This is one of the most exciting promotions I’ve done with any of my 10 books!!!

8 teenage writers have agreed to play the characters from the DREAMFALL series on social media.

From July 7 – August 7, they are posting about their experiences and are ready to answer questions from you about DREAMFALL or their backstories.

From August 7, after NEVERWAKE releases, they are ready to answer any of your questions about NEVERWAKE…or after! (I have given them exclusive information about their futures long after the series ends. To find out how Cata, Fergus, Ant, Remi, BethAnn, Sylvain, George, and Jaime end up, all you have to do is ask!)

And to get the questions rolling in, I am giving away prizes! Each week I will give 1 prize to a question sent to each character. So if you ask each character a question, you will have 8 chances at a prize…per week! Check their Twitter and Instagram accounts for info on the week’s giveaway.

Here are the  profiles and links to their accounts. In the meta-universe of their social media accounts, they just underwent a radical experiment to cure their chronic insomnia, and are able to answer all of your questions to the end of Dreamfall.

Georgina (George) is 15 and is from Princeton. Sinclair describes her as a “band chick” (black straight shoulder-length hair, straight bangs, cat eyeliner, yin-yang tattoo). She has bone-dry humor, is confident, tough enough to be a little scary, and a clear leader. For some reason, she is the only one who shows up in the nightmares dressed differently each time. (*Hint* this is important) And there is a very good reason I can’t tell you more about her. *cough cough*

Instagram: @CallMeGeorge_30

Twitter: @callmegeorge_30

BethAnn Lindstrom (19) BethAnn was 16 when her developmentally disabled younger sister drowned while under her supervision. At 19, she has spent the last three years racked with guilt and severe depression, and the anti-depressants she needs keep her from sleeping. Anorexic and seemingly physically and emotionally fragile, BethAnn is much stronger than she appears.

Instagram: @BethAnnLindstrom

Twitter: @BethDoesntSleep

Remi Amadi, 15, is the survivor of an African genocide, where he witnessed the slaughter of his family. He escaped from the soldiers by playing dead, and was found pinned under the dead body of his older brother by an international rescue organization. He relocated to a refugee cap until his aunt came for him and brought him to Minnesota. He suffers post-traumatic stress disorder, which manifests in night terrors, insomnia, and hyperrealistic flashbacks. He has survivor’s syndrome and crippling guilt for not being able to save his family. In the dreams, his only goal is escape.

Instagram: @RemiAmadi_Dreamfall

Twitter: @amadi_remi

Antonia Gates is a 13-year-old with a uniquely analytical way of seeing the world. Her penchant for boys’ clothes, a chullo hat, and fingerless gloves makes most people assume she’s a boy. She’s obsessive compulsive and is on the autism spectrum (high functioning, with an IQ of 160) and uses tapping, her accessories, and writing in her notebook to self soothe.

The teen playing Ant on Instagram and Twitter is uniquely qualified: she is on the spectrum herself and was my sensitivity reader for the DREAMFALL series!

Instagram: Ant_Gates113

Twitter: @gates_ant113

Jaime Salvator (20) is a pre-med student at Yale who is observing the experiment to fulfill a 6-hour field experience requirement. Jaime grew up in a bad neighborhood of Detroit and dreams of opening a free medical clinic in the neighborhood. We see the world outside the Dreamfall (in the lab) from Jaime’s POV. Jaime is torn between helping the subjects who Jaime believes to be dreaming and respecting the authority of the doctors in charge, who believe them to be comatose. Jaime’s gender is never revealed. (Dad Hispanic & mom African-American)

Instagram: @jaime_salvator_yale

Twitter: @SalvatorYale

Sinclair Hartford (17) seems the typical spoiled rich kid from New York’s Upper East Side. But underneath his movie star looks (generated by his subconscious mind…yes, he really thinks he looks like Nicholas Hoult) lurks a dangerous psychopath who cares only about his own survival.

Instagram:  @Sinclair_hartford

Twitter: @SinclairJasonH1

Cata Cordova 16. Grew up in Georgia with a violent father who grew even more abusive after her mother died. She finally broke her silence, told a school counselor, and Child Protective Services removed her from her home. She lives now in Tennessee with her late mother’s friend, Barbara, but her PTSD and guilt from leaving her brother and sister with their dad has given her chronic insomnia.

Instagram: @CataCordova16

Twitter: @CataCordova16

Fergus Willson. At 18, all he wants to do is leave home, where he is subjected to endless ridicule and criticism over the narcolepsy his father thinks is all in his mind. He has tried to desensitize himself against the emotions that trigger his cataplectic attacks by binge-watching horror movies and tattooing his forearm with a reminder to “DFF”—Don’t fucking feel.

Instagram: @FergusWills0n

Twitter: @Ferguswills0n

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to witness a truly historic event—one that wove together the 18th and 21st centuries using the threads of politics, family, history and one of those beautifully produced signs you see gracing many of Paris’s historical spots.

