"Dream Catcher" Update

The story is running long in places I would rather it move along a little faster. Editing will be a little bit of a pain, but I am still happy with the story overall. I may not have mentioned this in the past, but the story takes place in the same universe as Rumbling Heart does. It doesn't continue the story of the other characters though. It moves on to new characters that also live in Eureka, CA. The characters named so far are Casey (Protagonist) Emma, which is another main character as well as supporting characters such as Walt, Carla, and even Joanne Kay (an ode to a friend of mine).

The story focuses on Casey and his life working for the local Eureka newspaper. He's been lucky in life. He's never really had to worry about money and his parents are still happily married. He was able to attend college and his high school days were relatively easy and carefree. He's had the life most of us hope for at 25. Easy, productive, painless. All seems well until he meets Emma, a 21 year old artist he meets at an art festival who's harboring many secrets. At first, Casey accepts that Emma isn't your average woman. He realizes she hides things from him, but he's alright with it...until things start going a little crazy.

As the story progresses, Casey finds himself wanting to know more about her, even to the point of using his connections at the newspaper to find out more about her past. What he discovers is far worse than he could have ever imagined.

Casey thought he knew what it was like to know someone who is damaged. As he digs up Emma's past, he realizes he knows nothing about true pain.

(This eBook will carry a voluntary rating of 16+ for language, some graphic violence, some crude humor, alcohol use, drug references, and scenes of dramatic peril.)

90k Words

It's not a lot to me. I've gotten that far in a short period of time. It all felt really easy and I was doing fine. I think I wrote too much today and yesterday though. Today I hit about 16k words and yesterday about 12k. I'm pretty sure that's a lot for two days. I also got a few personal things done so I am rather exhausted.

Dealing with some significant pain as well. I've always been able to find ways to manage my pain since I've not had access to Vicodin. I had a feeling the time would eventually come when OTC's just weren't enough. Last wednesday, I OD'd on OTC pain meds. It was accidental, I assure you. My average pain lingers at about 3. Wednesday night and into Thursday morning I was at a 10 almost constantly. It got so bad that I started hallucinating. I maxed Aleve, but kept taking more. I then switched to Ibuprofen which I never take. I took 4 to start on top of the Aleve and then i went from 8 to 10, even with that much in me. After that, I kept thinking I hadn't taken any meds so I just kept taking more and more. At some point during the night, I also though it was a good idea to start taking my diphenhydramine. I'm not really sure how much of that I took, but it put me out.

I'm fine. Didn't end up in a hospital or anything. Just had a really mad hangover the next day and I'm sure my liver was severely pissed at me. Thankfully, I rarely stress it so it seems to be working just fine. Only thing worrying me is that my average pain isn't a 3 anymore. Now its closer to a 5 with suddenly spikes to 7. I'm not gonna lie. I'm worried.

I am still going to finish this series though regardless of what happens. Of course, if i suffer a brain aneurysm from these massive headaches then there isn't much I can do to stop that. Hopefully I can finish though before something serious happens. I'd like to say this is just stress, but I know it's not. The one good thing about all this? The dreams have been amazing.