Rebecca Reilly's Blog - Posts Tagged "haunting-megan"
The Votes Are In
Thank you for your feedback on the Haunting Megan cover design. With 244 votes tallied, the winner was clear. Mary Glass, Christina Wylie, Jennifer Del Bove, Linda Del Bove, and Kim Young were the five whose names were drawn to receive advance copies of the book. Watch Goodreads for another Haunting Megan contest. Release date--September 1.
Check out the cover design winners and losers at http://rebeccareilly.net/?p=407
Check out the cover design winners and losers at http://rebeccareilly.net/?p=407
How Abuse Made Me Strong
Just before my seventeenth birthday, I woke to my mother standing above me with a chef's knife raised and ready to plunge. I screamed. She lowered the knife and walked out of my bedroom without saying a word.
It wasn't the first time she'd raised a weapon, or her fists, against me. No, never when she was sober. But sobriety and my mother didn't often meet.
I moved out the next morning and spent the rest of my senior year of high school sleeping on my best friend's floor.
Abuse warps, twists and changes the inner child into something different, not less, than who that child was created to be. Without love, support, healing, and letting go of the pain and bitterness, the twisting can destroy.
But with love, support, healing, and letting go, the twisting spurs growth and strength. I was blessed. My neighbor cared for me, my friend gave me a place to sleep, my drive got me through college, my husband proved to me I was worthy to be loved, and I found a passage of scripture (Psalm 139) that gave me hope.
There were times I had to force myself to take the next step. I transferred colleges because I started drinking too much and realized I was following my mother's path. I wrote my blessings and my strengths down in a journal when I felt humiliated and worthless. I focused on the future when I was tempted to bury myself in the past.
It took people to build me up from the outside, and discipline and faith to build up my soul.
My latest book, Haunting Megan, begins in my teenage home; the opening chapters are autobiographical. Writing them was therapy for me. Reading them provided therapy for my siblings. Much of my heroine's inner doubts and struggles were mine. As were her victories.
The ghosts and murders are just for fun.
Haunting Megan is available for pre-order at iBooks (http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganiBooks) and at Amazon (http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganAmazon)
It wasn't the first time she'd raised a weapon, or her fists, against me. No, never when she was sober. But sobriety and my mother didn't often meet.
I moved out the next morning and spent the rest of my senior year of high school sleeping on my best friend's floor.
Abuse warps, twists and changes the inner child into something different, not less, than who that child was created to be. Without love, support, healing, and letting go of the pain and bitterness, the twisting can destroy.
But with love, support, healing, and letting go, the twisting spurs growth and strength. I was blessed. My neighbor cared for me, my friend gave me a place to sleep, my drive got me through college, my husband proved to me I was worthy to be loved, and I found a passage of scripture (Psalm 139) that gave me hope.
There were times I had to force myself to take the next step. I transferred colleges because I started drinking too much and realized I was following my mother's path. I wrote my blessings and my strengths down in a journal when I felt humiliated and worthless. I focused on the future when I was tempted to bury myself in the past.
It took people to build me up from the outside, and discipline and faith to build up my soul.
My latest book, Haunting Megan, begins in my teenage home; the opening chapters are autobiographical. Writing them was therapy for me. Reading them provided therapy for my siblings. Much of my heroine's inner doubts and struggles were mine. As were her victories.
The ghosts and murders are just for fun.
Haunting Megan is available for pre-order at iBooks (http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganiBooks) and at Amazon (http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganAmazon)
How Can a Christian Pastor Write a Ghost Story?
I have to say, that question broadsided me. Not the question itself, but the tone in which my friend delivered it. I got the sense that by delving into fiction, by touching on a topic that may imply a spiritual realm surrounds us and influences us, she thought I’d cast my theology and my salvation out the window.
As a pastor, I had to stop, take a step back, and look at what I had written and why I had written it. This story, more than any other I’ve published, is close to my heart. Haunting Megan begins in my teenage home; the opening chapters are autobiographical. Writing them was therapy for me. Reading them provided therapy for my siblings. Much of my heroine's inner doubts and struggles were mine—as were her victories.
Haunting Megan did not begin as a ghost story. At the core, Haunting Megan is about a young girl broken by horrific tragedy, who fights for healing, and whose decisions and character are rooted in the events of her early childhood. Does she see ghosts? Yes. Are the ghosts real, or are they, as her counselor claims, a manifestation of the guilt she feels? That is something the reader has to decide.
