Mandy M. Roth's Blog, page 83
July 24, 2012
Make A Story Stronger
Authors,
I put a call out on the web, asking people who work in various fields or who have certain hobbies to step forth and tell me what bothers them when reading a book that talks about what they do or what they know quite a bit about. Here is one of the responses to my call out. –Mandy M. Roth
Injuries in Books by Sharon Cullen
Give a little background about what jarred you out of the book or what made smoke come out of your ears.
There are a lot of things that jar me out of a book—like safeties on Glocks and police calling people “perps” but that’s a different post for a different day. What I’m talking about today is injuries.
Authors like to torture their characters and I have no problem with that because I torture my own characters pretty much all the time. What bothers me is when the injury occurs then is forgotten.
A good example is the movie Unknown starring Liam Neeson. Good movie. Fast paced, lots of action. What made me want to throw my tub of popcorn at the screen was when Liam’s character spends four days in a coma with a head injury due to an automobile accident. After four days he suddenly wakes up, jumps out of bed, runs out of the hospital and is chased all over Berlin.
Unreal.
I consider myself sort of an expert on injuries—especially head injuries as my husband suffered a traumatic brain injury in May. Now I’m not comparing Liam’s character’s injury to my husband’s. My husband’s was far worse but still, some comparisons can be made. For instance there is no way possible a person can hop out of the bed and run around like that—not after being bed ridden for four days. Your muscles start to cramp and atrophy. My husband was in a coma for nine days and he had to relearn how to walk.
Another example I find a lot in romantic suspense is characters falling long distances, then getting up and running away. Again, I will refer to my husband who fell off my parent’s roof (yes, he’s accident-prone. Very accident-prone). He fell a mere ten feet off a ladder and broke his fall by landing on the ladder. He didn’t get up and run away because he couldn’t. He was put on serious pain medication and couldn’t sleep on his back for almost a year. It took over a year for him to fully heal and that was only a fall of ten feet. Think of what would have happened if he fell a longer distance?
Q: How should an author handle this, what tips do you have to help them better their book?
A:
Obviously we’re not all going to give our characters head injuries (or back injuries) but I can pretty much guarantee that at some point in your writing career you will injure your character.
My advice would be to first research the injury. If possible, talk to people who have experienced a similar injury. Find out what it feels like, what the healing process was, how much pain was involved, etc.
Also, once your character is injured that injury must become another character. You can’t forget it was there. You have to develop it, make it a part of the story (or at least the next several scenes depending on the severity of the injury). If you don’t want it to overtake your story line then I suggest opting for a less serious injury.
But, please, I beg you, don’t introduce the injury then forget about it for the rest of the story because you’ll leave your readers shaking their heads at the least. Some will put down the book and never pick it up again.
Of course if you’re writing about superheroes or supernatural beings then you can write your own rules and forget about everything I said J
Bio: Sharon writes romantic suspense, paranormal romance and contemporary romance. She considers herself somewhat of an authority on injuries considering she spends way more time in the emergency room with her accident-prone husband than her three kids combined.
You can visit Sharon at her website or her blog.
July 23, 2012
Dear Muse… stop being a punk bitch
from 123RF stock
Dear Muse,
It would be nice if you’d return to the days of old. The days when a box of crayons would stimulate you and occupy you for hours on end. Instead, you’ve become a whiny, demanding bitch who thinks she needs wine, chocolates and “me” time in order to let your creative juices flow. I never fenced you. I never forced you to stay within the lines. For that, I think you should stop your crazy demands, stop being a diva and just do what you do… inspire me.
With love,
Mandy
July 20, 2012
Snippet: Scene with a family in it
Snippet from Executive Decision by Mandy M. Roth
“Stop being a baby and come on,” I said, pulling on Dale’s arm.
He didn’t budge. “I’m nervous. Really nervous.”
It was cute that Dale put so much into his first meeting with my parents. It meant that he cared what they thought of him. “How about I go to a hotel for the night and then meet your father at his party tomorrow while there are a lot of other people around to keep him from strangling me.”
“Please, Dale. I want him to meet you. I want them all to meet you.”
“Why?” he asked, finally moving a few steps. I took a moment to look at him with the ivy-covered barn as his backdrop. It didn’t matter where you set Dale, he was still gorgeous to the point you thought you should look away but knew you couldn’t.
