Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s
prompt: “Awakening from a bad dream or, even worse, a nightmare.”
Today’s
post comes from Phil Yeats. In December, Phil (using his Alan Kemister pen
name) published his most recent novel. Tilting
at Windmills, the second in the Barrettsport Mysteries series of soft-boiled police
detective stories set in an imaginary Nova Scotia coastal community is
available on Amazon.
*****
Achievemephobia
by
Phil Yeats
Alan awoke with his heart pounding. Had lightening or
thunder disturbed him, or was it a noise in his apartment? He lay in bed
listening as his heartbeat slowed. The electric heat ticked, the fridge hummed,
and somewhere, water dripped. Outside his windows, the night appeared benign.
Did a dream wake him? He only remembered the vaguest
details of dreams, and those details invariably surfaced slowly.
Alan thought back to the previous evening. He’d sat in
bed finishing the first draft of a chapter for his new book, then checked his
email, his social media sites, and did some web surfing.
He lifted the lid of his laptop and tapped the space
bar. It didn’t come to life. He hadn’t fallen asleep while surfing. He’d shut
it down, not abandoned it to go into sleep mode.
An image of the cover of his first novel flooded his
consciousness, emerging like an old Polaroid print on the very popular
ReaderGuy blog. An annoying flashing banner pronounced it mystery novel of the
month. Was that the problem? Had the ReaderGuy discovered his totally obscure
self-published novel?
If he did, the notoriety and attention it brought
would be a disaster. It would bring sales, the ReaderGuy trumpeted the fact his
book of the month designations increased sales by hundreds, even thousands. They
brought many struggling writers a lifeline they really appreciated.
But Alan didn’t covet sales. He desired nothing more
than publishing the book and giving or selling a few copies to writing
colleagues and the odd stranger. And he detested thoughts of media attention.
The last thing he wanted was a reporter from the local newspaper interviewing
him. And the possibility of a book review in the Globe and Mail—God
forbid.
As his sleep-befuddled brain activity improved, he
realized the flaw in his logic. If he’d seen such a posting on the ReaderGuy’s
site, he would have remained awake all night worrying.
Alan grabbed his laptop, fired it up, and Googled
Amazon.com books. When the Amazon site came up, he entered Tilting at Windmills in the search bar and hit enter. He scrolled
down the thumbnail pictures of books with the same title until he found his
familiar cover picture.
On the electronic version’s page, he scrolled down to
the sales rankings and checked its position. One million, six hundred and eighty-five
thousand, four hundred and twenty-three—what he expected for a book that hadn’t sold a copy
for several months. When he checked, the paperback ranking was equally dismal.
He sighed as he returned the computer to the
nightstand. No sales meant it was a dream, a real nightmare, but nothing that
actually happened. He could sleep without worrying about reporters calling at
all hours.
*****
The Spot
Writers—Our Members:
Val Muller: http://www.valmuller.com/blog/
Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/
Phil
Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com
Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/
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