All right, so I wasn’t wearing the white uniform or carrying an
ectoplasmic stun gun, but I did go on a ghost hunting expedition with
writers from the Diamond State Romance Authors this past weekend and the
ladies of CASPR (Central Arkansas Society for Paranormal Research).

And it was anything but boring, but I couldn’t think of a catchier title.
Yes, it was a very long afternoon and day. But writers are very strange
people if you didn’t know it, and we are forever curious about the world
around us and always on the hunt for a good story to tell.

We invited the CASPR ladies to speak, then had them lead us on a hunt in a
haunted hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Velda Rose hotel has a history
of hauntings, deaths, and strange occurrences. We learned about how
paranormal investigators, um, investigate. We came armed with cameras and
took pictures of “Ecto-mist”, interpreted unexplained orbs in photos, and
had a great time creeping each other out.

Now, I don’t know if ghosts exist, but I have friends who swear they’ve
seen them. Even though I don’t have any personal evidence or experience,
I’m open-minded and always willing to head out on a new adventure.

We sat in the dark in one room that’s considered a hot spot and nothing
happened. We sat in the spa in the dark and replayed tape that showed an
odd darting light that brushed down my arm and leg. Didn’t feel it. Can’t
explain it, but I’m willing to admit I got a chill watching the replay and
it was fun giggling like a nervous school girl on a camping trip sharing
ghost stories.

We even made a trip to a haunted graveyard, and there the weirdest thing
happened. My sister and I, armed with camera and flashlight, walked up to
a gravesite and shone the light at a worn headstone. I read the name as
“Ghost” to myself, then heard my sister mutter, “Weird name. Ghost.” We
shone the light a second time and saw the same thing again. Then we read
the headstone next to it and read “Johnson.” When we came back to the
“Ghost” headstone, this time, it read “Johnson” as well.

It’s entirely possible we were influenced by our creepy doings of the
night, but I’m holding out for another possibility. I’m a writer after
all.

Have you had any unexplained and eerie experiences?

Happy Monday!! We are starting the week off with the wonderful and witty Delilah Devlin.

Delilah will be discussing Ghostbusting and her newest release THE SHADOWLAND WARS: SIN’S GIFT now available at Ellora’s Cave. Please he us welcome Delilah to the junkies blog.

Until recently, award-winning romance author Delilah Devlin lived in South Texas at the intersection of two dry creeks, surrounded by sexy cowboys in Wranglers. These days, she’s missing the wide-open skies and starry nights but loving her dark forest in Central Arkansas, with its eccentric characters and isolation—the better to feed her hungry muse!

For Delilah, the greatest sin is driving between the lines, because it’s comfortable and safe. Her personal journey has taken her through one war and many countries, cultures, jobs, and relationships to bring her to the place where she is now—writing sexy adventures that hold more than a kernel of autobiography and often share a common thread of self-discovery and transformation.

THE SHADOWLAND WARS: SIN’S GIFT

Ellora’s Cave
ISBN: 978-1419915789
Genre: Paranormal; Urban Fantasy
Format: eBook
On Sale: June 25, 2008

 Police Officer Sinead O’Rourke returns to duty months after being shot in an incident that also claimed her partner, Danny. Despite being cleared of any negligence, Sin knows her fellow officers wonder whether she’s partially responsible for his death. One more problem is that everyone knows she claims she’s seen Danny. After months of rehabilitation and counseling, and lying like hell about the fact she’s not seeing spooks anymore, Sin’s determined to get back into the saddle. But her first day back in the patrol car, Sin sees something more horrifying than the ghost of her dead partner and enters a deadly new world.

Jake doesn’t want to partner with Sin. Been there, done that—couldn’t keep his hands off her the first time around. She’s too much of a distraction and her penchant for rushing into trouble scares the hell out of him. Despite wishing she’d quit her job, he’s still deeply attracted. When an armed robbery goes down and something happens that rattles Sin to the core, he’s right there—ready to cover her back and her sweet body.

Click here for an excerpt from SIN’S GIFT

Get in bed with Delilah…Everyone else has!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Seduced by Darkness - “…The electrifying follow-up to Into the Darkness is a breathless read…” - An RT Top Pick!  

Avon RED
Sin’s Gift - Available now at Ellora’s Cave!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
www.DelilahDevlin.com

Tie ’Em Up, Hold ’Em Down will be released by Amber Quill Allure August 10th, and as I began it I wondered if I was crazy to tackle a novella involving slow pitch baseball, firefighting, and search and rescue. After all, it was a big chunk, and I was the one crafting the story. I didn’t have to do this! Call me dogged - or maybe just plain stubborn - but I stuck with it.

