Every year in February, ….Glendale.., ..Arizona…. holds an everything chocolate event, called The Chocolate Affaire.  You can get chocolate covered everything (except a man-darn), drink wine, listen to bands.  It’s a fantastic event with lots of vendors and it’s a great way to enjoy a weekend.  The event starts on Friday and lasts till Sunday.

Arizona Romance Writers have a huge booth and offer workshops on the craft of writing.  I will be at the event all day Saturday and Sunday.  As well as, giving a workshop on removing your creative blocks, which will be on Sunday at 1:00pm. 

For those in ….Arizona…. I would love for you to show up and say “Hi.”  For those not here, send me a virtual chocolate kiss…yummy.

As a special note:

I want to recognize our local writing chapters.  They bring in fellow writers (NY best selling authors, ….USA…. best sellers, local authors that have made it, unpublished, beginners) to speak about their experiences in a wide range of topics:
            About the craft (character development, plotting, pacing, etc.);

           Or, about the business side of writing (website/myspace management, importance of blogging or promotions)

The speakers have also been agents (Deidre Knight – Knight Agency), people who have worked in the publishing industry (Jerry Simmons), CSI investigators, FBI and local detectives.  

I’ve enjoyed every one of the talks and enjoy networking with my fellow writers each month.  We celebrate the successes (contractors), celebrate reviews, celebrate the rejections and people submitting manuscripts.

The local chapters give free workshops, encourage new members, and hold local conferences (e.g., Desert Dreams).  Everyone is encouraging, motivating and has helped me more then I can ever repay.

Please join your local chapter and write your heart out.

Desert Rose Romance Writers

Valley Of The Sun Romance Writers

I was speaking with my friend at the nail saloon the other night about taking care of our Betties.  Okay, I didn’t start the conversation…giggle.  Of course, the whole saloon joined us and talked about landscaping and different techniques.  Oh my, I learned more about Betties then I really wanted to know.  No, really, TMI.

Apparently at hair/nail shows there is a booth where you can buy Betty landscaping products.  You can have an orange heart, a blue arrow (like a man needs help), or just go bare.  Betties can come in all different colors.  Can you imagine being in the heat of the moment and looking down only to find a red arrow pointing to the spot?  I would roll on the floor with laughter, of course ruining the moment (if I were a guy).

This booth had buttons which say things like: Have you landscaped your Betty?  Landing stripes rule!  Oh my.  Then the conversation turned to, “what is the best way to get the smoothest shave?”  Where did this go so wrong?…lol.

A female friend volunteered that she saw a very smooth stripper at a strip club (who went with her hubby) and proceeded to talk about techniques.  First TMI!!!  If you use a disposable razor only once, it gets smooth.  But, then again this woman can take these off on her taxes…lol.

Another friend at the salon shared that she has a man’s electric razor and takes everything off.  It works great for her.  Another friend shared that since she’s a little over weight her technique and you don’t want to know.

All in all, I now know I can have a purple Betty or smooth ass one.  Well, here I go experimenting and did I say I’m clutzy.  My 911 call may be, “Help!  I’ve waxed my ass to the bath tub and can’t get up.  There is purple dye everywhere, so don’t panic…it’s not blood.”

Again, when did this go so terribly wrong?  Hugs

Now that it’s working, I’m freaked out.  Can a webcam make you gain 20 pounds?  I’ve been speaking with my friends and laughing all weekend.  After a few OH MY GOD moments, I now have a plan never to be on it or just show my tits and then no one will care what I look like….lol.

Through laughter and lot’s of web cam moments, I’ve figured out how to be the best webcam me (interpret-how do I get rid of that extra chin) in each room, the lighting needed, how far away I have to be if I don’t want the dimples to show (God forbid I’m naked on this thing) and how the Paris Hilton stance works to my advantage.  I wear reading glasses and of course the web cam has added 10 more pounds from those.  A friend suggested that I get one of those screens that lay over the monitor, which works like a large magnifier.  Oh, when did this go so wrong? J  I’m sooo not vain, but now that I have this dang thing I’ve come to realize Botox is in my future…LMAO. 

A lot of events in my life have humbled me over the years and now I have another moment that makes me say – oh what the hell…lol.

One rainy afternoon, we walked around the streets looking for a restaurant so we could get some lunch.  A small restaurant with the right ambience and a good selection on the menu crossed our path.  My friend doesn’t speak French either, so it was trial and error.  Good thing we love food and the wine helps us to forget anything bad, lol.

While we were talking waiting for our lunch, a very tall (six feet plus) older gentelman with white hair, walked in and was seated about two tables behind us.  For some reason we thought he might have been German.  

I almost forgot to tell you, the restaurant was empty until we and the gentleman.  

When the German guy sat down, I told my friend that he had a spirit attached to him.  A young man in his twenties.  I started to get out of my seat to go speak with the guy and told my friend what I was doing.  This is perfectly normal for me to do, so I didn’t think about us being in a different country, in a strange restaurant, talking to a complete stranger.

