Well, it’s that time of year. Hubby and I have our decorations up and are buying our masa and other ingredients this weekend for our green corn tamales. Tamales are a traditional Arizona holiday feast and we can’t seem to get enough of them. The weather is in the high 60s to low 70s here in the Valley of the Sun and we’re planning to hike, bike, and maybe get in a tennis game or two to work off all those tamales we plan to eat. We’re mailing the last of our holiday boxes today, so we can just sit back and enjoy our time together. And we can’t wait to see James Cameron’s new movie Avatar.

I hope everyone is planning a wonderful holiday and new year with family and friends. I want to thank you for popping over to my blog and adding quite a surge of hits over the past few months. And I appreciate your friendship and comments on my myspace, facebook and twitter pages, as well as others. I’ll be taking a two week staycation starting Dec 19th but my blog will return in January. During that time, I’ll still be checking email and finishing up the read-aloud on my current Desert Magick manuscript, since I won’t have it finished by Friday. I will post more about my first ghost hunt in the new year, so be sure and check back.

Thanks again for your friendship and support throughout 2009.

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Pancha Ganapati!

Merry Solstice!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Merry geekness to all and to all a good book! Happy reading!

Well, I got permission to share a bit more information about my first paranormal investigation at Vulture Gold Mine near Wickenburg, Arizona. The group I trained with is called I.C.P.I.R. http://www.icpir.org/. They’re a great bunch of people and very professional and scientific in their work.

Vulture Gold Mine, started in 1863, was the “Largest producing gold mine in Arizona history” and eventually became a small town in the 1880s. This ghost town is now open to the public for a nominal fee. You can check them out at http://www.jpc-training.com/vulture.htm. It’s a great place to get writing ideas, especially if you like the old west, the desert, and/or ghost towns. The place is also up for sale and is in need of restoration. If you’re interested, or know an investor who is, please visit http://www.jpc-training.com/sale.htm.

Happy reading! And happy hunting!

Vulture Gold Mine

Buildings need restoration.

They actually hung people from this tree.

Old mining equipment.

The investigation was awesome and the group I went with was very professional and welcoming. The area where we investigated involved buildings in an old mining town that are beginning to fall down. Several deaths have been documented in this place, which made it all the more interesting. There was no electricity, so no heat and only flashlights for light. Small generators ran the some of the equipment, while the rest used batteries. It was darn cold - hit 32 degrees at one point in the early morning according to my car thermometer - but very fun.

And, no, I wasn't scared at all. In fact, I was quite calm. Surprised myself even. I've had personal experiences - sometimes frightening ones - several times throughout my life that I could not explain. But I was simply excited and open to any experiences on this ghost hunt. I think I was more worried about remembering the rules of the investigation than of what a potential ghost might do. ..

We did have a couple of awesome things happen while I was there. I had a personal hair-touching experience that coincided with a spike on one of the instruments, so they marked the time and will go over the film and audio footage to see if we caught anything. It's an odd feeling to have your hair played with when there is nobody near you at the time. I just hope we caught something. If not, it will simply be a personal experience that I will remember. Certainly not a bad thing, but much better if we caught evidence of it. And we all witnessed something unusual in another building. My hope is that the audio recorders caught that. Either way, we had several witnesses to that particular experience.

They had some experimental instruments too that were a lot of fun. Nothing that could be used as evidence one way or the other but we had a great time experimenting with them. And the sky out where we were was so clear and dark that I could actually see the Milky Way band. Not something we can see in the burbs where I live. 

I got home at 2 am and took two naps Sunday to catch up on sleep. Unfortunately, I brought home a scorpion in my food bag and stepped on it on our kitchen floor with my bare foot. Luckily, it was in a position so it couldn't sting me before I realized what it was and could get out of the way. Whew, that was close! I just hope there aren't any more in the car. Unusual to have them out and about, since it was so darn cold. ....

The group has a lot of video and audio footage to go over so it will probably be a little while before I can share more. And they post photos and audio findings on their website so I'll post when all that stuff is available to the public. I'm excited to see what they find and eager to participate in another investigation.

Happy reading!

I’ve been a bit busy since I finished up my travel blog series for writers and haven’t had a chance to post anything for a while. If you're a writer like me and prefer to blend into the background so you can observe rather than stand out, you may appreciate sounding like an Arizona native when traveling here. I’m sure you know of or have seen photos or maybe even the real deal when it comes to our signature saguaro cactus giants. These magnificent species can live over 200 years and grow multiple arms, usually around their 70th year or so. The saguaro, sometimes spelled sahuaro, is also the Arizona state flower.

