Folks, I sincerely apologize that this has taken me so long!  "Where is your book?" is a question I get frequently!  Well, it's coming.  I promise. 

Although I was happy with draft number one, there was still something....well, missing. So I decided to sit on it.  Take a writing course while I thought things over.  Study more.  Learn as much as I could about book publishing.  Kept sitting.  Sitting.  Then got very stuck. 

What is the ONE THING the biggest best-sellers hold?  Uniqueness.  EXTREME uniqueness.  Well, I thought that my ghost story was unique.  But the more I read, the more thought about it....

Nope.  I knew that my story wasn't exciting enough. 

So I sat.  Sat sat sat.

Until two days ago.

I know what was missing and I am thrilled about it!  Happened upon an old psychology book from the late 1800's, and it is filled with GOLD.

Gimme a little while longer.  It's coming.  It's better.  :>)

So.........

Revise, revise, revise.......
I am learning that this is the writer's life!
I have had several people ask me "Where's your book?!?"  Well, it's getting a face lift.  Again.  Which will be followed by more tweaking and twisting and twirling.  So, I apologize for the wait, but I want to get this RIGHT!  I'm also taking a copywriting course that I think will only help my style of writing.  This will take me a year (at least!) to finish.   Not to mention, but I've also been advised by several writers to wait until the economy gets better.  Hard to sell anything right now, let alone something that is hard to sell in a good economy!  So, I apologize for the wait.......you are all so great for your inquiries!......but it'll be a while longer.  Thanks so much for your support!

On my way

Hey all!  I'm hoping that the book will be available on Amazon (in e-form) by the end of January.  Crossing my fingers.  Just waiting for the reviews and editing to finish up, and then I will need a little time to do some revisions. Great reviews so far!  So exciting!

I've decided that I'm going to wait until the book goes live to do much more posting.  Developing a plan of marketing attack is taking up much of my time, and also, I've started book #2.  With the busy Christmas season, I'm mentally at capacity!  :>)  Plus, this way, my posts will contain final, edited versions of the book.

I hope everyone is surviving Christmas season thus far.  Take care!  Merry Christmas!

What would Geri think?

(clipped from Chapter One of The Secondary Crow)

I’d told him not to marry me.  It wasn’t his obligation. I wasn’t his obligation.  But every once in a tidal moon, the heavens create a being that defies all logic and embraces the beautiful, perfect state of stubborn selflessness.  Wes loved me.  He would give me the wedding that every girl dreams about from the moment they experience their first crush.  He would place a diamond ring on my delicate finger; a piece of his heart flashing and glittering, blinding those whose eyes and thoughts veered him as a fool for wanting to marry death’s bride. 

            I never did deserve this man.  Even from the very beginning, from the very first touch, I knew that life would have to balance out somehow in the end.  When something great happens, the opposite is just waiting in the wings. Stubborn little tom-girls like me just didn’t win guys like Wes.  There was certainly a princess somewhere out there, and I had cheated her out of her prince.  Little old me.  Lost in the arms of Wes.  Lost in the delirium of storybook love. 

            But that balance, the cancer, indeed did make a cruel entrance into our lives.  And it was going to take me away from him.  My heart would stop.  I would be lost.  Wes would be lost. 

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Thanks to a medical test requiring sleep deprivation, I've been awake for over 36 hours, so please forgive me for keeping this post short.  My brain is screaming for me to put it to sleep, but first things first!  I have to thank the wonderful people who are reviewing my book-- your comments today made me cry.  I hoped people would like the book, but I never imagined that the book would be so "consuming".....To hear that people can't put your book down is THE BEST compliment a writer will ever receive!  So thank you all so much!  And just FYI, I am taking the manuscript to the editor tomorrow.  Kindle and nook, here we come!  Thank you all for being so patient!

As promised, here is the beginning my series of personal ghost stories.  I must start with the "muddy boot man" (a name you will become familiar with in the book), because he was my first legitimate paranormal encounter.

When I was growing up, my bedroom was in the basement of our home.  I hated my room because it was close to the furnace room-- a room that scared me beyond belief just because it was dark and noisy and smelled funny.  Both of my sisters also dwelled with me in the basement--their bedrooms were on either side of mine--but they're close company didn't help.  At night I slept with my covers wrapped so tightly around my head that I'm surprised I didn't suffocate.  I believed in ghosts as a child--sure--but I don't recall ever putting two and two together.  Perhaps I subconsciously knew that I was not alone?  Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

Fast forward to when I was about ten years old.  Every Ogdenite (people from Ogden, Utah) knows of the Union Train Station.  25th and Wall.  Can't miss it.  Now an historical landmark, it is full of museums and shops and even a small restaurant (ate there just last week--The philly sandwich is divine.)  Anyway, one afternoon my mother decided to take a friend of hers and me to the Union Grill for lunch.  I ate the french dip.  (Sounding familiar, those who have read the book?)  I needed to use the bathroom before we left.  Mom and her friend Marty stayed at the table while I went.

If you visit the train station today, sadly, the bathroom of my experience no longer exists.  (I didn't know this until I went there several months ago to do research for the book...at first I was absolutely devastated, but, in the end, it worked out great!  I'm not sure where the story would have gone if the bathroom had remained the same!)  Now-a-days,  a purple door leads you into a small two-staller with one sink.  When I was 10, this particular restroom was still as old fashioned as they come: it was vast, with several stalls and a long row of porcelain sinks with 'X' knobs.  I remember feeling nervous when I entered the bathroom.  I was alone, yet, I did not feel alone.  I did my duty quickly, but remember hesitating when I opened the stall door.  Did I hear something?  I couldn't know for sure.  When I opened the stall door, I verified that I was alone.  However, when I watched the bathroom sink knobs begin to turn on, one by one, by themselves, I knew that I was wrong.  I was not alone. 