My friend grabbed my arm and asked me not to speak with the guy.  Remember, if you don’t acknowledge spirits, then they don’t exist.  Poor, poor friend.  I respected her feelings and didn’t tell him.

The food was served and we talked the afternoon away.  When the waitress came back to pick up the dishes, she found that I didn’t eat very much.  I only eat until I’m full.  It could be two bites or the whole thing.  Here’s the conversation that took place:

“You no like food?”

“No, I love the food.  I just wasn’t hungry.”

“Are you sure? You don’t like?”

“Yes, it was wonderful.  Thank you.”  Waitress leaves with our plates.

“If you weren’t talking so much, maybe you would have eaten the food.”

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Well, guess what.  When the waitress walked away we heard a man’s voice in a very clear American accent say, we were talking too much.

The disembodied voice was heard right beside my friend.  She repeated to me what was said.  I could see the German guy behind her.  He never even looked our way and was staring at the far wall.  It wasn’t him.

Now my friend is freaking out, because not only did she hear the spirit, it sat by her.  Poor, poor friend.  I laughed and thought it was funny.  I guess that twenty something guy wanted to say hi. 

We soon left the restaurant and had an uneventful night (at least the only spirit we had was in a wine bottle).

But they either don’t talk about it and try very hard not to see anything.  I asked why?  They said, it’s simple…unadulterated fear.  I’ve been there and understand the fear.  I’ve experienced the fear.  But I’ve also learned that you have CONTROL over anything spritiual–human, non-human, demonic—–EVERYTHING!

 In the beginning I didn’t know how to protect myself, so I couldn’t control when and what I saw.  I slept with lights on, night lights on, had my bed against the wall so only one side was exposed and avoided mirrors (almongst other things). 

With time, I figured out how to recognize the energy signatures of different beings.  I can feel evil, negative, bad, good, positive, loving, etc. energy.  This gives me the ability to figure out the right level of protection for what I’m doing.

Here are some ways you can protect yourself.  Remember, no such thing as absolutes.  This is what works for me.  You need to figure out what works for you and it could be any combination of many things. 

Start by picturing a white light (think about a flashlight beam) coming from GOD and going through your head.  It fills up the inside of your body from your head to your toes.  Think about this white light protecting the outside of your body as well.  You’re in a giant white bubble of protection that no entity can break through.  Trust in this.

 In addition, if you picture energy the color of mercury (silver) covering over the white light, then negative energy can bounce off of you.   I use this when I have to be in a stressful situation.

 Next is the chant or prayer of protection, which you would use with the white light of protection.

For any religion - prayers are extremely strong.  If this feels good for you, please use this. 

 For me, I say the following chant as I picture the white light protecting me:

I invoke the light of God within me

I am a clear and perfect channel

Light is my guide

Here is another chant that many use:

The light of God surrounds me,

The love of God enfolds me,

The power of God watched over me,

Wherever I am, God is

……….it could end with either …And all is well ..or..  So be it

Always know your guides, angels and God are with you.  If you feel something or see anything you can do the following:

• I command you to leave.

• I command you to leave and leave me (or this house) in peace

• If you’re not in the service of the light, the one infinite creator I call God, I command you to leave

I use the white light and chant over myself, my house, pets, friends and family.  Anything I feel needs a little extra protection.  Whatever you use it’s okay.  It’s about your confidence and always know you have control over anything that goes bump in the night.  If you need anything please don’t hesitate to send me an email.   

Please don’t fear what’s out there!!!!!  You’re a powerful being!!!!!!

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!!!!

Please do come by to either say “HI” or come to the workshop I’ll be giving.  It’s at 5pm on Saturday and the topic is Ghost, Ghouls and what goes bump in the night–How to incorporate them into your writing.   

Also, on Friday and Saturday we’ll have over 20 Romance Writers signing their books, we also have lots of craft workshops or you can sigh over a Romance model -CJ Hollenbach.  I don’t think he’ll be covered in chocolate but you can dream…lol.  http://www.cjhollenbach.com/index2.htm

Hope you can make it!!! 

At first, I didn’t see anything but felt someone follow us.  I think it was the girl that was stabbed.  I kept seeing in my minds’ eye a girl in a showgirl costume walking beside us.  But toward the end of the tour is when the sighting happened. 

We came up to a beautiful old 3 story victorian, which is now used as a hair salon.  As we all approached the house, I didn’t feel a thing.  We had about 10 people on the tour and all were having fun.  Well I stood back from the tour to take pictures in order to get orbs or something.

The group walked up to the the porch and peeked in.  We were not allowed in the building as it was closed for the day.  Coincidentally, a young guy walked by and asked what we were doing.  We of course proud as can be, said we’re doing a ghost tour.  He walked toward the group and said he worked at the salon.  Did we have any questions?

Okay, this was close to 9pm at night in an area that people don’t really walk around.  Weird that he was there at that time…hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I stayed way in the back.  He said the place was haunted and that various hair dressers did indeed have experiences. 

