Random thoughts on the theory of ghosts

While researching material for my Ghost Connection series I came across some great articles on how science, in someways, supports the existence of ghosts. First, it's important to point out that paranormal experts haven't come out and verified the existence of ghosts but one theory that they exist can be traced back to one of the greatest scientific minds to date, Albert Einstein. Take one of his basic laws of physics, energy cannot be destroyed.

Break that down. Science has proclaimed we are made up of energy. Some believe that energy is the soul. The essence of what makes us, well, us. The belief that the body is simply a vessel that carries the soul (our energy) on this plane of existence is an easy leap for many to believe. So, if the energy (soul) cannot be destroyed, does that mean when we shed our mortal bodies the soul could be considered energy? Is it a difficult conclusion to deduce?

Then the question must be asked, how come we can't prove this theory without question? Perhaps we have in a way. There are many that claim they can see, hear, even communicate with ghosts. Is it that these people can detect different frequencies? The dog can hear a dog whistle but the average human can't. Is it so hard to believe that there are things that exist beyond what we can see? Take faith, for example, doesn't the very concept of this word require one to believe in things beyond what we can see, hear, touch?

The purpose of this blog post isn't to prove or disprove the existence of ghosts, it isn't designed to test your beliefs or faith in anyway. It is simply written as food for thought. Random musings of a paranormal author that likes to write in the urban fantasy arena, tweaking reality just a little bit toward the supernatural.

Opposing views on this topic state that Einstein's law say it cannot be created or destroyed, only changed. When a body dies the energy changes and merges into the environment or becomes food for the living. I don't know which one sounds like a better option. I mean, ghost or food? Food for the living or environment. If one were to take that stance on the argument then it would be an easier pill to swallow if you believed the energy that makes our body work isn't necessarily the soul but an electrical current that makes the bodily systems work.

Again, this post isn't written to make you question your beliefs but rather mull over the information. I started the Ghost Connection series because I wanted to explore the unanswered questions in this arena. Cassie sees ghosts and the stories are more urban fantasy for the purpose of the fictional genre I primarily write in, paranormal but the premise behind the series is a college girl wanting a normal life despite the fact that she's seen ghosts since she was in a car accident that killed her father at the tender age of seven.

Why does this topic fascinate me so much? I have memories of being able to see ghosts when I was younger. Can I do this now? No. Do I want to do this now? I don't know. I have the training to help increase my psychic 'third' eye through my Reiki meditation work and Hypnosis but unlocking this area of my mind makes me hit the pause button. Somehow as my world changed I put blocks in my life to keep me from being sensitive to things in this arena. So much so that it makes me question whether I had those experiences or if the environment I grew up in and those that influenced me caused me to believe I was sensitive.

It doesn't change my fascination with the supernatural/paranormal but it forces me to look at things in a more cynical mindset. That brings me to my last bit of musing for this post. We are finding out daily how 'the powers that be' (in this case, I'm talking about governing bodies) have hidden certain things from us for fear of how we'd react or selfish reasons (the reasons don't really matter) but the idea that we've been kept in the dark for many topics makes me wonder how much of the civilization/ reality that we live in is fabricated and how much is real. Do we delude ourselves into believing we live in a 'real' world when it's simply a fictional ideal we're taught to believe in?

Okay, enough random thoughts for today. I hope you enjoyed this peek into my mind a bit. I mentioned the Ghost Connection series in this post... please check out the series on Amazon.

Lost
Death Does Not Become Her
Dentist's Burial Ground (coming soon)

The use of music to create the creep factor

As a writer of paranormal fiction around myths, legends and magical realism I do a lot of research for future stories within my eleven series. I came across this urban legend that gave me a chill to the bone and thought I might use it someday in one of the Ghost Connection or PBI Case Files adventures.

