Christine Amsden's Blog: Christine Amsden Author Blog, page 27

Mindful Eating: 5-Star Desserts

When I first embarked on my mindful eating journey a couple of months ago I had a set of rules that I’ve more or less stuck to, but from time to time they evolve. One of my rules was that there’s no point eating anything that I don’t think is less than a 4-star dish. I’f I’m not really liking it or loving it, why bother? I made an early exception for vegetables, allowing myself to eat 3-star vegetables, because I’m not crazy enough about that food group in general and it’s too important to skip. This weekend, I decided to make another exception, this time for desserts. The new rule is:

I will only eat 5-star desserts.

Now I’m not suggesting that everyone else rush out and adopt this strategy. Heck, my entire eating philosophy is difficult for the average person. It’s entirely psychological and really requires you to get your mind in the right place. It requires you to know good nutrition inside and out and to be able to enjoy a wide variety of foods from many different food groups. It also, IMHO, requires the ability to look inside yourself to fine tune the details. To know what’s working and what’s not. Knowing myself as I do is what convinced me to make the change I did this weekend.

I went on a weekend trip and I ended up being surrounded by desserts the whole time. There were Weight Watchers desserts (which I don’t have any trouble deciding not to eat at this point) and candy like M&Ms and Twizzlers. I didn’t eat any of it. Why not? Well, even if I believed the people who assured me that *this* diet recipe was actually very good (when I’ve never found this to be true in 35 years of dieting), I didn’t want to eat something very good. Mindfully, I was willing to wait for the cheesecake on Saturday. And if it hadn’t been that, then I would have known I could go out and get myself a really, really excellent dessert later in the week.

It helps that in my case I know how to bake. I buy ice cream and quality chocolate from the store. The rest of my desserts start from flower, baking soda, salt, eggs, butter, and sugar. I know something that most of the American public has been fooled into thinking isn’t so — that baking a cake from scratch is ridiculously simple. Box cakes? Why? If you’re going to take 5 minutes to mix up a cake batter you may as well take 10 and do it right. You can still get it in the cake pans before the oven is done preheating. (Or at least, you can once you get past your learning curve. I admit, I’ve been doing it this way for a few years.)

As for cookies…there is an entire aisle in the grocery store that I sometimes forget exists. It’s the one with the chemically-enriched  cookies in plastic packages. I’ve come to a point where I actively dislike them, but the point might have come sooner if I’d implemented my 5-star rule because there’s no way you can pit a hard, stale chocolate chip cookie from a plastic package against almost anyone’s homemade cookies and win.

Homemade cookies take more effort to cook than a store bought cookie. I’m not even going to pretend that opening a bag isn’t easier than mixing up cookie dough and spooning it onto cookie sheets. But in mindful terms, didn’t you have to think about it a bit before you made those cookies? And in the end, don’t they taste like a little piece of heaven?

5-star desserts are not exactly hard to come by, whether you can cook them yourself or not. If your goal is to love your food, then why settle for second best? Especially when we’re talking about foods that are inherently not good for you and have almost no nutritional value?

When Romance Becomes Deadly

Believe it or not, this post isn’t about vampires. But I can see why you might think so.

I was thinking recently about romantic books in which the hero or heroine is already married (to someone else) before they find their true love. It usually happens in historical romance, probably because in modern times anyone with sense could just get a divorce. This isn’t the most common trope out there, but it happens often enough to have me scratching my head in puzzlement.

The thing is that inevitably, when the hero or heroine is married, the old spouse has to die in order for us to get to a happily ever after (HEA). Now, there are times when the guy is such an amazing jerk or the girl such a witch that it’s not the worst outcome. But even then, it’s so morbid.

Here I am, the reader, sitting around, waiting for a character to die.

(It’s even worse if I don’t dislike the old husband/wife.)

Bottom line: The hero and heroine are not free to love one another, so I’m not free (as a reader) to love the idea of them being in love.

