a few short weeks.

You’ve Got the Look

December 18, 2012December 18, 2012 by Jen Barry, posted in Uncategorized

The lovely Calisa Rhose was kind enough to tag me for a stop along the “You’ve Got the Look” blog hop.

The rules state that authors find the first instance of the word “look” in a current WIP and post an excerpt with the surrounding paragraphs. I have a lot in the works right now, but I chose to run with The Oracles of St. Ambrose: Going Under, because this one is the closest to publishing.

Here’s the blurb-in-progress:

Chase Bradford is the self-assured heir to millions from New York City relocated to Nashville for his senior year of high school at St. Ambrose Academy. He doesn’t even make a single new friend before the Queen Bee of the elite is found dead in the school swimming pool. Chase isn’t terribly surprised by the turn of events, since he had visions in the surface of the water during his swim practice just hours before Cheyenne died. The politics of high school are nothing new to Chase, but the psychic abilities are.

Before Chase can properly freak out, he discovers that two of his schoolmates also possess unusual talents, and both had visions of the circumstances surrounding Cheyenne’s death. Unfortunately, Natalie – a psychographer, and Bryan – a remote viewer, are from totally different social circles. In fact, Natalie, whom Chase calls Cinnamon in his head, doesn’t seem to like Chase very much at all.

The handsome new guy, the quiet invisi-girl, and the geeky sophomore must figure out how to work together to discover how Cheyenne died and why…before the murderer can get away with it. The list of suspects is surprisingly long – or perhaps not surprising at all, considering how few people actually liked the popular queen of the elite. Chase, Natalie, and Bryan follow every vision, and every lead – including Cheyenne’s ex-boyfriend, a jealous classmate, and even her own father – right up to the shocking end.

oOo

And here’s the excerpt, including the first appearance of the word “look.” Incidentally, this happens on the very first page.

Nashville had no upside, but there were a few things I could tolerate. St. Ambrose Academy at least had a swim team. Dad made sure of that, but then, Dad liked seeing blue ribbons on my walls. I didn’t care why he tried so hard to find a school with a winning swim team; I was just glad he did. The girls all had cute accents, too. The pretty redhead I’d flirted with during our visit over the summer had a voice that just about killed me. If the rest of the girls looked and sounded like her, I could get used to Hicksville pretty quick.

Walk out my front door into fresh air instead of a hallway filled with other front doors was weird. No elevator carried me to the first floor. No doorman waited to hail a taxi for me. Instead, a shiny new BMW sat in the driveway—another bright spot of the move. Thomas Chasen Bradford the Third never did anything halfway, and that included bribing his only child.

With a school as large as St. Ambrose, I wasn’t the only new guy, but everyone still stared when I parked in my assigned space. A group of three girls turned to examine me as they got out of the car next to mine. The blondes from the front seats giggled, while the girl in the back rolled her eyes and left her friends without glancing in my direction again.

She didn’t fit with the other two, which made me watch her more closely. Her uniform matched everyone else’s, but she didn’t roll the skirt up quite as high. Instead of heels or Mary Janes, she wore a busted pair of Chucks over knee-high socks. Her long, wavy hair appealed to me more than the flat-ironed, fake blonde her friends had. It was the color of a cinnamon stick—kind of brown and kind of red.

“What’s with her?” Blonde One asked.

The girl who’d been driving shrugged. I dubbed her Blonde Two and listened shamelessly as I followed them up the walk to the front doors. If they caught me eavesdropping, I planned to flash a grin. My smile got me out of all kinds of trouble, even with my dad.

oOo

Because I’m in Ireland even as this posts, I only prepared one tag. Sydney Logan will keep the fun going with several more, I’m sure.