Ancient beliefs
by
Donna GrantAncient beliefs. Where did they come from? How did they start? And why are they still around?
There might never be answers to some of those questions. However, we can hazard a guess as to why those beliefs are still around. Some say its because mankind needs something to hold onto, some look for something that’s different than their normal lives.
I believe its because deep down, we know some of those beliefs are real. When I decided to write a series on Druids, I had already done a wealth of research. What I found was extremely interesting. There are conflicting reports on just what everyone thought Druids were. Some thought they were merely priests and priestesses who worshiped nature. Others thought they were nothing more than vicious murderers who served their needs with sacrifices. Still others believed that they had a special connection to Otherworld beings commonly known as sidhe or Fae.
No one really knows the answer thanks to Caesar erasing nearly all the Druid and Celtic history. Yet, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to determine the truth. Would the truth have changed the way we see things? Could that be the reason Caesar decided to write his own version of the Celts and Druids? Maybe we weren’t meant to know the truth. Maybe we aren’t ready to know exactly what the Druids did, what their purpose and possible connections were.
Because of all the conflicting reports, I took certain liberties with my series. My Druids are closely connected to the Fae, so close that the Fae give them special powers to control fire, wind and water - natural elements.
I tried to tie in both the natural beliefs of Druids with those of the unnatural beliefs. It worked for my story, and I get a sense that the Druids were most probably close to what I wrote about.
For all the information I discovered on Druids, it was nothing compared to what I unearthed about the Fae. They have other names. Sidhe and Otherworld beings being two of the most popular besides Fae. From the beginning of time and throughout different cultures there have been tales of these Otherworld beings.
Today, when you hear “fairy” you most likely think of Tinkerbell or something similar. Yet, for something as powerful as a Fae, surely it had to be something of more substantial size. Those little fairies are truly pixies - tiny creatures that can wreck havoc in a household. The Fae were much more powerful, more glorious and more…royal. It is said that the Fae once inhabited Earth.
Could that be why paranormal and fantasy stories hold a reader so enthralled? Do we sense what once roamed our lands, the magic that once filled the air? The next time Samhain comes around, October 31st, one of the most powerful nights of the sidhe, go outside. Legend holds that this is the night when the veil between the worlds runs thin, and the Fae has license to visit our world. Maybe you just might encounter a Fae for yourself.
About the Author:
Donna Grant is a multi-published award winning author for New Concepts Publishing. To find out more about her and her books, visit the links below.
Website:
www.donnagrant.com Blog:
www.donnagrant.blogspot.comMySpace:
www.myspace.com/donnagrantNewsletter:
www.donnagrant.com/newsletterDisclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)
Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
Dances with Ghosts
Anyone seeking proof that the recently departed don’t always depart need look only as far as their local hospital. Night shift is even better. As someone who has walked–and worked–those darkened halls for sixteen years, I can tell you without hesitation that ghosts are real. While not all who reach the clearing at the end of their path in that place swirl around in a nether fog, some who suffer unexpected departures will, on occasion, take a while to find their beacon of light.
My most recent ghost stalked me for two days before finding his way onward. It was about a year ago, and I was jotting medication notes in the middle of a long hallway. As I bent over the notebook in front of me, my peripheral vision picked up the sight of someone moving up the hall. The "someone" stopped directly behind me, then leaned over my shoulder as if curious about what I was writing. The feeling was close and unmistakably male.
In little mood that day for breaches in space bubble protocol, I snapped my head around to confront whichever staff member had decided to be cute by playing Rubbernecker.
The hall was empty.
I shrugged it off and went about other tasks, though still having that "being watched" sensation. When dinner called, I wandered alone into the staff kitchen to warm up my food. I was making tea at the counter when I realized I’d left the sugar on the table behind me. Without warning I spun around, preparing to make a quick lunge for it....
...then never got there, as I smacked into someone hard. The automatic apology tumbled out. "Oh! Sorry."
But I was alone. The only reply was a disturbing cold stab of somethingness, which pushed its way through my midsection and out the kitchen door.
It was later that evening when I overheard the drama that had unfolded in the Intensive Care Unit next door. Something went wrong during what should have been a simple surgical procedure, and the man was rushed to the ICU in dire distress. Doctors worked feverishly to save his life...and failed.
