Welcome back to day Six. The Freedom Giveaway Hop is hosted by I Am a Reader, Not a Writer and Simply Stacie. Visit the link on the Freedom Giveaway Hop above, there will be a list of book related giveaways at over 200 participating Blogs. We're coming to end with just one more day of this fabulous Blog Hop, and checkout today's blog, And our Favorite Psychic is...
The author of Murder Off the Books, Murder Takes the Cake, and The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries e-book series, Evelyn David is the pseudonym for Marian Edelman Borden and Rhonda Dossett. Marian lives in New York and is the author of thirteen nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics ranging from veterans benefits to playgroups for toddlers! For more information on these books, please visit her web site at http://www.marianedelmanborden.com Rhonda lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the director of the coal program for the state, and in her spare time enjoys imagining and writing funny, scary mysteries. Marian and Rhonda write their mystery series via the internet. While many fans who attend mystery conventions have now chatted with both halves of Evelyn David, Marian and Rhonda have yet to meet in person. 
And Our Favorite Psychic Is...
by Evelyn David
In 2005 the Gallop Organization, in a survey of the general United States population, found that 41 percent of those polled believed in extrasensory perception and 26 percent believed in clairvoyance; 31 percent of those surveyed indicated that they believe in telepathy or psychic communication.
Since you're reading this blog, the odds are better than even that you believe in psychics or psychic phenomena.
As writers of a mystery series featuring a psychic detective, albeit a reluctant one, we're often asked what we believe. I'm using the word "we" on purpose. Evelyn David is the pen name for two writers: my coauthor Marian Edelman Borden and me, Rhonda Dossett. We write mysteries via the internet. We've never met in person, but we communicate directly, no ESP involved.
But back to what we believe. We don't know. We have open minds about the subject. We do know that "intuition" exists. We know some people are more intuitive than others. Is that ESP? Have you ever felt the presence of a loved one after their death? Did you believe they were coming to say goodbye? Marian is sure she has. When you think about someone from your past and that very day, the person calls you, is that clairvoyance? Maybe.
What we are sure of is that psychics make great characters in novels, movies, and television. My first introduction to psychics was the book by Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House. The main character gathers a group of people with various psychic abilities to investigate a haunted mansion. In the years since, many movies with that theme have been made, including two movies based directly on Shirley Jackson's novel. In addition, other wonderful haunted house (or hospital) movies include Rose Red, Poltergeist, and The Amityville Horror.
Perhaps the most popular movies about psychics are The Sixth Sense, Carrie, and Ghost. A movie that wasn't as "big" as those blockbusters, but one that I appreciated for the setting, mood, and characters is The Gift. Cate Blanchett starred as a struggling mother of two who uses her psychic gifts to support her family in a small rural town. The police ask for her help although they are loathe to believe in her talents. It's a murder mystery with lots of plot twists.
When my co-author and I decided to write our psychic mystery series we carefully considered which particular psychic abilities our heroine would have. We love mysteries and for us the "whodunnit" part of the story is important. We wanted to have our psychic solve mysteries using all her talents, not just the psychic ones. And we wanted her to find that sometimes those psychic abilities were more an annoyance than a benefit. "Brianna Sullivan" was born via a novella, entitled, "I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries."
Brianna is in her early thirties, single, and gives up her job as a missing baggage finder for a major airline in Chicago to travel the U.S. in her motor home. She does odd jobs to pay for her gas and groceries. A year or so ago, the price of gasoline skyrocketed, and Brianna ended up stuck in a small town in southern Oklahoma. She solves a murder or two, falls for a cute police detective, adopts a bulldog, and before you know it, she's put down a few roots. Nothing she couldn't yank out with a hard tug, but for now, she's made Lottawatah her home. Brianna sees and talks to ghosts. She's also very good at using divining rods to find water wells (a skill that pays better than talking to ghosts). She's working on her ability to pick up information by holding objects owned by the departed. So far it's not been that reliable. Recently, she's branched out into investing haunted houses.
The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries are novella length ebooks. We have five published and a sixth will be coming out this month.
Who's your favorite fictional psychic? Leave a comment and you'll be entered into a drawing to win an ebook copy of I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries (winner's choice of ebook format).
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Please check out Evelyn's website at - http://www.evelyndavid.com and their blog – The Stiletto Gang - http://www.thestilettogang.blogspot.com/ for information about Evelyn David's appearance schedule and writing projects.
Murder Off the Books and Murder Takes the Cake have been printed in a 2nd Edition with Wolfmont Publishing. Trade paperback and all e-reader formats of both books are available.
The Brianna Sullivan Mysteries include: I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries, The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah, The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah, Undying Love in Lottawatah, and A Haunting in Lottawatah. All e-reader formats of these books are available.
Evelyn David has also written an ebook collection of short romantic stories - Love Lessons
If you're having any trouble posting on this blog, or have an inquiry, don't hesitate to email me at Lorhainne@LorhainneEckhart.com
Thanks so much for asking us to guest blog today!
ReplyDeleteEvelyn David, This was a great blog you did and I really enjoyed it. Not many comments today, but lots of people dropping in just to read. Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteLorhainne Eckhart
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you that psychic phenomena is real and that there are many people who are intuitive and in some cases their gifts go a lot further. Writing about such people must be a blast and your heroinne Brianna sounds like a very interesting character.
Congrats on your 5 - almost 6 books!
Mimi Barbour
http://www.mimibarbour.com/
Thanks Mimi! If you'd like a free ebook version of I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries, send us an email at evelyn@evelyndavid.com so we have your email address.
ReplyDeletegreat post! i agree with you. phychic phenomena is very real. it runs through my family. we usually can tell things. and some of our gifts are stronger than others. i love reading about these type of things. thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteshadow_kohler(at)att(dot)net