Happy New Year

As 2011 comes to an end, I would like to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous New Year. In 2011 I embarked on a journey to fulfill my life's passion and though the road has not been without its share of potholes, detours and roadblocks, I am still happy with my decision. Here's hoping that 2012 will be as inspirational and productive for all of us and may everyone take the opportunity to follow their dreams wherever they might lead.

Hathor the Cat

I truly wonder how readers have taken to Hathor the cat. I realized when I wrote her into the storyline of "Not Forgotten" I was taking a risk. It was a risk because it's very easy to lose a reader when animals take on human-like qualities in fiction. My approach was simple: She was needed to tie up some lose ends but she needed to be a cat in order to give her character a sense of believability. What I mean by this is that she could never demonstrate any behaviors that would be unnatural for a cat and her "supernatural" qualities needed to be seen through the eyes of the human characters in the story. With this approach the reader is not overwhelmed with things that seem too distant from the scope of reality. If this were a fantasy piece, Hathor may have been a bit more flamboyant.

Stephen Kings Bag of Bones Debut

I have waited in anticipation for the Bag of Bones miniseries on A&E though it has been a guarded optimism as made for t.v. King has had its ups and downs in the past. Tonight, sick and miserable, I made it to the couch with my blanket and watched part one. I was a bit surprised that it seemed to move very slowly and didn't quite live up to the big budget innuendos depicted in the spoilers. Hoping part two will make up for my mild disappointment thus far.

Do places have psychic or spiritual energy? I personally believe that they do. Check out my article here to see more information.

My Generational Ghost

My Generational Ghost

Progress continues

Chapter four of "At Second Sight" is almost complete. Thomas has found himself thinking fondly about Mrs. Dean and the power gifts she bestowed upon him in "Not Forgotten". He has also used a Jimmy Redbush quote when speaking with Detective Jack Bronson. It's like meeting up with old friends!

Might adapt my "yard art" for the cover

Thinking about adapting my lovely garden statue for the cover design of "At Second Sight". Would you find a cover like this enticing?

The hardest thing about writing

Some writers say that combating writers block can be the most difficult thing about writing. For me, the opposite is sometimes true. There are times when I have three or more story lines competing for my attention. When this happens, I have difficulty concentrating on my current project because I don't want to lose the unrelated ideas that are swimming around in my head. I don't want to spend too much time on those things either for fear of losing momentum on the project in the works. It's a crazy conundrum really.

I am currently working on chapter three of "At Second Sight" and a completely unrelated idea came to me this morning. So unrelated, it has nothing to do with the paranormal at all! I am excited about the prospect of creating a work from this idea but I really wish it would patiently wait its turn! All I can do is jot the idea down and hope that my acknowledgement of it will be enough to subdue it for now!

Excerpt "Not Forgotten" Chapter Eight

I like to think of this as the point where Kyle begins to truly understand that there is more to this world than meets the eye:

The truck rolled slowly on to the black top path that led through the cemetery gates. Lilly bowed her head. She hadn’t been here since the funeral and was suddenly feeling a bit guilty. The cemetery started out as a small roadside graveyard almost two hundred years ago and expanded inward through the years so the dates on the headstones became more current the further they drove. The older section always made Lilly uncomfortable. She could feel the eyes of the dead looking at her as they passed the monuments and tilted stones. The hairs on her arms stood up and she felt a shiver on the back of her neck.

Kyle slowed to an awkward halt at a fork in the road. He hadn’t been back since the funeral either and was not sure which way to go. Lilly looked up and pointed to the left. Embarrassed, Kyle turned and proceeded up the hill. As they approached Tony’s grave site, they saw a figure seated on the stone bench on the other side of the road. The small, frail woman was sitting alone, waiting.

As the truck stopped Kyle asked, “How did she know what time we would be here?”

Lilly shook her head, “I don’t know. How did I know she was going to be here at all?”

Her question left unanswered, they both exited the truck. “Hello?” Lilly said as she approached the elderly woman. The woman nodded her head and slid from the middle of the bench to one side, inviting them to sit.

Lilly took a seat on the bench. Kyle, freaked out by the air of prophecy and supernatural wisdom which seemed to shroud everyone in the situation except him, elected to stand. In the event that a fight or flight response should be deemed necessary, he wanted to be certain of a swift retreat.