“I want you to meet them because you’re … you’re you and I … uhh … I want you to meet them, Dale.”
“But you can’t even figure out what I am and what I mean to you how are you going to explain it to your parents?”
This was insane. “Dale, it doesn’t matter. They know we pretty much live together and….”
“And we keep telling them we’re just friends.” He was getting agitated and that was never good. “And it matters to me, Liz. I care what I am to you.”
“Oh, sugar, if you haven’t figured out what you are to her then you never will,” my mother said, appearing from the other side of the tall bushes that ran to the house. She stood there smiling at Dale with her long brown hair down. She was in a pair of white slacks and a white sleeveless shirt. The brown basket she held had various greens, ivy and such laying in it.
Dale nudged me and whispered out of the corner of his mouth. “That’s your mother?”
Confused, I nodded. “You’ve seen her picture.”
“Yes, but I thought it must be an old photo because I guessed her age and she looked at least twenty years younger than that in the picture. Good God, the woman looks half her age! She’s beautiful.”
I could tell he was being honest. My mother had shocked him. I glanced at her and smiled.
Looking Dale up and down, she smiled and came towards us. “Well, after a comment like that I’m fine with him being part of the family.” She took hold of his upper arm and turned him back and forth slightly.
I sighed. “Momma, what are you doing?”
She kept turning Dale who didn’t say a word as he let her twist him and pull on him. “Sweetie, I’m trying to picture my grandbabies that’s all.”
Groaning, I dropped my head into my hands. This wasn’t happening to me. It really wasn’t. I would wake up any minute and find out it was all a freakish dream.
Someone wrapped their arm around me and then yanked it off quick. “Liz, you’re soaked and you smell funny. Ha, so I see you ran into Zachary.”
“Thanks, Scott. And yes I did happen to run into him,” I said, secretly wishing I had a garden hose to soak my brother with. Scott was the middle child and it showed. Always the attention getter.
He laughed when he saw our mother turning Dale more. “Momma,” he said. “Stop sizing the man up for his reproductive qualities. I’m positive that had a part in Lisa walking out on me.”
My mother let go of Dale and stared at Scott. “Lisa left you because she’s a selfish little girl who never grew up enough to marry let alone be a mother. And you, should be happy she did leave.”
Scott chuckled. “Yes, Momma. I’m thrilled my wife walked out on me and left me with a child to raise on my own. Speaking of which,” he looked behind him, “Beth-Ann! Aunt Liz is here! And she brought someone special with her!”
“She brought him?” A tiny scream was followed closely by hysterical laughter. I looked at Dale for help, he shrugged and smiled. Trust a guy from Park Ave. to be clueless when it comes to children.
I spotted the dark head of spring loaded dark curls and smiled as Beth ran full force at me. Her little yellow sundress went straight up in the air, showing off her yellow ruffled panties. Laughing, I shook my head. I used to be just like her.
“Liz, Liz, Liz!” she screamed as she wrapped her tiny frame around my leg and squeezed it tight. “Eww, you’re wet and you smell funny.”
“You don’t say?”
She looked up at me with wide, confused brown eyes. “But I did say it.”
Dale laughed and Beth zeroed in on him. Her eyes narrowed as she walked over to him. Crossing her arms, she motioned for him to bend down. Dale looked at me and I nodded. He was so tall that he had to practically sit on the ground to be eye level with her.
Beth stuck her face right against his and began to look him over thoroughly. When she began to pull on his lips and I couldn’t hide my laugh. The urge to touch his lips apparently ran in the family. Beth gave me a stern look and I stopped laughing. She looked back at Dale and put her hand on her hip. At five she was quite the diva. “Smile.”
“What?”
“Smile.” She stamped her foot for effect. “I said it slow. Any man should be able to understand.”
Scott started to correct her but Dale put his hand up and stopped him.
Dale smiled wide and laughed softly. “You are just like your aunt.”
Beth squealed and tossed her arms around Dale’s neck causing him to lose his balance a bit. He touched the ground to stay up with one hand and patted Beth on the back with the other.
“I didn’t know if it was you or if Aunt Liz tried to sneak someone else in. I promised you that I wouldn’t let her do that and I didn’t. Was that good, Uncle Dale?”