A sudden and unexpected death, maybe fifty feet away from the hallway where I’d encountered Mr. Rubbernecker...right around the time of the surgical patient’s death.
Nodding, I figured I had an answer to my ghostly stalker. Then my shift was over, and it was time to put another work day behind. While it might seem this was a tale that would follow me home, it wasn’t the first time I–nor anyone else on the critical floor–had encountered such things. By the time I returned the next day, I’d forgotten all about it.
Until I ventured alone to the back supply room. I entered the code and pushed open the heavy, self-closing door. I wandered to the supply cart, half-awaiting the sound of the door clicking shut behind me. Instead, the door was nearing ground zero when it swung open again, carrying a whoosh of frigid air. Frowning, I peeked outside. No one was present.
It was then that I remembered my ghost stalker from the day before. Hadn’t the poor man found his way yet?
Probably because I’ve watched one horror movie too many, I turned to humor. "Um," I said to the supply room, "I’m flattered that you keep following me, but as you can see my job really isn’t all that interesting. Besides, I think there’s somewhere else you’re supposed to be now. It’s okay. It’s okay for you to go."
I stood and waited. Nothing. No swinging doors, rubbernecking, or bumps against my middle. After a long moment I grabbed my supplies and left. He never followed. I hope he found his way.
Lisa Logan
Author of VISIONS, a psychic romance/mystery available from Amazon, Borders, and other sellers
Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)
Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
Love Book Videos? Check out the Award Show!
This is a mid-week, guest blog post. The topic isn't really on the paranormal, but this was such a fun idea, we thought we'd invite Dawn from
http://www.theromancegalleria.com to come by and tell us a little about the new Award Show for Book Trailers! I hope all of you will head over and check it out.
CAMEO AWARDS
Blog Post Provided by DawnWe're going to be breaking from tradition a bit here in this post (no worries, we got the okay from the powers that be, lol) as we detour a bit from the paranormal to talk about book videos. A few years ago, if you mentioned the word "trailer" everyone automatically assumed you were talking about a movie trailer, but in recent years "trailers" have become a wildly popular form of book promotion. Pioneered by Circle of Seven Productions, who coined and trademarked the phrase "book trailer," they have paved the way for the evolution of the promotional video not only as a valid marketing tool but as a source of great artistic value and entertainment.
At the Romance Galleria, one of our biggest draws (outside of our popular author chats) is our 3D theater. We've found that readers not only stop by the theater to watch the assortment of trailers featured there, they come back again and again to watch their favorites. This got us to thinking about how theses videos have far surpassed their marketing stereotype to become a featured item in their own right. We decided it was high time to give this special art form the recognition it deserved. After hosting a hugely successful ceremony for the CAPA Awards inside the Galleria, we thought what a perfect way to showcase these works of art and acknowledge the accomplishments of these video. Thus, the Cameo Award was born.
The Cameo Awards celebrate excellence in romantic book video promotion.
Awarded annually by The Romance Galleria, it recognizes merit in many aspects of romantic trailer production and promotion such as art direction, scripting and marketing potential. The Cameos were developed to honor and showcase the artistic vision and effort in romantic trailer development.
Winners of the 1st Annual Cameo Awards will be announced at the Cameo Film Festival in the Galleria on May 5th, 2007. If you'd like more information about these awards or to find out more about our 3D world please visit us at http://www.theromancegalleria.com
Labels: book videos, Cameo Awards, guest blogger
Why Romantic Fantasy?
by Nikki Watson
My two favorite genres to dabble in have always been romance and fantasy. Has anybody ever noticed how there isn't a great deal of believable fantasy set without the background of a castle and medieval guards? Or romantic overtones between a human and a creature of another kind? Laurell K. Hamilton offers us her vampire hunter books, set within the comfortable background of St. Louis, and there are also L. J. Smith's Night World series for younger readers, but for the larger adult community, what is there?
I've decided to come back into fantasy reading and writing lately, because I've come to realize that you don't necessarily need to create a world of 'fantasy' for your novel to be considered 'a fantasy novel'. Our world works quite fine. We have an unlimited number of vampires and witches and general beasties that can be brought in from the realms of Stoker and Shelley straight to our real world in order to make a fantastical story.