So, how does this relate to traveling here? Well, there’s no faster way to reveal yourself as a tourist and get a roomful of heads snapping your direction than to mispronounce saguaro. If you want to sound more like a native when visiting here, be sure and say sa-WA-ro, and not sa-GUA-ro, when talking about these giant sentries. Also, please note that it is illegal to harvest them, as they are a protected species. Depending on where you live, you can purchase a saguaro from a licensed nursery, but be sure to they have a permit to sell and keep receipts and any tags that come with it to prove it wasn’t obtained illegally.

Most of all, enjoy your travels, wherever you may decide to go. And be sure to take along a pad a pen to make notes on things that catch your fancy and that you may want to remember for your writing, as well as a camera.You may find that you want to write about our fabulous Arizona desert landscape someday.

Happy reading! (and writing)

Typical saguaro found around my home.

Saguaro in natural setting.

For centuries, writers have created stories about Mount Olympus, the gods and the ancient people of this great land. And I’m no exception. I often use ancient Greek mythology and stories in my own works. In fact, it might just be the one thing that tends to find its way into most of my work in one form or another, whether I rewrite the myths to fit my worlds or simply mention a creature from this ancient past. So, of course, one of my favorite trips was to Greece in 2008.

Like Italy, Greece has ancient ruins all over the place and it’s hard not to get caught up in the history, so it’s probably no surprise that I had a difficult time reigning in my imagination here. To stand in a place with so much history and walk where gods once lived among humans was truly an awe-inspiring experience for me as a person and as a writer. There is so much to see here, we definitely will have to go back someday.

Hubby and I started out in Athens and our hotel had a magnificent view of the Acropolis, which was within walking distance. Even today, cranes are in operation rebuilding and stabilizing this magnificent building that many modern architects have emulated in their own work. One of our photos here even became the cover for our holiday cards last year. The ancient Agora and Hadrian’s Library are must-sees, as well as the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Near our hotel, stood the Temple of Zeus, another marvel of ancient times. All around the city, red and yellow flowers bloom within the rubble of antiquity.

After we experienced Athens, we rented a car and drove to Corinth, Mycenae/Mykines, Epidavros, Tiryns and Nafplio. In these areas, we wandered through ruins once thought to have been built by Cyclops. Marveled at the Lion Gate that predates the Greeks, and meandered around the coast enjoying the beautiful blue waters. And what’s a trip to Greece without visiting the ancient theater in Epidaurus, built by the Greeks and added to by the Romans. I could just imagine all types of Greek tragedies taking place at this theater and it’s still used today.

.. ..

However, as much as we enjoyed this vacation, the one thing that had us worried was the petrol strike. We weren’t sure whether we’d have enough gas to make it back to Athens and catch our flight home. As luck would have it, on our very last day we located a petrol station that actually had gasoline and filled up the rental car. A huge relief. Since these strikes are somewhat common in Greece, I urge any travelers to keep up with the local news.

Despite the gasoline shortage, the trip was fantastic and I came home with many ideas that have already found their way into my current books. In my paranormal series Desert Magick, I mix Greek and Celtic mythologies with Native lore and magick to create what I hope is an original storyline in that genre. Or at least something no one else has done in exactly the same manner. As writers, we all want to be original, right? With limited plots in existence, being original gets more and more difficult with each generation of writers.

Visiting exotic and ancient places helps fuel my originality, as well as my imagination. I will continue to travel and use those experiences in my work and urge other writers to do so, even if it’s a short road trip to a nearby museum or historical site. Next year, we’re off to Egypt. I can’t wait!

Happy reading!

Athens Agora area with Acropolis in background. Got gods? What else does a sci-fi/fantasy writer need?

Athens Temple of Zeus. Can't you just imagine the gods hanging out here?

Ancient marble floor in Corinth. Fantasy or sci-fi scene - take your pick. :)

Lion Gate in Mykines. What writer couldn't get a story from these ancient ruins that predate the Greeks?

View from our hotel in Mykines. Looks like a scene from a fantasy novel.

Tiryns ruins - according to Greek myth, Cyclops built this city. I believe Homer wrote about this place too. Monsters anyone?

For hubby and I, a Hawaii trip has a dual purpose. To visit relatives and take much-needed vacations. The numerous beaches that overlook beautiful aqua blue water are great places to simply sit and write or just let your imagination run wild. Banyan trees look like something from another world. Sea turtles will occasionally swim with humans. And of course, the volcanoes that created the islands themselves are something to behold.

We flew into Honolulu and, after visiting various relatives and playing at Waikiki beach, hopped a plane to Hilo on the Big Island, home of Kilauea and the goddess Pele. This desolate volcanic area is surrounded by lush greenery with hiking trails available to the public. Unfortunately, Kilauea’s lava flow was in such a dangerous cliff area that it was closed to visitors at the time, so we didn’t get to see it. But the dried up lava beds from the 1982 eruption were readily available and we took full advantage of them.

