Blog Hop Winner

Thanks to everyone who visited during the "Spectrum of Speculative Fiction" blog hop.

The winner of a free download of "Day Dreamer" is:
Jane Dougherty

Congratulations! 
I hope you enjoy the story.

Again, my thanks to Jane and to everyone who participated in the blog hop--writers and readers.

Speculations

  

Hello, and welcome to the "Spectrum of Speculative Fiction" blog hop, contest, and giveaway.

 

I am participating this weekend with over a dozen other authors whose works run the gamut of speculative fiction: fantasy, science fiction, horror, steampunk, supernatural, as well as realms which blend aspects across all boundaries between such genres. The links to authors and their blogs can be found below. Just click on a name and you can "hop" from one blog to another, as the same list appears on every blog. All authors are offering giveaways--simply follow each author's instructions, and you'll have multiple chances of winning free books and other prizes!

Contest:
I shall be giving away a copy of my novella, "Day Dreamer." It's the tale of a man who dreams every night about the next day, yet instead of being liberated by his sleeping visions of the future he is haunted by every moment he is awake.

To enter for a chance to win simply leave a comment on this blog entry, perhaps describing a dream that came true for you, thoughts on the "Speculations" below, or whatever else you wish to share, along with your contact information in case you win. 
Join to follow this blog and you'll be entered twice. 
Like my facebook page at www.facebook.com/DevinHodginsOfficial and you'll be entered thrice.
(Please let me know how you've chosen to enter when you leave your comment here on this blog.)
I will draw and announce the winner here on Monday.
Good Luck!


Of course, anyone can get a copy of "Day Dreamer" without entering the contest. 
It's only 99 cents and can be purchased through Musa Publishing at this link:
Day Dreamer - Urania Speculative Fiction
It's also available for download at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Goodreads, more!


Speculations...
Speculation is what fiction is all about. I prefer speculative fiction--specifically fantasy--if only to examine the questions of "What if...?" or maybe even "What the...?" I read it in order to discover what questions and answers others have devised about the world and worlds around them, and I write it in order to explore the speculations I have about the world and worlds around me--within and beyond. 

"What if" a person dreamt every night about the next day? When that thought came to me I had been keeping a dream journal as preparation and research for another story I wanted to right about dreamers and their dreams. For a year and a night, I recorded every dream I dreamt. In the beginning, I had trouble remembering my dreams. Still, I wrote down what I could, even spelling out that the dream had slipped away, forgotten. But as I kept on dreaming and kept on recording, I found that I could remember my dreams better and better. And every once in a while I would stumble upon a moment during my waking day that I seemed to remember dreaming. Just a fleeting sense that I had dreamt of the moment before. Always, as quickly as the feeling fell upon me it would fade away. Yet, I knew I had an idea worth exploring. 

"Day Dreamer" began as a surreal dance of futures and pasts, of sleeping and awakening, of lucidity and insomnia. Works by Borges and Matheos remained lofty models and deep influences. Early on, though, it turned into more of a love story--a development I never really planned but one I am glad I did not disdain as I wrote for it made the story, its situations and characterizations, much more believable and accessible and--dare I say--possible.

Most of my other stories and poems are darker, far more aethereal. Still, all venture into the boundless realms of fantasy, so distant, so close. And whether examining what one day a person might choose to relive, the windows through which infinity allows us to gaze, or why the horizon can never, ever be reached--just as with the medley of authors participating in this blog hop--it is all speculation.