Countdown: How DUST Was Born

Dust of Dreams was not a part of the original lineup. Benilo was but a blink in Duality and 2 pages in Hedda’s Sword. But I realized I needed a spacer book that got Verdeen through the military academy before she’d be ready to go, and so I put out a call to readers as to whom they’d like to see more of.

Benilo was the answer.

It shouldn’t have surprised me. His onstage time was brief, but memorable. I certainly liked him – a big-hearted healer w/a touch of mischief/humor and a ton of compassion. But a whole book? Hmm…

Whom to pair him with? What to work on? The elves’ greatest enemies are probably the goblins. So what if Benilo has to go help a child? A goblin child? (The whole see-enemy-as-person thing.) Nonono, what if he has to help someone else help the child? Benilo’s a spirit healer, so I didn’t want it to be a physicial problem – Dara did enough of that in Duality. What if the goblin child had nightmares…nightmares that were manifesting themselves in the real world and influencing everyone else around him?

Nightmares…dreams…nightmares…

Enter Pryseis. A dream faerie. (DUH – took me long enough on this one!) SHE’s the one moved to help the goblin child first. Only one problem – faeries are isolationists. They never leave their mountaintop, are in fact TRAPPED on their mountaintop by their biological need for a pool of eternal life, that keeps them young and strong forever. So she only has a week to help the child and get back before she’s in dire straits. There’s  my ticking clock…and conflict w/her people, who forbid her to go. She’s never been off the mountain, and she’s going to need help.

Dream faerie…spirit healer… They connect in a dream. There’s no way Benilo’s going to let her go alone. And so the partnership/quest is born.