seeing ghosts part 2

The books and movies really portray seeing ghosts in different ways.
1 - you only see dead people once in awhile. It's not really a big deal you can help them or not but it doesn't bother you.
2 - You don't see dead people often but when they do they feel the need to help the lost souls out.
3 - You can't tell when the people are dead and you look insane every time you greet someone who's not actually there.
4 - The dead of an area seek you out and if you are in a new area you get little sleep until you've talked with all the unsettled dead around. But once you get it over with it's generally OK.
5 - You see the dead all the time. It doesn't matter how long you've been in an area. They just wont leave you alone. Constant attention from the dead has left you sleep deprived and insane. They lock you in a home but it only gets worse.
etc... I'm sure there are more types but I think this is most of them.

What's A Ghoul To Do? by Victoria Laurie

What's A Ghoul To Do? by Victoria Laurie. Pages 281. Victoria Laurie writes a really good series called the psychic eye mysteries. This is not one of them it's a ghost hunter mystery. However, it is still very good. I recommending reading whether you are just a mystery fan or if you are a paranormal reader. M.J. can sense ghosts and help them cross to the other side. Her business however isn't doing as well as she is. Neither is her love life. Then the client of her dreams comes into her life. One problem, he actually wants to be there when she fixes his 'problem'.

ethics of selling paranormal skills

I believe people have the right to sell any skill they have so long as they aren't lying about it. At the same time some skills are so rare that the prices get so outrageous. Plus how do you prove you're telling the truth. Some things are so easy to fake because people want to believe. At the same time some things are so hard to prove that without a little faith you get no where. It's a catch 20/20 that has plagued paranormal workers since the gypsies. Have a nice day.

Reluctant hero's

I think I identify most with reluctant hero's in stories. I think this is because they can identify the problems with something but at the same time know that if they do nothing about it no one else will either. I frequently feel like that in my life. If I don't do something no one else is going to do it. Now usually it's like straightening a display or something. Nothing heroic but I still feel that bond. I know people would like to think they only want help from someone who wants to help them but they're wrong. Really if it's a case where you are in need of a hero so long as they can get the job done and not get you into more trouble it really doesn't matter if they want to help you or not.

I see dead people.

What would you do if you could see the dead?

I would probably hide the fact from everyone else because I'm sure that everyone would think I was nutz. Then it would get out cause I'm bad at secrets and everyone would think I was nutz and I'd hide in the basement for all of time. Of course there is the possibility that someone would approach me with a money making scheme for seeing dead people. Then I might do it so long as I didn't have to interact with the live people. I'm kind of sick of dealing with live people.

Books to look forward too.

For a Few Demons More - Harrison, Kim Just came out last Tuesday.
Dangerous Games - Arthur, Keri out before the end of march.
What's a ghoul to do - Laurie, Victoria my preorder came in last Friday.
Last of the Red Hot Vampires - Maccalister, katie my preorder came in last Friday.
Kitty takes a holiday - Vaughn, Carrie my preorder came in last Friday.

I can't wait to dig into all but the Harrison. I've read it already and if you want to see my review you can look back through the archives. I got it as a preview before the holidays. Have fun.

Bustin' by Minda Webber

Bustin' by Minda Webber. Pages 323. Romance. Minda Webber has a way with funny that is unlike any other author I've read. Bustin' is a very funny look into hunting misbehaving paranormals by Sam (female lead) and Nicolas (male lead). Of course these two people own different paranormal busting firms. They see things in different way. Heck they are separate species. One is human the other is ? Well you'll find out. I highly suggest reading this book. This author tends to write stand alone books. They're very good and even though she writes separate books I hope she writes more about these two characters.

Sorry this was posted late. I've been sleeping :)

Karma

Does Karma exist? I personally think so. Usually we really don't see it so much. It's not a big part of everyday. We usually go about our lives riding the middle line. We don't see karma in action very often because we don't do anything far from the middle so we don't get anything far from the middle. But when you see someone do something big on either side of the line it'll come back to you. I've recently seen someone who can be cruel and watched as karma came back to her. I wish I saw more often when someone would do something wonderful and watch them get something wonderful back.

Who you gonna call?

I've focuses a lot on the paranormal creatures but not on who catches them when things go bad. What happens when humans are having problems with ghosts, vampires, werewolves, goblins, etc... Some books have the people plagued with these problems taking care of it themselves. Some books have the heads of these groups taking care of things. Few books have people you can call. This always strikes me as odd because even in the real world there are groups that study paranormal activity in a scientific manor. I wonder what you would pay for removal of a ghost or ghoul?

Well have a nice day everyone.

Paranormal accessories

Paranormal accessories aren't just things that paranormals put with outfits. No they are accessories that have a life/will of their own.

One example of such an item are the cars in Simon Greens nightside novels. The cars aren't what they appear and you shouldn't get to close to the street. Also beware of what car you get into. It might just want to eat you. All the cars are something different and no two are alike.

Another example is in Rowe's books. The chalice of eternal youth looks different based on what it needs to look like. At one point it's a really cool anklet. It makes it harder to find and harder to steal.

Several swords have been carried by hero's and villains alike that do weird things. One such sword drinks the blood it gets on it and gets more blood thirsty each time. Another will not be put away until it gets what you said you'd give it if it worked for you.

I love it when people put cool toys into books. :)

Cosmetics and the paranormal.

There have been a lot of new cosmetics out lately. One could almost say that paranormals were driving new changes to make-up. Now I know you're thinking but skin cancer is pushing the market to increase SPF ratings in cosmetics and such. But then why is fake baking still so popular. You still get all the harmful stuff. Now painting your skin should be healthier but I wouldn't bet it. We never know what the long term side effects could be. So I put forth that paranormals help design new skin care because of their needs. Vampires need this sunblock. So now pretty much all cosmetics have sunblock. Mutants could need the color change so thick base coats could be put on to mask their original skin color. Unfortunately I'm out of time to follow this train of thought any further. Work time. Have fun.

