I really enjoyed myself at the Chocolate Affaire event.  Even though it was only held on Friday and Saturday (it’s usually 3 days) we still had a lot of readers come by and enjoy the workshops or buy our books.  The best part is when Cerreta’s candy people came by and gave us chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate of every kind–Sinful :)).

Special thanks to CJ Hollanbach - a Romance model - who had a long line of women, girls and believe it or not men who wanted autographs, pictures and to touch his hair (amongst other things).  He was a great sport and a truly nice guy.

 I stayed at the Gas Light Inn in downtown Glendale.  When you walk in the place it has an old 1920’s feel and architecture.  Although the owners said the place was empty when they bought it, they’ve done a great job with the restoration.   Every Friday and Saturday, they have jazz playing to a packed house.  If I closed my eyes, I could envision an old speak easy with the mob at special tables, a back room and a singer’s voice touching each soul.

 My room was decorated with Victorian lace and pictures of women in gardens with lots of flowers, the Amethyst room had a beautiful large 4 poster bed and chaise lounge all in dark amethyst fabric, other rooms had cozy country french designs.  The long narrow wood stairway to the second floor (no elevator) leads past some more rooms and then to a terrace - great view.

 Now to the best part of my stay.  The owners were friendly, nice and awesome people.  The Inn itself is absolutely full of spirits (my opinion - the owners won’t acknowledge nor deny it) and I had a couple of experiences.  The first spirital experience was on Friday night.

During the night, I felt something in the room and woke up.  I saw a thing that showed itself as a cat at first and then changed into a dark grey cloud.  It moved from one side of the room to my side of the bed and psychically hit me in the chest.  I threw up my protections fast as I certainly wasn’t expecting an attack.  Then a few hours later, I heard my roommate walk about the room.  Her ankles creak when she walks so I thought it was her.  Then I heard her breathing next to me.  That was a moment.

I protected myself very heavily on Saturday, so no experiences.  Then on Sunday, I was getting a glass of wine (surprising - not).  They had a great selection of wine and desserts - yummy.  I was positioned in front of the bar and the stairway was behind me.  I saw out of the corner of my eye someone standing on the top of the landing. I turned around and looked up, expecting to watch someone descend the steps.  Hmmm…nothing.  I continued to see the shadow (spirit) walk around at the top of the steps.  It felt like they couldn’t come down from the top - bound somehow. 

I would definitely go back to the Inn for the jazz, the ambiance and the spirits.

My workshop on how to use ghosts and paranormal experiences in your writing was received fantastically.  The audience asked questions and were really engaged.  I had a request to speak at an ASU creative writing group.  In addition, after getting my aura picture done, I spoke with Dave (a medium) at the Astrology Store (a local metaphysical store).  He thought my workshop would be great for his store and I can’t wait. 

Now I have to catch up on my writing, blogs, loops, email and all the other stuff.  Have a great day!!!!