Characters Welcome: Elisha Barber

I’m pleased to have E. C. Ambrose here today to talk about Elisha Barber, the hero of a brand-new historical fantasy novel by the same name. Author and hero have known one another for ten years, and it began in blood…

Characters Welcome

About Elisha Barber

England in the fourteenth century: a land of poverty and opulence, prayer and plague, witchcraft and necromancy. Where the medieval barber-surgeon Elisha seeks redemption as a medic on the front lines of an unjust war, and is drawn into the perilous world of sorcery by a beautiful young witch. In the crucible of combat, utterly at the mercy of his capricious superiors, Elisha must attempt to unravel conspiracies both magical and mundane, as well as come to terms with his own disturbing new abilities. But the only things more dangerous than the questions he’s asking are the answers he may reveal…

From E. C. Ambrose…

I first met Elisha framed by sunlight streaming through a doorway, his hands dripping with blood, saying, “My God, I’ve killed them all.”

I wanted to grab him and shake his arm and demand to know whom he had killed and why and what would come of it. He wouldn’t tell me everything right away. Instead, I had to follow him through the dirty streets of medieval London, back to the hospital he despised, an incubator for disease where poor patients went to be ignored by the physicians until they died or were cured of their own accord.

Other men would say the prayers of the nuns aided these cures, but Elisha is skeptical of God and those who serve Him. His unguarded tongue in matters of religion and medicine has brought him the ire the master physician. At the same time, hundreds of citizens owe their health and that of their children to Elisha.

Unfortunately, that skill has lead him to arrogance—as we so often find in medical practitioners of any era—he listens to his patients, but ignores the advice of the learned in favor of more practical knowledge. He can’t read, of course. That surprised me at first, although it’s common enough in his time and place where very few are literate. Sometimes I worry about introducing him to my friends. Will he seem dim-witted, uncouth? Will they be put off by the blood that always edges his fingernails? Cleanliness is not a high virtue, though he does try.

Elisha came to his profession after he watched an angel burn. Well, he claims it was an angel, and sometimes others confirm they saw it, too, but most know that it was just the illusion of Satan trying to deceive the pious citizens who gathered to watch the execution. Just a boy at the time, Elisha didn’t understand why the guards shot the angel with arrows rather than freeing her from the stake, and he vowed that he would be prepared next time, with the skill to heal, and perhaps, with the will to defy those who claim to be his betters.

The trouble is, and I’m not sure that Elisha knows this about himself, he possesses a certain uncanny clarity of thought, an understanding about the body which guides his medical knowledge and gives him a high success rate, and a low tolerance for much of the foolishness that passes for learned medicine. There’s a point in his story where “uncanny” becomes something more—more meaningful, and much more dangerous—and he’ll have to choose how much he’s willing to risk, before he truly knows the rewards or the dangers.

That moment when I first met him changed everything for both of us. For me, it gave me a story to tell, a person to understand and challenge. For him, it ruined the life he knew and shook his confidence, even in the skill of his hands which had guided him for so long.

I’ve known Elisha for more than ten years now. I’ve seen his struggles, his rare victories, his persistence disregard for personal safety if someone else’s life is involved. It’s exciting and somewhat intimidating to introduce him to others for the first time. He’s like the brother nobody knew that I had.

________________________________

E. C. Ambrose is a newly minted history buff, adventure guide and accidental scholar. In addition to the Dark Apostle series, published works include “The Romance of Ruins” and “Spoiler Alert” articles in Clarkesworld, and “Custom of the Sea,” winner of the Tenebris Press Flash Fiction Contest 2012. The author spends too much time in a tiny office in New England with a mournful black lab lurking under the desk.

official website: www.TheDarkApostle.com

My Reading Addiction Blog Tour Schedule

A new book tour is starting up today! Come check it out. There is a prize associated with this tour — a signed copy of my debut novel, Touch of Fate.

