Tag: Ghosts

Six Sentence Sunday #6 (Ghosts)

On By Stephanie IngramIn Six Sentence Sunday, Writing10 Comments

As if I needed another reminder of how quickly time flies, I have Six Sentence Sunday. I almost forgot to sign up for it this week… that’s how behind I am. It feels as though I just combed my work-in-progress in order to come up with six sentences to share and here it is time to do it all again.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I love sharing my six as much as I love poking around to see what my fellow participants are up to. Be sure to visit the official site and check them out HERE.

Last week I changed gears from the WIP I’d been sharing to something completely new and not very developed. I am excited how well received that new work has been and I’m happy to say that I have it pegged as my September project. I’ll be able to focus all my time and attention to it once the  minions are back in school and I’ll have plenty more to share then.

For the moment? Well, I’ve got some good news. That manuscript that I’d finished and nearly dumped has found new life. Ghosts Don’t Wear Silk Stockings has undergone some serious overhaul during the week and if all continues to go well, I’m expecting a September release for sure. (It’s been touch-and-go for a while.) If you’re curious what this story is about, check out the ten questions I answered about it in my previous post titled “The Next Best Thing Challenge”. Since this is the manuscript getting all my attention right now, this is where I will pull my six over the next several weeks.

Without further ado, I leave you with another tense interaction between Brianna (my main character) and Greer. Greer has been adamant that under no conditions can Brianna go through with marrying Dan or she’ll ruin more lives than just her own. She’s trying to believe him but Dan just seems too perfect to let go…

***

“How do I know that I can really trust you?” she asked him, the conversation she had with Dan still fresh in her mind. Dan had made a good point and the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to believe that she could melt into his arms with no fear of putting the entire world in jeopardy by simply being happy.

Greer said nothing. His form simply wavered and returned like the flame of a candle threatening to go out, making him seem fragile.

“You don’t,” he said, “so if you have something on your mind that you need to tell me then why don’t you just say it?”

***

Can’t wait to read this book? Add it to your Goodreads shelf today! (pretty, pretty please??) 🙂

Six Sentence Sunday

On By Stephanie IngramIn Six Sentence Sunday, Writing7 Comments

Hip, hip, hurray for another Six Sentence Sunday! For the past few weeks, I have been sharing snippets of a work-in-progtess titled Ghosts Don’t Wear Silk Stockings. (Next week I will switch to something new.)

Flash forward – Brianna’s world is falling apart. She’s lost contact with Greer, her ghost friend, and she still hasn’t come to any resolution in regards to Dan. Can she trust him? Hoping to find answers, she appeals to the creepy old woman who runs the bookshop where she first met Greer. She doesn’t have any reason to believe this woman can help her, but desperation is leading her down a dark path…

***

“I’m sorry,” Brianna said, “I didn’t realize you were closed.”

“Don’t be silly. I’ve been expecting you,” Emily said gesturing for Brianna to enter the dimly lit bookstore. Brianna hesitated before crossing the threshold and shoved her hands into her pockets trying to overcome the overwhelming chill that rattled her bones when she walked through the door. The place felt like death, she thought. She couldn’t get the thought out of her head even as she turned around to look at the ancient woman.

***

Thanks for stopping by. See you next Six Sentence Sunday. 🙂

Six Sentence Sunday

On By Stephanie IngramIn Six Sentence Sunday, Writing4 Comments

How could I not participate in a fun activity like Six Sentence Sunday? Third week and I’m back for more. My first two weeks I focused on my current WIP titled Ghosts Don’t Wear Silk Stockings and I’ve decided to go with another six from that same manuscript today.

Brianna is caught in quite the dilemma. The man of her dreams has asked her to marry him and she would give anything just to say yes and embrace her happily ever after. Greer, her ghost friend, on the other hand has warned her that Dan is evil and she needs to break up with him NOW. What to do?

This part is one of my favorites and I hope you like it as much as I do…

***

She didn’t want to admit it but Greer had a point. Something about Dan’s reluctance to invite her to his house rubbed her the wrong way. The hotel was a sweet gesture but it couldn’t go on forever. Then what? If she married him, would she gain entry into the forbidden zone or would she still be kept at arm’s reach? There were a lot of questions that begged answers before she could commit to a guy like Dan, even a drop-dead gorgeous, melt in your mouth guy like Dan.

