I've always loved Coming Attractions...

As a kid, I would sit in the theater and wait, as excited about the sneak peeks at new movies as I was about the show I was there to see. Sometimes the previews were for movies I knew about, but other times what I saw was a complete surprise, and the combination of images, music, and teaser left me over-the-top excited for what was coming next. (For the record, this addiction to sneak peeks also applies to TV shows: Lost wasn’t over until the previews aired!)

What would it be like, I sometimes wonder, to get Coming Attractions for more than just fiction? What if we got them for life? What if, the second we met some really awesome guy, we got a quick peek into the future and knew if we were on the edge of a thrilling romance, or an absolute horror show?  Seems like a pretty awesome idea to me.

But life doesn’t play like that, at least not for most of us. But throughout history, there are those who do get sneak peeks into the Future. From the Oracle of Delphi to Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce to Jean Dixon or James Van Prague, Alison Dubois (of Medium fame), their stories have always fascinated me. In days gone by they were called seers or prophets. These days they tend to get the label of psychic—or fraud.

What would it be like, I’ve often wondered. What would it be like to know something really bad was going to happen—a plane crash or a house burn, a teacher die? What if the disjointed scenes played through your mind like Coming Attractions, sometimes for friends, sometimes for strangers?  What if you could walk into a falling down building, and see the past? What would it be like to be labeled a fraud?  What would you do?

What could you do?

It’s from all these questions, from the lure of the Unexplained and the thrilling possibility of the Unknown, that the Midnight Dragonfly series was born. As soon as the character of sixteen-year-old psychic, Trinity Monsour, came to me, quite literally in a dream, I knew I had to write her story. I couldn’t stop thinking about what it would be like to know things you weren’t supposed to know—that no one, at least at first, believed. That’s a pretty huge burden, especially for a high school student trying to settle into a new city and a new life, figure out why the truth about her birthright has been kept from her, and whether she’s really falling in love with the totally wrong guy. But that’s exactly the situation Trinity finds herself in.

From precognition to dream interpretation, telepathy, empathic ability, and communicating with the dead, hypnosis, mind control, and even Ouija boards, the Midnight Dragonfly series explores the frontiers of the human mind, and the ties that bind us all.

Glimpses. That’s all they are. Shadowy premonitions flickering through the farthest reaches of sleep. Some are terrifying: a knife lifting, a girl screaming, a body in the grass. But others— the dark, tortured eyes and the shattering kiss, the promise of forever— whisper to her soul.

They come without warning. They come without detail. But they always mean the same thing; the clock is ticking—and only Trinity can stop it.

Live the Mystery

Haunted Destiny, Griffin Teen, a free short available via all online booksellers

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Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Say what?

Paraskevidekatriaphobia. If you thought twice about leaving the house this morning, if you changed your plans and decided not to go to the salon or get that manicure, not to go out with that hot guy you’ve been fantasizing about for weeks, then that’s what you suffer from: paraskevidekatriaphobia.  It’s one of two official names for the fear of Friday the 13^th (Paraskevi and dekatreis being the Greek words for Friday and thirteen, attached to good ole phobia meaning fear), the other being friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the Norse goddess after whom Friday is named and triskaidekaphobia for fear of the number thirteen).

Who knew?

Well, my Master of Useless Information husband did (never play Trivial Pursuit against him!), but for me, discovering this took pulling together a Friday the 13^th-oriented blog for the UK release of Shattered Dreams! Actually, my research led me to all sorts of fascinating tidbits, such as the discovery that nothing especially horrible ever happened on Friday the 13^th. It seems all our trepidation stems from a simple arithmetic equation:

Bad Friday + Unlucky 13 = Terrible Friday the 13^th

Yes, historically speaking Friday is an unlucky day (beginning with Eve and the Apple one fateful afternoon) and 13 is an unlucky number (how many were gathered for the Last Supper….which just happened to be on a Friday?)

So there you have it. The truth about Friday the 13^th.

But while doing my research, I ran across a whole bunch of other superstitions, some I was familiar with (rabbits foot brings good luck, an apple a day keeps the doctor away), some that were totally new to me (clothes worn inside out bring good luck). I had so much fun with them, I thought I’d share a more comprehensive list here!

▪                Friday the thirteenth is an unlucky day

▪                A rabbit's foot brings good luck

▪                An apple a day keeps the doctor away

▪                To find a four-leaf clover is to find good luck

▪                If you walk under a ladder, you will have bad luck

▪                If a black cat crosses your path you will have bad luck

▪                To break a mirror will bring you seven years bad luck

▪                To open an umbrella in the house is to bring bad luck

▪                To find a horseshoe brings good luck

▪                Step on a crack, break your mother's back

▪                You can break a bad luck spell by turning seven times in a clockwise circle

▪                Garlic protects from evil spirits and vampires

▪                Our fate is written in the stars

▪                At the end of a rainbow is a pot of gold

▪                Clothes worn inside out will bring good luck

▪                Wearing your birthstone will bring you good luck

▪                If you blow out all of the candles on your birthday cake with the first breath you will get whatever you wish for

▪                To have a wish come true using a wishbone, two people make a wish, then take hold of each end of the bone and pull it until it separates. The person with the longer end gets his or her wish

▪                An itchy palm means money will come your way

▪                A beginner will always have good luck: beginner's luck

▪                A cat has nine lives

▪                Eating fish makes you smart

▪                Toads cause warts

▪                A cricket in the house brings good luck

▪                Crossing your fingers helps to avoid bad luck and helps a wish come true

▪                It is bad luck to sing at the table

▪                It is bad luck to sleep on a table

▪                After receiving a container of food, the container should never be returned empty

