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Megan Mary - MeganMary: 0:32

welcome everyone! Dreams are portals to our subconscious and Halloween is a magical time of year. So what happens when we merge these two fascinating topics into a cozy, inspirational, and enchanting tale? Hi everyone, I am Megan Mary, dream analyst, metaphysical author, and founder of Women's Dream Analysis. I created and host a podcast called Women's Dream Enlightenment, which features deep discussions, dream interpretation, and stories of spiritual awakening. I am the founder of Inner Realms Publishing, which is proud to announce the release of The Dream Haunters, a metaphysical mystery of magic, book one of the Witches of Maple Hollow series. A spooky and enlightening story for readers of all ages that enjoy mystery, fantasy, supernatural, speculative, metaphysical, and women's fiction. It blends themes of found family, good vs. evil, discovered powers, spiritual awakening, Secret Societies, Fated Destiny, Time Travel, Talking Cats, and Dream Interpretation. I am thrilled to share that The Dream Haunters was released today, and it is now an official Amazon bestseller. in three categories, including New Age Dreams, which you can see there. So, I was so excited about this. Really great way to start. The Book Life Prize rated it 9. 25 out of 10, calling it a highly inventive work, packed to the brim with surprise portals, ancient traditions, and dream worlds. A compelling metaphysical adventure story, The Dream Haunters is relentlessly imaginative and enjoyable. I am currently entered into the Book Life Prize for Fiction 2024, and winners will be announced in at the end of this month. I am also nominated for the Firebird Book Award in the Dreams and Dreaming category. I have an amazing street team of over 30 women who I could not have done this without, so shout out to them and those of you that are here today, and all of my reviewers that have spent their time in Maple Hollow and come back with stories to tell. One of my early reviews that really stuck with me was by Lorelei Chamberlain, who said, On occasion, I see an artist put a piece of their soul into one of their works that resonates so well in my own that it almost feels familiar. This book was one of those times. In the library of the books I've read, it is truly one of a kind. that review, just like I said, really stuck with me. I've received so many amazing reviews now that I have been unable to keep track of them. And I want to just compile them all and feature them all. Hannah Skye is a young woman in search of meaning. She receives a cryptic letter from her missing and eccentric Aunt Julia. Her experience of a recurring powerful pumpkin patch dream unfolds into a spiritual journey to a mysterious island. of Eternal Autumn, Maple Hollow, where she discovers the mystical Sky Manor and her magical family legacy. Haunted by shapeshifters bent on trapping people in their nightmares, Hannah, with the help of wise villagers and feline companions, includes a talk, including a talking cat dream guide, must solve the riddle. unlock her powers, and dive into the dream dimension to save her aunt by Halloween night when the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Escape into this metaphysical mystery of magic, where spells, music, and dreams converge in a vortex of secret societies and spiritual inheritance. Travel beyond time and space into a world of unexpected portals, ancient traditions, and dreamscapes. Now, it is my privilege to welcome award winning narrator Pearl Hewitt to read chapter one from The Dream Haunters.

Twerly: 6:29

Hi, everybody.

Megan Mary - MeganMary: 6:30

Welcome, Pearl.

