Monday, February 23, 2015

Present your Ghosts




I had a lot of cool ideas for an article (they were cool in my mind!) but after a scintillating conversation with a fellow colleague here, I was advised to write them all (lol, one at a time) and write what I know best. The title came as a joke, but it fits.
It has come to my  attention that because I'm from Romania, I could be somewhat called "Street Wise" in the paranormal. Hahaha, Yes, no. But in a way, I guess I am. But I always thought everyone was the same, you see.
Were you expecting I'll talk about vampires after saying I'm from Romania? Huh, Bram Stoker never visited Romania and had no clue what we have around here in Eastern Europe. Though Romania apparently is close to being in Central Europe but now I'm getting into political issues...
Yes, I did say what we have around here.
As a writer of paranormal MM it came easy to me to immerse in a paranormal/ supernatural world because I saw signs of one existing from when I was a little girl growing up in rural Romania.

In the photo  you see Castelul Corvinilor. A nice place, do visit. Ring me if you do, you can maybe stay in my nearby childhood house if I'm back home.

And I'm not kidding you. My grandma knew to dodeochi spells, that cured you of the Evil Eye (I may know too...), my mother dreamt stuff before it happened (really, she knew my father had broken his leg before we got the phone call) and I accidentally did a tarot reading that predicted the death of my best friend's grandfather. Creepy stuff. Great for writing inspiration. Those are stories that I have yet to tell. Soon.

But I digress.
Real life experience and stories of strange experiences were my first contact with the paranormal genre. Then there were the books. Not science fiction (well, there were those too) but books about the most strange places on Earth, weirdest archaeological discoveries, weird photos and events, etc. I liked the ones with scientific facts not stories to put children to sleep. Btw, If you ever go to Romania, never visit Forest Baciu, near Cluj after dark. Trust me on that.


At first I didn't even have a TV, And this was happening in the '90 folks. Then we didn't have a lot of TV channels (Romania had been under the Iron Curtain until '89). Finally, the movies came. I watched probably all that I came across that had a hint of supernatural or mystery. I name here Roswell, Tales from the Crypt, Poltergeist;The Legacy, The Outer Limits, Ripley's Believe it or Not, Millennium, Medium, Highlander, Xena and Hercules, Twin Peaks, Twilight Zone, Doctor Who, The X-Files, Star Trek, Stargate oh my! I saw a lot. I fell in love with the bad boy of Charmed, though Leo and Chris were not that bad either. Then came the golden age. Supernatural and Ian Somerhalder. Now while I love Dean Winchester (go team Dean!) and I adore the show, Ian is hot, hot, hot too. Pity I cannot stand the show. And to repeat something Dean said, please do not remind me of Twilight!




 If I had space here I would post a lot of hotties that had come to my attention lately but the internet waves would blush and the blog taken down for inducing drool seizures. Alright two more!

Ichigo from Bleach, a Japanese Anime
(he's not even the hottest in that anime.
 And yes! I'm a geek and proud!) .
Now I want to post Keanu Reeves in
 Constantine too.
LOL. Next time.

After and during the sudden invasion of supernatural movies I stumbled across manga and anime. Great stories, amazing art, original ideas. I learned a lot and discovered new variations of local myths and legends. I wonder if every country has them- you know the same legends only told differently. For Romania there were the strigoitroubled souls of the dead rising from the grave. Some strigoi can be living people with certain magical properties. Some of the properties of the strigoi include: the ability to transform into an animal, invisibility, and the propensity to drain the vitality of victims via blood loss. These are our vampires one may say- vampire ghosts. I could bore you with actual facts about their existence and proofs but that is my private research, you'll need to do your own :). 

Then there are the vârcolac or pricolici- let's call them man-wolves. And the zmeii and our own leprechauns and fairies. 
There's a lot to tell, but you can read a bit about it here Wikipedia. Especially in the links at the bottom of the Wikipedia article.




By the time I got into anime/manga and the latest movies,  I was writing paranormal but not publishing yet. I was writing from the age of nine but English language came a bit later. I had already a ton of material that could be used and too little time. The situation remains unchanged. I managed last year to get two books out, one this year and have currently one more finished,one sci fi story coming out next month, two WIPs half-done and a notebook full of half-planned novels. I think I'm at #78 with the ideas written there.  


What was it that attracted you to the paranormal genre? I will not talk about what attracted me to writing Gay Romance, that's a topic for another day. 
For me it was always there and I got attracted to it even more when I realised it's something special that not everyone has naturally in their lives. Plus it makes reality more interesting, doesn't it? I want to share that feeling of knowing that there is more than the eye can see or than the mind can understand. I have a lot of "ghosts" and other fantastical beings in my mind, some inspired from real life some because of too much coffee and too little sleep. What about you? Why do you read/write paranormal?

And just because I can and maybe I've made you curious (if you managed to finish reading all the verbal diarrhea until now) I'm posting here my book links. I promise to get better! I have some creepy ghost stories on the way! 

Return of Originals Series- Bookstrand
Hard to Kill, Book 1- Amazon.com
The Lost One, Book 2 - Amazon.com
His Imperfect Mate, Book 3- Amazon.com
Somewhere Out There Anthology- Pre-Order

And my try at regular romance
Good for Me, Book 1- Amazon.com

WARNING- I write Gay Erotica/Romance. Explicit, with hot guy on guy action.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Aeryn - Great post! My husband works with a man from Romania and he knows my love of the paranormal and promised us a great tour either from him or his father-in-law who still lives there - anytime we want. I hope to take him up on it sometime.

    Being from a family who immigrated from Sicily - I was born here - I know all about the Evil Eye and old chants to get rid of it :)

    I think I've always loved the supernatural and creepy, since I can remember. Can you be born that way? I do remember my grandmother talking about the Stregas in her village - Italian witches - and the power, influence and respect they were given. Italy was one of the few countries who tended to be more tolerate of their wise woman than others - although many still died - because of that, I write a lot about Italian Witches and Stregheria and the secrets behind it.

    I'm looking forward to your ghost stories :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hey! nice to meet you! I found that most of the countries that preserve some of their mythology (I'm talking Europe here, but who knows) have a lot of superstitions that resemble. We had wise women also, probably still are in some forgotten villages, and they were feared and respected.And witches, lol, those still exist. I'm glad you liked the article! And to answer your question, I think we are all born that way, just some realise it, some not. And after a while of not seeing what's in front of you because you cannot accept it, you start to not see it at all. I did wonder if some bloodlines can be more strong in showing a certain predisposition to supernatural. I guess it's possible. My family, the women strangely, seem to all have a touch. Mostly precognition, though some aura seeing and energy manipulation does randomly appear. I guess it could be something in the blood. Or maybe it's because of the environment. Huh. The energy around does feel different in a natural environment...Something to think about. I'm looking forward to having the time to write and read more! The Stregas sound interesting. Hope you enjoy Romania! It's an interesting country.

      Delete

Thank you for commenting!