▪                A lock of hair from a baby's first haircut should be kept for good luck

▪                A bird that comes in your window brings bad luck

▪                To refuse a kiss under mistletoe causes bad luck

▪                Goldfish in the pond bring good luck

▪                Goldfish in the house bring bad luck

▪                For good luck, wear new clothes on Easter

▪                An acorn at the window can keep lightning out of the house

▪                If the bottom of your feet itch, you will make a trip

▪                When a dog howls, death is near

▪                It is bad luck to chase someone with a broom

▪                A sailor wearing an earring cannot drown

▪                To find a penny heads up, brings good luck

▪                A drowned woman floats face up, a drowned man floats face down

▪                A person cannot drown before going under three times

▪                To drop a fork means a woman will visit

▪                To drop a knife means a man will visit

▪                To drop a spoon means a child will visit

▪                To drop a dishcloth means bad luck is coming

▪                If you shiver, someone is casting a shadow on your grave

▪                To make a happy marriage, the bride must wear: something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

▪                The wedding veil protects the bride from the evil eye

▪                Washing a car will bring rain

▪                You must get out of bed on the same side you got in on or you will have bad luck

▪                Evil spirits cannot harm you when you are standing in a circle

▪                A cat will try to take the breath from a baby

▪                Warm hands, cold heart

▪                Cold hands, warm heart

▪                It is unlucky to rock an empty rocking chair

▪                To kill an albatross is to cause bad luck to the ship and all upon it

▪                Wearing an opal when it is not your birthstone is bad luck

▪                Smell dandelions, wet the bed

▪                To give someone a purse or wallet without money in it will bring that person bad luck

 What about you? Do you have a superstition?

Extreme Research!

His bound wrists would prevent him from using his arms to swim, but with his hands holding onto the wood, at least he could keep himself afloat while he kicked. Fifty yards. He could do that.

He grabbed the branch, ran to the dock, and dove into the dark, brutal current.

            Hmmm.  Would that work? Is it possible to make your way across a swollen river wearing handcuffs? It sure seemed possible, especially for the resourceful, tough-as-nails Sandro, but I couldn’t let myself run with the scene, not until I knew. So I did what any dedicated writer would do: I brought rope to my husband and asked him to tie my wrists together. Yeah, I got a look at that, but he (quite happily I might add) obliged, and off I went to the backyard. My husband quietly followed. I found a 2x4 to play the role of the stick, then jumped into the deep end of the pool, fully clothed (couldn’t wear a swimsuit, since poor Sandro didn’t have that luxury.)  Then I swam. Kind of.  Holding the wood beneath my chest, I kept my head above water and kicked my way to safety, and voila! Presto! I had my answer: If I could do it, surely my fantasy guy Sandro could. Dilemma solved.

            Research. Sometimes there are no shortcuts.

The Internet is a writer’s best friend. While the thought of research can send you straight back to school and that term paper you didn’t want to write, the reality is getting the facts straight is critical. (Just be careful you don’t end up on the FBI watch list. That’s happened!) We all love making stuff up, but you can’t say a heroine can free herself from being duct-taped to a chair just because you want her to. You need to know if that’s possible. That’s the challenge bestselling author Virginia Kantra faced when she decided to duct-tape herself to her office chair to make sure she really could free herself. Um…she couldn’t. And it wasn’t even noon yet, DH was at work, the kids at school, the phone across the room. So there she sat, in her office, bound to her chair as minutes dragged into hours. Finally her teenage son came home, followed her voice to her office, and walked in on something he’d never imagined walking in on! I would have loved to have seen the look on his face!  Fortunately, being a writer’s son, he immediately deduced that he hadn’t walked in on a home invasion, but rather, his mom doing what all good writers do. Research.

But sometimes research means leaving the house. How else do you find out if it’s possible to escape while handcuffed to a police cruiser?  When romance author Diana Duncan found herself in line at Starbucks behind a uniformed cop, she immediately seized the opportunity to solve a key plot problem. Thrilled, Diana struck up a dialog with the cop and soon found herself out in the parking lot being handcuffed to his car, while her horrified teenage daughter looked on.

For my current YA series, the Midnight Dragonfly books, there’s not one New Orleans locale that I haven’t explored myself, including a late night sprint from Bourbon Street to the levee, to see how fast you could feasibly get from one place to the other. I’ve sat with the psychics and had my palm read, and I’ve climbed the fences and hidden behind trees and…um….sorta gone somewhere no one was supposed to go.  I can’t say where, but the second I learned about This Certain Place, abandoned since Hurricane Katrina, I knew it was perfect for a crucial dramatic sequence. And despite the abundance of YouTube videos about This Certain Place, I knew I had to make a visit myself. I needed to see the swamp encroaching upon the parking lot and the chain link fence (to make sure it could be climbed), the abandoned buildings and…well, I can’t say what else I needed to see, except whether it was true that certain objects were still there after over five years of abandonment. I needed to breathe the air and smell the decay. I needed to see the graffiti and feel the despair.

And I did.

And it was amazing.

I was scared to death, but that’s okay. Knowing that, how frightening it was to be there, how many places there were to hide, the realization that there were probably others there, hiding—watching—only enabled me to add that much more authenticity to the scenes.

And that’s what it’s all about. Authenticity.

I do have to add that not all research involves risking your life (or breaking the law). When I first started writing Shattered Dreams, I researched the most popular brands of jeans among teenage girls, and found myself in a Buckle store to see for myself. The next thing you know, I’ve been fitted for my own awesome pair of Big Stars!! 

Research definitely has its perks, the more extreme the better.

What's the craziest thing you've done?!?