This seems to level the playing field, a little bit, between fantasy and romance. Suddenly, the world building is just a writing up the world that we ourselves already live in. Most of us have lived in this world all our lives; so how hard can that be? Now, instead of a jealous ex-wife getting in the way of the hero and heroine in the story, perhaps it is the secret of witch blood that the hero has tried to hide in his blood line.
I personally read a lot of both romance and fantasy, and due to my love of both, a story really grips me when both genres happen to be meshed together nicely. If anyone wants me to recommend a writer who I think does this really fantastically, I would point out that Anne Rice has definitely been known to blur the distinctions between erotica and fantasy over the course of her writing.
Still, this brings us back to the role of vampires in romantic fantasy fiction. What is it that we find so sexy about vampires sucking the gooey, sticky, clotted blood out of our soon to be dead bodies? In both Hamilton and Rice novels, the vampires are the key standing feature for the fantasy, with werewolves and witches coming in at the sidelines. Vampires are constantly being reinvented, which is great, as it keeps everything new, but eventually, all the different options for reincarnations of the same old vampires are all going to be taken, and the old school done to death beasties are going to just be old, old, old. We as writers should be challenged to create creatures, where the only restraints placed upon us are only our own imaginations, and readers should ache to see that done.
I'm not saying the genre blend between romance and fantasy is for everyone. The loudest complaint I've seen between readers of fantasy and romance is the different formulas. While a fantasy reader would have no problem in following several different love interests on their travels to the end of a series, a romance reader would be much more likely to have an interest only in the two key characters who are going to get through their trials to declare their undying love for one another at the end. Genre blending certainly isn't for everyone, but it is a gentle alternative for people who already like both of the genres involved, and there's a definite niche in romantic fantasy waiting to be filled.
**
About the author:
Myspace:
www.myspace.com/nikkiwatsonauthorLivejournal:
http://unity-of-hours.livejournal.com/profileLink for Spiral:
http://www.aphroditesapples.com/spiral.htm Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
What Lies Ahead
By
Penelope Marzec
Sometimes my mother knew what would happen in the future--but only the immediate future--and only for those near and dear to her. All her episodes of ESP involved those she loved, but she never related her prescience until after the event--which made some family members skeptical. However, I believed her. Still, there were times when I wished she would let everyone in on her foreknowledge of events. For instance, when I decided to take my younger sister skiing, why couldn’t she have warned me not to go? If she had maybe my sister would not have wound up with a broken leg. My mother was convinced that if she told me I would not have paid any attention to her warning.
Maybe. Maybe not. But I thought it was worth a try. After all, what good are warnings if you don’t act upon them?
It wasn’t until I was all grown up with children of my own that I would occasionally experience some sort of message and I began to understand why my mother always kept her foreknowledge to herself, because she was right, nobody does pay any attention to a warning.
Once, I helped to convince my sister that she should stop dating a guy--he was such a loser and she deserved better. After she dropped him, she was miserable--and I became very concerned. What if she did not find someone else? What if I was instrumental in ruining all her chances for happiness? I felt awful.
Sometime afterwards, I received a message that my sister would get married. The message came to me clearly--not in the form of words, but as a sort of knowing. I had never experienced something like that until that point. It was not simply my own thought--it was given to me.
Naturally, it took time before my sister found the wonderful man she would marry. All I could say to her in the interim was that I knew she would get married. It sounded rather lame. But at least, I was right.
I have experienced a few other messages since then. I cannot turn my clairvoyance on or off--and just like my mother, my foreknowledge of events only concerns those close to me. Once, both my daughter and I experienced the same message at the same time--and we did try to tell everyone, but no one believed us.
But we were warned. And maybe that’s the whole point. We cannot change what lies ahead, but we can be more emotionally prepared for it.
By
Penelope Marzec
http://www.penelopemarzec.comhttp://penelopemarzec.blogspot.comhttp://www.myspace.com/happywriterDisclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
I never was much into the realm of the paranormal
By
Nancy Henderson
I never was much into the realm of the paranormal. Sure I believed in ghosts, UFOs, Loch Ness all that stuff that couldn’t be explained but was just spotted too often to scoff at. Raised with a traditional-religious background, I knew there was life after death. I believed in ghosts, I read and listened to ghost story specials on television. I even dressed as a ghost one Halloween when I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to be and my mom had to whip up a costume at the last minute. Then I saw one.
And everything changed.
