Sunday, July 31, 2016

Desert Son series continues: Wayward Soul by Glenn Maynard


Welcome today's guest blogger, Glenn Maynard. 
The idea for my Desert Son fiction series came from reading the book, “Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, by Ian Stevenson. This book was about the spontaneous recall of previous lives by children. I was so fascinated by these children in third world countries recalling lives of people who had died, and who had lived an unreachable distance from these kids. Researchers would then follow the kid’s claims and travel to talk to the surviving members of the deceased’s family. The claims of the children exactly portrayed the deceased, sometimes including the language they spoke, and with information that nobody other than the deceased would know.

These books depict my interpretation of the out-of-body experience, dying, and the process of coming back to life. Everybody wonders if there is an afterlife, and I take you there. Some of my readers, who have lost close relatives, really enjoy the thought of what it would be like to reconnect with them one more time. If you have recently lost someone, then this book will bring you back to them at least for the moment. Memories are all we have left of the deceased, but sometimes they’re memories from a previous lifetime.

The story begins with Carter involved in a horrific car accident that kills his parents. I chose to begin this story with an out-of-body experience because there was a significant message from a woman he did not recognize who was claiming to be his mother. She told him to follow signs to reach the truth. There is a bizarre twist in this tale when he follows signs out west to Boulder, Colorado, and hooking up with Brenda along the way. The story revolves around the topic of reincarnation. Carter and Brenda discover that it is up to him to find out if he is the reincarnation of his biological father.

The sequel to Desert Son is Wayward Soul, which takes place four years after Carter and Brenda discover their disturbing reality. The spirit world becomes intertwined with their own as they attempt to tap into these secrets about their fate in this paranormal roller coaster that will shake your soul. Wayward Soul is the standalone sequel to Desert Son, but you will be doing yourself a favor by going back to the beginning, which, in this case, is a loaded statement. 

Excerpt:

Carter and Brenda followed Angie into the small nook of a house and they ended up in a small den. Everything about the house was small. She invited Carter and Brenda to sit on the loveseat, then turned and sat in an old wooden chair with a blue, padded seat cushion clinging on with little strips of cloth  that appeared to be aftermarket threads.

Carter began to introduce himself. “My name is… ”

The psychic jumped up from her seat with enlarged eyeballs and raced toward Carter, yelling, “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” She then pressed her index finger against Carter’s lips, instead of her own, and followed with “Shhhhhhhh! It would ruin my reading if I got your name,” she said with enlarged eyes. “That’s why I only accept cash. Names contaminate readings. I need a moment of silence to get tuned in to you both. No more of that. Any questions?”

Carter shifted nervously in his seat, trying hard to come up with a question. “I’d like to know… ”

“Ut!” yelled Angie. “No questions until after your reading. I told you that I don’t want any outside influences, and a question and answer session in the beginning would defeat the purpose.”

Carter sighed in slight disgust, wondering why she would ask if there were any questions. He sat silently, staring at Angie, wondering why he even came. One and done, he thought. He would never have to deal with her or anyone like her again.

Angie came off as a little abrasive, and this kept Brenda tight- lipped. Carter had never seen this side of Brenda. He looked at Angie sitting in the chair. There was a lot of energy pent up in that little middle-aged body. She had very big brown eyes, and Carter estimated that those eyes had given Angie the gift of sight for just beyond a half-century. Her brown hair was a little bit wiry and landed near the back and bottom of her heart. It seemed to him that sitting still was a difficult task for this psychic. Carter could read into her a little as well.

Out of the corner of his eye, Carter could see Brenda’s blues

locked into Angie’s browns. It was obvious that Angie commanded the room. A coffee cup smoldered on the coffee table in front of her. The walls of the room seemed to shoot out intermittent coffee mist. Carter would not have been shocked if he discovered that Juan Valdez had lived here. The well-defined wrinkles on Angie’s cheeks told of age or stress, or perhaps both. However, the initial greeting exuded a youthful energy. Her big browns opened, and then closed. They opened again, and then closed again. This time they stayed closed.

Angie opened her eyes after a minute. She  jumped up and leaped in front of Carter and Brenda, startling them both and forcing them to jerk their bodies further back onto the couch. She reached out with both hands, grabbed a hand from each of them, and squeezed tight. Then she squeezed her eyes closed tighter. Carter looked down at the kneeling Angie as her eyelids fluttered and she began bellowing and talking in tongues. Carter and Brenda exchanged rapid glances. They did not know how to react. The coffee-stained air began to thicken and the oxygen level decreased. The closed shades made the room rather dark for an afternoon.

Angie suddenly went silent and her eyes jerked open wide. She looked at Brenda with a horrified look on her face, the bright whites of her eyes glowing in the darkened room. Her mouth transformed into a rectangle as she slowly returned to her feet and inched her way back from them, not once taking her eyes off of Brenda. Her body began to twitch wildly. Carter could not make heads or tails of what the hell was going on, and he and Brenda did not utter a word. Maybe this was a test, he thought, and he would speak and get kicked out for not playing right.

They just let her be, and observed. He looked over again at Brenda, who appeared to be shell-shocked. She didn’t even return his glance. Angie backed up to the front door, feeling the walls along the way. She turned, screamed, and bolted outside. Then came the horrifying sound of screeching brakes and a loud, impactful thud, followed by another thud. 

Glenn Maynard is the author of “Strapped Into An American Dream” which details his one-year journey through the 48 continental states, Canada and Mexico in an RV. He was a travel correspondent for three newspapers during his travels. He is also the author of “Desert Son” and “Wayward Soul”, which are the first to book of a fiction series that involves out-of-body experiences, past-life-regression hypnosis, and reincarnation. He is currently working on book three of this trilogy.

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While visiting a psychic, Carter Spence and Brenda Raycroft’s reading turns tragic. The psychic touches them, suffers convulsions, and frantically runs into the street into oncoming traffic. Their fate is sealed in a coma and they must use any means possible to reach the psychic in the spirit world as they dodge deadly complications in an attempt for answers.
Racing against time, they pursue the psychic’s message before she dies and takes the answers they need with her. When the spirit of the previous homeowner returns, this haunting soul begins tampering with the comatose psychic.
This eerie sequel to Desert Son takes place four years after Carter and Brenda discover they are a couple reunited beyond the grave. The spirit world becomes intertwined with their own as they attempt to tap into these secrets to uncover disturbing truths about their fate in this paranormal roller coaster will shake your soul.
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5 comments:

Andrea Downing said...

I wonder if you've read 'Across Time and Death' by Jenny Cockell? Fascinating stuff. Good luck with the book, Glenn.

Margo Hoornstra said...

Welcome and best of luck with the books. Fascinating subject.

Jannine Gallant said...

Definitely an interesting subject. Thanks for sharing with us!

Leah St. James said...

Wow...how intriguing! I love exploring "big" topics like that. Best of luck with the book! (Sorry I didn't get here yesterday!)

Barbara Edwards said...

Welcome and good sales, Glenn