The Lost Dreamstone • By Gary Val Tenuta

 

What's it about? Click the video!

 

The Lost Dreamstone, complete with colorful illustrations by the author, is geared toward Middle Grade readers with a thirst for action, adventure and a touch of weirdness. There is much to be discovered in the place where dreams come from. 

Like Shamara the Sorceress told the twins, "Future fortune is often lost because a threshold is left uncrossed."

The door is open.

Admission is only $1.99 (£1.49) for a limited time.

Won't you come on in?

U.S. • $1.99 • 

https://amzn.com/B01F7EQGQU

U.K. • £1.49 • 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F7EQGQU

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REVIEWS 

5.0 out of 5 stars
By Lila L. Pinordon May 17, 2016
Verified Purchase

ENCHANTING!

I am not a child but I’m still enchanted by Gary Val Tenuta’s fable The Lost Dreamstone.

It is filled with characters that children of all ages will love; such as Josh and Jenna, twins who are transported into Dreamland by the Sandman to fulfill a prophecy and enjoy an adventure. They meet The Dream King who rules the Kingdom of Dreams. Then there’s the evil D’rath Kahn, a Dreamon who stole the Dreamstone and took it to his own evil Kingdom so people would only have nightmares.

Aided by Bog Grunbog, a fanciful little Dreamon, the twins set out to find the lost Dreamstone. They soon run into Bag Scallion, the meanest Dreamon of them all! This adventure is something dreams are made of…Oh, and enjoy Mr. Tenuta's illustrations - they are wonderful!

Highly recommended by Lila L Pinord
Author of Min’s Monster and 3 other suspense/thrillers

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5.0 out of 5 stars
By Susan McRae on May 16, 2016
Verified Purchase

 A Wondrous Book

Enchanting. Exciting. Humorous. Mysterious. Adventurous. 

That is my take on this delightful book. The story is great fun and addresses things children think about. It tells the tale of a pair of twins that go on a bold venture in Dreamland. I don't want to give away the plot, but I will tell you my nine year old grandson was completely wrapped up in this book. The fact that one of the twins is a boy helped greatly......and the illustrations, also by the author, are brilliant. Just enough spookiness to keep a child thinking, but not too scary for younger children. I highly recommend this book. I think I enjoyed it as much as my grandson.

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5.0 out of 5 stars
By Rai Aren on July 20, 2016
Verified Purchase
A lively & fun adventure

Since my inner child & I are *thisclose*, I was excited to give The Lost Dreamstone a read. It’s a book aimed at middle grade readers, but the story has universal themes that will resonate with you at any age - the bonds of family and friendship, of acceptance, of personal courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and believing in oneself. It’s a fantasy adventure tale that comes to life both from the wonderful storytelling skills of the author as well as the absolutely stunning illustrations dotted throughout the book. It’s a very special book. The characters are colorful and memorable, the setting rich and interesting, and the plot very inventive. I highly recommend you sharing it with any middle grade readers in your life, or giving it a read yourself, if like me, you love getting lost in an entertaining fantasy adventure world. I loved it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Read ages 8 to 80.
By Vickie Jacksonon May 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
Adventure, Humor, Wisdom - A Wonderful Read Ages 8 to 80

I'm a 66 year old grandmother who ventured into Gary Val Tenuta's world of The Lost Dreamstone on behalf of my 10 year old granddaughter. From the very beginning I found myself thoroughly captivated by a unique and adventurous story line which is wonderfully enhanced by the introduction of realistic, believable characters & colorful, supernatural creatures struggling for control of the quality of all dreams. A thorough delight to read, The Lost Dreamstone is a wonderful balance of spell-binding adventure, fun & quirky humor, & dramatic, insightful wisdom ( "Future fortune is often lost because a threshold is left uncrossed.") adding a valuable dimension of thought provoking depth and substance seldom found in children's literature.

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5.0 out of 5 stars
By Kimon May 17, 2016
Verified Purchase
What a wonderfully written adventureWhat a wonderfully written adventure! 

