Guest Blogger - Lynn Lorenz

Common Powers ~ Lynn Lorenz

First let me say, I truly love paranormal stories. I’ve been reading them since dirt was young. As a young girl, I’d been immersed in them. Not just the usual stories of childhood, but I remember watching classic horror movies and gobbling up every book I could find at the Nix Library on Carrolton Ave, in New Orleans. And although those stories were wonderful, the ones that fascinated me most were the ones about my own family. One of my novellas, coming out in October from Liquid Silver Books, is Second Moon, about a werewolf and a witch, and it’s dedicated to my mother and my grandmother, both dead, and their paranormal influence on my life.

Those two women, both gifted in non-normal ways, were open about their gifts, even while denying they were anything special. My mother did astrology charts and made predictions of the future for members of our family and her friends. I can rattle off the many ones that came true, from the sudden death of an uncle to my own marriage, but let’s just say I’ve never not believed.

As for my grandmother, her dreams told of future events. My mother and aunts would gather at every holiday and invariably told stories about Grandma’s dreams and how they’d come true. I listened to them as a child, but hadn’t really experienced them until, while on a summer vacation in Waveland, Mississippi, at a small remote fishing camp in the marshes, she woke up one morning, declared she’d had a dream and made us pack up and leave with two paid weeks left of vacation. My father was furious, but did it, swearing and fussing as he dragged our boat out of the water and back onto the trailer. We drove home to New Orleans in so a thick silence that even I knew to keep my mouth shut. Two days later, Hurricane Camille hit and the camp was wiped from the face of the earth. My dad went back to find his friends, having grown up in Biloxi, who’d stayed, but nothing was left. There were no survivors.

I can even tell you of my own experiences, with my mother and grandmother’s spirits, or of the many haunted houses I’ve been in while living in New Orleans. So, even though I believe in certain paranormal events, writing about werewolves or vampires, which I do, is different than believing in them. And I find it easier to believe in spirits, premonitions, and hauntings, than UFO’s or alien monsters.

All of that exposure led to my new series, Common Powers. I wanted to write about people, like my mom and grandma, who had a gift. Small powers, perhaps not completely developed or accepted, and how they affected the lives of the men who bore them. In Soul Bonds, Sammi has the ability to hear other’s thoughts and feel their emotions, and for lagniappe, he can direct those feelings back to his lovers, making for some truly erotic sex. He’s searching for the one guy who can hear his thoughts and he finds a soul mate in Mitchell. In Rush In The Dark, my new release, Brian has had premonitions all his life and never quite knew what to do with them, until he becomes a PI. Rush can see in the dark, and has kept it hidden, just like being gay, from everyone in his life. Their gifts can either bring them together or tear them apart. I’m already planning my next book in the series, that will be about a man with the power to heal with a touch and a police chief that needs to be touched.

As much as I love to talk about me, what I want to hear about is your experiences with the other world. Are you a believer?

Lynn's Links:

Website: http://www.lynnlorenz.com/index.htm
Loose Id page:http://www.loose-id.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=402

Blog: www.georgiascrossroadscafe.blogspot.com