Twerly: 6:33

I'm excited for this. It's a brilliant book. I absolutely love it. So, can't wait for the next one. I'll just go straight from chapter one from the beginning to end. Chapter one, Storm, October 12th, 2007. It was the dark of night. Julia sat facing a round altar in the library of the Grand Skye Manor. slowly chased each other down the windowpanes. Her hair was long, dark, and shiny, like the reflection of the moon. Her eyes were deep green, reflecting the glow of candlelight that surrounded her. A gentle plume of smoke steadily rose from a black incense stick. It was gathered with half a dozen others inside a small vase. Next to it lay a deck of cards illustrated with a pentacle, surrounded by knotwork. The altar was covered with crystals, stones, books, and candles of all different shapes and sizes. The Fat black candles squatted near tall red ones. Tiny bottles with ornate lids stood next to large obelisk shaped crystals. Silver runes, small glass balls, and random strings of beads intermingled with the candles and crystals. A white sage stick and an ornate oil lamp fought for room in the cluttered space. Behind her, Loomed the tall shadow of a floor to ceiling bookshelf filled with thousands of books. A wooden rolling ladder leaned against the shelves. The sound of rain filled the room, gently tapping on the four pane window. Heavy black curtains accented the deep purple walls. The velvet gathered on either side by silky, amethyst ropes. Julia was concentrating, deeply focused on something. But she seemed tired and worn. Curled up on her lap was a small black cat. His fur was as dark as a galaxy, and his eyes as bright as stars. She chanted. And repeated words that were barely audible. In one hand, she held a scrying pendulum that hung from a long black chain. And in the other, she grasped a smooth, hematite stone, candlelight reflecting in its shiny surface. The purple crystal pendulum slowly spun Widdershins. Heeding her whispered words, she sat silently, her eyes closed. Time passed slowly as she breathed in and out, in rhythm with the breath of the cat. They were one breath passing through time. A sudden clap of thunder broke the silence. Julia's eyes snapped open. Jarred out of her placid place of meditation, she reached for a pad of paper. She wrote and then stopped, holding her pen just away from the paper. As if in a channeled trance, then continued on, only to stop again a few words later. Once her words had fully inked the page, she folded the paper and placed it in a small white envelope. She firmly pressed a stamp into the red wax simmering nearby, sealed the envelope, and wrote HANNAH in large letters in the middle. She rose quickly from her seat, the cat springing off her lap. She ran out to the foyer, then down the long dark hallway toward the back door, grabbing a cloak, hanging on a nearby hook, and departing from the shelter of her home, Skye Manor sat in the middle of an enormous circular pumpkin patch. There was one straight path that led from the manor through the center of the patch, ending at the sea. This path was lined on both sides with immensely tall cypress trees. They stood like guards, perfectly lined up, creating a dark corridor to the water. Julia ran down this corridor toward the shore, cutting through the patch. The storm swirled around her, thunder cracking and breaking across the sky. She, headed for the dock, heart pounding in her chest. The wind whipped the trees, making them swirl as if they would be lifted right out of their roots, their branches thrashing to and fro. The rain beat on Julia's head and shoulders as she approached the dock. On the dock, she knelt down and reached for the ropes that held the rowboat, her long black hair wet and matted against her face. She untangled them one by one, until the small craft was freed from its attachments. The Bobbed up and down on the rough water, ready to float away of its own accord. Steadying herself on a wooden dock post wrapped in weathered rope, Julia stepped into the boat. First her right foot, then her left. She sat on the wet wooden seat. And fished around for the oars below her. She began to row, pushing and straining the muscles in her arms, heaving back and bracing her legs. She was rowing as hard and fast as she could. She made it away from the dock and headed south along the shore, further and further from the manor, and around the bend of the tiny island. The rain fell harder and harder, as if it were trying to prevent her from proceeding any further. But she paddled on, exerting herself as much as she could. As she rode, she began to chant, softly at first. The words, a whisper under her heavy breath. They formed a rhythm of their own as they dropped from her lips into the foggy air that had begun to envelop both her and the boat. She started to chant louder, the words becoming an incantation, carrying her emotions on the wind, swirling around her and rising out of her body. Suddenly, a colossal thunderclap boomed above her, followed by a magnificent strike of lightning, white light, as bright as if she stood next to the moon itself, surrounded her. And then there was total, silent, darkness. Julia had vanished. There you go.

Megan Mary - MeganMary: 13:57

Thank you so much. That was amazing. Yes.

Twerly: 14:01

thank you.

Megan Mary - MeganMary: 14:02

Megs says, I could listen to you read all day.

Twerly: 14:06

Oh, thank you. you.

Megan Mary - MeganMary: 14:09

Yes, I mean, really, truly, that is just one of the most satisfying parts of this whole experience was listening to it come alive with the audio book. So thank you so much. I

Twerly: 14:21

I'll just say that your book made it easy for me because the story was so good. I just loved reading every second of it. So

Megan Mary - MeganMary: 15:27

that's wonderful. That's wonderful. And Thalia says, mesmerizing.

Twerly: 15:33

brilliant. Good.