This was a light, yet gripping fun read. Full of colorful, loveable and not so loveable characters. I am an adult and feel this is a great read for young and old alike. Gary Val Tenuta truly wrote a treat! Kim G.


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U.S. • $1.99 • 

https://amzn.com/B01F7EQGQU

U.K. • £1.49 • 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F7EQGQU

A few of the illustrations from the book:

 

 

 

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BONUS FEATURE:

A Tale of Two Tales

The Strange But True Story Behind the Story of

The Lost Dreamstone

I can't remember what inspired me to write The Lost Dreamstone. As of the publication date (2016), that was 37 years ago so, I mean, c'mon. Give me a break. But I know that was about the same time I'd been discussing an idea with a sociology professor friend of mine about the possibility of collaborating on a Dream Analysis column for a local newspaper. With my imagination running wild, that may have triggered the inspiration for the novel. But it never got off the ground. The novel, I mean, not the newspaper column. Well, okay, the newspaper column never went anywhere either but that's beside the point. The point is, it wasn't until 2016 that I actually finished writing the book. Why did it take 37 years to get it done? That's a bit of an odd story loaded with a long string of bizarre coincidences.

My goal, when I first conceived the basic idea for the story, was to someday see it on the “big screen” as a full-length animated movie. Ideally, I wanted the remarkable fantasy artist, Brian Froud (http://www.worldoffroud.com/about/articles/artofbf.php) to be the art director and to design the characters featured in the story. Yes, it was an ambitious dream but I was quite a dreamer.

About half way into the writing of the story, I decided to send queries and chapter excerpts to publishers, naively hoping maybe I could get an advance to finish the book. Like I said, I was quite a dreamer. I was also young and inexperienced and I didn’t know anything about the real world of publishing. Still, I carried out my plan.

The first query went to Harper & Row Publishing in New York. Several months later, I received their rejection letter. It was a standard “Thanks, but no thanks,” form letter. That slowed me down a little and I wondered if the story was worth finishing. I worked on it now and then, still thinking it was a good story.

Then along came a full-length animated film by Jim Hensen (of Muppets fame) called The Dark Crystal. Not only was the story uncomfortably similar to my Dreamstone (both feature gems of crystal that need to be restored/recovered in order to fix the situation in their respective worlds) but the art direction of Dark Crystal was based on the work of... wait for it... Brian Froud. What??? I know, right? Unbelievable. So then I thought, why continue with The Dreamstone (that was the working title at the time) because every publisher was surely bound to dismiss it as an obvious Dark Crystal rip-off. So I let the story sit, unfinished, for years.

Then, some 20 years later, I dug out the partially finished manuscript and decided to give it another go. A bit more sophisticated about writing at that point, I realized the proposed ending for the story was completely unsatisfactory. It just would not do. Not no way. Not no how. But that presented a problem. I couldn’t figure out a way to remedy the situation. 

I puzzled over it now and then for many months but simply could not come up with a solution. Then, a couple years ago, it hit me. With just a slight revision in the plot I was able to see how a satisfactory ending could be achieved. Yaaay!

I was really excited to get to work on the story and finish it at long last. I told my friend, Julie, about it and, knowing about the past situation with Dark Crystal (not to mention a similar situation that happened with a song I wrote) she suggested maybe I should Google the word "Dreamstone" to see if anyone else had used it. I laughed. Impossible. I made up the word. Right? But was I in for a shock. A Google search turned up the following Wikipedia entry:

The Dreamstone was a British animated television series that ran for four series of 13 episodes between 1990 and 1995.

And, as if that wasn’t enough to knock my socks off, compare the following. From my personal sketch notes for my story:

The World of Dreams is divided into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. The Kingdom of Light is ruled by the Old One, the Dream Master. The Kingdom of Darkness is ruled by the Sender of Nightmares.

Compare that with this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:
The Dreamstone was set in a fantasy alternative world […] and concerned itself principally with the struggle between good (personified by The Dreammaker[…] and evil personified by Zordrak, Lord of Nightmares.

