Dreams and Ghosts: a Guest Post by LA Dragoni

Today I'm excited to host LA Dragoni as she shares the inspiration behind her debut release Ghost Touch. I was super privileged to read through a draft of this story while LA was getting it ready for publication, and while I know LA's heart belongs to Cal, I have to say I lost mine to Dex.

So, it's time to turn the blog over to LA for her to share where this story came from. Take it away, LA!

Thanks for having me, Mary. My name is LA Dragoni. I write paranormal romance.

Many years ago—maybe fourteen—I woke in the morning after an intense dream the night before. Our barn had been inhabited by hundreds or thousands of spirits. I spent the night trying to figure out each ghost’s personal story to help them cross over (and to get them out of my barn!) I even recruited a bunch of help from town. Just picture several dozen people scattered across a large expanse of lawn, listening to ghosts apologize for what they did wrong when they were alive. Suddenly what might have been a scary dream looks kind of like speed dating, huh?

I dream every night, so the dream has to be pretty special to stand out. This dream wouldn’t leave me. It was so real, but not in a spooky way. It’s not like I shied away from the barn after that. It was the act of helping the ghosts cross that stuck with me afterward. I sat down and tried to turn it into a novel, but I wasn’t a writer and lacked the skills to convert.

Fast forward to the end of last year. I’d been writing for more than eleven years and publishing books for kids & teens under a different name. Cal, the main ghost in Ghost Touch, tapped me on the shoulder again. “Ready for me now?” he asked.

My lip might have curled in a pleased smirk as I replied. “Oh yeah!”

Tamara never expected to be the center of a love triangle, especially one involving a ghost. As she grows increasingly attracted to long-dead Cal, her co-worker, Dex, pays closer attention to her.

For fifteen minutes each night a portal opens in her barn and a horde of ghosts spills into her yard. She and Dex work together to find a way to help Cal and the thousands of spirits stuck in the void to cross over. When she learns she has the ghost touch—the ability to touch the ghosts as if they were corporeal—and she accidentally helps a little boy cross, she believes it might be possible. But not all the spirits play nice and when they learn they can sip energy from her ghost touch, they become greedy putting her life at risk.

Each time Cal has to pull her from the mass of ghosts, her touch restores him more and more until he is at danger of being stuck on earth—forever, which is very enticing to Tamara the better she knows him. Will she and Dex figure out how to help the spirits cross and if they do, will she be able to let Cal go?

About the author:

LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who falls in love or where they fall in love. She just considers it her job to capture the story about their love. So, whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA’s there divining their story for you.

LA lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children. She’s been writing for kids and teens for almost a dozen years under another pseudonym. She decided it was about time she try her hand at entertaining her contemporaries. You can reach LA through her website, www.ladragoni.com.