Do I believe in ghosts? I believe in a spiritual world that surrounds us and encompasses both good and evil. I believe our spirit lives when our body fails. I believe there is so much more to God than we know, and more to being in His presence after death than we can understand.
Though Haunting Megan is not Christian fiction (it neither mentions nor promotes Christian theology), several themes run through the novel that I believe are consistent with my faith. We are all broken in different ways and need healing. Relationships need to be restored. Our past forms us but does not define us. And most importantly, love has power to heal.
So why should you read Haunting Megan? It’s a fun, entertaining, and yes—spooky read. At the heart, that’s what good fiction should be.
Haunting Megan is available for pre-order at
http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganiBooks
http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganAmazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQA5YSU
Rebecca Reilly is a pastor and has worked in ministry for over thirty years. A passionate reader and writer, Rebecca took on four wildly different genres for her first five books – a murder mystery at sea (Into Dark Waters), a humorous look at sex and marriage (Diary of a Christian Woman: How I Used 50 Shades of Grey to Spice Up My Marriage), a children’s chapter book on bullying (The Geek Club under the pen name Becky Reilly), and two picture books (Jammers and His Flying Bed Adventure and Heart of a Kitty). She returned to the mystery/suspense genre for her sixth book (Haunting Megan).
You can follow Rebecca on Facebook (facebook.com/RebeccaLynnReilly), Twitter (twitter.com/RebeccaReillyL), Goodreads, and at www.rebeccareilly.net.
As a pastor, I had to stop, take a step back, and look at what I had written and why I had written it. This story, more than any other I’ve published, is close to my heart. Haunting Megan begins in my teenage home; the opening chapters are autobiographical. Writing them was therapy for me. Reading them provided therapy for my siblings. Much of my heroine's inner doubts and struggles were mine—as were her victories.
Haunting Megan did not begin as a ghost story. At the core, Haunting Megan is about a young girl broken by horrific tragedy, who fights for healing, and whose decisions and character are rooted in the events of her early childhood. Does she see ghosts? Yes. Are the ghosts real, or are they, as her counselor claims, a manifestation of the guilt she feels? That is something the reader has to decide.
Do I believe in ghosts? I believe in a spiritual world that surrounds us and encompasses both good and evil. I believe our spirit lives when our body fails. I believe there is so much more to God than we know, and more to being in His presence after death than we can understand.
Though Haunting Megan is not Christian fiction (it neither mentions nor promotes Christian theology), several themes run through the novel that I believe are consistent with my faith. We are all broken in different ways and need healing. Relationships need to be restored. Our past forms us but does not define us. And most importantly, love has power to heal.
So why should you read Haunting Megan? It’s a fun, entertaining, and yes—spooky read. At the heart, that’s what good fiction should be.
Haunting Megan is available for pre-order at
http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganiBooks
http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganAmazon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQA5YSU
Rebecca Reilly is a pastor and has worked in ministry for over thirty years. A passionate reader and writer, Rebecca took on four wildly different genres for her first five books – a murder mystery at sea (Into Dark Waters), a humorous look at sex and marriage (Diary of a Christian Woman: How I Used 50 Shades of Grey to Spice Up My Marriage), a children’s chapter book on bullying (The Geek Club under the pen name Becky Reilly), and two picture books (Jammers and His Flying Bed Adventure and Heart of a Kitty). She returned to the mystery/suspense genre for her sixth book (Haunting Megan).
You can follow Rebecca on Facebook (facebook.com/RebeccaLynnReilly), Twitter (twitter.com/RebeccaReillyL), Goodreads, and at www.rebeccareilly.net.
Why Cops Make the Best Romantic Heroes in Fiction
It used to be that cops were considered the good guys, the honorable, the men and women you automatically respect. But today, if you follow social media, or even the news, you’d believe one of the most despised groups of people in our country are police officers.
Cops are portrayed as unremorseful killers of children, corrupt bullies who prey on the weak, or unfeeling dispensers of their brand of subjective justice.
Yes, there are bad cops in the world, but 99+% of the men and women who wear the badge walk the line with the right motives and a dedication that affects their health, their relationships, and their wallet.
Why are cops the favored romantic hero in my writing? First and foremost, a police officer represents honor and integrity to me. He has taken an oath to stand between the lawful and the lawless. The officers I have known will choose right over easy, truth over lies, and sacrifice their personal needs for the good of others.
