Friday, November 25, 2011

The Ripper's Daughter and an Update

First, I'm excited to announce I won NaNoWriMo with my short novel, The Ripper's Daughter.

"Nathaniel James, former DI with Scotland Yard, is now a vampire and owner of the saloon, The Cloak and Dagger, in Louisville, Kentucky. But he can't seem to let go of his inspector past. When the mauled bodies of  prostitutes start showing up, Nathan believes the Ripper has come to the River City. But why? And who is the mysterious young woman who now accompanies the Ripper?

Nathan knows one thing. The police won't be able to catch the Ripper using conventional methods. Not when their killer isn't human."

(Note: That's a working blurb, nothing official.)

This story is my first mystery. It's a cross-genre paranormal erotic romance/mystery. For those of you who don't know, I love reading whodunits, from cozies to hard-boiled. I'm currently reading Fadeout by Joseph Hansen and wondering why it took me so long to find the David Brandstetter mysteries.   

The other news is a bit more complicated. I've discovered I may be an Empath. Earlier this month, on the 14th and 15th, I suffered from a near-suicidal depression. It was so bad, I also nearly deleted my works-in-progress, including my NaNo project. I had no idea why I felt this way. Life up to then had been fine. Wednesday came and the miasma of pain disappeared, as if it had never been there. Strange, I thought. But then I learned that on that same Monday, someone I knew had killed himself.

This is something I've been struggling with. Have some of my other "depressions" merely been psychic reactions to other people's deaths? People I didn't know? People who died by their own hand, consumed with a grief so strong they projected it onto me?

If this is true, it's something I need to deal with. Like someone said, we all have an empathic ability to some extent. I guess I'd kept mine shut off for so long I'd no idea.

I attended his memorial service. Even though I'd only met him a few times, I wanted that chance to say goodbye. 

Suffice it to say, I didn't destroy any stories. (The thought of retyping doesn't appeal to me.) I've gone back to Serpent Fire, the second book in my Angels of Death series. I know it needs work but I think I'm ready to tackle it. Same with my other angel urban fantasy. But I plan to write more stories involving other preternatural beings, including some not common to Western readers, such as the alp.

Because you know what? I don't plan to give up on my writing. I'm just not wired that way. 

7 comments:

Leslie Lynch said...

Hi, Pam,

I'm sorry you were touched by a suicide, whether your depression was a response to his pain or not. That part may be a mystery, potentially unsolvable, but the absolute sense of loss, grief, abandonment and anger, complicated by lack of answers or closure can be crippling. I'm glad to hear you didn't delete your work, and that you seem to be working your way through the experience. I hope you find healing through your creative nature and the gentle care of your guardian angel.

Peace,Leslie

PamelaTurner said...

Thanks, Leslie. :-) We can never fully understand what compels people to end their lives. Even Camus considered it to be one of the most important philosophical questions.

Teresa K. said...

Pamela,

I believe what you felt. Let me tell you a little story.

I'm Native American and I have such an open mind when it comes to the Super Natural. I've seen things that would make grown men cry and I just take it in with a grain of salt.

I'm not saying I'm not scared. For I do get that way sometimes but I also know how to protect myself from things.

I use to rent a mobile home where the lady that live there did drugs and she basically prostituted her 12 year old out. Sick older men hung around that trailer a lot and she never really have to pay her bills because of it.

A few months after living there I was having very real dreams. This was very erotic dreams. I could feel the person touching me and kissing me and actually having intercourse I couldn't move and my chest would hurt like I was being sucked from the inside out. I thought I was going crazy and I was in a depressed mood after.
I finally went to one of my medicine men and I was told what was happening to me was that I was under attack by an Incubus.
I looked up online about these entities and what I read was exactly what was happening to me. It said mostly women who are alone and is over weight and that may have low self esteem these beings go to.
My medicine man told me what to do. One night when the last one came to me. He was beautiful but because I knew what it was I confronted it and seen it for what it really looks like. I more or less told it, that it didn't have power over me and I told it, it had to leave. I than lit sage and smudged my whole entire house and cleansed it. No more visit's ever.
Please get you some sage and burn in your house use some type of fanning device like a paper fan or hand fan and fan the smoke of the sage through each and every room in your house and pray to whomever you believe in to cleanse your house. It will take away the negative emotions of the house or any spiritual or entity.
I think this will help with some of the depression. It will be there but not as strong where you will get physically ill from it.

I'm clairvoyant and I always burn sage and pray and offer tobacco to the Creator to help that I'm not visited by entities that are evil anymore. My clairvoyancy is where I have dreams or visions that come to light. It can be tomm. or it can be several years from now, however they do eventually come to pass and are true.

Anytime you would like to talk, please drop me an email.

Teresa K.
tcwgrlup41(at)yahoo dot com

PamelaTurner said...

Hi, Teresa. Thank you for sharing your story. Yes, once we strip away the beauty we can see the truth beneath the mask.

I've used salt to purify but not sage, although I'm aware of it. That said, I do need to do another purification ritual.

Louise Behiel said...

I often can 'feel' the departed, so your experience doesn't surprise me, but it must have been terrifying. thanks for sharing

Marsha A. Moore said...

I hope the connection you surmise is correct, so maybe you can control and eventually channel it into creative paths. Certainly a hard experience, but learning more about what you feel during those times is a positive step.

Good luck with editing your mystery draft! Sounds good.

PamelaTurner said...

Thanks, Louise. Not so much terrifying as a feeling of sadness for the victim. I hope he's found peace.

Marsha, thanks for stopping by. I don't know if I'm correct. I like to keep an open mind, though.

As for the mystery, I hope I'll be able to find a home for it. The first draft turned out better than I thought, but my ending deviated from my original. Wonder how much I'll love the story when I'm pounding away on rewrites. LOL