So, chapter one...instead of dragging out the inevitable OMG moment, Tink and Tommy meet in this first chapter, for the very first time---ever. She was 'released' from her protective exile back in Thailand and invited to not only visit with her uncles in the US, but to finally attend a particular summit.

You may notice that most names will not be revealed or good spoiler alerts will not be disclosed. I don't mean to be evasive with some of this information, but I think it would be a good idea to reserve some things for the book itself.

So she and her ninjas haven't even unpacked their things or rested from their flight, when we open the story with Tink and what is left of them, walking through the woods, in hopes of locating and rescuing the two that have gone missing. As they approach the location where her people are, there is something else happening that doesn't seem to be connected, but in this story, every single detail at some point will connect to something else. All I can say is that they followed the screams. Once they reach their destination, so much more than she expected happens within the next fifteen minutes. Other than realizing what was about to happen to her ninjas (which she knew she must stop immediately), Tink sensed that all but one person were vampires. And then she noticed him, Tommy. She knew it was him instantly, she was drawn to him, but never in her dreams was he a vampire. 

In this scene, we introduce the, let's call them, 'good' guys and the 'bad' guys. Three people die in this first scene, and defensively, Tink displays some pretty cool magic. As she and her people don't ever outstay their welcome anywhere, they decide to leave. But she is drawn to this man and approaches him. She notices a certain necklace that he is wearing which resembles hers. So here is one of those 'bookmark' moments as I call them, you may just want to put a pin in it, lol. But this necklace; the observation that it resembles hers, turns out to be something quite significant. He, Tommy, also seems to be quite stunned with her presence and lets her know. But she feels the need to get away from him, as she was not prepared for this, and tops off that scene with some more magic, this time, simply because she can.

The ninjas--other than Tink who now leads them, there are seven, so eight in total. Should I tell you where they are from? I suppose I can, but I am thinking that I will save that for another time. Yes, they all live together in Thailand, but only two of them are of Asian decent. There is, as with all groups, a pecking order within their ninja group. The one who was their leader for centuries now, ends up being the second in charge, as Tink quickly rises above them all in skill, and just overall, all things magical. Remember, they are vampire ninjas, but none of them possess magical powers. So as young as Tink is, or is she, hmm, good point there. Oh look! there's a bunny, lol, no-I don't have ADD, bet you couldn't tell! Anyway, even though this group of ninjas practically raised Tink, even though they always have each others back, and even though in this story you will see how close they are and how they care for one another, if you really sit down and think...or maybe put yourself in the place of, now second in charge-her name is Jina, how would you feel? Would you feel honored to be asked by the Vampire King to look after, raise, and protect with your life, his niece? Did she know; did the King tell her that one day this child would take over her leadership position and that she, Jina, would answer to her? Again, would you be honored or would you be insulted, internally and privately? Would you promise yourself that you would one day make things right and take back the reigns? Well, in this first book, you won't see any of this, in fact, none of this may ever surface since they become besties. I was just thinking out loud, you know, food for thought. But what if...

So I was going to discuss her uncles and Tommy a bit, but I noticed my blogs end up quite long. So I will leave you with the above to think about for now, and I'll be back before you know it. Until then, dream on...
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So let's get to know our protagonist, Tink. 'The Prologue' is narrated by her. If you are one of the people who read/previewed this first book, you didn't read the prologue, there wasn't one. It starts out with a rhyme about dreams. Then over the next couple pages, she describes the various dreams she has, which gives you an insight about what we are going to experience in her reality.

Tink was born in Europe, Prague to be exact. This is one of those similarities she and I share. If you were to dream that you were a superhero, say The Flash, in order for your mind to depict that person being you, you would need to relate in some ways subconsciously with this fabricated version of that superhero.

