To celebrate Sci-Fy month, I have a guest post by author Julie Filarski! Enjoy 🙂

Beth Montgomery, the protagonist in my novel, The Memory Healer, has more gifts than the average psychic. Not only does she see visions, but she has the ability to time travel and to relive part of her previous lives. While writing the novel, I wanted to ensure that the reader was not confused when these psychic episodes occurred. So I had Beth experience some sort of physical sensation just prior to the event. That way, I felt it became obvious that she was time-travelling to another era.

For instance, when Beth agrees to carry out a psychic appraisal of Carrington House, which she does reluctantly because she is frightened by a string of nightmares which she interprets as metaphysical warnings to stop tampering with the supernatural, the physical sensation she feels just prior to her regression to 1908 is shown this way:

Beth’s knees felt weak, and she reached for the banister. Had her instincts been right? Should she refuse to do the psychic assessment after all? She was trying to decide whether to go or stay when a young woman appeared on the landing. The staircase began to swirl, a familiar rushing noise filled Beth’s head, and she felt the shift in time that would carry her into another era. Calm down, she told herself when her sense of foreboding intensified. Why was she so frightened? None of this was new to her.

The technique I used when Beth returns from her regressions was similar. The physical sensations she experiences lets the reader know she is returning to the present day, as shown in the following scene after Beth enters the young woman’s bedroom and finds her asleep on a four-poster bed:

         Beside the bed was a small table. A few antique knickknacks lay upon it, and lying face-down in an open jewellery box was a gold watch. Beth read the inscription: Mary Adelaide Clark.

She frowned and looked at the sleeping woman, searching her memory for some form of recognition. None came. Next to the watch was a ring. The sight of the exquisite black and white stones, shaped in the form of a yin-yang symbol, sent another shiver down Beth’s spine.

She was struggling to remember why it would when she noticed an ornate calendar hanging just above the bedside table. The year was 1908, and the month, October. Most of the days had been crossed out. Her eyes reached the date yet to be marked. 30 October 1908. Her mind repeated the date, and she panicked. She had to leave at once and return to the present time.

As the giddying rush of years went by, she heard the words “I’m coming soon”.

Again, when Beth saw visions, I wanted to ensure the reader understood what was happening, as shown in the following scene:

She had just started studying the old home when her vision blurred and time shifted again. The light was dim in the place where she now found herself. When she strained to see her surroundings, the image of a man began to form. At first, he was hard to make out, but then the vision intensified. She saw his tall frame, handsome, rugged face, and dark-brown eyes that gazed into her soul. Something powerful stirred in her heart. He came towards her, holding out his hands when he drew close. His touch at first was feather light, as soft as breath being blown onto skin, yet Beth felt the jolt all the way through her body.

When the vision disappeared, Beth found herself holding her breath, aware of the erratic beating of her heart. It took an effort to move forwards. She reached the front door and sank onto the step. Who was he? It was clear he was someone from her past of exceptional importance to her. But who?

As the novel progresses and Beth learns that the answers to secrets of the past are hidden somewhere in 1895, her regressions to that era become more frequent. I found it imperative while writing the book that the reader was fully aware of the different eras Beth was entering and leaving. I think the techniques I used were successful.

Say NO to REALITY!

This May, TWCS is paying tribute to the SciFy genre in honour of the EPIC Star Wars series and LEGENDARY The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, amongst others…

BOOKS ON SALE FOR ONLY 99 PENNIES!

LEGACY OF A DREAMER, Allie Jean, Paranormal

Chantal Breelan is plagued by horrible nightmares too realistic to ignore. Her past has been a mystery, and the foster system isn’t providing any answers. Starting a new life alone at eighteen is a challenge, especially when things that go bump in the night appear out of the shadows, and her dreams begin to breach reality. Darkness surrounds her from all sides, but is it only evil that hides in the shadows, or are the answers to her past lingering just beyond?

ZOMBIFIED, Maggie LaCroix, Paranormal Fantasy

Monsters know their place: vampires are sexy; zombies just decompose. But Maggie La Croix’s Zombified conjures up an entirely different kind of undead raised by good old-fashioned Voodoo. Take Henri—still gorgeous, over one hundred years after his death. And now a hurricane has set him free from a curse.

Enter Josie, a reporter with her eyes on Henri. But falling for a man without a heartbeat could get her more than a broken heart. It could get her zombified.

THE SIX, K.B. Hoyle, Fantasy

Darcy Pennington feels like she is an insufferably average thirteen-year-old, but when a change in her dad’s job forces her to attend Cedar Cove Camp, she unwittingly stumbles upon a magical gateway. Along with five other teenagers, she will travel to a world called Alitheia. The “arrival of the Six” was prophesied long ago, but will she have what it takes to save Alitheia?

MORE, T.M. Franklin, Paranormal

Haunted by terrifying nightmares and certain she’s being watched, college student Ava Michaels finds an unlikely ally in Physics tutor Caleb Foster. But Caleb isn’t quite what he seems. In fact, he’s not entirely human, and he’s not the only one.

Together, the duo faces a threat from an ancient race bent on Ava’s capture, and possible extinction. As Ava fights to survive, she learns the world’s not what she thought.

It’s a little bit more.

THE SILVER CRESCENT, Debby Grahl, Paranormal

An ancestor’s tale of betrayal, murder and a stolen fortune in silver leads Elise Baxter to Max Holt’s Victorian inn.