The black lava seems to go on for miles and the massive caldera only adds to the otherworldly feel of the place. Funny thing is, every once in a while we would see plants or shrubs growing out of the desolation. Color in an otherwise black landscape. Life from death. An amazing sight. Hubby and I walked around this place for quite a while and my mind whirred with ideas.

I have fond memories of our swim with the turtles, walks around the great banyan trees, frolicks on the beaches, the native dances, and the tasty food, but I’m looking forward to our next Hawaii trip and a chance to see the actual lava flow with it’s beautiful and deadly orange and yellow colors. To feel the heat from that which keeps Earth herself in flux and full of life. To experience for myself the power and grace of Pele. For now, I have lots of photos of the previous trip and plan to use them as inspiration for future novels.

Happy Reading!

Banyan tree in Hilo, Hawaii. Can't you just imagine this thing on some alien world?

I think this one speaks for itself. :)

Caldera behind me.

One of several plants growing out of the desolation.

Today, I’m moving back to the states and the space industry. I have a fond remembrance of various space facilities, and I credit them for some of my sci-fi interests. After all, it’s science fiction until it isn’t.

First of all, my grandfather worked for NASA in Huntsville and The Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/ One summer when we visited my grandparents in Cape Canaveral, Florida, we got to stand on the family beach with various aunts, uncles and cousins and watch the launch for the Apollo-Soyuz mission. My grandfather was in the control center at the time and afterwards showed all of us kids the finger he used to push the launch button. He said they let him do it as a retirement present. As I grew older, I began to doubt that story but never found out whether it was true or not. My grandparents are gone now but that day is forever burned into my memory. And I like to think that Grandpa single-handedly launched that Apollo mission. If you ever get an offer to stand on that beach and watch a launch, take it.

I also spent a lot of time as a kid at another NASA facility, The Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, where my family lived back then. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html It was free to get in back in those days. I will always remember the hot summer days my entire family, and later my brother and I, spent wandering around the grounds and the museum and the green-coded buildings at our leisure. We were thrilled that we got to eat in the same cafeteria with white-coated workers. The food moved by on a conveyer belt and we would pluck up what we wanted as it passed. To us, this was the kitchen of the future and I would fantasize about being an astronaut and going into space. I didn’t become an astronaut, but I occasionally use my fond NASA memories to create scenes in my sci-fi work and try very hard to recreate the awe and wonder I felt as a child.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I lived not far from JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and that thrilled me. Through the years, I took trips to Griffith Observatory http://www.griffithobs.org/ and the California Science Center http://www.californiasciencecenter.org/ which helped re-create my childhood memories of NASA. In fact, the day my husband proposed to me at the beach, we had visited the Science Center. Hubby also wanted to work for NASA as a kid and ended up in the aerospace industry and he’s an avid sci-fi/fantasy reader.

No matter where you live, there is probably a space or science museum nearby and I urge you to visit if you haven’t already. If you take a trip to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, you might get lucky enough to have my niece as your guide. Yep, we’re keeping it in the family.

Happy Reading!

While I don't have any pics of NASA to share just now, here's a peek of one corner of my room when I was young. I still have that telescope!

What better fantasy prompts does a writer need than to walk around ancient Roman ruins, where emperors, gladiators, and poor slaves once tread and lost their lives? Yet, today, the violent history of this place is overshadowed by the grandeur of the buildings from a long lost era.

Hubby and I flew into Rome, of course, and walked around the city on our way to some of the more famous sites. What I loved most about Rome, is that just about anyplace we walked, we saw ruins of one era or another. The current city is built on older versions, and the more archaeologists dig, the more history they find. I didn’t expect to stroll by Julius Caesar’s murder spot. It’s not much more than the remains of an arena now and not very impressive compared to sites like the Coliseum or the Forum, but you certainly won’t find anything like it here in the states. If I remember correctly, it also serves as a cat sanctuary today.

And we couldn’t visit Rome without touring the Coliseum and the Forum. They are both as spectacular as the books say. More even, because we got to walk on the same grounds and around the same buildings as those who lived in the Great Roman Empire. The place is also a reminder that no matter how great an empire, it will eventually come to an end and another will take it’s place.