You need to understand those subjects weren’t entirely new to me. That gave me the courage to use them. The men in my family had played baseball while I cheered from the sidelines. Training to be a MIC (mobile intensive care) Nurse many years ago, I’d spent twenty hours in a fire station, hanging out and riding with their paramedics. That gave me an atmosphere from which to create my own station and a glimpse into how they lived while on duty. There are no women in this novella, but I’d recently seen a presentation to eighth grade girls by a female firefighter, and I even knew the seventy-pound weight of their backpacks was the same whether carried by men or women.  

I’ve watched the Dog Whisperer on TV, seen TV specials on search and rescue teams, and, in my Sisters in Crime chapter meetings,  heard an expert on search hounds who breeds Bloodhounds.

No matter how familiar the subjects I’d chosen were for me, I’d have been a fool to avoid researching each one. The tools I used included the Internet, personal interviews and the local library, with its interlibrary loan system, periodicals, books and videos. I could have accessed the Internet in the library if I hadn’t had my own computers. 

As an example, I decided to use a Bloodhound, but what colors did they come in? How much did they weigh? An email contact with a breeder gave me that information. I decided which color I liked and gave my hound a name. An Internet look at search and rescue teams gave me clues as to other hounds used and revealed that some are air scenters and others are ground scenters. Since Bloodhounds are ground scenters, I chose an air scenter as my second dog. A look at online photos of the SAR team in my county as they assembled to train sparked the opening scenes of my story.  

As for firefighting, I spoke by phone with a battalion chief, stopped firefighters when I saw them ready to leave a call or found them in the supermarket. Did they sleep dormitory style? Who was in charge on a call? Yes, they still come down poles and only have one minute to hit the mat at the bottom once the alarm sounds. A loudspeaker tells them the nature of the call and what to roll. The captain confirms it via radio.

Since I was writing about gays, I didn’t have the courage to ask for a tour of the main firehouse in my town.

I checked my town’s firefighter job descriptions online. Googling firefighting equipment and gear led me to ask about the mat and the boots and suits they use on different calls. I saw yellow suits in the back of an engine when I spoke to some men leaving a call up my street. Yes, they leave their suits in the truck or engine.

Well, what do you know - there are trucks and there are engines! Different purposes for various calls. 

Obviously, I wasn’t going to use all the information in my story, but it would’ve been stupid not to look in depth for more than I’d personally experienced. I guess the short answer to the question posed in the title is: YES…all that research IS necessary. It makes your story ring with authenticity.

Carolina Valdez - Where passion unlocks the sweet ecstasies of love

<>http://www.carolinavaldez.com
Available NOW http://www.amberheat.com/WomanBlackLace.html
Available AUGUST 10 http://www.amberallure.com/TieEmUp.html
http://www.myspace.com/sensualstories

CONTEST:  Sign up by July 31, 2008, for my newsletter at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sweet_ecstasies for a chance to win a free download of  my latest Amber Heat release, Woman in Black Lace. 

Welcome to Friday and our last guest for this week. We have been jammed packed here at the Junkies blog and I like to thank all of our guest for sharing their time and writing with us.

Carolina is offering up a contest. Details are at the end of this post.

Like most authors, Carolina Valdez began to write stories when she was eight. However, she didn’t discover she was a writer until she’d married her college sweetheart, become a new mother and had earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing and an advanced degree in health education and administration. During her nursing career, she published and won awards for articles in professional journals, profiles, children’s stories, inspirationals, short stories, poetry and newspaper pieces. In 2004, she became a writer for Amber Quill Press in their AQP, Heat and Allure lines when she was a winner in their first Amber Heat Wave Contest.

Carolina lives with her husband in sunny southern California.  She’s a member of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles, and the Orange Country California, Passionate Ink, From the Heart and Hearts of History chapters of  Romance Writers of America.

 

They knew it was dangerous to be gay in the all male, macho world of firefighting, but when Dane Garrison and Bear Barrington are forced to sleep together, the barriers to expressing their love and satisfying their hidden lust for each other break down. Bear, terrified for them both if they’re outed, shuts Dane out when they return home as if their passion had never existed. But Dane wants this man in his life forever, and, more aggressive and secure, he fights against Bear’s resistance to their relationship. How he will win, or if he will win, will seal their fate forever…

 CONTEST:  Sign up by July 31, 2008, for my newsletter at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sweet_ecstasies for a chance to win a free download of  my latest Amber Heat release, Woman in Black Lace. 

Carolina Valdez - Where passion unlocks the sweet ecstasies of love

<>http://www.carolinavaldez.com
Available NOW http://www.amberheat.com/WomanBlackLace.html
Available AUGUST 10 http://www.amberallure.com/TieEmUp.html
http://www.myspace.com/sensualstories