The Heaviness of Knowing

Hello folks! Great to see you here today 🙂 It gives me much pleasure to introduce author Sharolyn G Brown and her Science Fiction novel, The Heaviness of Knowing. I have to say, I love both the title and the book cover! Sharolyn will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. For her other tour stops and more chances to win, please click on the banner above 🙂 Sharolyn also tells us a bit about where she finds her inspiration!

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The Heaviness of Knowing:

Roxal has spent her life using her Dream Traveler ability in service to Trebor’s gods, The Keepers. Even after she learns they aren’t all powerful like she was taught, she dutifully continues to manipulate an Earth woman named Lauren to do their bidding. Roxal’s content pretending to be a loyal follower, until her mate’s activities with a rebel faction put both of their lives in jeopardy.

Meanwhile on Earth, Lauren is struggling to find balance at work and at home. To make matters worse, she develops an acute case of insomnia which disrupts her life. While trying to cure her condition, Lauren discovers that not only do aliens exist, but that she’s been in contact with one for most of her life. And that’s just for starters.

Now Lauren’s world is turned upside down. And Roxal has to figure out if she can harness the survival instincts which before told her to hide and use it to now fight for her survival.

Excerpt:

Now weightless, her body floated out of her makeshift bed into a dark shapeless place. Fog seemed to swirl around her as she drifted in a strange void. A chair would really be nice, she thought.

Then, when she looked to her left, she saw a purple and green chair surrounded by light from an unknown source. The next moment, she was sitting in this chair. Lauren looked around, trying to see where she was, but beyond the mysterious light circle, there was nothing but blackness and fog. As time passed in this place, she heard beeps and voices talking somewhere around her, but couldn’t see the source of either. Now she was afraid.

Should I speak and let them know I’m here? she questioned to herself.

Just as she was about to take her chances with “them,” another voice spoke.

“No, do not let them know you are here.” The voice spoke in a low whisper but was crystal clear.

The speaker sounded as if she was nearby. Lauren didn’t know why, but the voice seemed familiar and felt like she was someone Lauren could trust, so she kept quiet.

“We will both be in trouble if they find you here. It is time for you to go,” the whispering unseen speaker continued.

“What do you—?”

The sensation of being blown away by a strong wind cut Lauren off mid-sentence. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at her ceiling. Lauren sat up, repositioning herself on the sofa, and looked around the room. She remembered she had come to the den when she saw the bright white numbers on the satellite box’s digital display. A smile spread across her face as she read the time, 3:18 AM. She lay back on the sofa’s cushion, still smiling.

INSPIRATION

Where I find Inspiration?

An important part of being a writer is being able to find inspiration for a story or series of stories. For me, I find inspiration in everyday situations. The situations could be mundane, or they could be weird. The only requirement is that it catches my interest. Then, once a situation catches my interest, the next step is to ask the question, “What if…?”

It’s when I’m asking that “What if…”, that I let my mind run wild. Also, this is what determines the genre in which the idea will fall. For example, the situation that caught my interest and inspired The Heaviness of Knowing was a conversation I had with a friend in which she stated she never dreamed. She told me this in response to my telling her about a particularly strange dream that I’d had the night before. Now for me, remembering my dreams, crazy or otherwise, is a regular occurrence. As a result, I was shocked to know that she never remembered her dreams.

So, I let my mind play around with the situation. Why would one person be able to easily remember their dreams and another person not? Then, I was hit by the ‘what if’: “What if aliens are the reason? What if they’re, somehow, using our dreams to control us? Ohh, and what if they’ve been doing it for centuries? And what if…?” I went on and on asking myself these questions until I saw the characters who would affected by this: Roxal the alien who is controlling an Earth woman named Lauren using Lauren’s dreams, and Lauren, my unwitting victim.

This is something my brain does over, and over again. I have a list of ideas for stories waiting to be written once I finish the three books in this series, The Conscious Dreamer Series. And, as I stated, this can work with ANY situation. Now, I know some of you reading this probably doubt me. But one of my favorite TV shows, Dr. Who, does a great job of illustrating this point. One of my favorite episodes is one called Blink. And do you know what the monster is in that episode? Garden statues. Specifically angel garden statues.

These monsters are called the Weeping Angels. The only protection you have against them is when you look at them, they are frozen in place. Like a statue. But guess what, when you blink, you aren’t looking at them. And as far-fetched as it may seem that a TV show using angel garden statues as the monster would be scary, I can absolutely imagine how the creator of that idea was inspired.

I see a television writer leaving work late one evening after 6:00 PM. And even though the first day of Fall is over a week away, there’s a coolness to the evening that makes him want to cut through the park to catch the tube (Dr. Who is a British TV show). The days are already getting shorter, so while the sun hasn’t set, it is low on the horizon. The park is empty, but that’s okay. He loves walking in the quiet. It lets him think.

But on this particular evening, something is different. It seems too quiet, and he feel like he’s being followed. Also, out of the corner of his eye, he keep seeing movement of some sort. However, when he turns to see what it could be, there’s nothing there. Nothing but the angel statues that fill the park. Still for some reason, they look weird. It’s like there are more of them than he remembered. Or, they’re in different places along the path.

He stops walking and laughs out loud. His imagination is getting the best of him. But wouldn’t it be cool if the statutes could move. What if angel statues weren’t actually statues. What if they were an ancient race of aliens who only appear to be statues when we look at them. What if…

Whatever actually inspired the idea, I think the person or team who came up with the Weeping Angels is a genius. And I hope to be able to come up with ideas like that one day. But for now, I’ll just settle for letting aliens use my dreams to invade Earth.

About the Author:

Sharolyn G. Brown is a lifelong science fiction and fantasy fan who decided the best way to deal with all of the characters in her head was to give them stories and put them in a book. She lives with her husband in Houston, Texas where she divides her time between working, writing, and spending time with him.

For more information about Sharolyn, check out her website www.sharolyngbrown.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook (http://smarturl.it/SGBrownFB), Twitter (http://smarturl.it/SGBrownTweet), and Instagram (http://smarturl.it/SGBrownIGram). To keep up with the latest news, please sign up for her Newsletter (http://smarturl.it/SGBrownNewsletter).

http://www.sharolyngbrown.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Heaviness-Knowing-Conscious-Dreamer-Book-ebook/dp/B01GAN1MJ8