Nicola Cornick dreams of the northern lights

It’s a pleasure and privilege to welcome Nicola Cornick to the Dream a Little Dream blogathon. Nicola’s fab historical romances sell worldwide.

Here’s her post:

First of all, many congratulations to Sue on the publication of the wonderful Dream A Little Dream. It’s a great pleasure to be here to join in the celebrations!

I’m fascinated by dreams, both my own and other people’s, and what they are trying to tell us. When my other half was studying for his psychology degree he had to keep a dream record so that he could analyse his dreams in class. Since he sleeps very soundly and seldom remembers dreams at all this involved me waking him at random points during the night so that he could write down any dreams I had interrupted. My interventions were frequently unwelcome – who really wants to be woken at two in the morning when they are in a deep, satisfying sleep? But the results were startling – vivid, complex dreams that would never normally have been remembered in the light of day.

In contrast, I’ve been a poor sleeper for years but the reward is that I often remember my dreams.  One recurring dream from my childhood is that I am lying in deep snow staring up at the black of the sky. It’s studded with stars as bright and white as diamonds and wreathed about them are the Northern Lights in strands of luminous green. All about me are mountain peaks etched against the sky and the night air is cold on my face but I feel warm.

I don’t know if it was my childhood reading that fuelled this dream but from as early as I can remember I wanted to travel to the far North and see those Northern Lights. I wanted to see seas made of ice, and white bears and icebergs taller than houses. I didn’t realise at the time that I couldn’t necessarily see all these things in one place and in the end I made three trips: To Iceland to see icebergs, to Spitsbergen to see seas of ice and polar bears, and to Norway to lie in the snow and watch the Northern Lights flowing across the sky. In the process I also saw sea mirages of great towering blocks of ice that vanished when the ship drew close. They were called the fata morgana and take their name from the Morgana of Arthurian legend because they are fairy castles in the air.

These travels to my dream destinations in turn provided the inspiration for one of my books, Whisper of Scandal, set in Regency London and the Arctic, in which my heroine is the widow of an Arctic explorer who travels to the far North to reclaim her husband’s lost child. So in following the dreams of my childhood I not only found places more beautiful than I had imagined them but I also found the idea for a book that became very close to my heart.

 To be in with the chance of winning a Nicola Cornick book just comment and tell us whether you’ve ever acted on one of your dreams – and what happened. Nicola will choose the comment she likes best.