July 1- Reading Addiction Blog Tours - Meet and Greet
July 2 - Logikal Blog - Guest Post/PROMO
July 3 - Booke Blogs - Guest Post/PROMO
July 4 - My Reading Addiction - Review
July 5 - Kil0u & Mimi - Interview/PROMO
July 8 - Word to Dreams - PROMO
July 9 - A Life Through Books - Review
July 10 - Books, Books, the Magical Fruit- Guest Post/PROMO
July 12 - Mythical Books - PROMO
July 13 - Magnolia Blossom Review - Review/Interview
July 14 - Zili in the Sky - Review
July 15 - Mom With a Kindle - Interview/PROMO
July 16 - Andi’s YA Books - Interview/PROMO
July 17 -Gimme the Scoop Reviews - Guest Post/PROMO
July 18 - The Readers Hollow - PROMO
July 19 - The Canon - Review
July 20 -Must Read Faster - Review/Guest Post
July 23 -Deal Sharing Aunt - Review/Interview
July 24 - Read Books and Live Green - Review
July 26 - Ali’s Books - Review
July 28 - Teen Blurb - Review/Guest Post
July 31 - RABT Reviews - Review

Quick Tips: First Lines

1. Keep it short.

Short sentences are easier to digest. They tend to convey simple concepts. They get straight to a point. Longer sentences are useful when you need to describe something bigger, more detailed, or more complex.

I’m sure you know that varying sentence lengths throughout your prose makes it stronger. Shorter sentences move the action along. Longer sentences add depths and may be useful in emphasizing an important concept. But some of the value of a long sentence is diminished in your first sentence because it’s already more important than any other sentence. As for the long sentence’s role in describing bigger, more detailed, or more complex ideas – be careful.

Your reader knows nothing. Even a highly intelligent reader may stumble upon a complex idea with no context. And I mean that regardless of the complexity of your story. In fact, the more complex your story the better off you are starting with something short and easily digestible. Something to ease us into things.

If you can’t keep it short, at least…

2. Keep it simple.

Length isn’t the only measure of an easily digestible sentence. Some sentence structures are easier to follow than others. The most important thing, regardless of sentence length, is that you convey a single digestible idea to the reader.

After you’ve spent an hour trying to come up with the perfect first sentence, you may no longer be able to tell if it’s simple or not. To know for sure, you need feedback. That is why, when I provide critique, I always stop to provide feedback on the first sentence before moving on. It has to be before I move on because that is the only time my perspective is pure. The only time it’s meaningful.

My feedback is not about how inherently hooky a single line is. It’s all about whether or not I stumbled over it, or worse – had to reread it. It’s also about whether or not I was confused. I may not know anything, but I don’t want to be confused for so much as a second.

I don’t comment on how inherently hooky the first sentence is because…

3. Understand that the purpose of the first sentence is to convince readers to try the second.

And so on and so forth. Eventually, I want to get hooked, but the first sentence need not carry the weight of the world on its shoulders. Some writers hyper-focus on the first sentence. This attitude can be a stumbling block in terms of finishing the story, or even getting it off the ground. Your first sentence does not have to make your story. In fact, it’s much easier for a first sentence to break your story than make it.

Yeah, there are a few of those lines… you know what I mean. The ones that are so awesome they make you stop to go, “Wow!” As a reader who is not afraid to put down a book, I can honestly say that I’ve quit reading books with first lines like that. They tend to get more time than usual, but they don’t make the book.

First sentences need to not be bad. They need to not confuse me. They need to say one thing I can wrap my mind around and then lead into something else.

4. Don’t start with a pronoun.

Pronouns reference proper nouns. If I don’t have a proper noun for reference, then they are not being used correctly. Worse, it’s inefficient. Amnesia stories or those involving nameless alien races aside, “he” tells me one thing about “him” – his gender. “Frank” tells me two things – his gender and his name.

