In my upcoming (!) YA Fantasy Novel, Traveler, Jessa discovers that she can shift into other realities and interact with people in her own dreams. Finn has been tasked with teaching her the skills she needs to do this, and also with watching her back – because someone wants her dead. She’s not thrilled with this arrangement, and decides to let Finn know late one evening…

I scroll through the received calls on my phone and look at his phone number. I want to dial it just so I can scream into the phone, “Why are you messing with my brain?!”
But I guess that would definitely be crazy. Worse, he’ll probably have an answer for that.
Come on, St. Clair. No guts, no glory.
Great. I sound like Ben now.
I finally text Finn.

Are you there?

I press send. It’s late. He’s probably busy. Or asleep.
The phone rings less than thirty seconds later. I glance down at it in dismay. I let it ring twice more before I tap the “answer” button with entirely too much force.
“Why are you calling me? I texted you,” I say, angrily.
“I’m aware of that,” he replies, completely unconcerned. “So what do you want? You reached out to me, remember?”
“And you were supposed to text me back,.” I say, still perturbed that he’s broken a serious social rule, here.
“Sorry. I prefer conversation.” He lets out an audible sigh.
“What if—what if I don’t want to do this?” I ask tentatively. “If I decide to be a normal person, maybe whoever it is that’s hunting me will leave me alone.”
“But you’re not a normal person,” he says. “It’s a moot point. And that wouldn’t stop them. They’ve already tried once.”
“We don’t know that for sure. That one was my fault. I walked into the forklift.”
“You keep coming up with excuses,” he says. “But this is your life now. You are a Traveler, and we need your help to figure out how to save you. Do you really want to ignore what you are and just be a sitting duck?’
I am suddenly incredibly tired.
“I don’t want to hear any more about it, Finn.”
“You need to hear it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Or you wouldn’t have called.”
“Texted.”
“Whatever.”
I punch the “End” button and throw the phone down on the bedcovers.

Traveler breaks in Feb of 2017. The countdown is on!