Tink's mother is a very powerful witch who is also half fae/fairy. Her father (the mother's husband), is a very old and powerful vampire. I made a point to write that he is her mother's husband, stay tuned, it will become obvious why, we're just not there yet. Tink also has two uncles that she is close with; they've been around since she was born. There is some mention of events during her first ten years of life, especially the age of 10. When Tink was 10 years old, she was at that time living with her uncles in the US, but went to visit her parents in Prague for the summer. As her father was a powerful and old vampire, they lived in a castle which had been in his family for thousands of years. Well during that summer, Tink was kidnapped, and did not return for close to a year. When she magically returned, her parents seemed aloof, like hey...look, she's back. Did they look for her while she was away? Did they think at any time that she may have been killed, and did they care? Or was it convenient that she was out of their hair? What about her uncles? How did her disappearance affect them? Did they search for her or go to any lengths to find her?

Let's discuss that missing year, a little. First off, who took her? Well, in the first chapter, we find out that a demon witch named Demonica kidnapped her. In this book, you will find out that this demon witch took Tink because she believed that Tink possessed great powers, but as she was a 10 year old child, she did not know how to tap into and access those powers. So this self-absorbed, wicked witch decided to take this child and help her jump-start her abilities. She believed that if she taught her the ways of witchcraft and the magic of fairy dust, for example, according to her own beliefs, Tink would conform to Demonica's ways and be her minion. She planned on using this child's magic for her own selfish purposes and to advance herself to a higher level among the supernatural beings of the world. So, basically, she was power-hungry, vile and evil through and through. There will be a few examples of some of the punishments doled out to Tink during that year of captivity. It will give you an idea of what Tink endured, which in turn, explains why Tink has obsessed, ever since, over revenge. She vowed back then, that one day she will make this witch pay for what she put her through. But there is so much more to that story, a year can be a long time, and a lot can happen, but you will only get a glimpse; only enough to understand Tink's desire for payback.

During that year, you will also learn that a woman came to visit Tink one night. She turns out to be her Guardian Spirit Witch who befriends Tink, she almost becomes a stand-in for a mother. She listens to Tink, consoles her, and gives insightful advice. She comes to her one night and tells Tink that it is finally time to return to her life. So Tink magically appears back at the castle from where she was taken close to a year earlier. She doesn't stay there, her uncles take her to the US, where she stays for about the next nine months. During that time, her Uncle Joey had a chateau built for her, quite far away, in Thailand. He takes her there and leaves her in the care of a group of ninjas who basically raise her and become her family. He selected this group because they were the elusive Ninja Elite, the world's most feared and respected ninjas. Not only were they physically strong and ruthless, they were honorable and humane vampire ninjas, perfect for the job at hand. So this chateau was built on sacred land, on a cliff, which provided ample seclusion. The nearest village was a half an hour away. There, in Thailand, Tink thrived and grew up with meditation and martial arts. She led a simple life, but we are not told much about that life in this book. She remained in her 'protective exile' for ten years, wow! A lot can sure happen in ten years...  

You can sit and wonder, did she have any friends in the nearby village? What about a boyfriend, did she have at least one of those? Did anyone other than the occasional visit from her uncles ever set foot in her chateau? What about school? How did she start to use her powers, did someone teach her or did she just figure things out? Did she ever leave Thailand during that ten years stretch of time? The answer to that last question is yes.

As far back as Tink can remember, she's had very selective as well as repetitive dreams. Just as many of those were lucid dreams; so many of them were not. The nightmares were certainly controlled subconsciously.  Before she was taken, most of her dreams were of animals. They were strange dreams, but happy ones. Sometimes, when she dreamed of that large flying bird, she saw a man. In her dreams, she heard someone call him Tommy. When they met, in her dream, he was kind and gentle. He was a part of her dreams as far back as one can remember, always. She also loved fairy-tales and imagined that she, herself, was a princess. Once she was abducted, she dreamed of going home, at first. She imagined that this man, her friend Tommy, would come and save her and bring her home. She even started imagining him as her prince. But soon after, her dreams started getting dark; she began to dream of revenge, she wanted to punish and torture the witch that took her from her life, from her home. Tommy was now her best friend, in her head. She envisioned that she would, with Tommy by her side, inflict merciless, painful torture upon that witch. She would make sure that Demonica died a slow, painful death. By the time she moved to Thailand, he had become the man of her dreams. She grew to love and desire this man that did not exist. But she had hope...

