📚 A Bookish Chat with 'NightBorn' Theresa Cheung #AuthorInterview

Today we welcome Theresa Cheung to The Writer's Life e-Magazine! Theresa is the author of the new paranormal thriller, NightBorn, and this interview is part of her Blog Tour by Pump Up Your Book. Enjoy!

Theresa Cheung is an internationally bestselling author and public speaker. She has been writing about spirituality, dreams and the paranormal for the past 25 years, and was listed by Watkins Mind Body and Spirit magazine as one of the 100 most spiritually influential living people in 2023. She has a degree in Theology and English from Kings College, Cambridge University, frequently collaborating with leading scientists and neuroscientists researching consciousness.

Theresa is regularly featured in national newspapers and magazines, and she is a frequent radio, podcast and television guest and ITV: This Morning’s regular dream decoding expert. She hosts her own popular spiritual podcast called White Shores and weekly live UK Health Radio Show: The Healing Power of Your Dreams.

Her latest book is the paranormal thriller, NightBorn, available at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

You can visit her website at www.theresacheung.com or connect with her on X, Facebook, Instagram or Goodreads.

NightBorn offers dream interpretations, the paranormal, and is quite the tear-jerker. Which of these was the most challenging for you to write about?

The emotional depth of NightBorn was by far the most challenging to capture. While dream interpretation and the paranormal are second nature to me, delving into raw human emotion the kind that makes readers ache, cry, and heal demanded absolute vulnerability. Writing those scenes required me to open my own wounds, but that honesty, I believe, is what gives NightBorn its beating and dreaming heart.

Which of the characters from NightBorn do you most closely identify with and why?

I connect most deeply with the protagonist, who straddles two worlds - the seen and the unseen and is fascinated by Jungian dream interpretation. Like her, I’ve spent much of my life exploring the delicate threshold between science and spirituality, logic and mystery. She embodies the part of me that’s endlessly curious but also haunted by what lies beyond understanding.

What do you think sets NightBorn apart from other books of the same genre?

NightBorn blends the mystical and the emotional in a way that’s both intellectually stimulating and profoundly moving. It’s not just a paranormal thriller - it’s a story about integration, personal and collective transformation, and the unseen threads that bind us to one another. Readers don’t just read NightBorn; they feel it, dream it, and often find pieces of themselves reflected in its pages. Many people have messaged me to say they are waking up with clearer and wilder dream recall on their mind and that is the reason I wrote it. It is not just a thriller or page turner but a crash course in dream decoding when you are wide awake.

Surprise me. What is something that happens in the book that would make my mouth drop without giving too much away?

Let’s just say there’s a pivotal scene where a dream isn’t just a dream and the truth that emerges changes everything the characters (and the reader) thought they knew about identity, life, death, and destiny.

What season does your book take place?

I leave that decision to the readers but in hindsight and if it becomes a movie (yes, I dream big:)I would want NightBorn unfolds in autumn the season of letting go, transformation, and haunting beauty. The falling leaves mirror the emotional shedding each character must undergo to uncover what truly matters.

What location does your book take place?

The story is set in Florida but there is also a portion of it set in the dark alleys of central London - covent garden. The setting and US/UK location is a key part of the plot with the setting mirroring the plot and the transformation of the characters.

Do you think writing a paranormal thriller is more complex than writing books of other genres?

Absolutely. Writing a paranormal thriller means balancing suspense, emotion, and the unseen. It’s a dance between the rational and the mysterious, you must keep readers grounded while lifting them into the extraordinary. The challenge lies in making the unbelievable feel utterly believable.

What’s next for you?

I’m a s serial writer and have several non fiction books to write in the area of dreams and spiritual awakening but my heart is in the planning stage of my next novel - a story that continues to explore the liminal spaces between dreams and reality, science and spirit, love and loss. Expect something that will challenge perceptions, stir emotions, and, like NightBorn, linger in your soul long after you’ve turned the final page.

What if the line between your waking life and your darkest dreams disappeared forever?

Alice Sinclair, a driven psychology professor, is about to find out. When thousands of people begin experiencing terrifying, vivid nightmares … all centered around her, Alice’s quiet academic life is shattered. Haunted by the question of why she’s become the subject of these shared dreams, Alice embarks on a desperate search for answers, uncovering a chilling secret: someone – or something – hungry for global power has discovered a way to manipulate consciousness itself. The world is fast becoming a playground for those in control of the dreaming mind. In a heart-stopping race against time, Alice must navigate a treacherous web of deception, where nothing – and no one – can be trusted, not even herself.

Read a sample.

NightBorn is available at Amazon US and Amazon UK.