So Gordon and I are living in some sort of shack in the surroundings resembling the first house we ever rented, for $200 per month. (We overpaid.) Stuff keeps going wrong with the house and then our neighbor comes over, and says, “Hey, my mom got her head cut off, so can you help me carry her down to the bus stop.”
We get his mom into this oversized plastic coffin-like thing that very much resembled a giant Barbie doll box, put her head in there with ice and we take off down the road carrying her down to the bus stop. Strangely we’re all kind of blase about the head being detached, because we’re pretty sure someone in the city will put her back together. It’s annoying but not a big deal.
Stuff keeps happening. We have to go past some house. At some point dogs run out. Then we’re tired, so we stop, and I rummage through the ice, which is half melted, but her head is gone. So everyone looks through the ice several times. No head. We back track, find her head, put it back into the box, and keep going.
A group of Cherokees come in traditional clothes and we have a long discussion about a giant bird who eats buffalo and whether or not we have seen it. No, didn’t see a giant bird, but we did see some cats.
We keep going and going down the road and then Del barked and I woke up. The dream wasn’t scary, but it must’ve been disturbing on some level, because I usually don’t move around in my sleep, but this time I woke up in a Conan pose – Gordon was laying in the middle of the bed on his back and I was half way down, clutching at his manly thigh.
Two things:
1) The release must’ve been extra stressful and
2) Aren’t you glad that only a very small fraction of my weird makes it into the books?
I think you need more time off to recover
I’m with you!
Conan pose!!!! manly thigh( not that I am doubting, Gordon) that is bloody hilarious. x
That sounds a lot like the book “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner, which was probably the strangest book I’ve ever read…
No kidding! I was thinking the same thing.
Are you kidding? That sounds like an awesome book. I’d buy it.
Your mind was so modest …….if I were dreaming about Cherokees, they would have been in their traditional clothing
I like weird dreams like these cause in some abstract way they show that we still have fantasy
I hate dreams in general because they are so weird. Moreover, you get the weirdest feelings when you’re experiencing it, but maybe this is where you get the inspiration for the books…?
I could give you a run for your money on the weirdness of dreams.
You must have been channeling Kate in your dream. It seems like a very kate-ish thing- carrying a decapitated body/head in a box down the street.
Yup, you’re channeling Kate. Definitely. For some reason the “manly thigh” comment caught my notice. No comment on that or the next dream might involve toting around my decapitated person.
So glad I’m not the only one with the weirdest dreams. I had one the other night that I was afraid to go outside because there were killer totem poles with glowing red eyes that could shoot fire on the loose. Kind of scary to know my mind came up with that.
Don’t lose your head
Wow. Stress dreams. HATE. I could go for more Ilona-weird…Speaking of, what’s the word on Alpha-Menz (or whatever you’re calling it officially)? I can’t remember if you said it was sold as of yet…
yeah i have the decapitation dreams too. and it’s all was annoying to sew there heads back on.
That is one of the best strange dream stories i have heard in a long time.
I laughed much.
But i hope you recover from your stress!
first of all awesome dream
second you need more time off at least a week of no writing or emails. (we’ll miss you but you need to keep up with your health)
third please please more weirdness in any form would be awesome at a stress free pace of course
i love how your mind works and i hope to be reading more ofyour stuff for decades
on another note i’d rather have decapitation dreams than the ones where im in a vat of raw eggs each one a perfect sphere and im afraid to move in case the yolk spills out and the flesh eating tadpole looking things get me. (shivers)
I had to reread the first part due to some serious WTF. Then I saw the title of this post. Things started to make sense then. And right now I am ridiculously happy I never remember my dreams. Good luck dealing with yours.
I know! Scared the um – crap – outta me!
Same thing happened to me. I was reading this, and then saw the head part (I was like wth?!) ….until I re-read the title. *sigh* Then I laughed hysterically at the conan pose bit.
Lol! That is a creepy dream!
Lol. I’m sure Gordon and his manly thigh appreciate your new sleeping pose.
lol- what Ying said
And my husband says I have weird dreams o.O Thats better then my zombie dream!
LOL. I always have really weird dreams when I’m too hot. No decapitations yet though.
My mum has a recurring dream of aliens making her their queen…
LMAO, a gaint bird who eats buffalo, run, run! I once dreamed a gorilla in the zoo skinned a zoo keeper and ate the skin while telling me it what he deserved… yep, talking sharks, dogs, wolves, and spiders litter my dreams.
I was reading your blog post and didn’t realise you were describing a dream until the bit about the Cherokee people. You scared the crap out of me!
