Polly Iyer's Blog - Posts Tagged "serial-killer"
I'm Jealous of My Character
I’m psychically deprived. Don't have a psychic bone in my body. No premonitions, no spooky hair-standing-on-end moments. So what inspired me to write a series with a psychic character?
Jealousy.
I would love to touch someone and see inside them, or hold a missing person’s article of clothing and get a vision of where that person was. My character in MIND GAMES, Diana Racine, can’t make up her mind whether having those abilities is a gift or a curse.
She’s a psychic entertainer. She’s also a fraud. That’s right, fraud, as in charlatan, huckster, and even witch. Those are only a few of the epithets she’s been called. She employs a computer hacker to dig up information on the people in the audience by cracking the credit cards they use to buy a seat for one of her performances. But with every reading, she reveals a fact known only to her subject, whose reaction assures the audience that Diana is not the fraud people claim. So is she for real, or is she a con artist?
Diana’s story goes back over twenty-five years. Her first psychic experience as a six-year old was an accident. A neighborhood boy went missing, and Diana picked up one of his toys. Wham! She saw where he was clear as day and led the search party to his body in a ditch not far from his house.
After a few more astonishing discoveries, law enforcement began calling on her to help find people who’d disappeared, and those who’d given up hope of locating their missing kin paid her to do the same. Many didn’t believe a child could possess that much power. Some even accused her of setting up the disappearances and the discoveries. Most put their skepticism to rest after institutes all over the world proved she was the real thing.
Along with worldwide fame came the stress of finding lost people―children who’d strayed, Alzheimer patients who’d lost their way, murder victims. Sometimes finding those victims led to clues that put some bad people behind bars. When the pressure became too much, Diana told her manipulative father that she’d lost her gift. Unwilling to give up the life to which he’d become accustomed, he created her act. That’s how she segued from famed child psychic to more famous psychic entertainer.
One of the killers who wound up in prison because Diana found clues that led to his arrest, has festered for twenty years about exacting revenge on the child who sent him there. He’s out, and though Diana doesn’t know it yet, she’s in big trouble. The twist is that the killer has the same psychic abilities as Diana, which makes for a duel of mental dominance.
Are there really people who have psychic abilities? Yes. Are there frauds? Yes again. The only thing that separates one from the other is their track record and/or a good PR person. Some have websites and claim their teachings can help followers find their spiritual selves. They make generic predictions and promote their own beliefs; others claim they can speak to the departed, and most perform for a price.
I have a friend who’s had psychics tell her things they couldn’t possibly know. She’s a believer. Personally, I don’t want a psychic reading. I know what’s already happened, and like a character in the second book of the series, GODDESS OF THE MOON, I’m too old to want to know the future. We all have the same end. I’d prefer not to know mine. I like surprises.
Jealousy.
I would love to touch someone and see inside them, or hold a missing person’s article of clothing and get a vision of where that person was. My character in MIND GAMES, Diana Racine, can’t make up her mind whether having those abilities is a gift or a curse.
She’s a psychic entertainer. She’s also a fraud. That’s right, fraud, as in charlatan, huckster, and even witch. Those are only a few of the epithets she’s been called. She employs a computer hacker to dig up information on the people in the audience by cracking the credit cards they use to buy a seat for one of her performances. But with every reading, she reveals a fact known only to her subject, whose reaction assures the audience that Diana is not the fraud people claim. So is she for real, or is she a con artist?
Diana’s story goes back over twenty-five years. Her first psychic experience as a six-year old was an accident. A neighborhood boy went missing, and Diana picked up one of his toys. Wham! She saw where he was clear as day and led the search party to his body in a ditch not far from his house.
After a few more astonishing discoveries, law enforcement began calling on her to help find people who’d disappeared, and those who’d given up hope of locating their missing kin paid her to do the same. Many didn’t believe a child could possess that much power. Some even accused her of setting up the disappearances and the discoveries. Most put their skepticism to rest after institutes all over the world proved she was the real thing.