I must admit I like urban legends and myths that have an important lesson that can relate to reality when I'm writing so this one caught my attention because it's a story that brings to mind the phrase 'spare the rod, spoil the child' and while it takes the consequences of spoiling a child to the extremes it gives you a haunting vision of possible future outcomes. I'm not saying, if one spoils the child these things can happen, I am saying ones actions can have far reaching consequences.

So in the story of El Silbon, (and there are varying stories as is the case with most urban legends but this generalizes the idea) a young boy who lives with his parents and grandfather grows up spoiled. He would refuse to eat particular foods and would throw tantrums until his parents pleased him. Deer was the boy's favorite food and one day he asked his father to hunt one for him. Unfortunately, the hunt came up empty handed and father returned with his head hung low, shoulders slumped knowing he'd disappoint his hungry son.

Here is where the story takes a tragic turn. The boy was terribly hungry and angry his father had failed him so he took his father's hunting knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the chest and gut. He pulled out his father's guts and brought them to his mother to cook. Mother being suspicious asked where he got the entrails and he responded, "from father."

She continued to question him and the boy told her that "father grew them in his belly."

Is your creep factor rising? Mine was. Geez. But the story isn't finished there. Upon hearing her son's explanation she ran out to the edge of the forest and found her husband disemboweled. She cried in agony at the loss. Her agonizing sobs caught the grandfather's attention and he punished the boy.

First he tied the boy to a tree and whipped him repeatedly until he bled. Then he squeezed lemons, peppers and salt into the wounds for added pain. If that wasn't enough, the grandfather gave the boy a sack of his father's remains to carry on his bloody back and set him out to wander the plains, his dogs were sent after him but before he was sent on his way the grandfather cursed him, 'you should not have done that to your father... you'll be damned the rest of your life.'

He released the dogs to chase the boy who whistled the tune, 'do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do until the dogs caught him and ripped him to shreds.

His undead spirit was left to roam the plains, cursed, killing anyone he may come across. He is non-discriminate of his victims, there is no profile for the poor souls that come across his wrath at night upon the plains. He is said to be an omen of death.

You'll hear him whistling the tune. He's said to be tricky, the fainter the whistle the closer he is the louder it sounds the farther he is away.

In another retelling of the myth he is said to visit homes and count the bones of his victims in his bag. If people in the house wake up to his presence they'll have good luck. If they don't one person will die in the household before sunrise.

So what do you think? To me this urban legend is a warning about spoiling the child. Did you get a different message from this tale? The warning whistle also upped the creep factor for me.

Putting a twist to this urban legend and creating a story around a case to be solved for PBI Case Files or Ghost Connection was my first thoughts. Would you be interested in reading a spin on this story in one of my series?

It won't be for a few more episodes as I have the next four planned out but the Paranormal Bureau of Investigation could be called in to investigate a string of murders that look like wendigo or werewolf attacks. The victim's bodies are left disemboweled (guts are missing) as they investigate they discover it's a boy who can see ghosts and he's in training to be El Silbon's apprentice.

Or I could take it from a spiritual level in the Ghost Connection series. El Silbon is looking for release from his curse and Cassie decides to help him for the sake of the humans he would kill in the future.

 Which would be a few episodes away since Dentist's Burial Ground is already in production. Either option is doable in the future. Feel free to chime in below with your thoughts. Also if there is a myth/legend or news story that you think would be interesting to research for future book ideas please email me at spiritandmindconnection@live.com

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Have a wonderful day!

Story resource: CreepyPastaWiki

The secret to being an author is to simply write

If that subject line/title to this post had you clicking the link to make sure I wasn't going senile in my old age, thank you. If it had you clicking because you were scratching your head wondering what I really meant to say, well, I guess you'll be a little surprised because it was exactly what I meant to relay. People ask me all the time, how do you publish so often. I look at them, blink a couple of times to make sure I understood their question, smile and tell them 'I simply write'.

Then it's their turn to look at me like they didn't hear me correctly. That's when I explain.

One of the things I've seen authors (including myself) do is to write a couple of pages or a chapter and then go back to edit. It's a process for them and I respect everyone's process, heck I had the same process years back. The problem was it was a time vampire and kept me from publishing.