Which leads me to…

5. Optimize your sentence.

You should optimize all your sentences, but if you’re going to slip, don’t do it in the first one. Every word should serve a purpose. All those rules for avoiding adverbs, redundancy, and overly long words when diminutive ones will do – up the stakes by an order of magnitude in the first sentence.

6. Avoid dialog openers.

This isn’t what I would call a hard and fast rule. (Oh heck, I hope you know all these rules can be broken if you insist – just understand the why so you can break them with purpose and style.) The trouble with a dialog opening goes back to the underlying issue with all first sentences – lack of context.

Dialog exacerbates this issue. Now, not only do you lack context for the story, but you also lack context for the speaker. Who is he? Or she? Where? What are they talking about? To whom?

Dialog rarely tells the reader anything concrete about the story. It’s usually a tease. And in that capacity, it is usually a throwaway line. It doesn’t convey purpose or meaning on its own.

The Creation of El Vengador

The Creation of El Vengador

By Stephanie Osborn

http://www.stephanie-osborn.com

Deputy Sheriff Michael Kirtchner gets an “unknown disturbance” dispatch call to a remote house trailer in the swamp. There, he discovers an old woman and a dog, terrorized by a mysterious beast, which he takes to be a bear. But when he contacts Game Warden Jeff Stuart to come trap the animal, Stuart tells him to get out if he values his life – this is no ordinary animal. Is Kirtchner up against a Swamp Ape – a Florida version of Bigfoot – or something more…sinister?

El Vengador (http://www.sff.net/people/steph-osbor...) is my first deliberate foray into the paranormal and horror genres. I’ve had numerous friends try to convince me to do so in the last few years, but never was able to get hold of the right story idea. So I waited and let it “percolate” in the back of my mind.

But when a Facebook friend (who wants to remain anonymous) told me the story of his encounter of a mysterious “Florida Swamp Ape” during his tenure as a deputy sheriff, I was fascinated. And when he gave his permission for me to fictionalize the story, I knew I had found my paranormal horror story.

So I took his basic story from his own words and I transformed it. I cleaned it up, couched it in proper writer’s grammar, changed the point of view. I changed the deputy’s name, added the perspective of other civilians who encountered the creature…and then I twisted the knife.

Because, you see, I have some Cherokee in me. Oh, the family can’t prove it, not after the way the Cherokee were ejected from their properties during the Trail of Tears; any Native American who could pass as white in those days, did, and all records of their heritage were lost. But because I have several distinctive genetic expressions of that heritage, I am accepted by most elders I know as Cherokee. And my curiosity being what it is, along with my sincerity in wanting to know, I’ve been taught numerous things that most people don’t generally know.

Like the fact that the Cherokee (along with the Seminole and the Iroquois Confederacy, among others) are purported to have been offshoots – colonies, if you will – of the Maya peoples. It’s interesting to note that, just as the “Cherokee” are a group of tribes [Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, etc.], the Seminole are a group of tribes [Seminole, Creek, Miccosukee, etc.], the Iroquois Confederacy are a group of tribes [Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, and later Tuscarora] ― so too are the Maya really a collection of tribes [Yucatec, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Ch’ol, Kekchi, Mopan, and more]! The Maya comprised, and still comprise (oh yes, they’re still around ― they were laughing their butts off at the white fear of the “end” of their repeating calendar), more than 25 different peoples. The notion of splinter groups of this huge nation (it covered a substantial portion of Central America, butted up against the Aztec/Olmec empire, and expanded out into the Caribbean) moving up into Florida, then up the East Coast of North America, isn’t hard to believe at all.

It’s also true ― as I mentioned in the story ― that the medicine people and elders hold that the Maya, in turn, came from some place across the Great Sea to the East. Depending on who you talk to, this means we/they originated in Ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, the Biblical traders of Tarshish, or even Atlantis!