Uncle Dale?
I couldn’t have been more surprised if I tried. “You put my niece on spy duty?”
Beth nodded proudly as Dale looked at the ground. “Yep and I’ve done really good. The last four times,” she held up for fingers just in case I needed a visual, “you’ve been home he had me do it.”
“You’ve had her spying since she turned four? Isn’t that against child labor laws?”
Dale grinned and pulled his wallet out. “I think that you did such a good job that you’ve earned a reward.” He pulled out a hundred dollar bill and went to hand it to her. Scott and I both moved forward.
“Dale, she’s five!”
“Right.” He nodded and pulled four more out to go with the first one. I shoved them back in his wallet and grabbed a one dollar bill instead. I handed it to Beth-Ann who smiled just as wide as she would have if it would have been a hundred dollar bill.
Scott looked at me and I knew what he was thinking. Was this guy for real?
“Thanks, Uncle Dale!” She beamed as she hugged him tight.
My mother hid her laugh and put her hand out. “Come on Beth, Nana needs help with the green beans.”
Beth ran after her and my brother put his hand out to Dale. “Nice to finally meet you.”
“You too.”
Scott looked back at me and laughed.
Jerk.
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New Interview
Please stop by and check out my interview at Scorching Book Reviews. Also, comment for a chance to win an ebook! CLICK HERE
July 18, 2012
Mums the word?
Lookie what have come back to life from last year! I’m very excited. I normally kill everything. Its a sad truth. This is making me think of Fall and how summer is nearly over. [image error] 
Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Denise Tompkins
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Marketing with Mandy Author Spotlight: Denise Tompkins
Q: Tell us a little about your experience with Samhain Publishing.
A: Working with Samhain has been a great experience overall. They keep the author involved in the process of editing, cover design and jacket copy development. Because it’s important to me to feel like I’m part of the developmental process for my books.
Q: What tips/tricks do you use for marketing or promoting your own titles?
A: I like to blog, and I come up with very funny and/or catchy blog titles that make people curious enough to visit my site (i.e. Drop the Fire, Dumbass; Snorkeling in Your Cereal Bowl; Mythology, Death and Play-Doh). I have participated in blog tours, advertising campaigns and other traditional media efforts. I’m active on Twitter and am always looking for new ways to connect readers with my books.
Q: What is one thing you’d want to tell a newer author, just coming into the game?
A: The biggest thing I’d have to share relating to marketing is this: don’t spam your own book. It can be very difficult to avoid doing, but your readers don’t want to get hit with repeated spam-type comments about how great your book is or how much you need us to buy from you. I realize this may seem a bit blunt, but hard truths are never easy, by definition.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your latest release?
A: My newest release, Wrath (Samhain, 04.03.12), is the sequel to Legacy and picks up where the first story leaves off. Wrath is a story of personal growth and definition, one that takes the heroine, Maddy, into difficult personal territory. She has to stop a murderer who has targeted her as his ultimate goal, and she has to determine to whom her heart belongs.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your current WIP’s?
A: My latest WiP, Raising Cain, is out with my agent. We’ve finished revisions and she’s pitching it to several editors in New York, so it’s a very exciting time for me right now. The story is a complex urban fantasy series about a woman fated to stop the Apocalypse and the man hired to kill her in order to bring it about.
I’ve just started the sequel, The Ruin of Souls, and I’m having a blast writing it.
Q: How did you get into writing?
A: I began writing stories in first grade (my mother has evidence). I wrote through school until I graduated from college and then life took over. I left it alone for a number of years while I focused on a corporate career. Medical issues took me out of corporate America and my husband bought me a laptop and said, “Write. It used to make you happy.” He was right. I began writing and never looked back.
Q: How do balance family and writing?
A: This is something I’m constantly struggling to manage. I find the biggest challenge for me is that my productive time of the day tends to come late afternoon and into the evening. This is when my husband is just coming home from work. To balance this, we’ve committed to a date night at least once a week and we spend Sunday mornings together no matter what else is happening. He’s the most supportive man, and I’m ridiculously lucky to have him.
LINKS:
July 17, 2012
Hot, hot, hot
I think the boys have had enough of the heat. They’re now inside, kicked back (with holes in their socks) just taking it easy. Can’t say I blame them. What is everyone else doing to try to beat the summer heat?
