Dreams

I recently saw a post on Facebook about the importance of having dreams. I couldn’t agree more. For me becoming a writer was as dream, publishing my books a part of that dream. Publishing could have just stayed a dream unless I took steps to make that dream come true.

To make a dream come true, you need to set goals--take steps forward. Sometimes they’re baby steps and other times they’re giant leaps of faith, but it’s constantly moving, actively working toward that dream. Pursuing a dream requires you to evaluate your priorities in life. It sharpens your focus and, ultimately, I believe, allows you to live life to the fullest.

Publishing Journey of Awakening is a dream come true for me. This is the first novel I ever completed. These are the characters who own my heart.  As hard as I worked on this manuscript, I’m still awed that Carina wanted to publish it. I still have to pinch myself when I see it on websites and know it’s available to readers instead of tucked away on my hard drive.

I hope that my children can see me living and pursuing my dream and learn to do the same, whatever their dreams are because having a dream, working toward it and watching it come true. That is magic.

Sara, the heroine in Journey of Awakening, also has a dream. Raised by her grandfather on a small island, she prepared her entire life for one purpose. For her it was simple, her dream is to complete the task set for her and her pursuit of it is single-minded. But when the dream becomes a reality, it is almost more than she can handle.

Here’s an excerpt from Journey of Awakening.

She followed Jith’s gaze. The golden sand rose away from the water’s touch, forming a hill that protected their little house and its gardens from the worst of the ocean’s fury. A shadow of melancholy tempered her excitement. She would miss the island. It was the only home she could remember. But she knew every tree, had followed or made every path through the dense interior forests. Each waterway, every animal’s den had long since been mapped. She was a warrior of Shi’ia, trained by one of the greatest commanders of all time, Willam of Ardal, and now she was full-grown. An adult by anyone’s standards. An island hideaway was not the place for her. She was ready. Ready for change, ready to use the skills her grandfather had taught her, ready to begin her life. She placed a hand on her chest and traced the hard contours of her pendant. Ready to discover the world outside their little island.

Winner of a 2011 RT Reader’s Choice award for her debut book, Altered Destiny, Shawna Thomas has been making up stories ever since finishing GONE WITH THE WIND. Once she put her own ending in writing, there was no looking back.

A wife and a mother of seven, Shawna lives in California where she gardens, writes, and drinks a lot of coffee. Visit her on her blog, twitter or Facebook. 

Journey of Awakening is available at Carina, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.