My dreams tend to look like movies. They play out in full technicolor on the backs of my eyelids. The characters all have a motivation, a goal, and something that keeps them from achieving it.
I’m never in my dreams.

My dreams are huge sweeping epics about interstellar rescue missions and kickass princesses kidnapped by bad guys. Sometimes they are paranormal mysteries like the one about the young girl who fell into a cursed mirror. She has to pretend to be a character in a children’s book in order to solve the puzzle of how to escape and save the rest of the mirror’s hapless victims. I’ve had horror story dreams invade my sleep with beasts tearing apart their victims. Once my dream was an erotic encounter on a roller coaster full of dips and peaks and pleasure.

Going to sleep has always been easy for me as a result. I’ve got my own entertainment built in during those “wasted” hours of unconsciousness.

Dreams are funny things. Scientists can’t decide if they are our brain’s way of filing away memories collected over the day, working through problems we couldn’t fathom during our waking hours, or just our confused brain trying to make sense of what’s going on while our consciousness is unable to investigate. And we’ll never know the answer because there’s no way to definitely prove what’s happening when we dream. Because after all, we’re asleep.

But early man knew what dreams were. They knew they were real, physical places, only reached when you’re alseep.

I think that’s why I’ve never written any of my dream movies into my stories. I’m a little afraid that the magical dreams will stop if they are suddenly duplicated here in the waking world. I’m being given a glimpse of an alternate world and if everyone can suddenly see what I see, it’s like the camera will overload and the machinery will pop, sizzle, and die.

But that’s okay. Because I can create alternate worlds of my own to fuel my waking dreams. Worlds where time travel can help you be your older lover’s first time. Or worlds where talking cats try to encourage you to date more.