After years of working on random stories my husband said to me one day, 'your writing is a habit. It's a great habit for you but I don't ever expect it to become anything more than a habit.' Well, it was something like that. Now, out of context you might say, what? So let me explain. One of the ways I deal with pain, disappointment, past trauma, or anything that truly upsets me, I write. Its one of the first things I recommend to my hypnotherapy/coaching clients and I like to practice what I preach.

Now up to this point my very supportive husband wanted me to publish something and had removed every obstacle in my way to make this happen. What he didn't successfully remove was my inner critic until that moment when he tried to show his love and understanding by telling me it was okay if I didn't publish and kept my writing strictly in the hobby category.

Those of you who know me, know that while I understood his meaning, I took that as a challenge. If you know me, I like challenges. I enjoy championing over challenges, obstacles, and anything else that keeps me from my dreams. It's why I became an actress, singer, dancing, manager, hypnotherapist, coach, reiki master, and author. I have that personality that says, 'go for it!' and his words made me realize I was 'going for it' in the wrong way.

I sat down, did some self-reflection, self-hypnosis, and forced myself to face my inner critic (who isn't a very nice gal). In fact, in one hypnosis session I invited the inner critic to a meeting in my mind and I gave her the boot... literally had to kick her to the ceiling to get her to stop nit picking and invited a new, supportive motivator to take her place (yes, you can do things like that in hypnosis and it really can work).

For that to work I had to recognize my weaknesses as well as celebrate my successes. I knew I could weave a story but I also came to terms with my poor editing skills. I decided to take some classes to help in that arena, I also hired one of my best friends (who is an amazing author in her own rights) Michele Gwynn to edit my stories. With all the right pieces in place the only thing left to do was write.

So I did. I didn't go back and edit the chapters I just wrote. My fingers flew across the keyboard and the story poured from my mind onto the blank screen. Before I knew it, I had over 100,000 words written and realized I needed to make the book a series. It wasn't until I wrote the words, 'The End' that I went back and did a read through. What I realized as I read the words on the page was that once I removed the obstacles I could produce a pretty great story. That was when I graduated from writer to author.

Sure a lot had to happen to make it possible but the biggest thing I needed to do was write.

So I guess that's what I should go back to, but before I do, just a little peek on the business side of things (I am an author, after all).

I wanted to give a little shout out to my Ghost Connection series. It was my first adventure into writing in the first person and I'm pretty proud of the adventures Cassie has been on since I started the serial. I've been working on the third book in the series and am pretty excited about what is happening.

For those of you not familiar with the series, Cassie O'Grady is a medium. She became one when she died (and was resuscitated) at age seven from a car accident that took her father's life. From that moment on she saw ghosts. This life change messed with her psyche and she realized she got along better with spirits than living beings. Her best friend is a ghost but he has a secret that links them together on a deeper level than either one of them ever realized.

In book one of the series titled, Lost, Cassie is enlisted to help a teen spirit who was killed by her boyfriend in a jealous rage. The boyfriend is still a threat and Cassie, despite her own good judgement, is convinced to go save the girl's brother and parents from the emotionally unstable boyfriend.

There are a few twists and turns that reveal family secrets, cause heartache, and changes her life forever.

In the second adventure of the series, Death Does Not Become Her, Cassie is still healing from the tragedies of the first book when she is called in to help a college girlfriend who appears to be dead. But appearances can be deceiving. The girlfriend is actually in a coma on the verge of death unless the poison used in a ritual sacrifice that put her in the coma is discovered in time. The last thing she wants to do is help another spirit but it's hard to turn away from your destiny.

In the third book of this series (which is currently in production) Cassie discovers a ghost who is collecting souls and depositing them into a virtual city. This spiritual Artificial Intelligence is upsetting the balance of life, death, and the after life and this is unacceptable. She is enlisted to help bring down the AI's plan and meets others from the government that are similar to her.