The old woman spoke to him first. “Hello boy. You can sit. I don’t intend to bite you. Not today anyway.” She smiled a broad grin and chuckled at her own pun.

Kyle stuttered, “No. I am ok. I sat in the car.” Then scratched his head befuddled by his own ridiculousness.

“Oh well, then, plenty of time to rest when you are dead.” She seemed to drift away from them momentarily as she spoke these words. Her unseeing gaze focused toward the front of the cemetery.

Lilly was the next to speak. “Obviously, my dream last night was not really a dream or you wouldn’t be here. Why did you ask us here?”

The old woman drifted back to the task at hand. “I brought you here because the situation with your brother is getting, dare I say, desperate. I am sure you have noticed this yourself given what happened to you yesterday. You are not getting him what he needs quickly enough. I fear that there may be consequences if you two can’t hurry things along.”

Kyle, frustrated by the cryptic nature of her words, chimed in, “Now hold on. I need some answers from you before this goes any further. First, I need to know who you are and how you are involved in all this. Then maybe you can tell us how you managed to get inside Lilly’s head while she was sleeping and what gave you the right to invade her privacy like that in the first place. This is 2010; you couldn’t use the phone, email, text, fax, or a pigeon for hell’s sake?”

The woman’s face seemed to gray and wither a bit as she listened to his rant. She repositioned herself on the bench as though she were readying herself for a spotlighted soliloquy. Lilly felt an odd tremble run down her spine and as it ended at the base, she became a bit light headed.

“You listen to me, boy!” She said in a low, less frail voice that resonated on the word boy. “You should be counting your blessings because I am here and have made contact. You need me and you do not decide the method by which I make my presence known. Not even if I decide to slither out of the tub drain while you are taking your morning shower. You see, there are rules. In life and in death there is always a rule to abide by and consequences when you don’t. Oh, sure, you can break a rule once in a while. But just once in a while, like speeding to school when you woke up late or fibbing to Lilly’s father to keep him from worrying. Tony has broken a rule by contacting you. It would be ok if that was all he did, because in the grand design, no one really cares about a little contact between the dead and the living. It’s when you get away with breaking the law that you decide that maybe you can get away with a little more like he did by jumping a spirit yesterday. That type of thing starts drawing the wrong kind of attention.”

Lilly jumped in, “That’s what you call what happened to me? Jumping a spirit? So, my brother did possess me and use me to pummel David Johnson and that can somehow get him in trouble with someone? With who?”

The old woman shook her head, “No child, let me finish. He won’t get in trouble with anyone. That’s not how this works. The dead don’t follow the laws of men or gods. They follow the laws of nature. There is a natural order of things. In that order, the spirit plane and the living plane are meant to exist side by side, but separately. When you meddle too much with the natural order, things have a way of fixing themselves in natures favor. He is dead and therefore, no further harm can come to him. It would be you who would pay for his meddling by joining him on the other side and restoring the line that divides the living from the dead.”

Kyle couldn’t believe his ears, “Wait, so you are saying that if Tony keeps messing with Lilly, she will die? That sounds a little crazy to me, I mean, what about mediums? I assume that is about what you are. Why wouldn’t mediums be dropping dead all the time if contact with spirits caused this wrath of nature?”

Who is Jimmy Redbush?

Due to the twist at the end of Not Forgotten, several readers have asked about Redbush. Who is he really? Well, without giving too much away I can say that Redbush is pretty genuine. He is Navajo and he is very well versed and educated in many other cultures - particularly in their spiritual beliefs and practices. What I will not say is how old he truly is. As Redbush himself said, people tend to see things in the ways that they can most readily accept them.

Will we see more of Jimmy Redbush in future books? I'm not quite sure yet. Thomas Lynch is currently taking up a lot of my time and I have no plans to bring Redbush into his book right now. Maybe Redbush will start whispering in my ear and I'll help him tell his life story in a novel dedicated to him. Only time will tell.

Kaitlyn is also working on murals in her bedroom. Here is the first.

Kaitlyn and her awesome Halloween makeup

I had to share this picture. This girl can do anything when she puts her mind to it and apparently that includes makeup.

Not Forgotten price break for Christmas

To entice new readers and make it easier for fans of the book to gift it for the holidays, I have dropped the price of Not Forgotten (digital format) with all retailers. You may now purchase the e-book for $1.99 on Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. Follow the links to find the sales pages and thanks for your continued patronage!