Knowing my love of history and in particular the history of the Paris’s catacombs, my friend Gilles Thomas, who has published several seminal books on the subject, invited me to a truly special event: the dedication of a city esplanade to “the man who saved Paris,” Charles-Alex Guillaumot. It had been a project of Gilles for the last five years to gain recognition for the architect responsible for buttressing the network of limestone mines beneath Paris, and his work had finally paid off.

In previous posts, I describe at length the story of visiting the off-limit catacombs with Gilles, so let me summarize for you here. Before Paris existed as the city it is now, there were many mines on the outskirts…mainly for the limestone used to build the buildings you see in Paris today. At the time, that land was farmland, so no one thought about security. But as Paris grew, homes were built on top of land that had been hollowed out, and the more buildings perched atop these holes, the more dangerous it was.

This oblivious co-habitation of city and deep holes continued until 1774, when a whole street of apartment buildings and homes fell through the ground. Louis XVI named a commission to inspect, chart, and reinforce the mines. (The Inspection générale des carrières or IGC.) So Charles-Axel Guillaumot (the chief inspector) and his crew went around to all of these individual mines and made tunnels from mine to mine, connecting them. They raised their ceilings from the crouching height miners were forced to work in to a height that allowed men pushing wheelbarrows to get through. They reinforced the walls and ceilings and labeled them all as they made their way through.

During the French revolution, people didn’t like the idea of employing someone appointed by the king, and Charles-Axel was imprisoned in Versailles. They quickly realized how indispensable he was, however, as Guillaumot was back on the job a few years later, continuing his work until he died.

Hopping forward a couple of hundred years, Gilles Thomas, in his in-depth research on the catacombs, re-discovered the architect’s importance in the history of Paris, and went to visit Guillaumot’s ancestors in Toulouse. He discovered that a portrait of Guillaumot existed in the family home, and photographing it, he finally put a face to the name for historians. But crediting the architect in his books was not enough for Gilles. He started a campaign to dedicate a public place to the man who had, in the meantime, been christened “the man who saved Paris” by author and historian, Graham Robb.

An enlarged photo of the portrait of Charles-Axel Guillaumot graced the square during the dedication. (With the Deputy Mayor of Paris, Célia Blauel.)

This campaign took on two of the toughest bureaucratic entities in France: the public transport system and the mayor’s office. So on the evening of October 4th, 2017, representatives from both of those offices, as well as around one hundred of Guillaumot’s ancestors, gathered on the plaza just outside of the Denfert-Rochereau train station, next to the entrance of the Paris Catacombs (the Ossuary) and close to the location of the rue d’Enfer, where a house caved in the very day Guillaumot started his work on the mines.

I was met by Gilles Thomas, who was probably the only person who could identify all of the various attendees. He waved his hand over the majority of the group of Guillaumots, then said there were even a few descendants of Philibert Aspairt in attendance. (Aspairt is the only person properly buried in the catacombs, his body having been found in the caverns in 1804, eleven years after he went missing.)

Members of Philibert Aspairt’s family with a photo of his subterranean tomb.

Then Gilles introduced me to American author and fellow history-buff Cara Black, who was there to witness the historic moment. We watched the spectacle together, as Danièle Pourtaud, Conseillère of the 14th arrondissement, welcomed us all to the event. She pointed to all of the construction work being done on the Place Denfert-Rochereau behind us, saying that they were overhauling the entrance to the Catacombs’ Ossuary, and at the same time are creating, just in front of it, the future Museum of Paris Liberty.

Hidden by trees, the building that will serve as the new entrance to the Ossuary as well as the Museum of Liberty.

Franck Avice, Director of the RATP (Paris’s transport system) then took the mic and explained the importance of the train system and of this particular spot, citing the astronomical number of people who used this one station every day. (I wasn’t taking notes, but it was something like 90,000.)

Célia Blauel, Deputy Mayor of Paris

Then the Deputy Mayor of Paris, Célia Blauel, took the mic and spoke of how the City of Paris jumped at the chance to honor its illustrious citizen.

Annie Laval-Duboul, one of Guillaumot’s descendants, took the stage and told the story of Gilles visiting their aunt, of her providing him with the family’s documentation and stories that had been passed down of their illustrious ancestor.

She called Gilles up to stand next to her as she told the story, and, in his regular self-effacing manner, stood next to her shrugging off the compliments and praise as it poured down on him. Her speech centered around how excited and grateful the family was that the ancestor who they had always been told saved Paris, was finally getting the recognition he deserved.

And finally, Arnaud de Jenlis, another Guillaumot descendant, took the stage and thanked many family members, several of whom held obvious inheritances from the man of the hour: they all seemed to be named Charles or Axel.

The unveiling of the sign. From left: Gilles Thomas, Arnaud de Jenlis, Annie Laval-Duboul, Célia Blauel, Danièle Pourtaud, and Franck Avice.

After that, the beautiful new sign was unveiled, and many photos taken. Cara and I slipped off before the drinks began pouring, leaving the major players in this important event to celebrate their success and toast to the historic day.

I am thrilled and honored to announce that I am hosting Shakespeare and Company’s (yes…that S&Co of Sylvia Beach, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ezra Pound… the one that was established almost 100 years ago) very first teen program: a monthly book club!

