Pamela Moran's Blog

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Posted by on in Randomness....

While Elsie might not be that far back, her story came out in November 2013, the idea was conceived several years before. Not just Elsie, but the entire PSI premise was an idea floating around in my head for years before Elsie's Secret was published.

The Institute for Psychic Studies - IPS - is ran inside an old, stone mansion on extensive grounds in a remote area of Minnesota. This is where professors, teachers and scientists work to find answers to the whys and wherefores of human psychic ability. This is also where Calea Fontaine (Gavin's Woman) works as a teacher and where Gabe Nicholetti (Blind Sight) was raised.

However, IPS is also a cover for a private, secret agency - the PSI -  operating in tandem with the federal government. The PSI work in the background to defend and shield unwary victims against the twisted underside of a psychic society bent on exploiting an unsuspecting, mundane civilization.

Because Elsie was the first of the PSI stories, she has a soft spot in my heart. I hope you'll check her out, and the entire PSI world!

~Pam

More info on Elsie:

Excerpt

Amazon

For the first time, ELSIE'S SECRET is free on Amazon.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1n5cEGD
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/MLJNg2

4.5 Stars 

Sebastian Alexander is good at keeping secrets. Turns out, Elsie's better.

A covert PSI agent, Sebastian once let his secrets come between him and the woman he still loves. Finding her prowling around where she doesn't belong turns his simple reconnaissance into a rescue mission threatening to blow everything apart. Is he willing to risk his secrets to save her life?

Elsie Quartermaine has one goal. Save her nephew from a sadistic kidnapper. Sebastian is the one man who can help her. But divulging her secret puts more than her life in jeopardy. Can she trust Sebastian with her nephew’s life? Her own? What about her heart?

As dawn creeps over the horizon, can they find enough trust in each other to stay alive?

Posted by on in Randomness....

When fellow author and friend, Melissa Cutler, tagged me for a blog hop focusing on our writing process I scratched my head wondering what I'd gotten myself into with this blogging business. Luckily I was able to sneak a peak at Melissa's answers, nod my head a few times as I read through her post and had the thought - she makes this look easy. Maybe it's not so hard. Just chatting with a few friends about my writing and my stories.

Piece of cake, right? 

 

1.) What am I working on/writing?

BLIND SIGHT came out towards the end of last month and since then I've been working on the next in the PSI Sentinel series: GAVIN'S WOMAN.

Gavin Dunbar, liaison between the PSI and the government, is a low-level psychic himself, a man of the present who believes the future is too nebulous, too fluid - that it can't be trusted. His reasons are mired deep in a past he has no desire to examine.

Calea Fontaine is a seer from a long line of seers. But she knows, firsthand, that while Fate might try to guide a person along a path, Free Will has a way of trumping destiny.

Or does it?

These two are about to find out .... And I get to go along for the ride!

 

2.) How does my work/writing differ from others in its genre?


I've always been fascinated by the psychic world. From seeing auras to having precognitive dreams, from Astrology to Tarot, from seeing and feeling ghosts to all of the Clair Senses, it all enthralls me. So writing the PSI Sentinels became a natural fit, one that feels right. Like it's what I'm supposed to do.

Now, while some of the things that happen in my stories are larger than life and push that psychic edge nearly to the point of what might be considered magic, I've worked to keep my characters gifts/talents rooted in a semblance of realism.

Sebastian Alexander's energy manipulation in ELSIE'S SECRET, Ben Garrett's use of Psychometry in STOLEN SPIRIT, Gabe Nicholetti's grounding in BLIND SIGHT along with Allison Davis' artwork and her use of the Tarot are all based on known PSI abilities. 

If we're honest with ourselves, how many of 'us' were told stories about our Great Aunt Thelma who talked with Uncle Oliver who'd died or our Granny who had the gift of sight? If we shake your geology tree, there's no telling what might break loose.

 

3.) How does my writing process work?