More on Thomas

Thomas Lynch is an interesting guy but his character does not develop much in Not Forgotten. That's why he will be the featured character in my next book; working title: "At Second Sight".

Who is Thomas Lynch?
Thomas is the smartest person in the room. He is logical, rational, and knowledgeable on many subjects. He has a photographic memory and retains just about everything he reads and sees. As might be expected from someone who thinks atypically, his social skills leave much to be desired. Thomas was the skinny, smart kid in your high school that didn't fit in and was instant jock bait the moment he entered the room. Misunderstood, he was picked on and ridiculed for most of his life.

Thomas feels like a disappointment to his parents even though he graduated high school and began college two years early. His father was a high school jock and expected to have a son that would inherit his athletic prowess. Though he has tried, he has never been able to bond with Thomas. They are almost like aliens from opposing planets.

His abilities
As if being a socially retarded genius wasn't enough of a challenge, Thomas is also psychically intuitive. He has seen apparitions and had premonitions but these things were rare and uncontrollable for him and his inability to control them has led to frustration for him. Confused, he made the life changing decision to attend a seminar on parapsychology given by David Dean. Meeting David, his mentor and father figure, changed his life. It is Davids' mother who helps Thomas unlock the mystery of his abilities and become a very proficient psychic.

His future
Thomas will embark on a side career apart from the Highgate Paranormal Research Society and his mentor David Dean. It is in this side career where we will get to know him better and witness his metamorphosis as a character.

5 Star rating from Amazon reader!

Not Forgotten has received its first reader review on Amazon and it is a 5 STAR! I was so excited when I saw it. It feels wonderful to know that people find entertainment value in the things that you work so hard on! For me, writing a book is almost like creating a world full of people that I have created. I can be a bit protective of them and become very emotionally involved in their introduction to the world. It is a fantastic feeling when other people like them!

What's going on with Thomas

I am tossing around the idea of making Thomas a lead character in his own work. He didn't play a very significant role in "Not Forgotten" after all and he is a young psychic with a bright and exciting future on the horizon. Yes, the more I consider it, the more I think he needs to have his own voice but in what genre? Psychological Thriller? Paranormal Romance? This is going to be fun.

Ebook Giveaway

Are you an avid reader who is willing to write a short review of my book? Do you enjoy paranormal fiction? If so, I would love to offer you a free digital copy of "Not Forgotten" in return for your promise to post your review. Please leave me a comment to express your interest and I will forward you the details!

Character Analysis - Jimmy Redbush

What can be said about Jimmy Redbush? He is a man who is completely grounded in the belief that without a connection to the spiritual realm, happiness on the earthly plane is not possible. He is the keeper of great wisdom acquired from his culture and others around the world. He spent his lifetime acquiring this knowledge and uses it to aid and educate those who ask for his help. We will talk more about him later.

Not Forgotten E-Book available on multiple sites

You can now purchase the e-book on Smashwords, Amazon - Kindle Store, and Barnes and Noble Nook! Check it out!

Character Analysis - John Roberts

John Roberts is the father who tries desperately to hold things together. He works a lot and at odd hours in an effort to distance himself emotionally from his children though he loves them with all his heart. It's very difficult for him to face the pain that they have suffered through the loss of their mother and he believes that providing them with a good income and a stable can somehow make up for his inability to connect on an emotional level. With the death of his son Tony, he falls further into his program of denial and never really mourns his loss.

The events that unfold when Redbush and the paranormal research team join the case are exactly what he needs to give himself permission of feel again.

Character analysis - Lilly Roberts

Lilly is a fairly disconnected teenager and tries to have it appear as though her isolation is by choice but it's more appropriate to say that she is the victim of the unfortunate circumstances in her life thus far. As she tells us when she is thinking about attending Karyn's birthday party, she had play dates when her mother was alive but after her death, these organized social events stopped and she became her older brothers tag-along. His death, of course, would have left her very much alone if Kyle hadn't haphazardly stumbled back into her life.

Though driven to help her brother, she is reluctant to claim her psychic abilities for fear that they may cause her to be further isolated. Her coming to grips with the reality of her gift is her true coming of age.

"Not Forgotten" the e-book edition has launched

I'm proud to say that the digital editions of my book, "Not Forgotten" are now available for purchase on Amazon for Kindle and in all other digital formats through Smashwords.com.