In my book, A Sprinkle of Dust, my hero, Zachary Ashton, is a writer of happy children’s stories. He had no idea that in another dimension, a creature so sinister and so foul was watching him, and that this villain was known world-wide as the children’s beloved—Sandman. Even though all the stories down through the ages have depicted the Sandman as a friendly ghost-type creature that carried a bag of fairy dust in his hands and would drop a few grains into children’s eyes to put them to sleep, he was, in actuality a dark, wispy creature that haunted many dreams called nightmares. The Sandman has the gift of shifting into anything, and the only reason he climbed up out of his dream world now was, as he watched all the evil beings of his world being defeated day after day, in book after book of these children’s stories, it made him fume. So he began plotting against a writer by the name of Zachary Ashton, the one man whose books were in every child’s hand. He already had it all figured out. It was simple. All he would have to do was cozy up to this writer who wrote book after book of happy, enchanted pages, powerful spells, and happy endings—and destroy him.

Now, as he stands before his large, stone fireplace with a powerful glass of magic elixir bubbling up in his goblet, he lifts it, and mutters a vow from his lips. As his words take on power, the eerie smoky magic curls up from the liquid, and opens a rift in time—a doorway into the world where he knows the writer can be found, and he can begin his evil plan.

After searching the world over, he finally finds him in a big, large city called New something or other. The name didn’t matter. It had lights, action, good people bad people. Lots going on. Oh, he could do a lot of bad here—and he would. It was then that he created a street called Story Book Lane where he would live. There he put a fairytale cottage he called Hawke Mansion, and sat it beside an enchanted forest where many sinister creatures lived. He looked like the average man about town, but in reality, it was the perfect place to work his magic, and keep his eye on this infernal writer. There would be no fairy dust for this man, no. His nights would be filled with darkness, and his sleep haunted with dreadful dreams.

Once he has everything in place, the Sandman fades into his dark sanctuary, working behind curtains, each day going by slowly while he perfects his plan. And then the day comes when he is ready. Now, all that’s left is to go and find the one who is writing all of those happy endings—and make him pay!

And now, our story begins with this villain lurking in our streets with a blinding smile, a dark, handsome face, and a wealth of dangerous charm. You can be sure—nobody is safe.

This is truly, a nightmare!

Kelly Conrad