Excerpt from OUTSIDE BLESSINGS and SALE!

I took the photo of the man on the jetty on the day before Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey. As you can see, the ocean was already quite stirred up at that point. I have no idea who the man was walking out on the jetty but I thought he was living dangerously. However, the image stayed in my mind and became a scene in OUTSIDE BLESSINGS. 

That's the way my mind works. I save up images and when I need a specific scene, I simply have to draw from my memory. I find it helps to create a vivid description when I know exactly how it looked in real life.  That's why I take so many photographs. I want to imbed them in my memory because I just might need the image in a book somewhere. 

There will be a sale on the ebook edition of OUTSIDE BLESSINGS at all the usual ebook distributors sites from Saturday, June 21st until Friday, July 4th. The book will only cost $0.99. 

So, save up your pennies and buy OUTSIDE BLESSINGS while it's on sale. 

🦭 🦭 🦭 🦭 🦭

Phantasmagoria

Marlu Lake, Thompson Park
January 25, 2020

Phantasmagoria (from Dictionary.com)

noun

a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as created by the imagination.

a changing scene made up of many elements.

an optical illusion produced by a magic lantern or the like in which figures increase or diminish in size, pass into each other, dissolve, etc.

I thought of this wonderful old word when I snapped the photo above on Saturday. It rained hard most of that day, but just before evening it stopped. Though it wasn't dark yet, the clouds had not cleared away and mist swirled around everywhere, which gave everything a spooky, shifting appearance. If a giant fish leaped out of the lake while I was there, I probably would have screamed. If a large blue heron flew by, I'm sure I would have been shaken as well. The dream-like scene conjured up illusions in my mind. Anything could have risen from the water: a dinosaur, a mermaid, or a talking frog.

I haven't written a paranormal in a while, but viewing the lake with the fog drifting around on the water had me thinking about it. What kind of story does that lake summon up in your mind?