I shouldn’t say I saw one, per se. I ‘felt’ one. I had an apparition, a messenger, if you will. It was six years ago. My friend, Jud, spent winters in Florida every year. It was February 6th. I woke up at 2 am, just out of the blue, instantly awake, I mean wide awake, the I-had-six-cups-of-espresso awake. And anyone who knows me knows that once I fall asleep, I’m out for the night. There’s no waking me up. So for me to wake up at 2 am, was really bizarre in itself.
I sat up in bed, looked at the clock, then I felt as if I wasn’t alone. My dog, Katie, was sleeping at the foot of my bed. She was as wide awake as I was (she requires an act of God to wake her up too.) She was looking at something at the foot of my bed. There was nothing there, but there was something. I didn’t see it. I felt it. A presence.
Katie began to wag her tail.
And then I knew. Don’t ask me how I knew, I just knew. Jud was dead. I heard it loud and clear in my head. And I had the strangest feeling of peace come over me, and I’ve never felt anything so intense since.
Jud had always loved Katie. He’d loved all dogs, but he was especially fond of Kate. And Katie knew. Don’t ask me how, but she knew. Then, just as quickly as he’d come, he was gone. Katie stopped wagging her tail, dropped her head to her paws, and went to sleep. Sleep didn’t come to me again that night.
I phoned Jud in Florida the next morning. No answer. I phoned all week, as a matter of fact. Nothing. A few weeks later, I got in touch with his son, whom I didn’t have a phone number for. (He was out of the country, so it was rather difficult to track down.)
Jud had suffered a massive heart attack February 6th at approximately 6 pm, killing him instantly.
So there is another realm, be it ghosts, the paranormal, spirits, whatever you choose to call them. Sometimes there not all scary. Sometimes they just have a message to give us.
Nancy Henderson is the author of paranormal, contemporary, and historical romances. Visit her website at:
www.nancyhenderson.com or her blog at:
www.nancyhenderson.blogspot.comDisclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
About the Burning Times
By Gia Dawn
During medieval times, fear of devilry and witchcraft ran rampant. If a cow sickened and refused to give milk…obviously it had been cursed by the local hag. Too much rain? Not enough? Crop failure was also laid at the women’s doorsteps.
Not that the local populace needed any encouragement. Priests urged neighbor to turn against neighbor. If the accused was convicted of witchcraft, their lands were forfeit with half going to the church, and half going to their accuser. It was a most profitable business for all concerned—except for those that were put on trial.
The determination was simple in many cases. The accused was bound and tied and thrown into the nearest river. If they somehow managed not to drown, the river did not accept them—a sure sign they were true witches—and then they were burned at the stake. Not much of a choice, if you ask me.
Entire towns were nearly wiped out, with women being far more likely to die than their male counterparts. And it wasn’t just the old who were accused. Any young girl who had the audacity to refuse to sleep with the local clergy or nobility was threatened to be charged with heresy and put on trial before the town.
But were there really witches who rode brooms and danced with the devil beneath a full moon’s light? Was magic alive and well and thriving? And why are we so fascinated with magic today? What calls us to write and read stories of charms and spells and whispered incantations?
On some basic level, we need the power of myth. We need to believe there are still things out there that cannot be explained, that urge us to delve into the mystery of the past and explore the dark and forgotten realms. We need to wonder. We need to dream. We need to imagine.
So on the next full moon night, spend a few moments calling on the magic—the magic of your creativity, the magic of your life. Speak your deepest desires aloud. There is power in the telling, and you never know, someone might still be listening.
Gia Dawn
www.giadawn.com
Lord Demon's Delight, Samhain Publishing--January, 2007
Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)
Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
When Voyeurism is Good
By
Candice GilmerThey say that voyeurism is a bad thing. That's what they tell us.
But...
There comes a time when voyeurism is a good thing.
Like when writing a good sex scene.
Most writers have a hard time writing a good sex scene or a good erotic tale. Their difficulty could lie in many areas, anything from feeling unable to communicate the intensity of the scene, to feeling just generally that the work was too naughty to do it.
When writing speculative fiction, the author has to deal with a whole new layer of complications beyond the typical who-touched-who-how element.
They have to deal with alternate body chemistries; alternate as in not human body make-ups.
This can present a completely different angle all together. And as such, certain aspects need to be taken into consideration.
This is where knowing your characters is very important, knowing how their bodies function, how they respond to sexual stimulation, what the results of said stimulation can do to their body's responses.
