Book Lovers Day: Two Books I suggest...

Biased of course, but I would suggest my two book babies!  I know when I tell people that I'm a writer, it dissolves into the world wide web of self-proclaimed writers. If you publish a tweet these days you're technically a published author on the presumptuous of fame. The right 144 characters, the perfect eye-catching meme, the next viral blog... and thankfully we have discovered some amazing talent when the flood gates of the internet were opened. Sadly, all that talent can easily get lost in the sea of 'shit' out there.

I started as a writer when I was just a young girl. I'm sure any one of my many grade school teachers would attest to my questioning if there was a minimum or maximum length on essays. My peers would grown as I asked, "can we write more than that?" I always wanted to be able to write until the story was done and getting lost in my stories was a great way to compete with my older sister, also a writer.  She was eight years older, very into Terry Brooks and J.R.R. Tolkien and I grew up thieving her books! Our mother was rigorous about our cursive handwriting and signature and by the time I was in Kindergarten at the public school level, I had already been re-writing Bible scriptures for years.

Myself and fellow writer friends Tom Kenny and Marley Gibson

Fellow writer Konstantino and Parapsychologist Lloyd Auerbach

friend and writer, M. Belanger

The creator of Powdered Toast Man!? 

Writer and actor Sam Huntington with fellow para-writer, Mallie Fox 

Getting to meet the great Terry Brooks! 

I wrote stories, choose-your-own-adventure books, poems and all sorts of strange short-stories all throughout my school years.  I took all the creative writing classes I could in high school, and even went to the weekly poetry readings at the downtown Parkville Fudge shop. I looked up to women in my life that were gifted writers, my grandmother, mother, sister and aunt.  I had a family of published authors and nothing I seemed to create was ever 'good enough' and even in school I noticed the teachers stopped grading and making red marks at the minimum required page.  At about six-teen, I learned that if you want to write, you had better do it for yourself.  Criticism and lackadaisical standards were all around us, swarming in a buzz of AOL and xanga. I continued to write.

I wrote for my college papers, submitted short stories to the Missouri Conservation Magazine, local papers, and continued to seek out other writers. I found Maria Tortilla and finally had teachers encouraging my writing.  By the time I was a graduate student, I was writing articles for Supernatural Magazine, Taps Paramagazine, BioGamer Girl Magazine, CityPages and scholarly articles at my alumni. I still wanted to write more... perhaps even make some money?

I met up with a friend via a paranormal conference when he gathered interest in my lecture on quantum parapsychology. I was self-proclaimed struggling with the science and he was an amateur physicist.  Together we started writing our book and shopping publishers. It was exciting! Then, years seemed to past and publishers explained that there was simply 'no money in science'.  No one had an interest in our book because there didn't seem to be a public demand to learn much about new science and those interested in the paranormal wanted entertaining shows, not science. We were at a standstill.

I struggled with the rejection and started writing for myself again. Non-fiction stories, sci-fi stories, thrillers, psychological characters, and continued science articles here and there.  Then, out of nowhere, a publisher approached me after a lecture on my experiences in the paranormal:
"We would love to publish a collection of your amazing stories. Would you be interested in an advance?" The ideal publishing scenario, from a reputable company, plopped in my lap as a gift of validation and HAUNTED BY THE ABYSS was born.

A year later, Dave and I decided to self-publish our book after a large demand and online following had gathered around our concept of Quantum Parapsychology.  We luckily had friends and family step in to support us and together we birthed: QUANTUM PARAPSYCHOLOGY.  Signing the first copies at the recent Troy Taylor HAUNTED AMERICA conference was a dream come true. It was validation of the most important lesson in writing once can remember - stay true to YOU.

When you write for yourself, from within, without judgement or concern for others - your truth purges forward and that seems to be the best recipe for reader-writer connection.