Second, they make attractive heroes because the job wears him down for all the right reasons. A cop, in fiction, can be broken, disillusioned, and seem unfeeling because his honor clashes with the dishonor of the people with whom he has to deal. A man of justice must live in the world of injustice. A man of integrity must walk among men of villainy. The life he chooses to live, by its very nature, is the one most opposed to his character.
Dr. Gary L. Patton conducted a study in 2011 on the desacralization of police officers (http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/pub...).
“In the experience of desacralization, people lose contact with the aspects of their lives that they previously had considered sacred and special.” Patton says.
Police officers become cops because they believe in the value of the law and the importance of justice. Desacralization means that those beliefs are questioned, mocked, and seen as parody on the streets he tries to protect.
Patton explains, “Given the sense of disappointment and disillusionment that law enforcement officers frequently encounter in their work, it is reasonable to conclude that they seem to experience a loss of some of the special reasons and motivations that they had set out to fulfill and experience. Certainly, officers encounter times of high drama and intense excitement, yet they do not spend a shift racing from one call to another as some people assume. When this repeated experience of waiting and watching is linked with the times of heightened adrenaline, officers feel like they ride an emotional roller coaster. While they can get excited and dismayed, they frequently deal with the events they encounter with a sense of apathy. The officers in the author’s research indicated that they would not be able to cope if they let themselves feel too much.”
Third, it is the nature of a cop to rescue those in need. He doesn’t consider it heroic, he just does what needs to be done.
Put it all together, and you have a good man who’s encased himself in an emotional shell, wanting to rescue others, but in need of being rescued himself. Seeing him come alive again, with the help of his heroine, of course, is a beautiful (and sexy) thing. It makes for good reading, too!
Curl up with Sherriff Deputy Jason Belt, one of the characters in Rebecca Reilly’s new novel, Haunting Megan. Available on iBooks (http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganiBooks), Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQA5YSU), Amazon (http://bit.ly/RReillyAmazonAuthor), and at other fine retailers.
Cops are portrayed as unremorseful killers of children, corrupt bullies who prey on the weak, or unfeeling dispensers of their brand of subjective justice.
Yes, there are bad cops in the world, but 99+% of the men and women who wear the badge walk the line with the right motives and a dedication that affects their health, their relationships, and their wallet.
Why are cops the favored romantic hero in my writing? First and foremost, a police officer represents honor and integrity to me. He has taken an oath to stand between the lawful and the lawless. The officers I have known will choose right over easy, truth over lies, and sacrifice their personal needs for the good of others.
Second, they make attractive heroes because the job wears him down for all the right reasons. A cop, in fiction, can be broken, disillusioned, and seem unfeeling because his honor clashes with the dishonor of the people with whom he has to deal. A man of justice must live in the world of injustice. A man of integrity must walk among men of villainy. The life he chooses to live, by its very nature, is the one most opposed to his character.
Dr. Gary L. Patton conducted a study in 2011 on the desacralization of police officers (http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/pub...).
“In the experience of desacralization, people lose contact with the aspects of their lives that they previously had considered sacred and special.” Patton says.
Police officers become cops because they believe in the value of the law and the importance of justice. Desacralization means that those beliefs are questioned, mocked, and seen as parody on the streets he tries to protect.
Patton explains, “Given the sense of disappointment and disillusionment that law enforcement officers frequently encounter in their work, it is reasonable to conclude that they seem to experience a loss of some of the special reasons and motivations that they had set out to fulfill and experience. Certainly, officers encounter times of high drama and intense excitement, yet they do not spend a shift racing from one call to another as some people assume. When this repeated experience of waiting and watching is linked with the times of heightened adrenaline, officers feel like they ride an emotional roller coaster. While they can get excited and dismayed, they frequently deal with the events they encounter with a sense of apathy. The officers in the author’s research indicated that they would not be able to cope if they let themselves feel too much.”
Third, it is the nature of a cop to rescue those in need. He doesn’t consider it heroic, he just does what needs to be done.
Put it all together, and you have a good man who’s encased himself in an emotional shell, wanting to rescue others, but in need of being rescued himself. Seeing him come alive again, with the help of his heroine, of course, is a beautiful (and sexy) thing. It makes for good reading, too!
Curl up with Sherriff Deputy Jason Belt, one of the characters in Rebecca Reilly’s new novel, Haunting Megan. Available on iBooks (http://bit.ly/HauntingMeganiBooks), Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MQA5YSU), Amazon (http://bit.ly/RReillyAmazonAuthor), and at other fine retailers.