In my book Unified Souls, Devin Cartell's species of humanoid are plagued by a condition known as Body Fire. The stronger the adrenalin, the stronger the Body Fire, and therefore, the stronger his sexual needs become when in such a state. Most of Devin's species are pacifists, and therefore can control this Body Fire without much effort, since rarely do they generate the needed adrenalin and other components to ignite it.
Devin, however, lives a very action-packed life, and in the book, he becomes plagued by this fire, seducing Jasmine Storm in one of the heated moments. It takes great control on his part to step away, to stop, before he's consumed by his Body Fire, and is unable to free himself of his desire.
Knowing that Cartell lives with such a burning intensity in his veins makes him very fun to write, because he can get so lost inside this Body Fire, he forgets all of the world around him, and what he should be doing, rather than what he craves.
This kind of intimate knowledge of Cartell's body chemistry helps me write about his needs in sex scenes. What satisfies someone who literally burns with desire and intensity? What kind of sex would that be? Would it be slow, quiet, and gentle? Highly unlikely. When such passion lives within someone, it's hard to squelch that desire when it takes over.
This is where being a voyeur is a good thing. You can see, through the eyes of the characters, what's going on in the room; how the characters react, how they move, how they express their emotions.
How does that help your writing of sex scenes?
If you can visualize the intimate moments, you can actually understand what the characters see—if one of your main characters is, say a feline type race, you can see exactly how she moves, how she climbs over her pray and, maybe licks a trail up his torso.
Or what if your character has wings, like a fairy of some kind? Would their wings flutter and spasm against their back as they reached climax? Would an animalistic character like a werewolf start changing, mid climax, if only for a few seconds, during sex?
These are all things that you need to ask yourself when writing sex scenes within your speculative romance. As you ask these questions, you'll find new answers, and with any luck, creative ones at that. Also, this will present even more questions, which will create more answers and a better understanding of your character.
While you watch through the window of your character's eyes at a sex scene, you also will feel what they feel, and see what they see. Since dealing with speculative characters, the importance of knowing things like skin texture, differences in body design or variance are important as well.
And you may not see those differences with the character's clothes on.
Going back to Devin Cartell, he has a minor variation in his body from "standard" human forms. Down his shoulders, across his back, and down to a point toward his bottom is a trail of dark freckles. Not a terribly big deal, but on people of Devin's race, those freckles change colors, depending on mood. In the Body Fire, they're dark red, and hot to the touch. When Jasmine Storm touches them for the first time, she's shocked at the warmth in them, something that startles her (very briefly) during their intimate moments.
I never would have "saw" or "felt" how his skin reacted unless I let myself watch what was going on.
It is amazing what you can do when you focus on your work, open your eyes, and participate a bit of mental voyeurism. Your characters can show you amazing things, and no matter what they show you, you can write about it. These are your characters. They're reacting in your world. Allowing yourself to take a look at those things will teach you incredible things about your characters.
And also, those characters won't do anything you can't write about, after all, they're your characters.
So watch them.
You might be surprised.
Ain't voyeurism great?
About the Author: Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
What About The Paranormal in the Paranormal Romance
The clock strikes midnight, you are alone in a dark house. Down the hall you hear a door creak and the dogs begin to bark furiously, sensing an intruder that you cannot see. What could it be? Your thoughts turn to the paranormal and you begin to wonder if it just might be possible?
As an author of Paranormal Romance, I have spent years researching many different aspects of the paranormal. I have found this to be a fascinating area of research and along the way discovered some interesting things.
The subject matter of the paranormal is expansive and this is reflected in the stories I write. My formal education includes Criminal Investigations, which provided the analytical skills required to research the paranormal as well as Anthropology/Archeology. This area gave be invaluable insight into different cultures and clues hidden in ancient history.
When I first began investigating the paranormal, I was surprised at just how much evidence there was to back up some ghost stories, UFO reports, alternate dimensions, etc. Of course this evidence is not the hard evidence that science will accept. To be accepted by the scientific community a theory has to be repeatedly tested in a controlled environment. The very nature of the paranormal makes this impossible, though quantum physics theories do allow for up to 8 extra dimensions that are part of our reality but undetectable under normal circumstances.