My worst nightmare included me being chased around the house by a bean bag while carrying all my relatives stacked on my shoulders. O_O I was one stressed kid.
Things will get better, I promise. Although I am scarred for life now when it comes to big bean bags
That’s the Roc in your dreams demanding a place in the next Kate novel, methinks.
or a thunderbird . . .
Sounds like a very stressful dream – with any luck your dreams will get better as the post-release moves on. Again, fabulous book. reread it again today.
Well, that explains a lot LOL Hope you found a way to relieve some stress, maybe involving Gordon’s manly thighs. LOL
Heh, I missed the post title the first time around, too, and I was like, is this a snippet? What? I thought it was vikings? 0_0
Didn’t you mention having to do some research regarding freezing bodies before your move? I think your subconscious is trying to do some editing while you sleep. Definitely stress related…get this woman some knitting yarn!
god how i love you.
and yes, the release was a wee bit stressful but where did the cherokee come from?
I think my bf would like it better if I clutched his manly thigh when I have weird dreams. I think I must have some sort of rodent dreams b/c I usually end up trying to bury my socks or my pillows underneath my bf and he wakes up with random stuff tucked beneath him and an aching back. Thigh clutching would be a total improvement in his opinion.
Oy! Have you been reading or watching anything crazy lately or do you think it’s just stress? ::HUGS::
Haha. I’m pretty sure that your weirdness has a lot to do with making your books as awesome as they are. Don’t knock it
You should’ve seen some stuff I was dreaming while finishing the translation of Magic Bites – the schedule was a bit frantic so there was much stress to transform into dreams
I do love to deconstruct weird dreams to see where stuff comes from — highly entertaining
Hope you’re feeling less stressed out now and I second the opinion that you need to get you some knitting: nothing like handling pointy objects and string to take the edge off
Hey Ulca,
Can you tell us what language/country are you translating into?
and you’re totally right about the knitting, crocheting is nice too, i’ve been slowly doing a granny square (it’s too hot to knit clothes right now).
Hi there!
It’s into Russian. The first three books are already in print, but I’m not sure when they come out. Hope this helps
International crafters join forces to take over the world – yay!
What do you mean all your weirdness doesn’t make it into the books? Does that mean you are holding out on us? Give us your weird!!
On a more serious note – sorry your dreams are disturbing. I loved the book though.
Had a dream like that before. I killed somebody and then had to clean the house of blood to hide the murder. Scary but thought it was a great dream. Drew a picture of it the next day.
me and dreams is the total insanity, i’ve been known to:
snore cutely (whatever consists of a cute snore is beyond me, but said description has been uttered by different people),
punch people in sleep,
sigh really profoundly, same person also expressed wish to have same dream,
during a particular stressful period at work i consistently dreamed that either i quit or was fired during an entire week, at some point i was so convinced of this fact that i didn’t want to get out of bed in a particular morning because i had been fired,
dreams i remember usually involve monsters and real weirdness like the time my kindergarten was attacked by pterodactyls and i had to go to Africa to ask for a favor to a wolf-like demon, but i tripped on the stairs, heh!
“Conan pose” cracked me up. I’m impressed you remembered so much. I’ll have a weird dream that wakes me up and two minutes later, I can’t remember anything but bits and pieces. Describing it later then becomes an exercise in futility and my husband just nods politely and makes noncommittal “mmmhmm” sounds.
Hopefully, now that the book is out, your stress level will go down and you can get some good rest.
That’s awesome. I have weird dreams all the time, but none with headless bodies.
The giant bird reminds me of a local legend in my part of the world. It’s about a giant dragon bird thing called the Piasa Bird, and it ate people. The local Indian tribe did us a favor though, and killed it.
There’s more to the story, but that’s the gist. If you wanna see pictures of it, just Google it. they’re pretty interesting.
See, these are the kind of dreams I have. Never anything cool that I can work into a book. Nope. Always freaky stuff involving toilets,family members gone wrong or other bizarreness. However, I have never dreamed of helping someone with a head. *snort*
Of all that you wrote of your dream, the only thing I am thinking is, Maybe the bird that eats buffalo was a Piasa Bird. That can’t be right though because Piasa Birds only eat humans according to Legend here in Illinois!
Hee. Well your weirdness is kind of funny… I don’t have cart you away to the loony bin dreams very often unfortnately. They’re fun when they do happen though!
hey Ilona,
u r not alone wt weird dreams. i’m always dreaming strange shit all the time. it’s like i go to sleep n move into a action packed fantasy movie. the good thing is i enjoy every moment of it n do sometime dread waking up!!!