So it seemed to me that it would put a fun spin on things if I had this swamp ape, this mysterious unknown creature, be something other than pure animal. As it turned out, my research into the Maya turned up a mysterious “Howler Monkey God,” Hun-Batz, and an entire mythology in which this god was set. Monkey = simian, and ape = simian, so it wasn’t a huge jump for me to proposing a curse invoking the Son of Hun-Batz. And suddenly the whole thing congealed into this amazing, suspenseful, paranormal horror story.

How amazing and suspenseful? Well, let’s just say I literally creeped myself out. I’m a night owl, prone to insomnia and getting up in the night to putter around until I can fall back asleep. And I immediately discovered that I didn’t enjoy that anymore; I had a constant feeling that there might be something outside, in the yard, in the dark, watching through the windows and doors. When I did go back to bed, it was only to have lucid nightmares about the creature and the events in the book! I took to closing the curtains and blinds, avoiding the windows at night. Finally I gave up writing on the story after sundown, choosing to write only in the light, and hoping to get the imagery out of my head by bedtime.

I was more or less successful in that. I find that I still do better not to think about the book at night, and I still have the blinds and curtains closed at night. But our neighborhood is well lit with street lights, and the birds cluster in the trees around the house and sing cheerfully. So I know there’s nothing out there that they think is unusual. And that is comforting.

I don’t know that I’ll regularly write horror. I’m inclined to think, from my experiences with El Vengador, that I might not be cut out for that! Still and all, much of the science fiction mystery I do write tends to have strong elements of both paranormal and thriller, with the occasional seasoning of horror concepts thrown in for good measure. So I think I can take what I have learned from the experience and fold it back into my other works. And I think they’ll be the better for it.

And you never know. After all, my friend really did encounter…something…in the swamps of Florida…

Characters Welcome: Julia Kogan

Characters Welcome is pleased to bring you Julia Kogan from Erica Miner’s Murder in the Pit. Julia is first introduced by her best friend and colleague, Sidney, before author Erica Miner talks about bringing her main character to life.

I first met Julia when she was auditioning for the violin position in the Met Opera Orchestra. She was young, wide-eyed, and totally hot. It was all I could do not to hit on her. Well, actually, I did; but she put me in my place early on. “Sid,” she said, “I adore you. But only as a colleague.” She was all business: her top priorities were her career, and her eagerness to prove her worth to our conductor, Abel.

 

It wasn’t long before Julia realized, as we in the orchestra all did, that we were just the hired help.  The true stars of this adrenaline-charged world were the Domingos and Pavarottis. Still, she maintained her starry-eyed idealism. And as a jaded veteran, I did everything I could to make her understand the harsh realities of working in the world’s most prestigious opera house.

 

On Julia’s debut performance night, I bumped into her at the security guard’s station at the stage door. It really burned her that, even after the change in safety measures caused by the 9-11 attacks, I was still able to pass through the barrier without showing my ID.

 

“How come he gets in with a wave but not me?” she asked the guard.

I just flashed her a hurried smile and said, “Stick with me, kid, you might get in with a wave, too. Someday.”

Julia rolled her eyes at me, turned back to the guard and said, “Is that fair?”

 

But by then I had already dashed through the gate and disappeared down the stairs leading to the orchestra level. She later told me she had felt like a modern-day Alice chasing after the White Rabbit as she scurried to catch up with me.

 

I remember when Julia confided her excitement to me the first time she saw the colossal opera star PlacidoDomingo in person.

 

“He smiled at me, I’m sure of it,” Julia said to me.

“Those Latin types can smell a young, inexperienced chick a mile away,” I told her.

She bristled. “What makes you think I’m inexperienced?”

“Just a hunch,” I said, trying to keep my smile from looking too obvious.

 

 

***

 

The above is written from the point of view of protagonist Julia’s best friend and colleague, Sidney, in my mystery novel Murder In The Pit. It illustrates one of my key techniques in creating a story and its characters: to write back stories for all of your main characters. I tried to make all of the characters in this story unique; and frankly, it wasn’t that difficult. With such a distinctive environment as the Metropolitan Opera as my background, quirky personalities were numerous, and I had a blast combining characteristics from all of them to create fascinating individuals. In the end, the Met itself was a character in the book because of the authenticity I brought to it from my own experiences.