Megan Mary - MeganMary: 15:34

Well now it is time for author Q& A. So I have some questions that were previously submitted before the party, which I will answer, and then I will open it up to the floor if there are any others. And then after that we will do the book reveal of book two and a giveaway before we close. So the first question is, where did you get the idea for the Dream Hunters? Well, I started writing it 10 years ago when I had a vivid dream. Shortly after returning from a trip to Scotland and Ireland with my husband. I wrote 10, 000 words. And then I stopped. I had major imposter syndrome I felt like I didn't know the first thing about publishing, and I didn't want anybody changing my story. And it wasn't until I became really ill and I had a number of spiritual experiences, which you can hear all about on my podcast, that I started writing it again. And when I did, it took on a totally new life of its own. And it went from being a short story that was maybe middle grade to having all of these metaphysical aspects and really following the personal journey and story of the main character, Hannah. The next question is, what is my writing process like? Well, I write in the early morning hours. That seems to be the only time when I can focus on just that without distraction, and it's actually a scene in the book when Hannah wakes up in the early morning hours and she likes being up because her roommate is a night owl and her roommate isn't there. And that is me sitting there writing that scene in the early morning hours. Between the plotster and the pantster, I'm definitely not the plotster. I tend to write at least 500 words a day. I try to write a minimum of that. And then I end up with a file of tons of parts that I need to put together into a cohesive puzzle, which is where I'm at now in the book, too. That leads to the next question, which is what's the most difficult part of the writer journey? You think that the writing is the difficult part, but then when you get to the editing, and then when you get to the launching, and then the marketing, yeah, they're all, challenging parts. But as a writer myself, When I started out, I really started out loving poetry. That was the beginning for me when I was getting my bachelor's and master's in English. And at that time I focused mostly on British and medieval literature, Shakespeare and Shelley, and I never really read, American, everyday fiction. I tend to be more of a movie watcher. My husband and I watch movies almost every night, and so when I write, I see the scene in my mind like a movie. And I really hope that my books become a movie one day. Okay, next question is, do I have a Celtic background and what do I draw on for inspiration? So I am half Irish, half Scottish, so very Celtic. I studied, British studies. at the graduate level. And I've just always been fascinated by Halloween and its Celtic heritage. And every year when this time rolls around, I always go about trying to remind everyone of the historical origin and the spiritual aspects of this liminal time of year. Tell us about the Cats of Maple Hollow. Okay, so as you know, there are a lot of cats in the book, Wixby is a cat that appeared in my dream ten years ago. But Mystera, Merlin, and Milu are actual cats that I have had the privilege of sharing my life with. Now Mystera passed two years ago. So I wanted to honor her in the story. Milu is our 12 year old black cat, and Merlin is our 7 year old Russian blue mix. Midnight is purely fictional, but my first pair of cats may soon make an appearance. Leave it there. So what was the inspiration for Sky Manor? So while I was working with my incredible cover designer Dragana Nikolic of Graphic Soul Art, I presented a whole creative brief about the book with all the themes and elements I wanted included and the way I visualized the manor to be. So growing up on the East Coast, I was always fascinated by the castles and the ancient buildings. And there was one in particular I loved called Boldt Castle that was this tiny island that you could only access by boat. That was part of the inspiration for Skye Manor, but I also wanted to have that Scottish manor feel. So Dragana, to my surprise, picked Blarney House, which is a Scottish It's a baronial mansion that sits on the grounds of Blarney Castle, of course, in County Cork, Ireland. And it was perfect. And just to make sure that I had their full approval, I even wrote Blarney Castle and asked and I happily received their blessing to use it as part of the book. What parallels to real celestial occurrences, if any, appear in the book? So all of. The three books in the series of Witches Maple Hollow take place at Mercury Retrograde, and I actually made sure, historically, that they were accurate Mercury Retrograde dates, so that So, um, yeah. series is going to hop around a little bit to accommodate for that. And book one was actually a very rare true occurrence in 2007 where mercury retrograde happened at the end of October and ended on Halloween, which if you try to find it in the history books, it only happens every 20 or 30 years. So it was a very rare occurrence. So that became the inspiration for combining those two. So, when will book two be released and what is it about? Okay, book two. is called The Dream Mirrors, and it will be coming out mid next year, hopefully by May. The book focuses on the themes of reflection and illusion. So where the first book is about Hannah finding her place and finding her power and coming into her own, there are other layers. to her spiritual path. So now that she's discovered her power and the effects she can have on