After seeing everything we wanted to in Rome, we took the train to Naples and spent the day in the museum. As a writer, I love museums and the hands-on history. Way better than just reading a textbook. From there we continued on to Paestum, where some of the most well-preserved Greek ruins stand today. Yes, I said Greek. A little taste before our trip to Greece, which I’ll talk about in another blog. Then it was on to a place I had been wanting to visit since I was a child - Pompeii. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Ancient Pompeii is everything and more than I learned about in books and from history shows. In this amazing city that was buried in 79 AD by the Vesuvius volcano - yes, I have a thing for volcanoes - I could imagine the original people walking and trading and living just like they did almost 2000 years ago. Hubby and I spent the entire day here walking among the ghosts. And who would have thought that 2000 year old paint could survive the ages, yet it has. We saw some of the most amazing artwork and reliefs here. The casts of those trapped beneath the ash add to the realization of just how dangerous it is living in the shadow of an active or dormant volcano.

I would love to walk around Pompeii alone, but even with other tourists milling around, the place is truly amazing. Pompeii is a must-see in my book and I may even go back someday.

Happy reading!

Pompeii, Italy with Vesuvius in background. That benign looking volcano completely buried this city in 79 AD.

Inside the Coliseum in Rome.

Paestum with Greek ruins.

Today I’ll share a couple of great places in California. Though I wasn’t born in California like hubby was, I consider Los Angeles my home. After all, it’s where I had my first career, went to university, met my husband, got married, began my second career, and started my first novel. If the beach itself isn't enough to fuel your writing imagination, then take PCH or Pacific Coast Hwy 1 up the coast from any beach suburb of Los Angeles, and you’ll eventually find yourself in the Santa Cruz area.

Once there, be sure and look up a place called The Mystery Spot. A must-see, in my opinion, for anyone interested in science fiction. If the drive through the giant redwood forest doesn’t set an alien-like mood for you, then the weird gravitational anomaly of the place certainly will. While here, I tried not to think about the scientific explanations but instead gave myself over to the awesomeness of the place. Trees that grow with twisted trunks, birds that avoid the area, the fun-house effect inside the buildings, and the amazing gravitational pull you feel when hanging onto the handles provided for the experience. To add to the mysterious feel of the place, Hubby and I arrived just in time to get on the last tour of the day and were the only tourists left.

If you still want more mystery, you go north and a little inland until you’ll reach San Jose, home of the Winchester Mystery House. According to our tour guide, the woman who owned the mansion back in the 1880s was a Winchester Rifle heiress, so she was loaded. She was also a bit of an odd duck. When told by a fortuneteller that she couldn’t stop building on her home or else she would die, she took this advice to heart and continued building onto the mansion over the remainder of her lifetime.

She died anyway almost forty years later, but what she did to the mansion makes for an amazing tour. In addition to Victorian grandeur and gaudiness, there are doors that lead to no place and stairs that dead-end into ceilings. I could almost imagine Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart taking place in one of the rooms. Horror and paranormal writers would have a field day writing tales at such a place as the Winchester Mystery House. If you’re like me, you’ll eventually use aspects of them in your work.

Happy reading!

The odd gravitational pull at the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. The door is straight. I'm the one being pulled by an invisible force.

Where hubby proposed to me back in the day. Notice the dangerous condition sign. There's a cliff that drops off the other side of that fence. Any book ideas yet?

Hope everyone had a spooky and safe Halloween. Okay, so on to the fifth installment in my latest travel blog for writers. Today I’ll share my visit to the north island of New Zealand. The land where The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Xena, Warrior Princess were filmed. You can’t get much more fantasy-oriented than Tolkien. This country is even more beautiful in person than in the films. And the people, who call themselves Kiwis, are amazing and friendly.

Hubby and I couldn’t go to Kiwi land without driving to Hobbiton in Mata Mata, where the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed. Since Hobbiton is located on private property, we had to take a tour bus from the visitor center. But once the bus got us to the hobbit holes (actual structures left over from filming) and the large trees and rolling green hills, the entire place becomes a writer’s dream landscape. My imagination went wild in this place so I can see why filmmakers choose to shoot here. The place is simply magical. And we couldn’t resist sticking our heads through those hobbit hole windows for a few photo ops.

But, I have to say, the most fantastic trip we took in New Zealand was a helicopter ride to White Island, about a 45 minute flight from Rotorua. It’s an active volcano. Yes, active! Since the volcano can erupt any time with little warning, the tour guides must make certain it isn’t showing any unusual activity before they schedule a trip. The best part was that we got to land on this active volcano and walk around. The barren landscape with numerous heat vents and sulfuric acid fumes simply add to the otherworldly feel of the place, and I felt somewhat like an astronaut on a mission. You can reach the “island” by air or sea. Just know that if you choose a boat, you’ll be among a much larger group. We had only four people plus a guide/pilot in ours, which made it more intimate and eerie on this barren landscape. And don’t forget that camera!

Happy Reading!

Flying to White Island active volcano, New Zealand

Walking around White Island active volcano.

Hobbit hole at Hobbiton, Mata Mata, New Zealand
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