In Dreamed It, paranormal sleuth and crime consultant Baxley Powell juggles the pressure of two high-profile cases and expanding her limits. Traveling through the afterlife is hard enough, now she has to use her abilities to find a frightened woman. Consider putting yourself in Baxley’s shoes. If you had a certain skill for solving crimes would you become a police crime consultant? Why or why not?
A Native American she met on vacation, Deputy Sam Mayes, makes no secret that he wants Baxley in his life. He uses their cultural differences to his advantage, wooing her Cherokee-style. He would consider holding her to the promises she makes by accepting his gifts but there’s no need to be heavy handed. Baxley is also in love with him. Do you think a strong relationship has a place in a mystery?
In my early years, my dreams were so vivid upon awakening. Then came marriage and juggling kids, career, marriage, and writing. Guess what? Those vivid sleeping dreams went bye-bye. But there was a time in between where I kept a pad and pen by my bed just in case I remembered any dreams upon waking. Do you remember your nighttime dreams now? Did you ever remember them?
Baxley and Mayes awaken someplace different than when they went to sleep. They are wearing someone else’s clothes. Worst of all, they have no memory of where they were or what they did in the dark of the night. There’s a lot of freaking out and unhelpful figuring out. They sneak home and burn the clothes so that there’s nothing physical to link them to whatever happened. They hope. What would you do if this happened to you?
Baxley has a true affinity for animals. She has a veritable menagerie at her place with these dogs: Muffin, Elvis, and Maddy; and these cats, Sulay and Ziggy. Muffin is a rescued terrier, while Elvis is a therapy chihuahua. Maddy is Baxley’s daughter’s Labrador retriever and is not pictured here. Little Ziggy, a tabby, is a relatively new addition to the crew. Sulay, the Maine coon cat, is the boss of the pack. Baxley has one more pet: Oliver the ghost dog. Oliver is a Great Dane she rescued from being chained to a haunted house, and he’s incredibly loyal to her. Oliver loves pets and ear rubs, and he’s a darn good tracker too. Do you believe authors add pets to story to increase the number of characters or are you of the belief that pets are people too?
The woo-woo factor is a big part of this paranormal series. I have no crystal ball or eyewitness knowledge about the afterlife, but in this series I’ve shown it as something akin to a different reality. It has the attributes we’ve heard about through time, a way to go into the light for the contented souls, and all kinds of in-between places for those souls whose dark emotions, unfinished business, or otherwise detoured trap them in a hell of their own choosing. Trips to the Other Side take a toll in terms of energy and time, and Baxley is fortunate to have a team that helps her recover from her dreamwalks. Is there someone in your family, community, or a historical figure that you might choose to visit in the afterlife if you had the power?
My sleuth Baxley Powell is a Dreamwalker. She taps into her extrasensory abilities to learn more about a person, place, or thing in this world or the next. In reality, psychics often have one strong extrasensory skill. In the Dreamwalker Series, I take liberties so that Baxley explores a new paranormal aspect in each book. Dreamed It is book six in this series. Her skill set includes lie detection, touch readings, traveling to the spirit realm, sharing energy, being there for her ghost dog, spontaneous visions, and something new in book six. While fumbling to reach the kidnapped teen, Baxley’s consciousness gets bumped out of her mind and into another’s. If you could have any of Baxley’s paranormal abilities, which would you select and why?
Throughout this series Baxley’s Other World mentor has been a plus and a minus. She helps Baxley when she’s asked, but there’s always a price with Rose. She doesn’t do freebies. Consequently, Baxley now owes Rose 3 hours of her life. Dreamed It opens with a chilling scene that is believed to have been engineered by Rose, but all of Baxley’s attempts to contact her go nowhere. Bottom line: Rose is missing. Her absence unnerves Baxley. Though Rose was a pain to work with, Baxley enjoyed having backup. The serial killer and the missing teen cases in Dreamed It could use Rose’s help, but she’s not there. In our lives, friends come and go through marriage, moving, career changes, lifestyle changes, and death. Is there a particular friend you’ve lost track of that you’d dearly love to connect with again?
This amateur sleuth series mostly fits in the cozy genre, but there are usually scary moments when Baxley faces down the villain. With the story seed of Dreamed It being ripped from the headlines and the villain being a serial killer, this story leans slightly toward thriller. But it’s still a small town murder solved by deputies and an amateur sleuth. How do you feel about paranormal cozies? Do you like all your cozies to be traditional in style?
Dreamed It is the sixth book in a seven book series. Early in the series we learn that Baxley’s soldier husband was declared missing and then dead by the service several years ago. She never believed the finding because she searched for him among the dead and he wasn’t there. Over the first few books we learn more about how she operates in this limbo of not knowing. In book five, readers find out what happened to her husband, and Baxley and Mayes guide his spirit into the light. All of the steps of grieving for her husband get jumbled up but she makes it through the process, feeling much better. And now there’s a new man in her life, one that shares her talents and helps on her Dreamwalks. She wants to take that next step in their relationship but she’s afraid. All of this is given to say that Baxley’s series arc is one of self-discovery and personal growth. Do you prefer this kind of series where the character changes, or do you prefer the mysteries where the main character stays the same and the crimes and/or locations change?