***

 

 

Those Who Walk Unseen

On By Stephanie IngramIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Here is another one originally posted by me on blogger waaayy back in January of this year. (Why does that feel like a lifetime ago?) I didn’t realize how much I like this post until I recently re-read it. Maybe it’s just that I like thinking about all those unanswered questions? Even though I wrote this post in January, I’m still working on that second novel. Gosh darn it, why is it taking so long? I should have that thing published and in your hands by now, surely! 😉

***

Last week I wrote an entry about life existing in other parts of the universe. This is an exciting possibility. But what if we didn’t even have to leave the planet in order to find other forms of life beyond those that we’re already so familiar with finding from day-to-day? What if gates to “other worlds” really existed right in our own backyard?

Science fiction likes this idea. “Portals” take characters from one world to the next in an instant. It’s a convenient way to get around the physical limitations of building a spacecraft that will enable us to travel the universe within the astronaut’s lifetime.

I’ve always had a fascination with the “unseen” and the possibilities that could exist. Have you ever seen a ghost? Some claim they have. Is it so improbable that the energy that makes up our existence could not echo even long after our earthly form has turned to dust? Do ghosts have the capability for rational thought and control over their own actions? Maybe. Maybe not. Why are some of us more sensitive to this energy than others? And anyway, what really happens when we die?

So let’s assume we don’t want to accept that ‘ghosts’ are some remnant of human life. What if, instead, we choose to believe that there is essentially a world of beings that can walk in our world unseen? Maybe they keep trying to contact us but for whatever reason, our minds are closed to their existence and we continue to look the other way?

Surely, there will be a few of us that come into contact with these beings even if later we question our sanity. Maybe some of us believe that our lives were touched by the intervention of a guardian angel that watches over us? I like to think that we are all interconnected in ways that we can’t begin to understand and there is a lot to our world that remains unseen. The rest of you probably just think I’m a little loony. That’s okay, too.

However, if you’ve read my book, you already know this is a premise that I love to explore. Yalen comes from a world that exists in tangent with our own but that we aren’t the least bit aware of … except for those rare exceptions. I had a lot of fun thinking about new possibilities for guardian angels. My next book will have some fun with demons.

What do you think about the concept of life existing unseen amongst our own?

 

Aliens Have Landed

On By Stephanie IngramIn Uncategorized9 Comments

When I was a kid, aliens landed in the field behind my house. They kept themselves well hidden by moving through underground tunnels left behind by abandoned coal mines. No one else noticed the lights that disappeared into the ground. My brother and I did, however, and we set out on a mission to discover what those aliens were doing and to prove their existence to the unbelieving adults around us.

Eventually we realized that the adults in our life may have been right and our quest to find the aliens wouldn’t lead us anywhere. We gave up and moved on to other things. Even still, I look out at the night sky once in a while and wonder “what if?” What if we had discovered something that no one else was aware existed? What if we did uncover the secret plot of aliens as they watched us? What if we just got a little too close one day?

My brother and I weren’t just alien hunters, of course. We were also quite experienced in the paranormal. After all, we had two resident ghosts that kept us occupied as we tried to conjure all the possibilities between who they were and why they set up camp at our house. I don’t think we ever came to any real conclusions but we had a lot of fun talking about them and waiting for something to happen. (And yes, once in while creepy things did happen!)

One could argue that like typical kids, we had some pretty overactive imaginations but I look back on those days fondly. In many ways they are the fuel for the stories that I write today. The inspiration behind my first attempts at writing a full-length novel came from our ghost “experiences”. That novel wasn’t very good, as most first novels aren’t, but the idea still lingers and I keep wondering if perhaps someday I won’t revisit my original ghost story and turn it into something better? That “perfect” ghost story is always in the back of mind … just waiting for the moment to escape into the world.

Just as one day, I will likely uncover the secrets of the alien hideaway as I follow the footsteps of the two crazy kids who dared to get just a little too close…