Supernatural Central Short and Quick Interview
1. T a little bit about your main character of this book.
I knew in order to tell the story I wanted to tell, the main character was going to have to be pretty grounded and level-headed because the things that start happening to her are none of those things, and I wanted to keep the reader tethered (even if barely) to some semblance of reality.
Alexis is rational, level-headed, responsible, and calm in the face of adversity, but she’s also got a fiery side if provoked. She’s the one her younger sister calls when she inevitably gets herself in a jam. If you come at her with some crazy shit, she’s going to be the voice of reason. She’ll bring calm and rationality to the table in any discussion. She’s a successful businesswoman, she’s a good mom, she’s in a happy, committed relationship, she volunteers for the PTA and is family oriented. If you asked her, she’d tell you her life is pretty normal - well that’s what she would have said before she started talking to spirits.
2. Do you believe in the paranormal and if so, do you have an experience you can share?
In addition to being a writer, I’m also a psychic medium. I channel the spirit realm and converse with entities we can’t see, so I’d have to answer this question in the affirmative. I didn’t realize I was a medium until my early 40s. Like Alexis, I had a hard time accepting it at first. I questioned and over-analyzed everything, which irritated my spirit team to no end. I think the first time it hit me that I really was a medium was when I was doing a tarot reading for someone and their mother came through. I just knew it was their mom’s energy wanting to communicate. The individual told me they were estranged from their mother and hadn’t talked to her in a while but as far as they knew she was still alive. I shrugged it off and assumed maybe it was a motherly energy from the spirit realm, like a grandmother or someone else that had felt motherly toward the person. The next day, the individual reached out to me and let me know they had just found out that their mother had passed away very recently. I felt a few things in that moment. Shock, and validation. That’s how my relationship went with the spirit world at first—them sending messages, me questioning the validity of it, until I had enough validating encounters that I learned to not question what I was getting anymore. It was quite a ride.
3. What titles are you working on now that you can tell us about?
I’m currently working on the sequel to Transcendence, titled Convergence. Transcendence doesn’t end on a cliff hanger, but it leaves open a second story line, and that’s what I take up in Convergence. The story focuses on two side characters, Linda and Mrs. Bates, the messiness of their relationship, and how what happened between them 30 years ago ties into events kicking off at the end of Transcendence. I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for the crusty old Mrs. Bates and I’m enjoying telling her tale of woe. I hope to finish Convergence by the end of the year.
Excerpt:
Luna woke to a tapping sound coming from her closet. She knew closets weren’t supposed to make tapping sounds. She also knew that’s where monsters hid, in the back of dark closets or under your bed. Maybe that’s where aliens hid, too—waiting to catch you in your sleep.
The silvery light spilling through her parted curtains and pooling on the floor did little to soften the shadows. Through the gloom, she could see the outline of her closet. The door was shut. She cast a wary glance at the windowsill and the visible line of salt that gleamed in the faint moonlight. The salt was undisturbed, her window still closed against the night.
Tap, tap, tap.
She ducked under the covers and scooted to the far side of the bed. Tucked into the corner with her back pressed against the wall, she peeked out from under the blanket, her eyes glued to the closet.
Tap, tap, tap. The sound came again, swiftly followed by the soft click of the closet door as it started to inch open.
As she lay there, huddled in the darkness, too scared to breathe, a tall shadow, darker than the shades of night in which it had hidden, slowly stepped forward. Its red eyes reminded her of Aunt Dani’s cawing raven, the one with eyes like fire that scared you when you walked in the door. But these eyes were worse. Bright red flames surrounded a pupil an even deeper shade of red. And they were looking straight at her.
Frozen in fear, she watched as it glided closer, its footfalls silent, its eyes terrible and bright.
“Hello, little doll,” it whispered.
Luna couldn’t tell if the thing had a mouth, for its entire face was black except for its terrifying eyes, but she heard the words just the same. A little voice in the back of her head was screaming at her to move, but it was too late, the thing was now between her and the door.
She remembered the bowl of salt on the nightstand next to her bed and finding her voice, tried to be brave.
“I am not a doll.”
“Oh, sweet child,” it sighed as it stepped into the puddle of moonlight, impossibly tall and darker than the nighttime shadows, “I shall make you my little doll. That’s all you’ll ever be.”
Its long arms ended in hooked fingers that looked as sharp as claws. Beneath eyes of flame ran a jagged slit where its mouth should be, as if someone had tried to draw a mouth, but had gotten it all wrong.
The scream that had been building for some time in the back of Luna’s throat finally worked its way free as the creature reached for her, talons grasping, eyes of flame leaping in the night.
She lunged for the salt next to her bed. Flinging the bowl itself at the creature, her eyes widened as it sailed right through it as if were truly just a shadow. Grains of salt flew through the air as the bowl shattered violently against the hardwood floor.
The creature jerked its head in the direction of her mother’s room and stared, its slash of a mouth widening into a gaping smile that made her stomach hurt. She could hear her mother’s footsteps racing down the hall.
Its head swiveled back in her direction, eyes alight with fire as its hideous smile somehow grew. Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“I’ll be seeing you little doll,” it whispered as it glided soundlessly back into her closet and snapped the door shut.
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