July 16, 2012
Part 2 of 3: Science Was Wrong Interview with Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden by Michelle M. Pillow
Science Was Wrong Part 2 of 3
Interview with authors Stanton T. Friedman, MSC and Kathleen Marden
by Michelle M. Pillow, www.michellepillow.com
Part 2: In depth with Kathleen Marden
Kathleen, your book is titled Science Was Wrong. Yet it is obvious that both of you hold the scientific community in very high esteem. Was science wrong or was it related more to personal bias on the part of some scientists?
Kathleen: Science Was Wrong informs readers that throughout history it has been difficult, if not impossible, to promote the acceptance of new discoveries. Today it is apparent that similar forces are engaging in ad hominem attacks against some leading edge scientists, disseminating fabrications and misrepresenting factual information. Each chapter in our book explores the causative factors behind the scientific bias and tunnel vision that have impeded scientific progress. We present example after example of the failure of science to make progress, not because the science was flawed, but as a result of human bias.
Why do you think it is so difficult to advance new sound scientific ideas and discoveries?
Kathleen: I think that there are several reasons. First, scientific methodology is naturally conservative and in a sense this is good. But it is extremely difficult for scientists to admit that their life’s work was wrong. Imagine that you are a an academic scientist who has spent your entire career as the proponent of a particular theory only to have a young upstart come along with conclusive evidence that effectively refuted and therefore nullified everything you had accomplished.
Second, we should consider Occams Razor, the theoretical construct that demands that scientists accept the simplest possible theoretical explanation for existing data. According to Popper, we prefer simpler theories to more complex ones “because their empirical content is greater; and because they are better testable”. Science tends to prefer the simplest explanation that is consistent with the data available at a given time, but history shows that these simplest explanations often give way to more complex explanations as new data become available. Most of the time, Occam’s razor is a conservative tool that assures hypotheses are grounded in the science of the day. However, it has not been useful to science in its failure to accept some scientific evidence such as meteorites, continental drift, and the idea that genetic information is carried in DNA, not proteins. This also applies to telepathy and UFOs.
Next, I want to mention the difficulty scientists experience in having their sound scientific ideas and discoveries published in prestigious peer reviewed journals. The scientists who control the flow of information usually adhere to existing theories and reject new ideas. For example, R. Leo Sprinkle, Ph.D., formerly a psychologist at the University of Wyoming, spent much of his career researching UFO abductions. He met the university’s publishing requirement, but couldn’t advance in his career because the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals wouldn’t publish his work.
As noted in Science Was Wrong, Luc Montagnier, a researcher from the Louis Pasteur Institute, had already submitted a professional research article about his work on the HIV virus to Nature but he was not successful in getting it published. These findings were only published after Robert Gallo from the National Cancer Institute agreed to submit the Pasteur team’s research findings to Science magazine, along with his own.
Finally, human motivations such as big egos, greed, power grabbing, politics, religious beliefs, and the denial that it was possible get in the way of good science.
Your book has a chapter titled “Politics, Personalities and Childbed fever”. Tell us a little bit about childbed fever and why you wrote about it.
Kathleen: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (1818-1865) grew up in Pest in Hungary and graduated from medical school in Vienna. After graduating he found a position teaching medical students at the Vienna General Hospital. The birthing ward at Vienna General Hospital was the largest in Europe when it was divided into two units: one for teaching medical students and the other for midwives. Although the midwifery unit averaged a 2% mortality rate from childbed fever, the obstetrical unit that taught from cadavers instead of wooden models, averaged 20%, and ran even higher during epidemic periods. Sometimes entire rows of women and infants died.
Childbed fever is caused by sepsis, but during Semmelweis’s time bacteria hadn’t been discovered. It occurred up to two weeks after childbirth, typically in the uterus or genital tract, and became a systemic infection within hours. I know that it sounds gruesome, but Semmelweis instructed his students in the autopsy room mornings where they dissected the bodies of the women and infants who had succumbed to childbed fever the previous day. As ridiculous as it seems in modern times, sanitation was limited to wiping one’s bloody hands on a filthy apron before proceeding to the obstetrical unit in the afternoon. Laboring and postpartum women were subjected to several intrusive exams by several medical students who were often inexperienced and tore their delicate tissues. You can understand how easily the contaminated matter could be transferred from the medical students’ hands to the laboring women.