Okay, so here's the sticky question. And the short answer is my process is a work in process! Each story idea starts in a different way. STOLEN SPIRIT literally started with a dream, although the unfolding story didn't follow that dream sequence, it is where I met Jake. ELSIE was the result of a what if game - what if Elsie Quartermaine had a secret bigger than her hero's? And the germ for BLIND SIGHT was gleamed from a picture in a magazine of a broad shouldered, Italian man who sat staring into the distance, brooding. 

So I start with characters who quickly become real. Then I spend a lot of time with a pen and a notebook, working out their back-story, who they are and what's important to them, free-flowing the answers onto the paper. In between all of that I'm also working out a general feel for the plot and getting words into the computer.

I'm not sure I could write if I didn't have my notebook. Pen to paper. Maybe it's a kinetic energy type of thing, that feel of the pen rolling across the page.... Each story has several notebooks filled with everything from plot points to dialogue to actual whole scenes hand written with scribbles and extra notes all along the margins. What's funny is that I rarely refer back to those notes, which is probably good since I'm not sure even I could decipher some of those notes!

 

4.) Who's up next?

Ann Gimpel writes paranormal and contemporary fantasy novels with an ecological twist. She skis, hikes, climbs and on a good day is the alpha female of a wolf pack. Here's a little more about Ann:

Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist with a Jungian bent. Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writin. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies. Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal romance. She's published twenty books to date, with several more contracted for 2014.

A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.

To connect with Ann:

Amazon

Taliesin

B&N

All Romance E-books 

Trailer

 

Click here to read hop on over to Ann Gimpel's blog which will go live later this week!

Blood and Magic

Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Ann J
    Ann J says #
    I love your books, they're so atmospheric and now I know where you get your inspiration, I'm even more hooked. Your writing is uni
  • Pamela Moran
    Pamela Moran says #
    Ann J, thank you for for the lovely comments and for taking the time to drop in - you've totally made my evening!! ~Pam
  • Super User
    Super User says #
    Thanks so much for putting this together Pam, and for, ahem, twisting my arm to take part. I love that some of your story ideas co


Hello! Welcome to ABCs of the Psychic World where we talk about all things Psychic, both in the PSI Realm and in the 'real realm'!

AURAS seem to be a good place to start. One thought is that they are, at the basic level, a field of subtle energy emanating from a person or living object, like a flower or a tree, or even inanimate objects.

Have you ever seen a hazy white glow around something you're staring at? Or that beautiful, vibrant blue glow around flowers in a flower bed? One of the easiest ways to see an aura is to stare at an object - holding your hand out, fingers spread, will do - and let your vision soften and shift out of focus. Notice that glow of white, nearly translucent energy surrounding it? That's the first layer - the one closest to the surface. 

Seeing other layers and colors can take more practice. Your emotions, thoughts, behavior and health all affect your aura's color, strength and vibrancy. Imbalances, like those of Dr. Nicholas Swift in ELSIE'S SECRET, show up, sometimes as dark spots, holes or even dark or muddy layers. 

Maybe Dr. Swift should have learned to read auras and studied his own!

*****

Even if you're not a visual type of person or don't want to take the time to stretch that visual/psychic muscle, think about a specific person -- doesn't matter who and we don't need to know names ;o) -- are there certain colors you associate with that person? Not necessarily a color they wear a lot, but a color that resonates to them in your mind.

What is that color? What do you think it represents about them? 

*****

If you're interested in checking out what happens to Dr. Swift in ELSIE'S SECRET:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1n5cEGD

AmazonUK: http://amzn.to/MLJNg2

B&N: http://bit.ly/1dDIvQ8

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1f5LlMg

*****

(Disclaimer - seeing those imbalances in another's aura doesn't necessarily mean they're as misguided as Dr. Swift!)

 

Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Margaret Taylor
    Margaret Taylor says #
    Cool Blog Post. I'm one of those people when I look at someone I sometimes get a strong sense of a specific color. If I try to s
  • Pamela Moran
    Pamela Moran says #
    You used the word 'sense' - are you 'feeling' the color then, rather than seeing it? Not everyone is visual, some simply 'sense' t
  • Super User
    Super User says #
    I thought those colors around people were my new glasses going haywire...maybe they are really auras!