Shared Dreams

by Rob Watson

All over the world people are dreaming of sporting glory. The harsh fact of sport is there can only be on winner. This story follows three sets of rivals in three different sports, all heading for a showdown as they have their eyes fixed on the same prize. There are two female tennis players, Lauren the all American golden girl and undisputed number one, going up against the feisty, scrappy working class Nikki from England. Style of play are just one of the stark contrasts between the two of them, Lauren plays with the perfect efficiency of a textbook personified, whilst Nikki's technique makes her look like she's chopping wood with an axe that's too heavy for her. Lauren dominates her opponents with a serene brilliance, Nikki has to scrap for every point and often leaves opponents wondering just how she beat them. Lauren is a sweetheart who charms everyone, Nikki is known as the mouthiest bitch on tour and uses her banter to get an edge on her opponents. Lauren has her sights set on the perfect year of winning all four major championships, Nikki is focussed on winning Wimbledon and making her break through into the big time, only one of them dreams can come true.
Nick is the metronomic golfing machine from America, a mysterious loner that the press can't get to open up at all. Lee is the English golfer who sprays the ball all over the place but has extravagant skills that help him match Nick's achievements, he's perfect for the press as he loves talking to them and nobody knows what he's going to say next. Firmly established as the world's two best players, their paths often cross, this time their big clash comes at St Andrews as the home of golf hosts the Open Championship. Both of them are desperate for the win, only one of them can.
The English Rugby League season is dominated by two teams on opposite side of the Pennines, Warrington and Leeds. Warrington are defending champions and make up for their lack of size with great speed, desire and class. Leeds are bigger, stronger and just as determined to end up as Champions. Alfie and Virginia are Warrington fans and Ronni their friend is a Leeds fan, the story of the season is told by interaction between them via text, email, msn chats and the occasional meet up. The two teams meet in the Grand Final at Old Trafford to decide who will be champions, Virginia and Ronni both have younger sisters who are blind, Ronni commentates on matches for her sister Charlie and Alfie commentates for Virginia's sister Mona.
All three story strands will leave you guessing as to which rival is going to live out that particular dream. Some readers might find themselves pulling for one rival, others might want the different rival to win. All six of them deserve to win, but only three of them will. Every sporting dream that is lived out is always someone else’s nightmare.

338 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 5, 2012

About the author

Rob Watson was born in Santa Monica, California. He is married and is the father of three children. He is the owner of Damaged Psyche Productions. He is a horror/sci-fi fanatic and has been ever since early childhood. He has been imagining and writing stories for as far back as he can remember. Some of his idols are Rod Serling, Steven King, David Cronenberg, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Dan Curtis. Rob studied film and creative writing at Long Beach City College and California State University, Long Beach, after which he spent a few years working on movie production crews (as set PA, second assistant director, boom, etc.). Since then, he has written almost a dozen feature length screenplays (mostly horror and/or sci-fi) as well as numerous short stories and scripts. He has two original screenplays currently in pre-production and has written several "work-for-hire" scripts.