Quite by accident, one of Semmelweis’s colleagues had pricked his finger on an infected scalpel during an autopsy. He subsequently developed the symptoms of childbed fever and died. Semmelweis realized that contaminants carried on the hands of his students that were intended to heal these women were actually killing them. In May 1847, he introduced hand washing into the obstetrical unit using a chlorinated lime solution and a nail brush prior to each student’s entry into Division I. Over time, he carefully recorded scientific data that clearly demonstrated a reduction in the mortality rate in the obstetrical unit. He even conducted laboratory experiments on rabbits that clearly supported his hypothesis. However, his actions were interpreted as insubordination by his supervisor who was grounded in the zeitgeist of the old guard. Instead of being rewarded for his significant discovery, he was relieved of his duties.
The tragedy is that although Semmelweis was right, his ideas were generally scoffed at during his entire lifetime. He endured personal attacks by his adversaries throughout Europe who flat out lied about his theory and findings because they were personally invested in promoting their own miasma, milk metastasis and emotional distress theories.
“The Hemophilia Holocaust” sounds ominous. What caused the holocaust among hemophiliacs?
Kathleen: First, let me say that hemophilia is a genetic disorder in which blood fails to clot normally due to a deficiency in clotting Factor VIII. Drug companies developed sophisticated chemical processing techniques to extract the Factor VIII from blood and to process it in large batches—up to 20,000 units of blood produced a powder which had a high concentration of Factor VIII. The problem occurred when the blood supply became contaminated with HIV and the pharmaceutical companies and blood banks reassured users that the chance of contracting the virus was only one in a million. The tragedy is that another drug and been developed and heat treating showed promise, but they were both rejected by the pharmaceutical companies. In the end, 90% of Factor VIII concentrate users became HIV positive. Various factors were responsible for spreading the disease to the hemophilia community including political correctness, denial and disbelief, incorrect assumptions by the medical establishment, political posturing and greed.
You seem particularly passionate in your chapter titled “The Eugenics Movement in America”. When did you first learn about this movement and do you have a personal story to tell about it?
Kathleen: Forced sterilization of the developmentally disabled and convicted criminals was still being debated in sociology and genetics classes when I was a college student in the mid to late 1960s. Had the Eugenics Movement succeeded, I might have been sterilized because one of my cousin’s is deaf. Also, my brilliant Jewish coauthor would probably have been exterminated.
You touched briefly upon the story of Carrie Buck describing her as a victim of the Eugenics Movement. Who is Carrie Buck and what is her story?
Kathleen: Harry Laughlin, one of the leading figures in the Eugenics Movement, wrote the “Model Sterilization Act” which served as a mock-up for Virginia’s 1924 “Eugenical Sterilization Act” to legalize compulsory sterilizations of “defective persons”. Later that year, the statute went before the court in the famous test case Buck versus Bell, and finally on to the U.S. Supreme Court which passed it.
Carrie Buck was the daughter of a woman whose husband had died and who attempted to support her family through prostitution. Carrie was placed in foster care and her mother was institutionalized at the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded in Lynchburg, Virginia. Carrie had been raped by her foster parents’ nephew and gave birth to an illegitimate child. For this she was declared feebleminded and the potential parent of socially inadequate offspring in what can only be described as a sham trial. Her fate was sealed on May 2, 1927, when US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered the Supreme Court’s decision: “It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Later, evidence confirmed that Carrie and her daughter were of normal intelligence.
You devote a chapter to Methyl ‐ Mercury in the Food Chain. What is methyl ‐ mercury and how does it differ from mercury? What causes methyl ‐ mercury contamination and why is it dangerous?
Kathleen: Methylmercury is an organic form of mercury that arises when inorganic mercury is absorbed by small plants and animals in lakes and streams. At each step up the food chain, it accumulates in greater concentrations. So that predatory fish at the top of the food chain can have dangerously high levels of the neurotoxin, 10,000 to 100,000 times greater than the water.