Quite a coincidence. Could there be more? Oh, yes.

From my personal sketch notes about my story:
D’rath Kahn has grown bored with people having nightmares so infrequently so he has sent one of his Dreamons to steal the Dreamstone and bring it to him. Once the Dreamstone is in his possession, it will cause more and more people to begin suffering from nightmares every night. If the situation is not remedied then this will become a pandemic and soon no one will ever have a good dream or a good night’s sleep ever again.

Compare that to this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:
Zordrak would instruct his henchmen to steal the Dreamstone, which he planned to destroy, so that nightmares would plague the sleeping world.

But wait. There’s more...

From my personal sketch notes about my story:
Separating these two kingdoms there is a very strange and very gray realm known simply as In Between. In the realm of In Between everything seems vague, hazy and undefined.

Compare that with this excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:
Sergeant Blob, an archetypal Sergeant Major type - would cross the mist of Limbo (a vast Purple Mist) to get to the Land of Dreams.

All of this was disturbing enough to make me wonder if somehow the creators of this British animated series had come across my story and basically ripped me off. But then I thought, no. After all, I began writing my story way back in 1979 (keep that date in mind). This British story wasn't aired until 1990. It was such a long span of time between the two that it must just be a coincidence. Right? It was then that I noticed, in small print at the top of the Wikipedia page, a link to something called the Ealdwood Stories from which The Dreamstone was apparently adapted for television. So I clicked the link and it took me to another Wikipedia page where the “coincidence” became even more incredible. It involved an author by the name of C. J. Cherryh who wrote a collection of fantasy stories under the title, The Ealdwood Stories. Given the fact that I began writing my story, The Dreamstone , in 1979 and given the fact that it was in that same year that I sent my query and chapter excerpts to Harper & Row, the real topper to this strange series of "coincidences" was this quote from that Wikipedia page:

Cherryh first introduced readers to the world of Ealdwood in 1979 with her short story, The Dreamstone.

Yes! 1979! As you might imagine, that sat me straight up in my chair. Cherryh’s novel, based on her short story (The Dreamstone) went on to win a number of prestigious awards.

 Now of course I had to once again consider the possibility that I'd been ripped off. When I sent my query and chapter excerpts to Harper & Row in 1979, did they recognize the potential of the basic story line but––realizing I was an unknown writer with no sales track record to assure a return on their investment––they passed the idea on to Cherryh who did have a track record of successful book sales? Man, talk about a conspiracy theory! I supposed it was possible but, upon further research, I could find no link between Harper & Row and DAW Books, the publisher of Cherryh's work. Anyway, it didn't make sense that Harper would turn over a good story idea to a competitor. So that pretty much shot a hole in my conspiracy theory. It was all just a string of odd coincidences. But the odd coincidences didn’t stop there. In fact, they got even stranger. Much stranger.

My story features a physical item called the Dreamstone (visualized as similar to a crystal ball) that sits atop a statue of three fairy figures on a pedestal about 3 feet tall. The fairy figures are standing with their arms upstretched with their hands open in such a way as to accommodate the round crystal Dreamstone. This brings us to perhaps the strangest of all the odd coincidences. It was so crazy I thought maybe I'd stepped across some invisible threshold and had entered into The Twilight Zone. Here's what happened...

Sometime––I think it was in the mid-1990s––I attended a kind of New Age expo, a big annual event in Seattle in which, among other things, artisans displayed their works for sale. As I was browsing amongst the hundreds of vendor displays, my attention was drawn to something very familiar across the room. I mean very familiar. I was stunned. No way, I thought. It can't be. It's impossible! And yet... there it was, in all it's impossible glory.

Find out what it was and how this strange tale of two tales ends. It's all revealed in a special section in the back of the book.

U.S. • $1.99 • 

https://amzn.com/B01F7EQGQU

U.K. • £1.49 • 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01F7EQGQU