Friday Features Anna Durand Intuition
Is
Anna Durand
Author of
Intuition (Psychic Crossroads, Book 2)
Anna Durand is visiting with us today and sharing about where writers get their ideas for their novels. We have t-shirts that were gifts that have printed on them “Be careful what you say, you may end up in my novel.” That might be true but we think Anna has a little different spin on where ideas come from. So we’re turning our blog over to her.
Project Star Gate: Not a Movie, But the Real Psychic Crossroads
Ever wonder where writers get their ideas? While we often say ideas “pop” into our heads unbidden, the truth is a bit more complicated. I read a lot. I read about subjects that may seem irrelevant to romance writing, but I’ve gotten my best ideas from information I picked up here and there, tidbits of trivia I never thought would turn into anything. Then one day, the strange factoid I read about in a magazine coalesces into a genuine story idea—one that “pops” into my brain as if by magic.
Here’s a great example. Years ago, I read an article in a magazine—I can’t even recall which one—about a recently declassified government project. Yawn, you might say. But hang on. This project, dubbed Star Gate (way before the movie of that name), spent 25 years and $20 million researching the viability of psychic espionage. The article described the various techniques employed by psychics, focusing on one particular method called remote viewing. It’s supposed to allow psychics to view and describe locations they’ve never visited or seen in photos. I recall the way one test subject described what he experiences when he uses his abilities. He said his mind traveled to a star-filled void he called the matrix, a place where all knowledge, past and present, exists at once.
This article stuck with me. I’ve always had an interest in weird things, and remote viewing definitely qualifies as weird. I don’t know if the ability is real, but I love the idea of it. Years later, the information I gleaned from that article resurfaced in my brain as an idea for a romance novel. It would be called Willpower, and would become the first book in the Psychic Crossroads series.
By the time I wrote Willpower, the movie The Matrix and its sequels had become sensations. Remote viewing plays a key role in the stories of the first two books in the Psychic Crossroads series. I loved the idea of a mysterious place where psychic powers come from, but I didn’t want to call it the matrix. After much thought, I settled on the Crossroads. My version of the Project Star Gate matrix became more than a star-filled void where all knowledge resides. I envisioned it as stars with lines connecting them, like a network of roads in the darkness—a crossroads of psychic energy, and potentially, infinite knowledge.
Who knew an article about a controversial government program would inspire a paranormal romance novel? You never know where ideas will spring from, which means you’ve always got to be on the lookout for information to nourish your brain. I still read about weird things—including strange government projects, bizarre scientific facts, mysterious archaeological discoveries, unusual news stories, and so much more. Stories ideas don’t pop out of the blue. They grow from a constant, voracious curiosity about the world around you.
A little bit about the author:
Anna Durand is an award-winning writer, a freelance librarian, and an audiobook addict. She specializes in sexy romances, both paranormal and contemporary, featuring spunky heroines and hunky heroes. As a member of Romance Writers of America, she volunteers for two of its chapters—as membership chair for Hearts Through History and social media chair for Outreach International. In her previous life as a librarian, she haunted the stacks of public libraries but never met any hot vampires hunting for magical books. Check out her Spunk & Hunks blog for more about the strange research that inspires her stories.
Where to find Anna:
Website: http://www.annadurand.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnnaDurand
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnaDurandFiction
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/annadurand
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/Anna_Durand/
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.com/author/annadurand
About Intuition (Psychic Crossroads, Book 2)
Torn apart by their haunted pasts, Grace Powell and her fiancé David Ransom are struggling to reclaim their passionate bond and build a normal life — one without danger and paranormal powers. But David can’t renounce his obsession with hunting down Karl Tesler, who abducts and tortures psychics. David endured Tesler’s tactics himself, but despite what Grace believes, he’s not out for revenge.
Tesler covets her unprecedented abilities and her mysterious connection to a source of limitless psychic power. David will do anything — even abandon and lie to her — to protect Grace from Tesler.
With a psychic stalker on her trail, Grace charges into a desperate mission to uncover the truth about David’s obsession. But Tesler’s agents are closing in on her, and a terrifying new enemy is rising…
As events drive Grace and David toward a battle of epic proportions, they must risk everything — their relationship, their lives, and even their souls — to defeat an enemy who wields unspeakable psychic power.
Excerpt from Intuition
Grace slapped the phone onto the table. She slumped onto the bed on her back, folded her hands over her belly, and shut her eyes. Tension tugged her muscles taut. Thoughts swirled in her brain. If she couldn’t block out the anxiety, she’d never tap into her powers. Drawing in a deep breath, she let it out bit by bit. Relax. Picture the target.
David. His face glimmered in her mind as if lit by heaven’s own glow.
Her mind snapped free from her body. She floated in nothingness for a second, and then whoosh. She rocketed up through a dark tunnel into a field of blackness dotted with stars. Her mind drew lines between the lights, sketching out the connections between places and events and psyches in the crossroads, the ethereal source of all psychic power. A white line stretched out toward a pinpoint far away. The star pulsed. David. She’d found him.
Grace hurtled toward him through the darkness into the light, smashing through it into another tunnel. Psychic gravity hauled her downward, closer and closer to her destination. To David’s mind. His presence cascaded over her, through her, penetrating deeper with each second, overwhelming her with warmth and love and belonging.
She tumbled out into the world. Shapes blurred into each other. Up, down—her senses struggled to separate the two. Precious seconds ticked by until her mind acclimated to the change. It shouldn’t have hit her so hard. Something was different this time, but she couldn’t deduce what.
Solid earth supported her feet. Though she lacked a physical form, her mind conjured an image of her body that behaved like the real thing. She turned in a circle, inspecting her surroundings. Trees loomed overhead. Green moss squished under her feet. The sun blazed behind the treetops, its rays puncturing the shadows below. This made no sense. She watched David walk into the terminal. He should’ve been in the air, not down here in the woods. Down where? She’d figure that out later. First, she must find David.
She stopped. Her heart thudded. A dozen feet away, David crouched in front of a thick pine tree. Facing away. Hands bound behind his back. Ankles bound too. Head tipped up. Grace zeroed on the object of David’s attention. A man, engulfed in shadows. His face obscured.
She tiptoed closer. Still couldn’t see.
The stranger swung his arm up. His hand. He clutched something. A shiny, metal object. He hoisted it higher. A knife.
Intuition is available from:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/dp/B00XK88MB8
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Anna_Durand_Intuition_Psychic_Crossroads_Book_2?id=neQ9CQAAQBAJ
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/intuition/id994541318
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/542368