Virtually every state in the United States is at risk for methyl-mercury toxicity. Chronic mercury exposure can have a serious impact upon fertility and the outcome of pregnancy. It interferes with the part of the brain that controls reproduction and results in menstrual cycle disorders. In men organic mercury can cause low sperm count, minor genetic damage, a reduction in libido and impotence. It has also been linked to an increased level of cardiac arrhythmia and heart disease, autoimmune disorders, kidney disease and liver disease in both men and women. In children it has been linked to neurological disorders such as learning disabilities, and at worst, symptoms similar to Cerebral Palsy.
You wrote a powerful account of the devastating effect of methyl ‐ mercury contamination in Minamata, Japan. What went wrong and what was the impact?
Kathleen: Minamata disease was the natural consequence of the Chisso Corporation’s policy of dumping mercury into Japan’s Minamata Bay and its tributaries from 1930s to the 1960s. The company denied and covered up its role in causing the disease. To make matters worse, local politicians were in bed with the Chisso Corporation and refused to hold Chisso accountable. First it killed the fish, birds and cats that ate it. Then it started killing young children or terribly maiming them. The neurotoxin caused mental retardation and physical spasticity in children and also affected adults. The official denial went on until 1968—4 months after the Chisso Co. stopped using mercury in its manufacturing process.
Section 5 of your book has three chapters under the heading “Frontiers of Science”. What are the exciting new sciences?
Kathleen: PSI: There is reason to believe that psychic phenomena are real. Independent replication of controlled experiments performed thousands of times by researchers around the world has demonstrated statistical evidence in support of psi phenomena. Although the hit rate in experiments averages only 32 percent, among telepathic people such as psychics, it is 65 percent—pretty amazing despite the strong social prohibition against it by western science. A 1985 meta-analysis of 2,549 ganzfeld telepathy experiments by researchers around the world clearly showed that psi effects do occur in the ganzfeld.
UFOs and UFO Abductions: There is substantial support for the idea that members of the scientific community are refusing to examine UFO evidence for reasons that sometime have to do with the fear of not advancing in one’s career. I think that the scientific establishment is clinging to the zeitgeist of the old guard in order to perpetuate the scientific tenets for which they have been handsomely rewarded. This is blatantly obvious in the infamous “Trick Memo” written by Robert Low, the assistant dean of graduate studies at the University of Colorado and project coordinator for the Condon study of UFOs. He wrote, “In order to undertake such a project, one would have to approach it objectively. That is, one has to admit the possibility that such things as UFOs exist. It is not respectable to give serious consideration to such a possibility…The very act of admitting these possibilities just as possibilities puts us beyond the pale.” Edward Condon, the study’s chairman made the negative pronouncement that “Nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge…we consider it safe to assume that no ILE (intelligent life elsewhere) outside of our solar system has any possibility of visiting Earth in the next 10,000 years.” Subsequently, the National Academy of Science’s issued the statement that “The least likely explanation for UFOs is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings”. However, the special UFO subcommittee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics found that 30 percent of the 117 cases studied in detail could not be identified. The AIAA finding clearly demonstrated Condon and the NAS, of which Condon was a member, were biased in their assessment of the evidence. There is substantial evidence that UFOs are real, and I think it deserves the attention of an unbiased scientific community.
In “Extraordinary Visual Feats: Psi Phenomena” you wrote about the plight of Natasha Demkina. Who is she and what brought her to your attention?
Kathleen: Natasha Demkina is a young Russia medical intuitive who claimed she could “see” the full structure of the human body, including how internal organs are positioned and how they function almost as if she had x-ray eyes. The Discovery Channel produced a television program in 2004 allegedly designed to test Natasha’s paranormal ability in an objective and unbiased manner. They said she would be tested by top scientists, but they were actually three members of the skeptic’s society, CSICOP, now CSI. By all appearances the experiment was designed to increase Natasha’s chances of failure. She complained that she had been forced to perform under conditions that are known to reduce psychic ability. These included stress, fatigue due to jet lag, and hostility from the scientific team, not being able to follow her usual protocols, not being able to use her own interpreter, and having the bar for a passing grade raised above that which is normally accepted by international statistical standards. If the bar had not been raised, she would have passed the test. In the end, several highly respected international scientists and a lawyer defended Natasha’s position. Nobel Prize winning physicist and director of the University of Cambridge’s Mind Matter Unification Project, Brian Josephson, Ph.D. criticized the experimental team’s methodology and questioned its motives.
