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hrjNo doubt the topic of the dream was sparked by being at a con and having books and book promotion on my brain.
So there I was, in my dream, in the audience at a talk show. (Something like the Tonight Show, but the host wasn't one of the actual historic hosts, though I have this vague sense that he was modeled after some tv host I watched in my youth.) There was one set of "special" seats with whom they did an "audience interaction" segment (which, in the way of Hollywood, was taped separately in a different location after the regular show). One of the folks sitting in that area had to leave before the end of the show and offered me their place. So there I am thinking, "What an opportunity, because when they ask me to tell a little something about myself, I can casually mention being an author and I just happen to have copies of my books on me to display (as you do)."
So when the regular part of the show was finished I and several other people got whisked off to be prepped for the special segment and assigned a couple of attendants to explain the ropes and do makeup and the rest. There was a bit of a competitive "Hunger Games" vibe to this part, because evidently the prep crews had a bit of rivalry going in whose guest made the best showing in the segment. My crew was telling me I was way more interesting than the other guests, with an air of personal triumph.
But then they screwed up my make-up and were having trouble getting it fixed and I had to rush off for the taping, and realized I'd left my purse and the books behind in the make-up booth, but also someone had given me bad directions for where to go for the taping and by the time I realized I was going in the wrong direction and backtracked, the prep area was deserted. [Only now while typing this up does it occur to me that those "bad directions" might have been part of the prep-crew rivalries. I'm not sure this counts as being part of the dream, since it didn't occur to me while I was asleep.]
I got a janitor to let me into the make-up area but my stuff was gone. So I rushed off to the stage where they were doing the taping and arrived just as everything was over (and found my purse and books sitting there on my empty chair). As the crew was packing up, I went up to the host to apologize for the screw-up and for not having been there and to offer him a copy of my book anyway. He was all snippy and said, "After that, I wouldn't even read your book if you paid me. Well, ok, maybe I would if you paid me."
So I pulled out a ten dollar bill and said, "I'll give this to your favorite charity if you accept the book." And then we chatted some more and in the end he decided I was an ok person and agreed to look at my book. So the dream ended positively with the vaguest hope that a major tv talk-show host might some day say something nice about my books.
Analysis: We will ignore the enormous implausibility of the actual scenario. The various logistical disasters in the dream probably represent standard anxiety motifs about being over-scheduled and afraid that I'll drop the ball somewhere. But the generally positive conclusion seems to reflect my more relaxed feeling about how my books are doing this time around. (As I've mentioned in previous dream journals, my symbolism tends to be fairly direct and transparent.)
So there I was, in my dream, in the audience at a talk show. (Something like the Tonight Show, but the host wasn't one of the actual historic hosts, though I have this vague sense that he was modeled after some tv host I watched in my youth.) There was one set of "special" seats with whom they did an "audience interaction" segment (which, in the way of Hollywood, was taped separately in a different location after the regular show). One of the folks sitting in that area had to leave before the end of the show and offered me their place. So there I am thinking, "What an opportunity, because when they ask me to tell a little something about myself, I can casually mention being an author and I just happen to have copies of my books on me to display (as you do)."
So when the regular part of the show was finished I and several other people got whisked off to be prepped for the special segment and assigned a couple of attendants to explain the ropes and do makeup and the rest. There was a bit of a competitive "Hunger Games" vibe to this part, because evidently the prep crews had a bit of rivalry going in whose guest made the best showing in the segment. My crew was telling me I was way more interesting than the other guests, with an air of personal triumph.
But then they screwed up my make-up and were having trouble getting it fixed and I had to rush off for the taping, and realized I'd left my purse and the books behind in the make-up booth, but also someone had given me bad directions for where to go for the taping and by the time I realized I was going in the wrong direction and backtracked, the prep area was deserted. [Only now while typing this up does it occur to me that those "bad directions" might have been part of the prep-crew rivalries. I'm not sure this counts as being part of the dream, since it didn't occur to me while I was asleep.]
I got a janitor to let me into the make-up area but my stuff was gone. So I rushed off to the stage where they were doing the taping and arrived just as everything was over (and found my purse and books sitting there on my empty chair). As the crew was packing up, I went up to the host to apologize for the screw-up and for not having been there and to offer him a copy of my book anyway. He was all snippy and said, "After that, I wouldn't even read your book if you paid me. Well, ok, maybe I would if you paid me."
So I pulled out a ten dollar bill and said, "I'll give this to your favorite charity if you accept the book." And then we chatted some more and in the end he decided I was an ok person and agreed to look at my book. So the dream ended positively with the vaguest hope that a major tv talk-show host might some day say something nice about my books.
Analysis: We will ignore the enormous implausibility of the actual scenario. The various logistical disasters in the dream probably represent standard anxiety motifs about being over-scheduled and afraid that I'll drop the ball somewhere. But the generally positive conclusion seems to reflect my more relaxed feeling about how my books are doing this time around. (As I've mentioned in previous dream journals, my symbolism tends to be fairly direct and transparent.)
