Dream a Little Dream (29 page)

PIERS ANTHONY

You may have read before about the collection of young folk, mostly female, I named Ligeia. They have inhabited my Author’s Notes since the first Ligeia in 1986, in
Wielding a Red Sword.
As I heard from more of them, typically (but by no means limited to) fourteen-year-old girls, I made a composite character for the Mode series, calling her Colene. I have not knowingly met any of the ones I corresponded with, but I feel I know them. I am not of that persuasion myself, but that gives me a notion of what they suffer. As I like to put it, it is as if I stand at the verge of Hell, while they stand somewhat closer to the fire, and there is so little I can do.

Now one of those Ligeias is speaking for herself, in the form of this novel: Julie. She was mentioned by name in the Author’s Note for
If I Pay Three Not in Gold,
and her decoration of the envelope for a letter inspired the three mermaids in
Harpy Thyme.
Now you have seen her fantasy,
Dream a Little Dream.
She sent me her emotionally precious Clechée cross, and I kept it as long as I was in doubt about her condition, but by the time this novel is published she should be wearing it again. An aspect of her mundane existence is in Nola, just as her dream existence is in Kafka.

Julie has the talent of lucid dreaming—that is, knowing and controlling
one’s dreams. This story took form gradually as she recorded those dreams. When it was ready, I took it over and reworked it into a formal novel. As with all of these collaborations, the story is the collaborator’s; I merely do what is necessary to make it presentable, somewhat in the manner a stonecutter facets and polishes a raw gemstone.

But one thing is all hers: the illustration on the facing page that she drew for this volume. Seldom is the author allowed to show directly what the main characters look like: Nola and Spirit.

Now Julie’s dreams are yours.

JULIE BRADY

This being my first author’s note, I’m unsure what to say. I suppose I should start out saying something about myself. I’m twenty-seven years old at the time of this page being typed. I was born in Fort Ord, California, into a military family and spent most of my life moving from one place to another. Currently, I live in Maryland in a rural area, surrounded by cows and open fields—a big change from being surrounded by drug addicts and rapists in cities.

I’m sure that many of you loyal Piers Anthony fans saw this book and wondered who I was. Well, I’m no one of consequence, just a newcomer to the writer’s world. I enjoyed writing this book, which, incidentally, was taken from a serial dream of mine over the course of a year or so. I used the serial dreams I had to escape the horrors of my life. In the middle of this book’s making, Piers interrupted my normal dream pattern to inform me that I was going about writing the book the wrong way. In the dream he pointed out my mistakes and told me how to correct them. I sent the corrected version to him and was surprised to hear that it agreed with his dream-self!

At first, the idea of publishing my journal seemed crazy. I don’t consider myself a writer nor could I ever hope to achieve what Piers has.

The main thing that appealed to me was to share what I had seen in my sleep with you. The idea of my dreams living in print thrills me no end and is as close as I may ever get to an achievement I could be proud of.

Since this is my first book and I lack a large amount of friends, I didn’t get much help or advice. I don’t have a long list of people to thank (unlike the lists you often see at the end of Piers’s
Xanth
novels), but I do have a few.

First and most important, I’d like to thank Piers for his unconditional support and encouragement, without which I would not have been here to dream anything worth writing about. I’d also like to thank a friend who taught me most of what I needed to know to become a good person inside: thanks Mike Norvelle—I wish you the best in life! Next, I’d like to thank a coworker, Alfreda Jenkins, who came up with the name “Curbie” when I was stuck for a character’s name. I should also give credit to the real people from whom I borrowed names or part-names for use in this novel: Wilma Roberts, Leona Joy Cooper and Lori Fox.

I’d like to thank my parents for constantly trying to get me to stop daydreaming and doodling during school. (Thankfully, reverse psychology was working against them!) Though I didn’t have the best upbringing, I love them both very much. We all make mistakes that need forgiving.

Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone who bought a copy of this book. Hopefully, if you didn’t love it, you at least hated it. In either case I feel proud to have raised an emotion in you, good or bad.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1999 by Piers Anthony Jacob and Julie Brady

ISBN: 978-1-4976-5735-9

This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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