She is reluctantly, though irresistibly, attracted to Max. Leery of loving again, Max lets passion overrule caution, tumbling them into an erotic encounter.

Guided by ghosts and opposed by an evil presence, the couple searches for the treasure. But there are others who will stop at nothing to unlock the mystery of the Silver Crescent.

THE MEMORY HEALER, Julie Filarski, Paranormal

When Beth Montgomery reluctantly agrees to carry out a psychic assessment of Carrington House, she is transported to another era, where she sees a date on a calendar that fills her with dread.

Back in the present time and sensing an eternal bond with the irresistible Dr Matthew Jamieson, she wonders whether he was once the darkly handsome but unfaithful Samuel Methven. Beth must regress to the tragic events of 1895 to learn the truth.

HUNTED, Lorenz Font, Paranormal

Disease is ravaging the vampire community in New York City’s underworld. Harrow Gates is sick, alone, and hunted. When Pritchard Tack offers him a new beginning, he is in no position to refuse.

Jordan is a young vampire whose only focus is revenge. In her search for her family’s killer, she meets a man who threatens to pull her heart away from her sworn mission. Is love strong enough to override her thirst for vengeance?

MOUNTAIN CHARM, Sydney Logan, Paranormal

“True love and sweet whispers, till death do us part;
Send someone to love my Appalachian heart.”

At the age of thirteen, Angelina Clark followed in the footsteps of her ancestors by casting an Appalachian love spell, which promised she would blossom into a beautiful and gifted woman who would find her true love. A young Angelina had been thrilled to participate in the sacred ritual, but through the years, her father’s untimely death and her mother’s failing health have shaken Angelina’s magical faith to its core. As her twenty-first birthday approaches, she refuses to practice her supernatural gifts and no longer believes in the love charm.

REDEMPTION, Lindsey Gray, Paranormal

Life is for living. Afterlife is a chance at redemption. As the only remaining female vampire in existence, Lily attempts to make her way towards her ever after. But with best friend Becca, new beau Ian, human husband Ryan, Archangel Peter, and a host of demons all standing in the way of Lily’s chance at a peaceful eternity, how can she possibly survive?

CONVERGENCE, J.D. Watts, Paranormal

Daniella Rossi is a nineteen-year-old college student who sees the world quite differently than those around her. From infancy, she was aware of the beings that walked among her kind who were not like them, as well as her own personal Guardian who watched over her. Dani always knew she was different, but she never dreamed the full scope of her importance. When a new male Guardian comes to replace her lifelong friend and companion, will Dani be able to accept him as she deals with a world full of the other Children of Creation, Angels, both good and evil?

OBVIOUS CHILD, Warren Cantrell, SciFy

In 2015, Sam Grant is chosen to take part in a contest that will choose the world’s first time traveler. There’s just one problem—Sam doesn’t want anything to do with the contest. Yet his deliberately profane public appearances and sabotaged interviews only boost ratings. Now stuck, Sam must plot how he’ll get out of the contest, or if he should embrace it all and become the most famous person in history.

GHOSTWRITER, Lissa Bryan, Paranormal

Unemployed, with her savings dwindling, Sara Howell thinks things are looking up when she lands a ghostwriting job and rents the affordable island home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925.

Strange things happen, making Sara wonder if Seth ever left. When she finds an old trunk of Seth’s letters, she delves into a world she never imagined, filled with love and a family curse it seems only she can break.

THE STARS ARE FALLING, Michelle Birbeck, Paranormal

Jenny’s life revolves around surviving university, watching the stars, and staring at her housemate, Dale. But as the night sky glows with the light of falling stars, Jenny’s classes and crush seem unimportant. The Stars are retaking Earth, saving mother nature by eliminating the problem. Together, Jenny and Dale can save the world and the human race, but surviving long enough to convince the Stars of that is perilous and may kill them both.

EVERYBODY OUT OF THE LAUNDROMAT, I NEED TO THINK!, Phil G. Glenn, Paranormal

When the ordinary life of Virgil Blaine crosses the path of the even more ordinary Doug Coulthard, it sets off a series of extra-ordinary events. Doug Coulthard is a Filing Clerk and the President of the Unpublished People’s Poet’s Party –Political Unit (UPPPPU) where a catastrophe has just happened; two of his long time members have been published. The UPPPPU goes on a recruiting drive by distributing leaflets, one of which finds its way into Virgil Blaine’s pocket. Virgil Blaine, who is a slight poet himself, attends one of the meetings where he meets Forward Slash who offers Virgil Blaine a job. The offer comes with two things Virgil Blaine has never had; a job and a car and on a whim he accepts. The problem is, through no effort of his own, his position is suddenly elevated. Virgil Blaine says the job is ‘messing with his DNA – Deliberate Non-Achiever’ and he misses his old life and so hatches a plan to get it back…

SEBASTIAN AND THE AFTERLIFE, William j. Barry, Paranormal

Sebastian, an average seventeen-year-old boy, has just paid this debt. He awakes in a surreal world somewhere between mortal life and the afterlife, where the Grim Reaper rules and his loyal agents maintain the law. But not all is peaceful in this mystical realm. Axis Red and his soul pirates threaten the future of all who dwell there.

Sebastian soon finds himself at Sapentia, a high school for the departed. There he makes new friends but longs for his lost love, Sarah, who is still alive in the mortal world. Some things are forbidden; some lines cannot be crossed. What will Sebastian risk to be close to Sarah again?
Continue the adventure with Sebastian and the Afterlife Book II – Agents of the Reaper

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