So we are not done with Tink, not by a long-shot. We will pick-up next time where chapter one begins. You will meet her ninja family, find out who her uncles are, and maybe something about Tommy, Until then, enjoy! 

Welcome to my first blog post! Great to have you here!

Just in case you haven't looked at the other pages in my website, I am going to give a brief overview as to how this story came about before we jump in. This blog is not meant to be a 'how to' on writing, outlines or formatting discussions. If however, you have questions relating to writing, no worries, I will be happy to address and answer all that I can.  

The purpose of this blog will be to introduce my story to you. I'd like you to meet the 'friends and foes in my head', visit different lands, and join me in following the different characters on their journeys.

So how did this story come about? Well, it came to me in a dream close to 20 years ago now. I can still remember the first time I saw the main characters. I remember what they wore, what they said, and where they were. This story became a repetitive dream. There were always new characters, new scenes and locations, new plots; and yet, the story-lines that already existed continued and evolved further. This story would linger for months, then disappear. And then, without warning, it came back! I don't know how or why, but it would pick-up where it left off, repeating certain events with more detail, as well as new convoluted beginnings.   

"Thru Eyes of REM..." is a fantasy series and purely a work of fiction. The books in this series are referred to as 'Narratives'. I chose to call these books narratives simply because of my writing style. When I first started to write, the only way it made sense to me was to give some of the characters their own voice and allow them to tell us what was going on, what they were feeling and simply their point of view. Once I finished the first book, I googled 'how to write a novel', strange, I know. The reason for that was because it dawned on me that there may be some standard formatting involved. In fact, I remember reading a suggestion that you should first write an outline before beginning your book. Well, I may have done things backwards, but I had so much in my head, I never even thought of putting together an outline, I just sat down and wrote. But here is something else I read after finishing the first book. I read that there are different writing styles and that most books are not written in the first person. Well, guess what I did? That's right, I wrote in the first person, and that's not all. I read it is also not recommended to write with multiple points of view as the readers may get confused. So, I not only wrote first person, allowing one character to tell you the story, I wrote in first person, multiple narrative points of view, so the first book is narrated by five people. I even thought (for a minute) of revising the entire book to third person, but the meaning of it all just got lost. So first person with multiple narrative points of view it is. You will either love it or just not. I myself have never read a book written this way, so I love it!

The series title "Thru Eyes of REM...", this, for me, was as plain as the nose on one's face. The Home Page of this website describes REM sleep, so I won't rewrite it here. But it is fitting, as this story was created in a dream. If you get a chance, it is quite an interesting read.

Now on to the name--'The First Narrative' MARTINKA; yes the name is similar to my first name, Martina. Good idea to discuss that 'elephant in the room' right now. Question--when you go to sleep and dream, are you not in your dreams? Well, that's how this came about. In that dream, I was her, the protagonist, the main character. Of course, I had no idea that this dream would evolve and become what it has for me. Back then, it was just a dream, nothing more. But interestingly, in that dream, her name was Martinka and her nickname was Tink. Ok, if you are a language arts teach by chance, this next analogy may have a specific name...to give you an idea--let's use the name Nicholas. So, Martina is to Nicholas, as Martinka is to Nicky, as Tink is to Nick, got it? In my dream, her real name was Martinka, which was my 'child' name, but she is mostly referred to as Tink, which is a nickname taken from Martinka. There are some similarities between, say, my background and hers, maybe some physical similarities as well. But in the end, the character is fictitious. 

So for now, until my next blog, I leave you with this...we are about to enter a world of fantasy; vampires, witches and fairies, oh my, lol. The next blog will introduce our protagonist; who she is, what kind of life she's had leading up to the first chapter, and what she dreams of.