The first Monday night of every month, we will be welcoming Paris readers ages 12-18 to this free event, discussing a pre-chosen book that everyone reads before the meeting. Please come armed with your book, your highlighted passages, your reactions, your questions and your insights.

Thanks to the suggestions of a group of my YA author friends, I’ve chosen SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA as our very first book. Becky Albertalli has even agreed to do a Facetime appearance with us! (Time/date/location here.)

Teen Vogue called SIMON VS. THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA “the love child of John Green and Rainbow Rowell.” But if that’s not enough to sell you on it, it is also described as “a twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story—wrapped in a geek romance.”

My verdict: You will laugh out loud in places, and will need a box of Kleenex nearby if you’re a crier. Don’t read the last chapters in public. You have been warned.

Please spread the word to all of your Paris friends who can read and discuss books in English! Here’s a FB page to sign up for the first meeting. Otherwise, just email me to tell me you’re coming!

To answer a few of your questions about DREAMFALL:

Give me 5 reasons I should read DREAMFALL.

• Because it’s about people who have worse insomnia than you! Compared to the seven teens in the book, your sleepless nights are child’s play.
• Because if your brain is going to force you to do an all-nighter, you might as well spend it in a fictional world that will suck you in and not let you go until the last page.
• Because who wants to stay up all night worrying about your own life when you can stay up all night freaking out about someone else’s?
• Because complications with tomorrow’s exam…your job…your boy/girlfriend seem minor when compared to spending the rest of your (probably short) life stuck in someone else’s killer nightmares.
• Because your nightmare about going to school in your underwear seems less traumatic next to a nightmare about being buried alive with three corpses. (Everything’s relative.)

Why did you want to write horror?

I actually tried to write a horror novel as my very first attempt at fiction. But I got halfway into it, and then didn’t know what happened next. So I put it aside and wrote the DIE FOR ME and AFTER THE END series. Once I was ready for my next challenge, I thought I would try horror once again. And this time, the story stuck.

In the DIE FOR ME series, I discovered that I enjoyed  much preferred writing the fight scenes as much as I did the kissing scenes. Chopping someone’s head off with a sword was just as exhilarating as writing a steamy makeout scene. So with DREAMFALL, I decided to embrace my morbid side and go with it. And, boy, did I have fun. At one point, my editor asked if one scene wasn’t TOO gruesome. I begged for it to stay, my argument being, “This is horror – it’s SUPPOSED to be gruesome!” I mean, if you’re writing horror, you might as well go all the way. So it stayed, much to my twisted delight. Funnily enough, the concept for the novel came from an idea I had for a children’s picture book. I’m still scratching my head as to why my agent was horrified when she read the pitch. (Hmm…)

How much research did you have to do for DREAMFALL?

DIE FOR ME was about things I knew: Paris, history, art, love and loss. AFTER THE END also contained things I knew…but on a more personal basis: I grew up in a type of cult-like environment where, like the main character Juneau, brainwashing was an aspect of my childhood. The research for this book was mainly with the locations. For example, once I had written the first draft, I flew to Seattle to do a road trip to Arizona so that I could describe the landscapes.

But DREAMFALL required major research. As the idea for the story evolved, it included more and more science. I was determined to get the facts right so that the fiction I added would be more believable. I read an entire book on the little-known disease called FFI (Fatal Familial Insomnia). I studied sleep cycles, read about sleep research, interviewed two people with narcolepsy, and one person who had gone through electroconvulsive therapy, and asked a doctor friend to read through all the medical sections, so I could be sure those were right.

But, like with my previous two series, there were some aspects of DREAMFALL that I didn’t need to read up on because they came straight from my own life. I know insomnia well. Whenever something horrible happens (like my mother’s death), my brain responds by giving me a good dose of insomnia. It was easy for me to channel the feeling of not being able to sleep.

Which character do you feel closest to in DREAMFALL?

There is no character in my books that I have felt closer to than Cata, one of DREAMFALL’s main characters. When I started the book, I hadn’t planned to model her back story on my own past. But as her personality formed, I found myself dipping into my memory for anecdotes. It made sense: we both suffered PTSD from abusive childhoods.

Cata’s first nightmare in the book comes straight from my 16-year-old brain. I lived in the crazy run-down antebellum mansion she lived in. And my father was the same type of monster hers was.  As her story progressed, I let myself pepper it with actual words and events from my childhood.

However, in DREAMFALL, I let Cata escape. She told someone what was happening to her, and was removed from her family by Child Protective Services. In real life, I stayed and bore the brunt of my father’s mental problems.

In the end, Cata provided a sort of redemption for me. In writing her story, I was able to allow my adolescent self to speak up for the first time.

And lastly…

I wonder if you’ll see an aspect of yourself in any of the characters. Over the course of this duology, I have come to love them. Because they are not who they seem to be. Just like a nightmare…you only truly understand it after it’s over. Although the truth is there, right before your eyes, you have to wake up to realize what was really going on.

You can check DREAMFALL out for yourself here:

IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes & Noble