 

Which brings me to another key piece of advice for writers: Write what you know. I was a violinist at the Met for 21 years. I not only “met” Julia, I was Julia. But I did need to keep in mind the advice of one of my writing teachers: Try to keep some distance from a character based on yourself. Assuming you know yourself well, it’s fine to be semi-autobiographical; but if you make your character a carbon copy of yourself, it’s tough to maintain the kind of objectivity you will need to make your story believable.

 

In my writing lectures and seminars, whether for fiction or screenwriting, I usually like to start a debate over this question: Which is more important, character or structure? The answer to this conundrum is notstraightforward. Both aspects are of tremendous importance in writing a story that will appeal to readers. In some ways the success of the story, especially in the mystery genre, is dependent on a tight structure, every plot point seamlessly integrated with every other plot point. The jigsaw puzzle can’t fit together if even one piece is missing or in the wrong place. That said, if the reader doesn’t care about the story’s characters and what happens to them, the reader or audience will not want to stay with the story, no matter how clever or well-structured. So the bottom line is that both character and structure are hugely important, and the writer should always keep both in mind during the process of developing a story and bringing it to fruition.

 

To set the stage for the criminal act that propels Murder In The Pit into motion, I tried to combine character traits with a hint of the disaster to come:

 

On her way to the women’s locker room, Julia passed Abel’s dressing room, where the Maestro Trudeau – Do Not Disturbsign was posted on the door. She didn’t know what was going on behind it; but even with the door closed, she could easily tell the raised voices were mine, and Abel’s.

 

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled at him.

“For God’s sake, Sidney, keep it down.”

“You said you’d leave her out of it!”

Abel lowered his voice. “I had no choice.”

“Over my dead body.” I said. “If I find out you’ve done something stupid, I’ll … I’ll write a whole new finale to your opening night!”

“The trouble with you, Sidney, is you think you’re too damned important,” he said with contempt. “No one is indispensable around here. Now get the hell out of my dressing room. We’ve got a show to do.”

 

Well, I was so burned I stormed out of the dressing room, slammed the door, and ran right into Julia. “How long have you been there?” I demanded.

“You know I get concerned when you and Abel — ”

“Who are you, my mother?”

“What’s going on, Sid? Why were you going at it again? Can’t you two just call a truce already? Please?”

Julia tried to charm me with a smile. I wasn’t having it, but I couldn’t stay mad at her. “Look, kid, it’s what parents do,” I said.

 

Then we made our peace. In the end, the show must always go on.

 

 

***

 

My first encounter with the art of writing was at age seven, when I was placed in an afterschool program for creative writing. I don’t remember what I wrote, but as a result of that experience I developed a passion for the process of creating characters and plots and expressing it all with the written word. Most of all, I foundthat I loved telling stories.

 

I still do.

Murder in the Pit

When first violinist Julia Kogan makes her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, she does not anticipate becoming involved in a murder before the performance is over…

Buy now from Amazon.

Audiobook Review: Essentially Yours

Marcella’s best friend, Callie, goes missing and it all has something to do with the package Callie received from from her brother — Marcella’s long-lost first love. People are dying, powerful forces have an interest in keeping this all quiet, and in the midst of it all Marcella must deal with long-buried feelings.

Told in the first person from Marcella’s point of view, and read by a talented voice actress with an ageless quality to her voice, this story was instantly captivating. I read a lot of books with young heroes and heroines, so for me it was refreshing to read about a middle-aged woman and her husband, especially since they acted their ages. They’ve both lived a lot of life and have the history to back it up. I also found the perspective to be charmingly honest. Marcella is unquestioningly in love with her husband, Quinn, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t affected by the return of her first lover after nearly two decades of his being MIA. She has to deal with those feelings, and with other secrets that come out over the course of the book.