Along with worldwide fame came the stress of finding lost people―children who’d strayed, Alzheimer patients who’d lost their way, murder victims. Sometimes finding those victims led to clues that put some bad people behind bars. When the pressure became too much, Diana told her manipulative father that she’d lost her gift. Unwilling to give up the life to which he’d become accustomed, he created her act. That’s how she segued from famed child psychic to more famous psychic entertainer.
One of the killers who wound up in prison because Diana found clues that led to his arrest, has festered for twenty years about exacting revenge on the child who sent him there. He’s out, and though Diana doesn’t know it yet, she’s in big trouble. The twist is that the killer has the same psychic abilities as Diana, which makes for a duel of mental dominance.
Are there really people who have psychic abilities? Yes. Are there frauds? Yes again. The only thing that separates one from the other is their track record and/or a good PR person. Some have websites and claim their teachings can help followers find their spiritual selves. They make generic predictions and promote their own beliefs; others claim they can speak to the departed, and most perform for a price.
I have a friend who’s had psychics tell her things they couldn’t possibly know. She’s a believer. Personally, I don’t want a psychic reading. I know what’s already happened, and like a character in the second book of the series, GODDESS OF THE MOON, I’m too old to want to know the future. We all have the same end. I’d prefer not to know mine. I like surprises.
Character Blog - Diana Racine
Good friend Jim Jackson, or as he’s known in the literary world, James M. Jackson, invited me to participate in a character blog. Since I had a new release featuring my character, Diana Racine, I thought why not? You can find Jim’s books, Bad Policy and Cabin Fever, at your favorite bookstore or online venue. His blog describing his character, financial investigator Seamus McCree, is at this location:
http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/20...
Financial crimes investigator Seamus McCree returns in this thrilling sequel to Bad Policy. With his house in Cincinnati in ruins, Seamus retreats to the family cabin for some well-earned rest and relaxation. But his plans for a quiet, contemplative winter in the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are thrown out the window when he discovers a naked woman on his porch during a blizzard. The mystery woman is suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, high fevers, amnesia—and rope burns on her wrists and ankles.
I never intended to write a series when I wrote Mind Games, but I got an idea for book two, and Goddess of the Moon was born. It all fit so perfectly. Diana, a character in mythology, was Goddess of the Hunt and Goddess of the Moon.
Then readers asked for book three, and I panicked. Could I write a third?
Backlash was released September 30, 2014. People have already asked me about a fourth. To that I say, maybe.
What makes the series a natural is Diana herself. Here’s why:
Diana gained celebrity when she was six-years old after she found the body of a missing child. From that point until she was twelve, her father pushed her to find missing persons both for the police and for individuals searching for their missing kin, most of whom are dead.
The pressure on the young psychic took its toll, and to save her sanity, she claimed she lost her gift. Unwilling to lose his meal ticket, Diana’s father created a psychic act that traveled the world. How does a psychic who’s supposedly not psychic anymore star in a psychic act?
Easy. Daddy hired computer experts to hack into audience participants’ credit cards and any other trough of information to aid Diana pull off her ruse. Besides what her hackers unearthed, she somehow managed to find something in everyone’s psychic reading that no one else could have known.
So, is our heroine is a fraud, a charlatan, and a quack, or is she the real thing?
That’s what New Orleans police lieutenant Ernie Lucier had to decide in the first book, Mind Games, when she told him she saw the body of a dead woman in a vision when a masked man touches her at a Mardi Gras ball.
Diana is described by many as trouble looking for a place to happen. She’s fearless, reckless, and smart, but the one thing that sets her apart and makes it difficult for her to do anything clandestinely is she’s famous. People recognize her wherever she goes.
Here are some Diana facts:
She’s 5’2”, has a mass of black curls, wears only black and white with a touch of red to match her lipstick, and she might do an occasional private reading for an exorbitant fee. She won’t, however, perform in front of crowds, although in book three, she’s snookered into doing just that.
Diana is a fun character to write because I never know what she’s going to do. She learns more about the bad guys from touching them, and that’s why she’s always a target. They’re afraid of her. Ernie Lucier is totally smitten, and though a quiet, thoughtful man, he’s had to adjust to her celebrity. They make a great team.
