Joanne Alain Cook's Blog, page 3

Ghosts

With Spectral Analysis close to being published, I thought I’d speak about ghosts…some people believe, some don’t, and many just don’t know. In the story, there’s a character of each in the cast of the TV show. I‘m going to start with Carlos because he is likely like most folks. He doesn’t really think about ghosts. Even though he’s helping the crew look for ghosts, he doesn’t really think they’ll find anything. Carlos is just doing his job. But that doesn’t mean that he is a non believer. Carlos is open to being enlightened…he just isn’t expecting it to happen. What do you believe?

Doctor Bones

Doctor Bones has hit the shelves. It comes right out of the hand-drawn book of Jonna's Bedtime Stories, written twelve years ago and frantically illustrated before my maternity leave expired and I was sent back to work. That was a splendid year for writing and drawing children's stories because what else would I do with a six-year-old and a new baby for company all day? Jonna insisted on new characters in every new tale and this skeleton protagonist happened along near the end of the sketchbook. I remember that summer and fall well. Halloween was a highly anticipated event and Jonna desparately wished to be a ghost that year. It isn't our only story with rhyme and rhythm, but it does follow a nice pattern that has stood the test of time.

Halite-salt of the earth

Salt. Cubic, clear, soft, it’s an evaporate. Historically, salt was used to preserve food. It’s used to purify and protect against dark energy. Ever wonder what a grain of salt looks like up close? A clear cube. Made up of ions that are polar opposites and stick together with the strongest forces of electrostatic attraction and yet the ions fall apart easily with a little water to muddy the bonds. Kind of like when the rational mind melts away in the middle of a dark night and the paranormal become plausible.

Let’s talk about Ghosts

Hallucination? Sleep paralysis? Overactive imagination? Can a ghost be detected with scientific gear, quantified and confirmed? It’s so easy to poo-poo the notion of ghosts because they have no place in our modern, tech savvy world. But once upon a time, neither did germs, or atoms, or invisible waves carrying our conversations through air miles and miles to ears we may never see. What if there is energy we haven’t yet detected with our standard senses? Energy that latches onto organic matter and pulses out causing life. This is one topic the ghost hunters of Spectral Analysis explore.

Hangsaman

Read it and weep. SJ takes us into the mind of a confused young woman. Was she assaulted? Is Tony real? Did she steal from her dormmates? SJ has captured the terrifying transition from childhood home to adulthood like no other, and it is timeless. I do enjoy a nice mystery.

Elixir of Life

Imagination is the elixir of life. Books, Music, and the visual arts are the vessels we utilize in which to imbibe. I'm sure someone said this before me, but it hit me the other day when I was dreaming up a cover for a new story? Relay a murder, put blood on the cover. A mystery, make it dark. A dog as a major character, but a dog image somewhere. I hope it's funny, make the font more whimsical. Everything about making up a story is fun...I admit, I even hear the background music in my head when I'm writing the story.