Stories of phantoms and things that go bump in the night have been a part of our culture throughout recorded history, but it has just been in the last couple of decades that investigators have had the equipment to actually detect these invisible entities.
There have been reports of ghosts that are described as misty apparitions, but there have also been many reports of entities that have a very real and solid form, such as the pirate ghost that haunts the heroine in my latest release, The Pirate’s Dark Revenge. In addition to being haunted by a ghost, the heroine in this story finds herself traveling back in time. Incredibly, there have also been reports of people finding themselves in a different time and place.
One such story took place in 1979. Two British couples were traveling through the North of France when they come across an Inn where they decided to stay. This Inn was primitive by modern standards, no windows only shutters etc. The people they met were all dressed in clothing of another era. Though these people thought it odd, they assumed it to be the theme of the Inn. When they left the next morning their bill was only 19 francs. Some days later they were on there way back and decided to stay at the same Inn, but it had vanished. Other landmarks they remembered were there, but the Inn was gone.
Sure, this could be chalked up to coincidence and losing there way, but what if it wasn’t?
Another area that I find particularly fascinating is the Sumerian story of creation. The Sumerians built the first civilization on earth and much of the Book of Genesis derives from ancient Sumerian writings, but Genesis left out a great deal of information. According the Sumerian story of creation, mankind was created by means of genetic manipulation by an ancient God race that came down from the heavens. The Sumerian Gods were called the Annunaki, which literally translates into those who came from heaven to earth.
This is the backdrop for my book, Song of the Annunaki where the heroine finds herself confronting a prince of this God race and dealing with the classic alien abduction scenario as well as many other surprises.
The paranormal may be hard to accept for some people, unless they have experienced it for themselves, but it is a definite possibility that there is more to heaven and earth than meets the eye.
About the Author:
Lorraine Kennedy
Paranormal Romance Author
www.lorrainekennedy.com
Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)
Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
The Dirt About Graveyards!
By
N.J. WaltersCemetery…graveyard…the mere words conjure up all sorts of images of dark foggy nights, full moons, headstones, vampires and ghosts. But they can also be places of calm, contemplation an even romance.
How do I know?
Simple. I lived in one!
I can hear you all screaming that no one lives in a graveyard, but I did and so did the caretaker and his family. It was actually in my younger years and I was boarding there while I was going to school. It was a homey, two-story home that faced the road on the front side, but was surrounded by headstones on the other three. The view from my window was gently rolling hills dotted with white stones.
Every day I’d trundle down through the twisting paths and exit the iron gate on the far side of the graveyard to catch the bus. And every evening I’d trudge back through it in the dark, winding my way past the familiar headstones after a long day at school. I always remember my great aunt telling me that it wasn’t the dead that one had to worry about, but the living. I can honestly say that this particular graveyard was a settled one. It almost felt welcoming, as if the departed didn’t mind me wandering my way past them every day, as if they didn’t mind the company.
Some of the graves were quite old and had sad stories to tell. I remember one that had several members of the same family buried in the large plot within a few days of one another. Obviously an epidemic of some sort, probably curable now, but not so in the 1800’s. Others were of men lost at sea or taken during the first and second world wars. Then there was the occasional one of a child or of someone who’d lived until their ninety-first year. Each stone had a story all its own.
Okay, so I can all hear you asking yourself that all-important question—how can a graveyard by romantic?
Well, I happened to be living there when I met the man who would later become my husband. At the time we were both still in our late teens and neither of us had a car. So, when he brought me home from our first date, where do you think we went? That’s right, the graveyard. It was peaceful and quiet and it’s where we shared out first real kiss after our first date.
Is it any wonder I love to write paranormal romance? The dark, the forbidden, the lure of what is beyond death is what drives authors to delve into the realms of the paranormal. There, the boundaries are blurred and anything is possible. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts and things that go bump in the night. There are a million tales to tell and some of them will come from me.
But then what else can you expect from a woman who lived in a graveyard?
About the Author:Check out my erotic vampire series at:
http://www.ellorascave.com/Series.asp?Category=Dalakis%20PassionIf you want to know more about me, just check out my website at
http://www.njwalters.com and my blog at
http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com .
Or you can join my newsletter at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awakeningdesires/ .
Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. (Want to be a guest blogger?)Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
The Paradox of Ghost Stories in the Modern World
By
Charlene TegliaWhat is it about a ghost story, that chill that runs up your spine and makes your hair stand on end? That thrill of the unexpected, the unexplained, the uncanny? It’s fascinating. And mysterious.