Is there reason to believe that some psychic phenomena are real?
Kathleen: Yes, as I stated above there is significant scientific evidence that telepathy is real.
Tell me about UFOs and little green men.
Kathleen: I thought they were gray. (grin) Although the “impossibilists” promote the idea that all UFO abductions are attributable to sleep disorders and delusional thinking, there is scientific evidence that some abductions are real. Psychological studies of suspected abductees have demonstrated that those who meet the criteria for having a real abduction are no more fantasy prone than the general population. They also score normal on psychological testing. Studies that limit their participants to self-identified abductees that lack supporting evidence for alien abduction tend to produce results indicating that they score higher than the norm on a variety of personality scales that measure fantasy proneness, dissociation, schizotypy, etc. Many do have sleep anomalies and personality disorders. However, they are in an entirely separate category than those who meet the criteria for alien abduction. In addition to the unbiased psychological study findings, the well investigated accounts of alien abduction provide evidence that some abduction claims have a foundation in reality. Despite the many psychological explanations, some abductions cannot be explained as personality aberrations, psychological abnormalities, hoaxes, sleep anomalies, hypnotic confabulation or misinterpretations. One needs only to read the peer reviewed journal articles. I have written an overview of their findings in Chapter 14 of Science Was Wrong.
Are we being visited by aliens?
Kathleen: One needs only to examine the evidence to be convinced that we are being visited by non-human entities. The greatest challenge for someone who is not a UFO abduction researcher/investigator is in determining what evidence is credible and where to look for it. Unfortunately, the UFO field has been riddled with hoaxes and false claims that tend to confuse. For example, the Betty and Barney Hill UFO abduction case has been terribly misrepresented. An Internet search will produce a plethora of false accounts and outright lies about their experience. They were my aunt and uncle. I have all of their files and evidence and researched/ investigated their experience for fifteen years prior to writing Captured!. I have separated fact from fiction and it is all in Captured!.
Can you sum up why this book is important and tell us how you are taking it to the world?
Kathleen: Science Was Wrong is important because it informs reader that throughout history it has been difficult, if not impossible, to promote the acceptance of new discoveries. It also gives “paranormal category” readers hope that mainstream science will one day accept the evidence that psi phenomena and UFOs are real. I only hope that the average reader will come away with an altered and enlightened perception of how mainstream science works and learn about the scientific evidence that psi phenomena and UFOs are real. I am carrying my message to the public through radio and television programs and speaking engagements. You can find my upcoming appearances on my Web site at www.kathleen-marden.com
*****
Look for Part 3 of this interview next week!
If you would like to read more about Stanton T. Friedman, MSC and Kathleen Marden, or any of their mentioned titles, please visit them on the web at: www.stantonfriedman.com and www.kathleen-marden.com.
Interview by Michelle M. Pillow, www.michellepillow.com
Deadlines are hell on the house
Look there was a kitchen under all that mess
I should have had the mind to snap a before picture. My kitchen had looked a lot like a bomb of the Sam’s Club/GFS kind had gone off in it. You can always tell when I’m buried with deadlines… my house suffers. Thankfully Mr. Mandy has stepped up to the plate and helps with laundry or I fear the Roth family would be without any clothing. It took me three hours of deep cleaning to get the house back into shape this morning. Yes, the kitchen is clean now (never mind how dated it is and how very much I’m in need of a remodel). LOL
So, when work is backed up for you what suffers most?
July 13, 2012
Snippet from Theirs to Take
Snippet from Theirs to Take by Rory Michaels (pen name of Mandy M Roth)
Chapter One
Rows of shops lined the downtown area. A little bit of everything could be found there even in a small town. With the internet, what couldn’t be purchased locally could be ordered in, though most people still did the online ordering through the general store. They tended to pride themselves on keeping the business local. Ray Thompson couldn’t fathom how anyone would want to do much of anything outside of Hazard County. The area had been his home since birth and he full well planned to be buried there someday.
Ray peeled into a parking space in front of the hardware store. His fence on the west side of his ranch had come down during the last round of storms to hit the area, and he needed supplies to see to the mending of it. He had people do the work for him and to even run the errands, but he preferred staying hands-on.
He opened the door of his black pickup truck, and it was nearly taken clean off as a sporty car darted into the space next to his. Main Street wasn’t exactly known for a run on parking. At least not in Hazard County—population, very, very small.