I'm pretty sure that's the only time I've ever left a restroom without washing my hands.

Mom and her friend Marty were too deep into a discussion to notice that I was pasty white.

Fast forward several years.  I'd never told anyone about the incident.  (I'd literally been scared speech-less!  Plus, did I really want anyone to think I was crazy?)  Then the internet came out.  (Yes, young friends...there once was a day when the internet did not exist.)  I was a teenager.  Halloween time rolled around.  Friends and I were talking about ghosts.  I got brave/curious.  Did a search on the Union Station, found a relating link about ghost stories, and found out I was not the only one who had encountered a male ghost who preferred to haunt the women's restrooms.  Long story short, several women had a similar experience to me, and some of them had even seen a pair of muddy boots standing beneath the stall doors.  One woman opened the door to confront him--What the hell was a workman doing in a women's bathroom?- but, of course she opened the door to empty space. 

Funny thing?  Since then I haven't been able to find the original posts I read, or even any other posts about the muddy boot man.  I've also asked several workers at the Union Station, and only one of them knew anything about a ghost in the women's bathrooms, and even then her story was vague.  When I told her my story, she just about fell over!  Sorry mister boot man....your story is out!

Now, because I didn't see him, am I sure that it was the muddy boot man I encountered?

Yep.  I'm sure.  I can't explain how, but I am sure.

It was several years before my next encounter, but one single encounter started a chain reaction.  More tomorrow.  G'night friends!

"In everything, consider the end." -French Proverb

chapter one              molecule

IT SEEMED THAT EVERY TIME I STEPPED OUTSIDE, a crow flew over my head. Intelligent, nasty little demons of misgiving disguised in a rut of black feathers. Many cultures warn that the crow is a soothsayer, an omen of demise, and even associate it with the Goddess of death.  Appropriately, a group of them is called a “murder”. 

It didn’t matter what I was doing at the moment.  Where I was going.  Whether I was taking out the garbage or answering the friendly wave of a neighbor.  The crows were always there.  Waiting on my roof or in a treetop, their charcoal wingspans stretching out in delight at the sight of me. 

That should’ve been my first clue that tabs were being kept on my number.  Death’s little black helpers were keeping a constant surveillance on me, just waiting to strike.

But, in the end, I managed to mentally work past the crows.  They were only secondary to the problem.  It was the cancer that killed me.

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And so begins chapter one of my new book, The Secondary Crow.  I will be including pieces of the book with every post just to give you a flavor of what to expect.  The book has not been published yet-- I will keep you posted on milestones--but I hope it's out there soon! 

For those of you who haven't read the short synopsis of the book on my website (thesecondarycrow.com--it's not much of a site yet, but will be soon), the book isn't actually about crows.  In reality, I know very little about birds in general.  But, there is one thing that I know a lot about, which is why I chose to write about them.

Ghosts.

My main character, Gerilee Sayer, is a young woman who dies of cancer.  She's expecting to ascend into a heaven filled with golden gates and angels, but instead finds herself stuck in a state of paranormal anxiety.  The entire book is told from her perspective, aka through the eyes of a ghost.  Have you ever imagined what the world would look and be like from a ghost's perspective?  I have.  A lot, actually. 

I wont lie-- I will be using this site to promote my books, BUT, even more so I want to use it as a discussion board.  Why?  Because until recently, I was living in a paranormal dark corner.  By that, I mean I was too hesitant to share my paranormal experiences with anyone because I really had no desire to be one of those "weirdos".   Who isn't told as a child that ghosts don't exist?  So isn't it natural for us as humans to think there is something wrong with us when we, as individuals, have experiences that tell us otherwise?

Needless to say, I've come out of my dark corner and embrace who I am.  There is nothing wrong with believing in ghosts.  Trust me.  75% of Americans believe in the paranormal.  Half of those people believe that they have had a paranormal experience.   I am not alone, and neither are you. 

The Secondary Crow has been a life-changing outlet for me.  Living in a world where ghosts are the norm requires some sort of "handle" to keep you grounded.  Luckily, I found one through writing.  (Others aren't always so lucky--but that is a discussion for another day.)  One day a few years ago I finally decided to quit fighting it.  So what if I was one of "those people" who had some sort of connection with the afterlife?  I had a choice to either continue going to bed terrified every night, or I could open myself up to it, educate myself, and embrace it.  I chose the latter.  And what a wise choice it was. 

Allowing yourself to recognize and believe in what you are experiencing is the first step.  The best way to do this?  Talk to others who can sympathize with you, who know first hand that your experiences are legitimate.  Tell your stories!  (I LOVE hearing other people's stories!  And I hope you'll share them with me!  I'd love to incorporate some of them into future books!)  You'll be amazed at how widely your mind will open when you share your experiences and hear others' stories.  It doesn't take long to begin to tap into the psychology of ghosts, as weird as that may sound.  In other words, it won't take long for you to not be scared anymore.  (At least, not all the time.  I've had a few "visitors" that have scared the hell out of me, and rightly so.)  There are so many types of spirits out there.  In the book, I cover quite a few different kinds, even though some only briefly.    (Side note: most of the ghost encounters Geri experiences in the book are based on my own paranormal experiences.) 

Along with posting bits of the book and keeping you updated on availability and also the status of upcoming books, I will be sharing my paranormal experiences, old and new.  For those who don't believe, please enjoy them as an entertaining read, and enjoy the book, also.  (My goal isn't to convince you that ghosts exist-- my goal is to entertain you and also get your mind in motion.)  For those who do, please view them as educational and insightful.  Again, please share your own stories and insight!  I look forward to this!