Do ghosts exist? Are houses haunted? Is there a reality beyond what we see with our eyes and experience with our everyday senses? These questions have been with me from childhood, from family ghost stories and tales told by firesides. The supernatural is a subject I don’t get tired of.
I love hearing about haunted houses, apparitions, unexplained odors and noises. Ghost lights, those spheres of light that appear and no scientific explanation has been found for. (Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, just that it hasn’t yet been discovered. Putting this phenomenon in the mysterious realm of the unexplained.) From the benign house ghost to the alarming and destructive poltergeist, the range of supernatural experiences reported is interesting in itself.
I’m not alone in this fascination. I think there’s a reason why Dean Koontz’s most popular character is Odd Thomas, the man who sees ghosts. And Stephen King’s spooky subject matter has struck a chord with an awful lot of readers. Well, why not?
The 2003 Harris Poll determined that 51% of the general population believe in ghosts.
Whatever the reason for the appeal, the supernatural and the spooky makes my spine shiver and sparks my imagination and that makes it a rich subject to explore in fiction. I’ve written witches, werewolves, reincarnation, vampires, time travel, all exploring the realm of magic and mystery. I don’t believe I’ve even begun to scratch the surface.
I do think that fantasy enriches our reality, that it keeps our minds open to “what if?” and for that reason alone, it’s valuable. It’s good to question, to imagine. And it’s good to keep alive the sense of wonder we have in the world as children. Studies have shown that as we lose that childhood belief in magic, the high creativity most children have diminishes by the age of 7 and is nearly entirely lost in adults.
Oddly enough, today’s reality tells us that we need creativity more than ever. Business and industry call for creative solutions, innovations, new ways of seeing and doing things. So at a time when our world is more scientific, technical and logical than ever, our need for fantasy and
the creative thinking it fosters is at an all-time high. Ghost stories help us keep that childhood spark alive.
About the AuthorCharlene Teglia is an award-winning erotic romance author for Ellora's Cave, Samhain, and St. Martin's Press, and a columnist for Romancing the Blog.
Visit her on the web at
www.charleneteglia.com.
Disclaimer, cause we have to: The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Mandy M Roth and Michelle M Pillow. Labels: guest blogger, paranormal
How to be A Raven Guest Blogger
Authors, Fans and Paranormal Experts welcome to blog!Guest Blogs are posted every Monday at the
Raven Vampire Nightclub Blog on what is called "Manic Monday with Michelle and Mandy". If you would like to have your article included, please follow the submission guidelines below. Mandy and Michelle reserve the right to decline any blog topic without explanation (but don't let that scare you, we're not meanies).
HOW TO GET A GUEST SPOT!
1. Subject MUST be on the PARANORMAL!Topics can be anything paranormal or fantasy--from Real Life to myths, history or just your thoughts on a subject. Author byline with links will be included and we ask that you stop by to comment when your blog goes live. Also, feel free to advertise your blog with us. If you would like the above graphic to use, email us.
2. Articles can be anywhere from 200-1000 words. 3. No fan fiction or short stories. No poetry.If you would like to post a paranormal short story or poem, please contact us for special arrangements. These will be very selective and not be done on guest blogger days.
4. First come, First serveThe order your blog will be posted is in the order we receive the completed, ready to go blog entry. The only exception is if the topic you are writing about was recently done, or if you have recently done a blog and there are others who haven't waiting for a chance. We reserve the right to post them as we see fit. Email notifications will be send out when your blog posts, not before.
5. We DO NOT reserve datesPlease don't ask. We're too busy and we will forget.
6. Yes, you can do it more than once.
At this time there is no limit. 7. TO SUBMIT - Send email to Michelle - enchant @ cox.net or michelle_pillow @ yahoo.com (no spaces)
- Or send email to Mandy - mandy @ mandyroth.com
- Subject - Raven Guest Blog
- Body of Email- Your blog article READY TO GO, including the byline at the end and the link titles and links you want added to the blog clearly marked.
- We DO NOT edit, so make sure it's how you want it.
Hopefully those didn't scare you off. ;)
Thanks!
Michelle M Pillow
&
Mandy M Roth
Labels: guest blogger, how to, paranormal
