Blog Tour Stop: Raising Sleepy Stones - Excerpt - Trailer.

I'm happy to be hosting P.H.T. Bennet's RAISING SLEEPY STONES Blog Tour today! Leave a comment to let him know you stopped by!

Title: Raising Sleepy Stones
Author: P.H.T. Bennet
Publisher: Dramkeeper Publishing
Pages: 360
Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Like every kid in Solasenda, Kiva Stone has been far too busy training for one of the five town guilds to think about something as useless as dreaming. But when she and her sister DeeDee uncover a mysterious plot to get rid of them, their only hope lies with a shadowy group of people who wield unimaginable powers drawn from their dreams. As the girls escape with them up the Varruvyen river, they start learning secret Dreaming Way techniques that have been forbidden for centuries. But how can they learn enough to stand against the enemies chasing them? The answer lies in the shattered history of Orora Crona, the lost Valley of Dreams, and whoever can piece it together first will rule for centuries to come.

For More Information

• Raising Sleepy Stones is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Watch Trailer 1 and Trailer 2.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

 

5 Reasons you should read Raising Sleeping Stones at bedtime with your Kids

 
Or… 5 reasons you should encourage your kids to share their dreams
 
            When author P.H.T. Bennet’s young daughters started waking up in the middle of the night complaining of nightmares, he knew exactly what to do. After decades of doing research on the history of dreams and learning from his own, he was able to quickly show them how to reframe their nightmares and make them much less scary. What he didn’t know was that this would lead to their asking him to show them how to fly in their dreams, become lucid, rewind bad dreams and replay them with better endings.
            After a couple months of this, his oldest, a Harry Potter fan, encouraged him to write a book about dreams for kids. He spent the next few years writing Raising Sleeping Stones with his daughters, who experimented with all the dream techniques in the book and inspired several chapters by sharing the dreams they were having along the way.  Here are 5 things he’s learned from the experience of listening to their and other kids’ dreams:
 
·         Instead of always asking them about their day at school, ask them about their dreams. They will reveal a lot more about what matters to them.
·         Embrace the power of dreams your children feel. Instead of telling them “It was only a dream,” validate how cool, scary, or exciting theirs are.
·         Help them have better dreams. The simple act of talking about dreams often leads to clearer and more useful ones.
·         Dreams are an amazing was to get closer to your kids. Dreams are honest reflections of their hopes, fears, and relationships.
·         Don’t be an analyst. Let them explain what a dream means by telling you how it made them feel.
 
 
Book Excerpt:

Kiva looked closely at the sun’s golden face. Wavy rays representing shimmering heat radiated out from it. Its cheeks were plump, the lips full and curved, the nose wide, and the eyes were a little almond-shaped, like hers. In the middle of its forehead was a weird circle with six curving parts swirling around a six-pointed star. She’d never seen the sun drawn like that. Wondering what was on the back of the pendant, Kiva turned it over.

            The instant she saw the moon’s closed eyes, her hair flew back in the wind, her stomach dropped, and she was pressed back against the cushions of a vessel that was flying just inches above the river. She jerked her head back up and found she was in the back of a crescent-shaped boat piloted by an old man sitting up front. She was about to call out to him when he pointed at a tree that had fallen across the river and shouted, “When you get here, you must take a detour that even old Jacques didn’t know about! Hold on!”

            Before she could, though, he turned the boat around so quickly that Kiva was thrown against the side of her boat and the wind was knocked out of her. She only got her breath back when he straightened out and followed the river back down.

            “Look there!” he shouted moments later. “Turn right between the tall twins!”

Watch the Trailer!

                      

About the Author

P.H.T. Bennet began exploring his dreams when he was a child and has never bothered to stop. He had the good luck to have two daughters, Juliette and Paola, who not only served as the inspirations for DeeDee and Kiva, the main characters of Raising Sleeping Stones, but also helped him turn their family dreamwork sessions into this book. His lucky streak grew when he married his lovely wife, Mim, who tolerates his turning on a light in the middle of the night to write down ever-crazier dreams and talking about them in the morning as long as he lets her sleep in, first. His favorite dreams involve flying, visiting the dead, and replaying nightmares until they reveal their secrets.

Pratt’s latest projects are editing Book Two of the Orora Crona Chronicles and planning a virtual summer dreaming camp with other dream authors.

For More Information

• Visit P.H.T. Bennet’s website.
• Connect with P.H.T. on Facebook and Twitter.
• Find out more about P.H.T. at Goodreads.