Each book in this series is only .99 for a limited time. One Click them today and please be kind and review them. You can also get both of these books in audio. Vanessa Reynolds did an amazing job as the narrator to these stories. I wrote this series for mature YA, NA, and adults of any age. There is a sweet romance developing between Cassie and Detective Dash but it will remain low heat level. Here is the series link for Ebook or Audiobook: Ghost Connection.

Check out all my books on Amazon and one click your weekend read.

If you have time this weekend check out the release party for The Mating Challenge which is a steamy BBW shifter romance based in a dystopia future. It's book two of the Vanished Series and definitely written for the 18 and older crowd. Here's the pre-order link on Amazon... only .99

Hope you have a fang-tastic weekend.

Angela Ford’s 2014 Holiday Hop - Giveaways Galore!

Angela Ford’s 2014 Holiday Hop – December 1^st – 15^th

2014 Holiday Hop Authors – Our readers are most important to us! We are celebrating by giving away a Kindle and a $25 Gift Card. Please stop by and visit the authors listed below for more giveaways. Happy Hopping!

Jami Brumfield  Amanda Bennett  Michele Mathews  Julia Mills   Elizabeth Inglee Richards

Carol Ann Kauffman   Jennifer Chambers  Diane Rinella  Angela Ford Terri Carle

Sharon Kleve Melanie James  Mariah Dietz   Serena Zane   Jennifer Conner  

Amanda Bennett  R.E. Hargrave  Ella Medler  Aubree Lane  Rebecca Sherwin  Teri Riggs

Ava O'Shay  Andie Lea  Dzintra Sullivan  Andrea Perno  Jennifer Theriot Chris Karlsen

Al Parks L.A. Remenicky Emma Lee Skye    A.L. Wood Jayne Hyatt Amber Daulton

Joanne Jaytanie  Kelly Cozzone   J.D. Hollyfield  Patricia Kiyono Elle Klass

T.I. Lowe  Tammy Tate  Jackie Marilla  Casey Harvell  Denise Kawaii  Natalie-Nicole Bates  Kelly Ann Jacobson  Moira Keith Michele Gwynn  Tracey Alvarez  Mary Bernsen

Click the picture above to be directed to the Kindle and Gift Card Raffle. You can also click here to be directed to the raffle. 

Continue to scroll down for more prizes below!!!!!

The Wicked Step Sister and Jami Brumfield are also offering a giveaway to her Newsletter subscribers. If you haven't already, simply subscribe to Jami Brumfield's Newsletter here. December 15th, 2014 five winners will be announced on the Wicked Step Sister Blog (so be sure to subscribe to this blog by email at the link to the right) the list of winners will also be announced in Jami Brumfield's next newsletter following the winner announcement here.

• 1st name drawn from Jami Brumfield's Newsletter subscriber list will win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
• 2nd name drawn from Jami Brumfield's Newsletter subscriber list will win a $5 Amazon Gift Card.
• 3rd name drawn from Jami Brumfield's Newsletter subscriber list will win the Kindle box set of PBI Case Files (this set includes four novellas; The Beginning, Outbreak, Lost Plane, and Justice Driven Adventures one through four).
• 4th name drawn from Jami Brumfield's Newsletter subscriber list will win a audio copy of PBI Case Files: The Beginning.
• 5th name drawn from Jami Brumfield's Newsletter subscriber list will win a kindle copy of book one and two (Lost and Death Does Not Become Her) from the Ghost Connection series.

Must be 18 or older to win and there is no purchase necessary to enter or win in this giveaway. Random.org will be used to pick the winners. 

For more great prizes and fun come and join the Online PBI Case Files Murder Mystery Party hosted by Jami Brumfield on Facebook here. Thanks for stopping by on this stop of the blog hop please let us know what you think of this event in the comment section below and please be sure to check out the rest of the participants in this blog hop as well as participate in the grand prize raffle at the hyperlinks above. Hope you have a safe and happy holiday!