Near a great lake and very far from anything thrilling, Alan Hendershot is a cashier at a grocery store. Irritating customers and pesky management abound, and the recent death of his father has driven him to further isolation. His singular, tiny well of happiness is the reading of fantasy paperbacks and the forgetting of all else.

When he stumbles into a mysterious book about lucid dreaming at the library, things take a turn, as every night becomes an escape to a fantasy world as wild as he can imagine, with magic, a cyclops bartender, really hot peppers, and mythologies all about cheese. To complicate things, it seems he is the only one in this world unaffected by a curse of blindness that has made all creatures appear fearsome and ugly, sowing hate and discord everywhere.

When he's recruited by a ragtag group of adventurers hoping to save the world, Alan begins to realize that the end of this story might reach further than the confines of his imaginary world. He will have to dig for truths buried deep within his own mind, some of which he may not be able to find while asleep.

So, curl up next to the fireplace (or beneath your grocery store cash register) and enjoy a story about the power of stories themselves-a story that explores just how powerful our own imaginations can be in the real world, and how important the people and things that nurture those imaginations are to us. This is fantasy for those who love fantasy enough to make it real.