the world, her calling, now she must cast aside the earthly pressures and the expectations of worth and transcend them to fully step into the expansive levels of her abilities. So, the theme is that our physical self is an illusion and a distraction from our universal self. The mirrors represent shadow work, and the moral of the book is that there must be a death of the ego for spiritual enlightenment and awakening. But it does not mean death of worth, it means separation from our physical self to recognize our universal self. And hopefully book three will be ready by Halloween 2025. So are we ready to see book two? Presenting the Dream Mirrors. It's Mercury Retrograde again. and night of the Great 999 Portal. Skye Manor hosts an exclusive dinner party to celebrate. But something goes terribly wrong. Dinner guests are disappearing faster than Hannah and Julia can search for clues. But this time, it's not just the Dream Haunters. A new sinister force is at play. Morgan may be in danger, and visiting Jezebelle has no idea what she's walking into. To save her friends, Hannah will need all the help her animal spirit guides can offer, and her trusty dream journal. Combining the metaphysical themes of duality, portals, mirrors, reflection, and illusion. This celestial fall themed mirror fantasy weaves dreams and mystery into an enchanting tale of magic and self discovery. All right, so before I go further, I forgot to ask if anybody had any questions. So let's, pop them in the chat if you do, and then we'll go on with where you can find me this month. Where did you draw the inspiration for the mirror within this book? Yes, so, oh, that's a perfect question, Alex, because it is actually the method that I use for dream analysis is called the dream mirror method. And so that came before, obviously, I finished book one, and I really wanted to intertwine the method that I use and that I teach and that I use in my sessions into the story. So you're going to see a lot more dreams, a lot more of her journaling, and a lot more of Hannah using her dream journal as part of her journey, because that is really what the dream is. mirror method teaches. And the aspect of the mirror really represents our subconscious and that our dreams are the portal to that subconscious. And so by looking into that mirror, really, we are able to see the other aspects of ourselves that help us really in our self discovery and help us raise our spiritual intelligence. Thank you. Excellent question. Okay, so next, is where you can find me. So, as you know, I am all on podcasts all over the place, and that is going to continue to happen as well as my podcast this month, which the new one is coming out on Wednesday. But I also have some broadcast interviews coming up this month. So on October 15th, I'm going to be on Instagram Live. I will be interviewed along with Claire Cunliffe Saunders. She's the author of The Pumpkin Portal by Becca Freewrites on her Authorized Access series. So mark that on your calendar. It'll be my first Instagram Live. Um, the next day I'm going to be a guest on Jamie Voss Love's Starseed Ascension, which will broadcast live on the UNX network. On the 24th, I'm going to be interviewed by Marla Brooks on her show Stirring the Cauldron, love that name, on Para X Network, which is a paranormal radio network. And then on October 25th, I will be a guest on the popular web show Fiction and Friends. If you are in the Pacific Northwest, I am hosting an in person author signing event Saturday, October 26th at noon at Barnes and Noble in Idaho Falls. All right, it is time for the giveaway. So I am giving away a signed paperback bundle, um, with the key to Sky Manor and a private one to one women's dream session. So we're going to use this little wheel of names. I don't know if you can see it or not, but I'm going to spin the wheel and we'll see who wins the signed paperback bundle first. It's SickReads93, Iris. I don't think Iris is here, but I will make sure to let her know that she has won. She is a wonderful member of my street team. All right, and next is going to be a giveaway of the private one to one women's dream analysis session. Spinning the wheel again, Ray Ray's bookshelf. All right, so I will make sure she knows as well. She is another member of my street team. Very well deserved. All right, well, let's see. Next, in closing, where can we find the book? So, you can buy signed copies and all formats directly from me at meganmary. com, as well as, you can get it at libraries, you can get it at independent bookstores, and you can get it at all online retailers. around the globe, including Amazon and Google and Apple, Barnes and Noble, Draft2Digital, Distributes, Everywhere, Smashwords, Kobo, and don't forget the audiobook as well. That will also be available on Spotify, Apple, Google, Chirp, Everend, Kobo, Amazon, And everywhere audiobooks are sold. And I also have a merchandise store on meganmary. com where you can buy mugs, Dream Haunter mugs, pillows, blankets, candles, and dream journals, and everything you need to cuddle up to this cozy mystery for this fall season. So if you are watching this replay, please be sure to like, share, and subscribe to my channel, where I share all episodes of Women's Dream Enlightenment podcast, as well as follow me on social. You can find me at Megan Mary Author on Instagram threads and X, and as the handle Women's Dream Analysis on TikTok, Pinterest, and of course here on YouTube. Well, thank you Pearl for your wonderful reading. And for everyone that attended today, I really appreciate all of your support and celebrating this momentous occasion with me.