Sunday, August 30, 2009

Guest Blogger: Elissa Wilds

The winner of Elissa's prize is: Cecile! Cecile, check Elissa's comment to get her email address to contact her. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who participated!

Divine Dreaming

I’m flying above my neighborhood. I see the houses all dark and quiet. I hear the faint noise of sporadic cars rushing by in the distance. I smell the air, heavy with a tinge of metallic as if it would rain soon. I’m light and free. I suddenly wonder what my husband is doing right then. And whoosh – I’m standing next to our bed. He’s asleep, his long legs and arms curled around a woman with dark hair. What?? Anger rushes through me only to be replaced with confusion when the woman murmurs and shifts in her sleep and her face turns toward me. The woman is me. Instantly, I’m lying in my bed. My eyelids pop open. I’m staring at my familiar popcorn ceiling, keenly aware of the weight of my husband’s arm across my mid-section. The low-pitched hum of the baby monitor next to me breaks the silence.

I tell my husband about this experience later, and he says – Oh, you were just astral traveling. You think? I say with a half-smile.

Nighttime is my favorite time of day. I love writing late at night. I can focus and connect and tap into my inspiration much more easily when everyone around me is asleep. The quiet peacefulness of night seems to open up my senses in ways that the hours bathed in sunlight just don’t seem to do. I also, however, love my sleep. Lately, like most new parents, I don’t get enough of it.

I have always had vivid dreams. Dreams in full color, filled with weird places and faces and adventures. My dreams range from the seductive to the frightening to the exhilarating. Rarely, are they boring. The best dreams, though, are those like the one I had last night. My husband called it astral travel. That’s a subject in and of itself, but suffice it to say that many folks believe that our soul selves leave our bodies when we sleep and travel to other realms or dimensions, or sometimes, we just hang out in this one and check out the sights. Have you ever had a feeling as you were drifting off to sleep that you were falling – and then jerked awake, heart racing, wondering what the heck? Did your conscious mind, perhaps, just wake up in the middle of your spirit body’s exit, sending yourself slamming right back into your physical body? Ever had a dream like the one I just described above? Maybe you were astral travelling.

What about prophetic dreams? Have you ever dreamed something, then it came true? Some believe that loved ones who’ve passed on, spirit guides, angels, etc. talk to us in our dreams because it’s easier for us to hear them in that highly attuned, relaxed state. They guide us, give us inspired ideas and important information, or just say hello. There is even a type of guided dreaming that you, yourself can control. Seriously. Want to dream about walking down the aisle with Hugh Jackman? There are techniques you can master that allow you to engage in what is known as Lucid Dreaming. That’s a fascinating subject. As someone who has upon occasion become aware when I was in the middle of dream that I was indeed dreaming – and decided I didn’t need to be in this scary dream anymore and would rather dream I was on a cruise sipping pina coladas, and suddenly was on said cruise – I know this is actually something that is possible to do.

It’s clear from my books that I have a fascination with the possibilities of the paranormal that occur when we slide into bed at night and prepare to drift off to sleep. In both Between Light and Dark and Darkness Rising, astral travel plays a role in the plot. Prophetic dreams pop up in Darkness Rising. The entire series was inspired by a very vivid dream I had where the hero of Between Light and Dark, Axiom, pulled me into his godly embrace and swept me off my feet. I wouldn’t change one second of that particular dream. (smiles)

What about you? Share one of your nocturnal experiences and be entered to win a signed copy of my new release Darkness Rising and a copy of Scott Cunningham’s wonderful book: Dreaming the Divine: Techniques for Sacred Sleep.

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Elissa's winner will be chosen and posted here on Tuesday night. Check back to see if you've won!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Win an Amazon.com gift card for helping me brainstorm

The winner of the gift card is: Cassie J. Congratulations, Cassie! Contact me with your info and I'll send along the card. Thanks to everyone who participated. This guy definitely could be a vampire.

I'm still working on the third book in my Kismet Knight, Vampire Psychologist series (thanks for all the emails asking about the book's progress: Kismet and Devereux will show up again at some point!), and thinking about what else I want to write. I'm going to expand a cool novella I sold (and got the rights back to) a couple of years ago into a novel. It's about an assassin vampire and a Detroit female rock guitarist. I just can't give up on those characters.

And, in addition to those things, I'm ready to tackle something totally new.

Help me out! What would you like to see me write about next? What plots, paranormal situations and characters appeal to you?

I'll randomly select one commenter to win a $10 gift card from Amazon.com

Deadline for entries: September 20, 2009

Be creative! Enter often! Winner will be posted here on 9/20. Stop back by to see if you've won.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Guest Blogger: Linda Robertson

The winner of Linda's book is: Candace! Congratulations, Candace. Send me your contact info and I'll pass it along to Linda. Thanks to everyone who participated.


CONTEST! WIN a signed copy of VICIOUS CIRCLE

Hello! I am Linda Robertson, author of VICIOUS CIRCLE and I’m delighted to be a guest blogger here on Lynda Hilburn’s Paranormality! Because Tarot is part of my main character’s life, this post is about Divination.

It’s easy to look at the word divination and see the etymological link to the word divine. Divine, in verb form, means “to discover by intuition or insight” according to Merriam Webster, and in adjective form, “of, relating to, or proceeding directly from God or a god.”

That said, how do Tarot cards, runes and other auguries actually work?