At this time, everyone cleared the porch and was listening to the guy.  I kind of blocked him out and walked up a couple of steps to the front glass door.  When you looked through front of the glass door you can see two rooms off to each side and a large stair way running up the middle.  I started to take pictures to again try to capture ghosts.  Don’t they know I need some pic’s to show friends and family. 

Well as I took the pictures a young girl ran from one end to the other end at the top of the stairs.  I only saw from the waist down (that’s all that was visible) and the legs.  It took me by surprise so I jumped back and gasped.  No one else saw anything earlier or then.  They asked me what happened.  Now I don’t always proclaim that…oh I see dead people…to strangers. 

So, I said I saw a young girl running around at the top of the stairs.  The guy cheerfully proclaimed, “Oh, that’s Sara our young teenager ghost.”  Great I just happened to be the only one that saw her.  He said only one hair tech was in the salon and she was on the 3rd floor.  They didn’t use the 2nd floor and stayed away from it.  When they left, they went out the back way and didn’t go any where near where I saw the young girl.

I didn’t feel anything negative from her and quickly followed the group (as they were leaving my ass) back to where we began the tour.  And yes, I do freak out my friends when this happens and they are with me. 

I have a couple more experiences like this that I’ll try and put up quickly. 

In chatting, she relayed to me that my 4 year old niece (her daughter) saw a man in their house.  When they moved in, I told my Mother (who lives with them) that I felt an old man, a Victorian girl around 8 yrs old and a Native American Indian.  The old man was a farmer, tall, skinny, wearing overalls and a flat black brim hat.  This is important as you’ll hear later.  My Mom was getting my niece reading for school.  This was the conversation that took place.  Also, know that my Mom freaks with this stuff, even though she experiences this stuff for herself.  She put a brave face one and showed my niece a very calm facade.   

Jenny - I see a hand on the wall.

Mom - Oh (freaking out in her head) Jenny - yes it’s a man

 For today’s blog, I’ll talk about terrors of the night.  Sometimes seeing spirits (or other things) is a wonderful experience and sometimes it completely takes you off guard or scares you to death.  It seems night brings them to me more then daylight.  I believe they try to make contact with me at night because it is when I’m between a conscious and a sub-conscious state of mind.  What I now term dearly as the ‘in-betweens’. 

My first visitor happened when I was twelve years old.  I felt something in the room and opened my eyes.  Sitting in a chair across from my bed was a man.  I didn’t scream, didn’t cry or get scared.  I’m not sure why, but I just layed there and stared at him.  Maybe it was exhaustion ruling my mind.  He dressed different from any other guy of rural Pennsylvania.  I grew up in a very small town with no diversity.  I later found out the man was Indian from India.  He wore a turban on his head and wore the typical male Indian costume.  I guess because I didn’t feel anything (positive or negative) I went back to sleep. 

Another time in my twenties, I again awoke to the familiar feeling of something in the room.  Through sleep filled eyes, I focused on the shadow at the end of my bed.  It was pitch black, but I could see something.  So I sat up and continued to focus my sleepy eyes.  At the end of my bed sat a man.  The guy on the end of my bed looked like the quintessential nerd, thick black rimmed glasses and everything.   He had his hands in his lap and was staring at me.   Remember I just woke up.  I started to scream thinking a man was in my room.  I woke up my boyfriend at the time and told him someone was in the room.  He grudgingly sat up and turned on the light (he’s a long story).  The man, who I now realized I can see through, disappeared.  I found out the next day, my Mom was talking to a friend about his dead brother.  She’s not allowed to do that anymore.

 I started to sleep with multiple night lights on all over my room and the house/apartments.  Pitch black rooms seem to be an invitation, but it didn’t always work having a night light.  One particular house I lived in, seemed to have a lot of energy.  One night, I woke up again for no reason.  When I opened my eyes I looked directly up at the ceiling.  Lying on top of me was a transparent woman.  She was a whitish blue color all over.  Her face laid on it’s side and her arms were at an awkward angle around her head.  She looked dead and laid on top of me as if I was the ground.  Well, not knowing she wasn’t real, I screamed and punched at her to get off of me.  I don’t think fast or sometimes not at all, until after a cup of caffeine.  A few seconds later, I realized she wasn’t real and disappeared.  In that same house on another night, I woke up to find a man in his forties hovering above me.  He had the same whitish bluish color as the woman.  He came after me with his hands outstretched, as if to strangle me.  Well, he disappeared like the first one, again after some considerable screaming and punching. 

I ended up sleeping with all the lights on for a while.  Now I know how to protect myself before I go to bed.  I still wake up at night for no reason and see things and people.  But now I’m not afraid because I know God protects me.    When I’m thinking clearly, I try speak with them to see what they need.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not serene about the experiences at all.  It’s extremely hard to be woken out of a sound sleep.  It can also be terrifying thinking someone maybe in your house.  But night terrors have diminished, unless I forget to protect myself.  

 Tell me your night terror stories.