“Hey there!” he hollered as he hopped out. “You’re gonna kill someone if you’re not careful.”
As a tall, broad shouldered man with sandy blond hair emerged from the vehicle, Ray’s breath caught. He’d not set eyes on Mark Whiteburn in nearly four years and their last parting was far from good. It took longer than Ray would have liked to compose himself before he attempted to appear nonchalant as he groaned and rolled his eyes. “Mark, shocking to see you can’t drive worth a damn.”
Mark lowered his sunglasses, a smirk slinking over his handsome face. “Nice to see you too, Raymond. Miss me?”
Ray’s jaw set as he clutched the handle of his truck door. Miss him? Hell yeah he missed him, but he was still furious at how Mark had split town. “What the hell are you doing back? I figured you’d stay long gone?”
Mark removed his trendy sunglasses and tossed them into his car. He shut his car door and walked towards Ray. The man was decked out head to toe in designer clothing. Mark lowered his voice, “This is how it’s gonna be between us now, Ray?”
Ray exhaled slowly and glanced around, wondering if anyone was watching their interaction. Rumors had already circulated about them at one point, but they’d sort of gone by the wayside since Mark’s departure.
Mark snorted. “Don’t worry.” He put his hands up and backed away. “Promise not to leak my reputation all over the town, good ole boy. Though, there was a time you didn’t mind me leaking anything all over you.”
Ray’s body tightened at Mark’s words. Remembered passion played out in his mind. His cheeks flushed and he had to take a moment to collect himself. Four years had passed since they’d spent a weekend together, shacked up two counties over, doing things to each other that in the eyes of the locals wasn’t right.
The beauty shop door opened and a sexy, leggy redhead exited. She spotted Mark and a large smile slipped over her face. “Hey you.”
Mark straightened his shirt even though it wasn’t out of place. “Woman, how is it you get even more beautiful each and every time I lay eyes on you?”
The redhead laughed and the sound made Ray’s cock harden. She was certainly a vision.
“I’m talented like that,” she said. She went straight to Mark and he drew her against him before kissing her tenderly.
A stab of jealousy raced through Ray, but he wasn’t sure if it stemmed from Mark finding someone to be with that wasn’t him or if Ray wanted the redhead. His tastes ran from women to men, but he kept the men part to himself. He’d seen what the locals did to men who came out about their sexuality and it wasn’t pretty.
Mark and the redhead separated, but Mark kept an arm around her waist, his blue gaze sweeping to Ray. “Nancy, I’d like you to meet an old friend of mine. Ray Thompson.”
“The friend who owns his own cattle ranch,” Nancy supplied. Her green eyes held a certain level of both innocence and mischief and her pale, creamy skin begged to be touched. With a body like hers, Ray could imagine it was easy to get lost in it, finding endless pleasure.
“One in the same,” said Mark.
“We’re headed to lunch together. He should join us,” inserted Nancy. “I know you used to be close and I know how much you miss the area.”
Mark talked about him and missed the area?
As far as Ray knew, Mark ran as far and as fast as he could from Hazard County. He’d not looked back once. They’d spent one amazing weekend together and then Mark split. It had apparently been too much on him. Truth was, Ray wasn’t so sure it would have worked out had he stayed. As amazing as their time together was, something had been missing.
Nancy smiled wide and stepped towards Ray. She put her hand out. “It’s so nice to meet someone from my husband’s past.”
Husband?
Ray felt sick to his stomach as he took her hand. Her sweet scent launched up at him. Instead of curling his stomach as the news Mark was officially off the market did, the smell made his body respond. His nostrils flared and his muscles coiled at the idea of sampling what was before him. He cleared his throat, her hand now in his. “Nice to meet you too, ma’am.”
With a pout, she tipped her head, her long hair falling over one shoulder. “You’ll join us for lunch, right?”
He eyed the hardware store and then nodded. The fence mending would have to wait. “I’d love to.”
She squealed and launched herself at him as they’d known each other forever and a day. He wrapped his arms around her and held her to him as his gaze went to Mark. He stared at him over Nancy’s head. A satisfied smile edged its way onto Mark’s face. Mark nodded and blatantly adjusted his cock in the middle of Main Street.
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
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