Since I was a young girl, I was curious about the meaning of dreams. There must be some meaning behind them. A collection of our thoughts and experiences from days gone past replayed, or expanded on, in our dreams. Maybe just a glimpse of something we passed by that did not have time to register fully or have our attention at that time, gets stuck inside our minds, in our subconsciousness.
I began my journey into the dream world and interpreted it through books, of course. Many claimed to be scientific but were unimaginative. This is when I stumbled upon lucid dreaming, and I was fascinated. I quickly became obsessed with the possibilities. Ideas poured into my mind over the years the more I read. If we could control aspects of our dreams, why not all of it? Is it really dreaming at that point? Your brain would not be resting but rather working, while you sleep. Would it still be called sleep? What if you could take those dreams into the waking world with you and manipulate events in your life? Worse, what if the characters in your dreams realized what was happening? What if they wanted a taste of the real world and not to be bound by your subconscious state? And, what if they were stronger than you? This idea and all the questions I had surrounding it is what brought Candle Lake to life beyond a young adult romance. Candle Lake is the love story of Tanishia and Shayne. In book one, I introduce you to these beautiful souls and their undeniable connection. I begin to play on the power of dreams using telepathy and outside forces as the driver. In Escape From Candle Lake, book two in the trilogy, I delve deep beyond lucid dreaming. I wanted to captivate readers beyond falling in love. Get your copy of Candle Lake here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C17TD9RK
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In 2011, after having devoured the Twilight series, I had difficulty finding another book that I enjoyed just as much that was also an easy read. Reading was my escape from working in a high stress job all day and then coming home to be a mother and housewife. At that time, I had four children ten years old and younger. I am a very active and involved mother; a member of the community. I needed books that were quick to read.
I asked everyone I knew if they had book recommendations. After continually searching, a friend introduced me to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). She told me, if you can’t find a book to read, write it. I did my research and wanted to go for it, but I still wasn’t convinced I actually could. To convince me, she sent me a different book series she received as a beta reader. She told me to read it. She said it was a very easy read. I began to read it having no idea what I was getting into. As I began to read this new series, it soon began to frustrate me. The content was very adult, but the writing was very juvenile. When I spoke to her about it, her response was what made me decide to put pen down on paper. “You know you could write better than this. You need to do it.” I spoke to my husband about it. About this horribly written book with great content that I was reading. I reminded him of my dreams to be a writer myself. I told him about NaNoWriMo and my friend who not only believed I could do it but insisted that I do. He agreed to help with the kids more so that I could follow this dream. November 1, 2011, I began the very first draft of Candle Lake. Originally, Candle Lake was like all the other books of that time. It involved a love triangle and the angst that came with it. I pushed boundaries to include elements that were slowly moving from taboo to mainstream. There was one element in the story that I wanted to give more attention to, but I wasn’t sure how to do that without making the book extremely long while keeping the romance and keeping it as an easy read. I successfully completed NaNoWriMo and finished the first draft of Candle Lake. I spent months editing it. When I was satisfied with what I had I started to reach out to traditional publishers. I had one who took interest in my story and asked that I make some changes. I agreed with her suggestions, but I did not have the time to devote to it to make the deadline she wanted. I was then suggested to shelve it and let it sit. Over the years I watched that poorly written book skyrocket to success. I watched as others jumped on that train, writing books with similar content. I continued my search for books that were quick to read that held my attention. I shifted my focus to being a book reviewer and beta reader. I participated in writing challenges and started a “serial” on my website. Candle Lake sat for YEARS. Neglected but never forgotten. Ten years later I made the decision that it had sat for long enough. When I came back to it, I made the decision to remove the love triangle. To expand on the angst of the first true love. To expand on that element that fascinated me that I wanted present in my story. There was always a strong element of telepathy in Candle Lake, but I wanted to take this further. To explore the possibilities of a dream world. I have always been fascinated with lucid dreaming. People speak of lucid dreaming, of being in control of the narrative and the characters in their dreams. I wanted to explore this phenomenon. And I wanted to take it further. I wanted to draw my readers into the mystery and suspense all while having them fall in love with the characters. I deleted many, many scenes and added many more. I spent one and a half years rewriting Candle Lake to get the story I wanted to tell. I decided that I would self-publish instead of seeking a traditional publisher. This decision was made simply because I am impatient and did not want to send out query letters and wait! I decided to find an editor to work with to polish Candle Lake. I worked with Alex on editing Candle Lake to get it to where it is today. Published and available for readers around the world! If you would like to stay updated, you can follow me on these social media platforms through my linktree: https://linktr.ee/sweeterae Many people have nicknames. Some are given to them from their parents; names they have grown up with since childhood. My childhood nickname was Rach. How original!
Some people have made names for themselves to help them stand out from the crowd; be it in real life or for an online persona. With millions of people in the world, it makes sense for people to want their own unique names. Did you know, the name Rachel has been in the top 200 for girls since 1900? How can I be remembered with those odds? I wanted a name that was unique. One that would be remembered. At a sleepover my friend and I looked at all the letters of my name and somehow decided that Rae made the most sense. It was a sort of coming-of-age name. More unique than Rachel and more grown up than Rach. My friend liked it because whenever she was excited about something or wanted to convince me to go along with her bad idea, she could always get my attention by calling me “Rae-Rae” which she said sounded sweet. Sweete was added years later when I was in college. Having moved out at a young age, I struggled but I always gave what I had. I was always the first to volunteer. Simply put, I was a giver. I didn’t want others to struggle in the ways I had. I didn’t want to see others suffer if there was something I could do to prevent it. It was this quality that had everyone calling me sweet or sweetie. When the internet became a thing, I was searching for an online name that was true to who I was it seemed an easy choice. Wanting to be unique I chose “SweeteRae” or “Rae Sweete”. It is the name I have used online since the birth of online. In the AOL and Yahoo chatrooms I was known as SweeteRae. I carried this name over to FaceBook, Instagram, and Twitter. |