Monthly Archives: February 2011

By Tina R. McSwain

Crisis Apparition

One group of “ghosts” that often goes unmentioned is the “crisis apparition”. These spirits are not technically of the haunting variety. Their appearance is usually a brief single event caused by their death.  This event marks the passing of a loved one. These manifestations  most often occur at night or in the early morning hours. Typically the spirit will visit a loved one either to deliver a positive final message or to bring news of their passing. It may seem to the recipient that they are dreaming.  But this is not the case.  The experience is usually described as a loving and peaceful exchange, not the terror we expect from a haunting. Most crisis apparitions occur within 12 hours before or after the death of the “visitor”. Usually this spirit will appear to only one person, but it can appear to two or more family members as well. Although this type of case would not be investigated by ghost hunters, the reports of this phenomena lend some credence to the subject of ghosts and paranormal activity as it is repeatedly experienced by the general public.

by Crymsyn Hart

Every writer has a special place where they write. To some it is their home office. To others it is wherever their laptops take them. Being such a mobile society, we can travel to the ends of the earth as long as we have a strong signal to connect. Besides that, every author that I know has a little slice of heaven where they can relax and let their mind’s wander.

I have several places where my muses feel comfortable.

One is my home office. The walls are lined with dark images from my favorite artist Joseph Vargo and to balance the darkness, I have pictures of goddesses on the opposite wall. This office serves a dual purpose for my day job too.

A glimpse into my strange world.

Originally, we were going to set up my office in one of our more spacious closets. We got the idea from an issue of This Old House magazine actually, but it turned out that with all the equipment I got for the day job it just wouldn’t fit.  And the puppies would keep bugging me. If that happened, then no writing would be happening at all. So I had to convert our second bedroom into an office.

The other place I love to write is a favorite coffee shop where they make the best chai. The smell of coffee in the cafe and the taste of the chai helps transport me to another world. And if I don’t find myself in either of these places then I’m sitting some place outside, on a nice day, and using my Blackberry to type. It’s nice to have an actual place to go, but my writer’s den is really inside my head, tucked away in a corner of my brain where I can get cozy and get to the business of creating other worlds.

What does your sanctuary look like? Do you have a particular place you love to write? If so, let us know.

By Tina R. McSwain

Poltergeist

The word itself comes from the German language for “noisy ghost”, a poltergeist is just that. This type of haunting is usually manifested by strange knocking noises or banging, and loud movement of objects. This movement of objects can sometimes be violent, such as items being thrown off of dressers, tables, shelves, or walls.  While this type of entity may respond to questions with raps and taps, there is no audio or EVP produced. Also absent is an apparition of any kind.

The key difference between poltergeists and other types of hauntings is the origin of the manifestations. Some believe that an actual spirit is present, but the traditional cause of the disruption is believed to be an adolescent girl from the haunted family. It is thought that some girls, at or near the onset of puberty, can develop a psychokinetic ability. This means that they can move and affect objects with their thoughts by use of mental energy. Whether they are purposely causing the chaos or merely unable to control their powers is a subject of debate.  The activity itself will eventually subside, but it cannot be driven out or exercised.  As the young girl begins to mature and understand the changes in her body and learns to deal with the  emotions that come with that process, the angst or fear experienced at first begins to subside, thus diminishing the activity altogether.  

by

J. F. Lewis

Run for your lives!  It’s the return of the Little Green Notes!  Gah!

(NOTE: If you’re just joining us, the notes in question are green Post-it notes that have been stuck to my office wall ever since I received the revision letter for STAKED (then called WELCOME TO THE VOID (and later BITE ME (but eventually STAKED))) and I began working on what would sort-of- kind-of-almost-be the draft that was eventually published.)

Number five is:  Meander Less

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a certain amount of meandering.  In the Void City books, Eric meanders all over the place, telling an anecdote here or there, but the key (as much as I can tell… and as with all my advice, your mileage may seriously vary) is to make sure you don’t go too far off the reservation without a reason.  Case in point:  El Segundo.

Eric went there, but what happened is a story I’ve yet to tell.  The events, however, are a part of Eric’s back story, so it’s appropriate to fill in the details as they apply to his current narrative.  But if I wanted to tell the whole story then I’d write a book called EL SEGUNDO (or more likely a one word past tense title so that it matched the other books…(UNSUNG, maybe?)) and spill the beans about the whole sordid affair.  And some of my readers would probably dig that.  But there something important is gained by both me and the reader when I fail to tell that story first:  It gives the characters a past.  They seem like they’ve already had adventures together and that “history” lends them an air of reality.  In addition, readers who enjoy digging out every little hidden piece of the Void City universe have something to put together, a puzzle to solve.

In STAKED, all anyone knew about Eric’s time in El Segundo was that it happened during the 1980’s, Eric met Talbot (his enigmatic shapeshifting Mouser pal), Eric was dating Irene at the time, demons were involved, Eric caught fire a lot, and something very very big went down.  In ReVAMPED, more info was doled out.  That “Big Thing That Went Down” was the end of the world.  Eric stopped it.  Not because he’s a hero (because he isn’t), but because he was there.   By the end of CROSSED, readers have enough to put even bigger chunks of the story together… Talbot broke a huge taboo of his people: “Knowledge gleaned from the akasha is not for those who cannot see its light” and was exiled for it, and…

It’s fun to know, but only parts of it directly impacted the three novels.  In fact, I could have gone back farther than that.  Eric fought in World War II and Korea while he was still alive.  In fact, he left the seminary to enlist, because he felt it was the right thing to do.  A novel about a would-be priest becoming a soldier, losing his faith trough the perils of war and being put back together again by the woman who loved him?  That would have been a whole other novel, set well before Eric was even a vampire.  In fact, if we wanted to REALLY start at the beginning, back in France there was this order of knights and this very powerful vampire, oh, but wait, before that there was this other vampire named Percival, oh, but before he was a vampire he was a wizard.  But, wait, no.  Before THAT, there were a brother and sister who…

Yeah.  The story has to start somewhere.  And when you stop telling the story and start telling another one you’re meandering.  Like I just did.  Well, unless you aren’t.  😉