There’s a mystic quality to this book. I almost hesitate to call it paranormal because it’s all tied in with natural medicine and Native American spirituality, although psychic links and astral projection do qualify as paranormal. It was subtle, written into the fabric of the world in a way that suspends disbelief.

Disclaimer: I read 95% of my books on audio, although I rarely read commercial audiobooks because I have access to the national library for the blind (which usually uses volunteer readers). I received a copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

My standards for audiobooks are high. Because I usually read non-commercial audiobooks that aren’t available to the general public, I don’t normally comment on that aspect of the books I review. But I’m aware of it. The reader for this book was very good. She did mispronounce the word copse consistently (using a long o instead of a short o), but that’s my only complaint. In all other ways she portrayed Marcella very well, reading with good tone/inflections.

I enjoyed reading this book. I would recommend it in audiobook format or in more traditional formats to mystery readers, especially those who like a little mysticism in their stories and who like a strong central character.

Rating: 4/5

Title: Essentially Yours

Author: Aaron Paul Lazar

Cassie Scot Audiobook

I just made an agreement with a talented voice actress to produce an audiobook version of Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective! Melissa Reizian Frank will begin production of the first book in the Cassie Scot series next month after she completes another commitment. I’m hoping to have the book available in audio format (mostly through audible) by the end of the summer.

Some of you may be aware that I don’t read many books in print. I listen to 95% of my books because I’m legally blind. I can get the font on my Nook large enough for me to read it but the process remains slow and tedious. I prefer 36-point font on my word processor and I use that when I’m writing or editing. I still don’t read very fast, but if I’m in editing mode I don’t want to.

For pleasure reading, though, audiobooks are the only style of reading that allow me to relax and enjoy. So I’m thrilled to begin producing audiobooks for my Cassie Scot series. This book will soon be available in any way a person might prefer to read it — in print, on an ebook reader, or through audio.

I’ll keep everyone up to date on the audio version of this book and let you know as soon as it’s out. The cover at will be different — either subtly or drastically depending upon whether I can buy the permission to use the print cover art on the ebook. If I can, we’ll just need to square it. If I can’t, I’m going to have to come up with something else.

Characters Welcome: Phoebe Wynne

Characters Welcome is pleased to introduce Phoebe Wynne, one of the original James Towne colonists who disappeared into the mists. Here she is in her own words…

My name is Phoebe Wynne. I originally hail from Dorset, England. In 1609, I sailed the Atlantic with my momma to James Towne, Virginia. Poppa was on another ship and was lost at sea. Unfortunately, our arrival coincided with what the colonists called the “Starving Time.”

By some means that I can’t comprehend, I traveled through a mist and found myself in the twenty-first century to tell my tale. I have lived in this time for three years, but the recent news reports of cannibalism at James Towne returned the horrors of that terrible winter to the forefront of my mind. Not a horse nor dog roamed the colony, and the skeleton discovered was only one of many corpses dug up and eaten.

Master Collins committed the greatest of sins. He hated his wife and killed her, saying that she had died. Then he cut her up, salted her, and satisfied his hunger. For his crime, he was burned at the stake. Whilst the other colonists were engaged in the execution, Momma and I slipped out of the fort unseen.

Once outside, we met the Paspahegh Indians, members of the Powhatan chiefdom. Contrary to what we had learnt from the colonists, the warriors were not “savages.” They did not believe in killing or raping women and children. The tribe saved us from starving along with our comrades and adopted us as one of their own. ‘Twas amongst them that I learnt the ways of wisakon, the art of healing, and became a cunning woman like my momma.

When I traveled to the twenty-first century, I met Detective Lee Crowley. He looks so much like a Paspahegh warrior that I immediately thought of him as a friend. No one initially believed my tale that I hailed from the seventeenth century, and Lee’s ex-wife, a psychologist, was assigned to my case to discover the truth.

