Deborah Woehr

When I wrote yesterday’s post, I honestly didn’t expect to see my book listed on Amazon before the month was up. Imagine my surprise when I found it up early this morning. There is no synopsis, and Amazon is listing it as temporarily unavailable. A year and a half ago, I had no problem uploading the synopsis for the anthology. But if you frequent Amazon as much as I do, you’ll know that they changed their interface again.

Even though I’m able to update the author information, date of publication, etc., they left out the synopsis section. So. I’ll have to look for a solution on Lulu forum to see how I can get around shelling out $25 for the Amazon Advantage program. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here’s the link. Thanks to all of you who gave me moral support and/or offered advice. I would still be revising the manuscript if it wasn’t for you.

Day One begins this tour at Rose Marie Wolf’s author blog, where I’ve written a guest post about how I came up for the idea for Prosperity.

Writing Prosperity 1998

The idea for novel came to me as a “mind movie” of a woman who was standing on a small island in the middle of Hell, searching for the soul of her late husband. It was to be a book about a man who used black magic to lure an unsuspecting town into his cult. That was the very beginning.

Fast-forward one year. The story wasn’t coming together as I hoped that it would. I didn’t know enough about black magic to create a plausible story. And, I had way too many characters vying for attention.

Fast-forward two years. I had long since ditched the idea of black magic and cults. My characters were still unknown to me, although I was getting to know my main character, Amanda. The title of my novel was Prosperity, a once-thriving town turned into a literal ghost town. I was still having problems creating a cohesive plot. Who are the ghosts? Why are they haunting the area?

Read more

Day Two, I am stopping at Andrea Allison’s Ghost Stories blog. Andrea’s blog has always been one of my favorite places to lurk because, as you know, I enjoy the subject of the paranormal. Just Saying Hello isn’t a full-fledged ghost story, but an event that happened to me.

I took the “if you were a ghost…“ quiz on gURL.com
		I am a… guide spirit Always watchful, the guide spirit is one spectre that lights the way for others. Call it compassion or just plain kindness, but it seems like you often fill a “guardian angel” role. Read more… What kind of ghost are you?

Source: Gurl.com

I’ve never watched an entire film with subtitles before and have to admit that it felt strange at first. The storyline was very similar to the American remake, but I found that I enjoyed the Japanese version better because it focused more on the psychological horror rather than the gore aspect. The only thing that bothered me was the overdramatization, which sometimes gave away the surprise. Oftentimes, the actors would gasp at the slightest sound.

There was an innocence about these actors that I haven’t seen since the 1950’s reruns I used to watch as a little girl. The actors weren’t heavily made up or tough looking/acting. Neither did they have the “required sex scene” that has become so prevalent in Hollywood. Because of this, I would let my sons watch this movie, if they were interested in scary movies.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to other people who like ghost stories. After watching this, I’m curious to see what other movies Japan has to offer. Does anyone have any recommendations?

While looking for something to write for Supernatural, I found the mention of another paranormal TV show called The Meant to Be’s, which sounds very similar to Michael Landon’s Highway to Heaven. I don’t know the details of when it’s supposed to premiere.

Ghosts seem to be the latest fad on television, next to reality shows. I tried watching Supernatural, but it didn’t do much for me. The Medium has become my favorite. Do any of you watch these shows? If you do, which is your favorite?

Watch the screens very closely.

This new book looks like a fascinating read. It covers all kinds of topics that are ghost-related. See my full description on Supernatural. I just ordered it from Amazon, so it should come next week. Once I finish it, I’ll post a review.

Update: I’m not finished reading the book yet, but what I’ve read is very good. The George Lutz (Amityville) interview creeped me out in that the ghosts (or whatever they were) implanted thoughts into their minds that were far removed from their normal personalities. That wasn’t all that happened, but I won’t spoil it. This book is giving me lots of useful fodder for my ghost stories.

I found this article while looking for something to post on Supernatural this morning. While the scientific aspect of time travel is beyond me, I found myself drawn in by the author’s discussion about the paranormal aspects of time travel.

Quoted from Visionary Articles from Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Tunneling may also account for some ghost experiences. Some ghosts may be remnants or recordings impressed in psychic space, but others may involve living people. Perhaps someone in another place in time doesn’t come through entirely, and so we see an apparition instead of something solid.

That last sentence made me sit up straighter in my chair. Living ghosts? Now, that’s an idea for a story I’ll have to explore.

This article reminded me of the discussion that occurred several months ago about time travel, although I’m not sure if it occurred on Karen’s, Melly’s, or Lee’s. I remember Lee pointing out that if we traveled back through time, we may wind up erasing our present and future.

What this lady talks about is time travel via our higher consciousness. It was a very good article, but I’m still rather skeptical of the whole time travel thing. It has, and still does, make for great time travel and alternative history stories.

I’ve yet to see an episode of this popular TV show, but have seen the forums and and blogs dedicated to it. The above video contains the show’s trailers, which don’t give any obvious shots of ghosts until the very end. Also, the video plays Evanescence’s “Haunted,” which is one of my favorite songs. Enjoy!