Spotlight: Fractured Dream by K.M. Randall

Fractured Dream

The Dreamer Saga #1

By: K.M. Randall

Published: June 21st, 2014

Publisher: Booktrope Publishing

Have you ever wondered where fairytales go once they’re created? It’s been eight years since Story Sparks last had a dream. Now they’re back, tormenting her as nightmares she can’t remember upon waking. The black waters of Lake Sandeen, where her Uncle Peter disappeared decades before, may hold the secret to Story’s hidden memories, or a truth she’d rather not know. On a bright summer afternoon, Story and her two best friends, Elliott and Adam, take a hike to the lake, where they dive into the cool water and never reemerge. What they find is beyond anything they’ve ever imagined could be possible, a world where dangers lurk in the form of Big Bad Wolves, living Nightmares and meddlesome witches and gods.Now Story must remember who she really is and somehow stop two worlds from ultimate annihilation, all while trying not to be too distracted by the inexplicable pull she feels toward a certain dark-eyed traveler who seems to have secrets of his own. The fates of the worlds are counting on her.

  

Excerpt:

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Green’s Solace, Tressla

“You look like you’re about to pass out. Did the Elven Queen give you some of her wine?” Nicholas’s warm whisper and beard stubble against her ear gave Story a start and she jumped apart from him before recovering her senses.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said, putting a hand to her chest and shaking her head at him as he chuckled, his warm velvety laugh making her chest ache. “You nearly scared me to death,” she said, but she smiled at him, feeling her already warm cheeks grow rosier as his strong hand found hers and squeezed while he scooted in closer to her.

“Sorry, but you looked like you were about to fall over. Dew Drop Wine?”

With her back against a tree, Story had nowhere to go, and she was increasingly aware of his closeness, his one arm snaking around her to draw her to his side while his other hand played with her fingers, drawing caresses along her palm. He turned to look at her, their faces only inches apart as his dark gaze stared intently into her own.

Swallowing, she looked away quickly and then met his eyes once more. Goose bumps rose along her arms as her skin responded to his lightest of touches. Unable to tear her gaze away from his, she managed to shrug and smile lamely. “You know, dew drops—they’re water. I thought she was just giving a fancy name to water.”

He smiled darkly and Story knew she was done for. Elliott had nothing on this guy’s smolder, she thought. Quest and responsibilities aside, she couldn’t be expected to have this much willpower. If he kissed her, and she suspected he might, she would probably just melt and demand he ravish her right there.

“But when you started drinking it, you must have known better,” he teased her with a whisper, his lips so close to hers the warmth of his breath beat against her own parted lips.

“Yeah, but it was so yummy,” she whispered back, staring up at him like a deer in headlights.

His only response was a smile before he swooped down on her like an owl in the night, his strong arms pulling her close. When their lips met, she felt she would burn alive, his passion and hers connected in an all-consuming blaze. She slid her arms around him as well, and they pulled each other so close that a normal fire between them would have been quelled by the lack of oxygen.

About the Author

 

As a girl, K.M. always wished she’d suddenly come into magical powers or cross over into a Faerie circle. Although that has yet to happen, she instead lives vicariously through the characters she creates in writing fantasy and delving into the paranormal. When K.M. is not busy writing

her next novel, she is the editor-in-chief of a blog covering the media industry, as well as an editor with Booktrope Publishing. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in English-Lit from Nazareth College of Rochester. K.M. lives in Upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region with her husband and her extremely energetic little boy. Fractured Dream is her first novel.

  

 Website

First-time look at a deleted scene from Fractured Dream

The excerpt below is one that I actually cut before ever submitting Fractured Dream to my publisher. When it was all said and done, the word count had come to more than 200,000 words. While I know plenty of fantasy books are long, especially epic ones, which is what this is, I also recognized that I was a first time author. And I wanted people to read my book! So I got to cutting. This was originally the first chapter, but I eliminated it and the following nineteen chapters. It made sense because these scenes take place many years before the published version does, and they take place in Tressla, the parallel fantasy world in my book.

For those of you who may have already read Fractured Dream, you get to meet Faulks, and you also get to catch a glimpse of a young Kestral, who has a bigger part to play much earlier in the story. In the next year or so, I hope to get these parts polished and shiny for a release of their own as a prequel to The Dreamer Saga, because telling myself these scenes would see the light of print some day was the only way I could force myself to cut them. Kill your darlings and all that. It’s hard! Anyway, check out the original Chapter One, which takes place in the town of Locksley, Tressla.