Through hypnosis, Shae helped me recall what trauma I had endured. Her therapy worked for awhile, but I felt a stronger connection to Lee. When I was around him, I sensed his frustration of being caught betwixt two cultures. Adopted as a toddler, he had no idea what tribe he belonged to and kept a collection of artifacts from various tribes. In response to his questions about the past, I showed him the dreaming.

At first, he was skeptical that the dreaming could be a passageway betwixt two worlds, but the more we participated in the misty connection, the more he believed. He saw the world I had experienced firsthand, and as a result, he learnt more about his own culture and became curious to discover more.

We grew closer.

Shae dismissed the dreaming as the equivalent of hypnosis and worried that I lived in a fantasy world. I attempted to prove to her from where and whence I hailed. Yet, only Lee believed me.

The world of the seventeenth century was fraught with danger. Colonists killed Indians, and in turn, they retaliated. More and more people came from England and soon the native people were outnumbered. Some like to believe the English possessed superior weapons, but matchlock rifles were of little consequence to Powhatan bowmen. Sheer numbers overwhelmed them.

Then, there was disease. The colonists brought influenza, measles, and small pox to name a few. ‘Twasn’t ’til I lived in the twenty-first century that I fully understood the native people had no immunities to the introduced maladies. As a cunning woman, I tended those who became sick and watched many of them die. My world nearly crumbled lacking the necessary medicines to save the ones I loved.

Against my will, I was eventually returned to colonial life. So much had changed in the intervening years. E’en so, cunning women were often feared and believed to be witches. In modern times, most believe that Virginia was free from witch trials. I’m living proof to the contrary, and The Dreaming: Walks Through Mist is my story.

Bio: Kim Murphy lives in Virginia, where she absorbs the scenery, rich culture, and history of the area. When she’s not researching, attending author events, or writing, she can be found hiking with her Belgian sheepdogs, Saber and Phoebe. Although Saber is quite different from the Belgian in Whispers from the Grave, he was named after the dog in the book. And yes, Phoebe was named after the character, Phoebe Wynne. The Dreaming: Walks Through Mist has won the Next Generation Indie Book Award and an Honorable Mention from ForeWord magazine.

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Walks Through Mist

by: Kim Murphy

Witch trials in Virginia? Salem wasn’t the first…Psychologist Shae Howard treats a patient who claims to recall nothing of the current century. Under hypnosis, Phoebe Wynne tells an astonishing tale of an ocean crossing to Colonial Jamestown, followed by near starvation and a daring escape to a nearby Indian tribe.Although Shae’s ex-husband, seasoned police detective Lee Crowley, is intrigued by Phoebe’s story, he remains skeptical regarding her claim that she’s from the seventeenth century. A Native American himself, he does, however, admit to feeling a kinship with Phoebe. How is it that she seems to understand his pain and anger at being caught between two cultures?Phoebe shows Lee “the dreaming,” which reveals a misty world where the Powhatan people and Colonial Jamestown come to life… and connects him to his own past. Is Phoebe delusional? A witch? Or has she indeed traveled through time?

The Dreaming series:

Walks Through Mist http://www.amazon.com/Walks-Through-Mist-Dreaming-ebook/dp/B004QTOEE4/

Wind Talker (coming 2014)

Whispers series:

Whispers from the Grave http://www.amazon.com/Whispers-from-the-Grave-ebook/dp/B004H8GUQE/r

Whispers Through Time http://www.amazon.com/Whispers-Through-Time-ebook/dp/B004TMAGTU/

Promise & Honor trilogy:

Promise & Honor http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Honor-trilogy-ebook/dp/B004Z1UQL8/

Honor & Glory http://www.amazon.com/Honor-Glory-Promise-trilogy-ebook/dp/B0058ORLDM/

Glory & Promise http://www.amazon.com/Glory-Promise-Honor-trilogy-ebook/dp/B005GVQPDE/