My choice to pass along the character blog is Aaron Paul Lazar and his character Sky Lissoneau: the “Bad Boy” from Tall Pines Mysteries.
When Sky returns to the States after being MIA for eighteen years, his first love, Marcella, is stunned and deeply conflicted. Sky suffered badly in the war, forced to abandon his platoon when his best friend’s life was in danger. Captured and held as a prisoner of war for years, all he could think of was Marcella, his darling Marcella. It was the thought of Marcella’s soft kisses that kept him going. Her infectious laugh helped him survive the cruelest torture. And when he returns with a gang of vicious hi-powered crooks chasing him, she saves his life. Somehow, he just knew she’d be there, still waiting. But he didn't know she'd be married to Quinn "Black Eagle" Hollister.
Here's the link to Aaron's blog: http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2014/10...
http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/20...
Financial crimes investigator Seamus McCree returns in this thrilling sequel to Bad Policy. With his house in Cincinnati in ruins, Seamus retreats to the family cabin for some well-earned rest and relaxation. But his plans for a quiet, contemplative winter in the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are thrown out the window when he discovers a naked woman on his porch during a blizzard. The mystery woman is suffering from hypothermia, frostbite, high fevers, amnesia—and rope burns on her wrists and ankles.
I never intended to write a series when I wrote Mind Games, but I got an idea for book two, and Goddess of the Moon was born. It all fit so perfectly. Diana, a character in mythology, was Goddess of the Hunt and Goddess of the Moon.
Then readers asked for book three, and I panicked. Could I write a third?
Backlash was released September 30, 2014. People have already asked me about a fourth. To that I say, maybe.What makes the series a natural is Diana herself. Here’s why:
Diana gained celebrity when she was six-years old after she found the body of a missing child. From that point until she was twelve, her father pushed her to find missing persons both for the police and for individuals searching for their missing kin, most of whom are dead.
The pressure on the young psychic took its toll, and to save her sanity, she claimed she lost her gift. Unwilling to lose his meal ticket, Diana’s father created a psychic act that traveled the world. How does a psychic who’s supposedly not psychic anymore star in a psychic act?
Easy. Daddy hired computer experts to hack into audience participants’ credit cards and any other trough of information to aid Diana pull off her ruse. Besides what her hackers unearthed, she somehow managed to find something in everyone’s psychic reading that no one else could have known.
So, is our heroine is a fraud, a charlatan, and a quack, or is she the real thing?
That’s what New Orleans police lieutenant Ernie Lucier had to decide in the first book, Mind Games, when she told him she saw the body of a dead woman in a vision when a masked man touches her at a Mardi Gras ball.
Diana is described by many as trouble looking for a place to happen. She’s fearless, reckless, and smart, but the one thing that sets her apart and makes it difficult for her to do anything clandestinely is she’s famous. People recognize her wherever she goes.
Here are some Diana facts:
She’s 5’2”, has a mass of black curls, wears only black and white with a touch of red to match her lipstick, and she might do an occasional private reading for an exorbitant fee. She won’t, however, perform in front of crowds, although in book three, she’s snookered into doing just that.
Diana is a fun character to write because I never know what she’s going to do. She learns more about the bad guys from touching them, and that’s why she’s always a target. They’re afraid of her. Ernie Lucier is totally smitten, and though a quiet, thoughtful man, he’s had to adjust to her celebrity. They make a great team.
My choice to pass along the character blog is Aaron Paul Lazar and his character Sky Lissoneau: the “Bad Boy” from Tall Pines Mysteries.
When Sky returns to the States after being MIA for eighteen years, his first love, Marcella, is stunned and deeply conflicted. Sky suffered badly in the war, forced to abandon his platoon when his best friend’s life was in danger. Captured and held as a prisoner of war for years, all he could think of was Marcella, his darling Marcella. It was the thought of Marcella’s soft kisses that kept him going. Her infectious laugh helped him survive the cruelest torture. And when he returns with a gang of vicious hi-powered crooks chasing him, she saves his life. Somehow, he just knew she’d be there, still waiting. But he didn't know she'd be married to Quinn "Black Eagle" Hollister.
Here's the link to Aaron's blog: http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2014/10...