There are probably as many opinions and theories as there are practitioners. My thoughts are that the aura or spirit of the querent, (the person seeking an answer who may or may not be the reader as well) subtly strokes the shuffling of the cards, or the stirring of the runes. In my experience, I just know when to stop shuffling, when to pull the rune. I’ve found that this is true both of self-readings, and reading for others. If doing the latter, I let them shuffle first while considering their question. I follow by shuffling the cards and cutting them myself—according to my sense of knowing. This method produces a reading the querents have felt accurately addressed their question, whereas if just one of us shuffled/cut, the reading has felt unfocused. You’d think it would be the opposite, unless you consider that my cards are attuned to me, and know how I will read them.

So, if the divination tools work because of that sense of knowing, can we define what that knowing is?

In my opinion, it is belief, faith, and/or spirituality in whatever religious path calls you. Plugging into your divine outlet to power your Tarot cards isn’t unlike a prayer or quick ritual, and neither is it unlike (in method if not voltage) the power enabling your computer to work.

Here's a blurb:

Witches and werewolves don't mix . . .

Being a witch doesn't pay the bills, but Persephone Alcmedi gets by between reading Tarot cards, writing her syndicated newspaper column, and kenneling werewolves in the basement when the moon is full--even if witches aren't supposed to mingle with wolves. She really reaches the end of her leash, though, when her grandmother gets kicked out of the nursing home, and Seph finds herself in the doghouse about some things she's written. Then her werewolf friend Lorrie is murdered...and the high priestess of an important coven offers Seph big money to destroy the killer, a powerful vampire named Goliath Kline. Seph is a tough girl, but this time she bites off more than she can chew. She needs a little help from her friends--werewolf friends. One of those friends, Johnny, the motorcycle-riding lead singer for the techno-metal-Goth band Lycanthropia, has a crush on her. And while Seph has always been on edge around this 6'2" leather-clad hunk, she's starting to realize that while their attraction may be dangerous, nothing could be as lethal as the showdown that awaits them.

"I read Linda Robertson's Vicious Circle in one sitting and enjoyed every moment of it. It's a rare book that gives you a protagonist you'd like to actually be friends with." -- Tanya Huff, bestselling author of the Blood books

"This urban fantasy has a good plot told in the first person by a feisty heroine with a sense of humor. Well-developed supernatural characters, mystery and a touch of romance add up to an out-of-this-world thriller." (4 Stars) -- RT Booklovers

"Ms. Robertson blends tried and true supernatural elements with some fresh ideas of her own, creating an entertaining combination. Vicious Circle moves forward at a steady pace, provides paranormal action, and takes readers on an adventure filled with strong characters and their tangled human emotions. I'm looking forward to the next book in the Persephone Alcmedi series, Hallowed Circle..." --
Darque Reviews

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What’s your opinion? And let’s use this sharing as the contest! I’m open to other opinions, and I welcome you to share your thoughts on divination in the comment section. Or, if you have a question about the book, ask away! Anyone who comments will be in the drawing for the book, but you’ll have to check back to see if you’ve won. The winner's name will be posted here on Tuesday evening.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Guest Blogger: Elizabeth L' Inconnu

Elizabeth's winner is: Patricia Altner! Congrats, Patricia! Send me your contact info and I'll pass it along to Elizabeth. Thanks so much to everyone who participated.


Twice bitten

What happens when a newly turned vampire bites a werewolf and vice versa? We will find out in my new novel, To Hunt a Wolf, the second book in my werewolf series. Natalie Cash knew nothing of either one until she discovered the wounded wolf she had been nursing back to health was actually a werewolf, trapped in his wolf form until he had convinced her to have the silver bullet removed from his rump. Freed at last, Adrian Gentry rediscovers his human side and falls in love with Natalie.

When his angry master tracks him down at Natalie’s, the vampire bites her and turns her, knowing the werewolf in Adrian will hate the vampire in her.

Distraught by this knowledge, Natalie knows she must do something drastic to keep the love of her werewolf, and knows they must both escape the vampire’s lair. Problem is that Adrian is now stuck -- courtesy of another silver bullet -- in his werewolf form, half man, half beast.

Now a vampire who still has to master her own new powers, Natalie tries to find a way to help her wounded lover. Trading bites and DNA gives them both aspects of the other’s powers. Armed with the werewolf’s DNA, Natalie finds after her escape that she can walk in the daylight still with nothing more debilitating than a headache. Armed with Adrian’s DNA and his scent, she is able to track down Adrian’s family and enlists their help to rescue him and his sisters.

To what extent will they both be changed however? And how will the changes in them affect their future offspring?

These questions fascinate me and I hope to explore some of the answers in the third book, To Save a Wolf, which I am now starting to work on.

To Save a Wolf will be the story of finding Deborah, the one werewolf sibling who is still a captive of the vampire Cedric. Her siblings, Adam, Adrian and Delilah will be looking for her. In this book I hope to explore some of the changes that affect Adrian and Natalie from being twice bitten.

Both To Catch a Wolf and To Hunt a Wolf are available now in print on Amazon, or as eBooks from:


and To Save a Wolf will hopefully be an October, 2009 release.

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Leave a comment here for Elizabeth to be entered into her giveaway for a copy of one of her books. The winner will be chosen and posted here on Tuesday evening, so stop back by to see if you've won.