Psychological Thriller THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS Rockets to Success in Its First Two Weeks

The Trajectory of Dreams, the debut novel of Philadelphia-area freelancer Nicole Wolverton, exposes the chaotic inner life of Lela White. Lela is a sleep lab technician with a strange relationship with sleep, who believes she has been tasked with protecting the safety of the revitalized U.S. space shuttle program. She breaks into the homes of astronauts to watch them sleep, and she is prepared to kill to keep those with insomnia from the shuttle launch. Her delicate grasp on reality becomes more tenuous when visiting Russian cosmonaut Zory Korchagin inserts himself into Lela's life. Korchagin's increasing interest puts her carefully-constructed world at risk of an explosion as surely as he does his own upcoming launch. Lela's tragic childhood unfolds throughout the novel, revealing the beginnings of her illness and long-buried secrets, and as Lela's universe unravels, no one is safe.

The book's first two weeks have garnered the author praise for her depth of research, stylistic prose, and most of all, her compelling characterization of an unreliable narrator told in the first person. Publishers Weekly calls The Trajectory of Dreams a "skillful mainstream examination of a psychotic woman's final descent into insanity." Science Thrillers, a stop on the author's blog tour, describes how Nicole interviews astronauts in order to get the science of her book just right.

Another blogger, Bookmagnet, likens the story to Gone Girl, and says "I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I could not put [it] down." She also offers a detailed author interview on her site. Goodreads offers many other reviews and book giveaways through April 30; signed copies are available on many stops on the author's blog tour.

The Trajectory of Dreams is available in print on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and in electronic format on all major sites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, Apple, Overdrive, and more). It is also available at independent bookstores in the Philadelphia area. The author will be reading and signing on April 6 in West Reading, PA at The Wise Owl Bookstore and on April 20 in New Hope at Farley's Bookshop.

The publisher, California-based Bitingduck Press, will be offering print and electronic copies of The Trajectory of Dreams at the LA Times Festival of Books (April 20-21) and the Pasadena LitFest (May 11).

Bitingduck Press is an independent publisher with a particular interest in fiction about science and the lives of scientists. They are currently accepting submissions in all genres; details for submission are given on their website.

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