            Faulks dipped large, work worn hands into the bucket and splashed cool water on his dirt-streaked face. He could taste the salt on his lips from the sweat of a days work. Slicking back reddish gold hair that was peppered with streaks of white; he looked up into the sky as pink and purple faded into a darkening blue over the lush fields that vegetated with life.

            Shaking the last droplets from his face he headed toward his herb garden before daylight was completely gone, taking one last second look at the glory of day slipping to dusk. He grunted softly, bending down to tend to a Grimsweed. It wasn't actually a weed, but a flower that budded dark blue petals tipped with green. It was a rare find in this end of the region, here where rain fell more often than not in Locksley on the east side of Tressla. Grimsweed usually only grew in the dryer more arid areas.

            Faulks patted the earth around the wilting flower and then sifted a fine sand-like substance in the dirt. Touching the petals he whispered softly to the flower, his large hands cupping the plant with a light and tender touch. The flower slowly seemed to grow, standing taller, fawning beneath the man's touch. He whistled softly. "Now be a good lass, and stay strong." At his bequest, the petals unfurled like a butterfly's wings. Grimsweed was one of the only known plants that could heal the Fairy Tale afflicted. Often, when touched by some element of legend, the regular folk would sometimes lose their head and often wonder off into the night finding their death as they searched in vain for a happy ending. Faulks shook his head. It wasn't a pretty sight, but it was a rare and odd occurrence. For the most part, the Tales and the ordinary folks got along fine/ At least, on this side of Tressla. Faulks rubbed his brow, feeling the creases that worried about the rest of his homeland. In other parts of Tressla, he admitted to himself, the Tales weren’t so lucky. He shook the unpleasant thought away, reasoning there wasn’t much he could do, and patted the flower once more.

            While the remedy from the flower were not much needed in the village, it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, he got paid well for harboring a plant that usually could only be found in the Eldridge Mountains. Not many were willing to make the wearisome trip there, and even fewer were willing to travel into Maya’s Valley.

            Faulks was the town green thumb. He could make virtually anything grow and so the villagers often recruited him to grow the various oddities, saving themselves from having to venture out of the relative safety of Locksley. Faulks was an oddity himself in many ways. He stood close to seven feet tall. His hair was a shaggy burnished red-gold, although white had begun to show at the temples. He had a gruff face, grizzled with stubble that grew over a hard jaw. His nose was large and burnt from the sun, and lines creased around his eyes and down his cheeks. But for such an imposing man, he treaded the earth lightly and with grace: A gentle giant, who would no more stomp out the life of a grasshopper than a man.

            As he turned to make his way into sup, two large aqua eyes peered up at him beseechingly from beneath a tangle of straw-like yellow hair, stopping him before he could take more than a step. Obviously, the child had been hovering close by for some time. Giving her a stern look his voice grumbled, "Well what do ya want?" It was Kestral, the cook's wild daughter, holding an earthenware pot out to him. Looking down he noted the sad looking Thumbelina Rose that was sulkily drooping from neglect.

            Kestral looked up at him boldly, but her voice held the proper note of guilt and regret when she spoke. "My Thumbelina is dying.”

            "Now why do you think it's dying? Huh? Did you water it with only dew drops like I told ya?" he asked her.

            Mutely, she shook her head casting her eyes down. "Did you talk to her and sing to her like I said?" Again, the girl with hair like a dandelion puff shook her head.

            "Then what do you want me to do?" Her lower lip came out in a pout as she lifted those large, blue eyes to his, lips trembling. "I promise I'll take better care of her, I thought it would be ok if I just gave her water from the stream. Please, Faulks? She’s going to die.” Her eyes filled with tears as she thrust the pot toward him emphatically.

            Faulks knew the Thumbelina wasn’t really that bad off, just sulking. The Rose’s liked to be the center of attention and became quite resentful when their little girls didn’t treat them with the proper respect.

            Shaking his head, Faulks cupped his hands around the Thumbelina Rose and hummed a light tune. The flower slowly lifted her head. Just like he thought, the Thumbelina inside was in the later stages of her gestation period and had been dramatizing her condition. The bud deepened quickly from a sickly pink to a vivid purple again as she took energy from Faulks's green energy. Wings that had recently broken out of the bud gave a soft flutter as a song of thanks lilted on the soft breeze and then faded to an almost inaudible humming.

            "It won't be long now so you better take better care of her this time, keep her healthy until she opens," he warned. Kestral's pale lips quirked in a lopsided grin and she beamed up at him. "Thanks, Faulks!"

            He gave her one last stern look and then his features creased in a smile. It was only when he smiled that people noticed the lines in his face were as much from laughing as they had been from weeping.