The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo

The Nymphos of Rocky Flats by Mario Acevedo. Pages 354. Scifi or Fiction. I enjoyed this book and will be reading the second book soon. Felix was overseas fighting in Iraq when he got infected. Now he's a private investigator using his vampire skills to get answers. Of course sometimes questions can be just as much trouble as answers. With vampire hunters on his trail, the vampire council at odds with his choice to drink only animal blood, and a new girlfriend he now has to solve nuclear problems as well. Check it out.

Genies

There are many versions of genies. But Most of them have a few things in common. One is that the genie is imprisoned in a container of some sort. Another is that if you rub the container the genie will be freed from the container but only til you get your wish. The last is that they have to grant you a wish.

The special unit two I was watching yesterday had a cool interesting twist to genies. They said that if you were to ask a genie for a wish they would go about getting it for you. However they have no magick of their own and can only go about getting it for you through human means. You wish for a million dollars and they knock off banks until they have it. Another example is that if you wish you had someones job they kill the person in that position until you get it. It was an interesting take on things. Of course you usually end up in jail for their actions cause no one can find them. Price to pay right.

Bite Me if You Can by Lynsay Sands

Bite Me if You Can by Lynsay Sands. Romance. Pages 356. Leigh struggled to pull herself up after a rough start in life. Buying a bar to help others with similar problems with her own by not asking a lot of questions of her employees. Apparently she should have asked a few more cause she ends up in deep trouble and with eternal life because of one of them. Now will she be able to work things out with Lucian and get him to let her live or will she end up endangering them all?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

OK well for this St. Patrick's Day I figured I give you a some info on the theme.

St. Patrick - He was a man in the late 4th century who brought Christianity to Ireland. Some believe that he drove the snakes from Ireland. While there are no snakes in Ireland it is most likely that there never were any.

Leprechauns - A type of male faerie from Ireland. They are very mischivious and should be avoided at all costs. They're generally very short, have red hair, and wear all green. They are also said to protect a pot of gold. If you are very lucky you can follow a rainbow to the pot of gold and take it from the leprechaun. Be warned though they can be very touchie about their pot of gold.

In America - In the US we tend to just drink lots of beer and eat lots of green food. It is an odd way to celebrate a basically catholic holiday but it's what we do.

I hope everyone has a fun but safe holiday. Have a nice day.

Tempting Evil by Keri Arthur

Tempting Evil by Keri Arthur. Pages 371. Scifi. This is the third book in the Riley Jenson guardian novels. She's really spitting them out and I'm sure she had a bunch of them done before the publisher signed the contract. I like them a lot but will admit that they are pretty R rated. The main character (Riley Jenson) is half werewolf and half vampire. She used to be a glorified secretary for a government agency that was run by paranormals to protect humans and other paranormals from the bad seeds. Unfortunately she was unable to hide her power and the head of the agency really wanted her to be a guardian. Then one of her boyfriends ensures that she has to become a guardian by giving her a powerful drug that would increase her powers even more. Now she's hunting down the main in charge of a powerful crime syndicate who's been trying to kidnap her and make her into a breeder. Did I mention she gets a lot of her information by sleeping with guys and reading their minds while they aren't paying attention. So mama's wanna make sure they're girls aren't reading this at a young age. It's adult material.

Technology and the paranormal.

I'm currently reading a book where paranormals are known to exist. So humans have developed special technology to "protect" themselves. Of course it turns out that the paranormals use them just as often if not more then the normal humans.
One of the items is psideadeners. A psideadener is a device that keeps you from using psychic powers on a person. For example if it's a personal device (so an item worn to help only the person wearing it) it would just keep people (or others) from directly effecting you personally. They couldn't read your mind or make you do things you didn't want to do with the power of suggestion. If it was a compound device it would help the entire complex you were in. So no one in the building could be effected by psychics either.
Infared detectors sounds alarms when things that can be invisible enter an area. If say a vampires were to wrap themselves in shadows and try to enter an area pretty much invisible the alarm would sound and people would know they were there.
Plus the use tech we already have to keep things out that go bump in the night. Things like finger print scanners and code locks. It's really an interesting way to take the paranormal.
Things may be spelled badly sorry I tried the spell checker.

Dead and dateless by Kimberly Raye

Dead and dateless by Kimberly Raye. Romance Pages 330. This is the second book in the vampire love series. Lil finds herself in deep deep trouble when she finds out that she's wanted for murder. On top of being on the run with her favorite bounty hunter Ty and being wanted for murder or a client Lil is also trying to arrange the biggest dating set up of her carer. I know it hasn't been a long career but she does have t0 arrange "dates" for 28 horny werewolf gals. Good Luck Lil. Have fun everyone. I had a blast reading this book.

Sorry

I'm sorry I haven't been on for two days. It was a combination of computer problems and I wasn't feeling to well. But I'm back and ready to write something.

Ordinary Items - It's really good to use ordinary items in magic because people don't suspect you're doing magic. Dresden (the tv show not the book (I wish I had gotten to the books already but I'm behind)) uses everyday items all the time. His wand is a drum stick and his staff is a hockey stick. It's great because you don't go he's pointing a drum stick at me he's going to cast a spell. It's frequently ignored and over looked. Bad idea for the bad guy.

Ordinary Clothing - Wearing ordinary clothing helps characters blend in. If you're either really well dressed or really badly dressed you'll attract attention to yourself. Same goes if you're very oddly dressed. People remember when a guy in a full cloak and staff walk down the street unless of course you radiate a very large not my problem field.

Ordinary jewelry - This goes kind of with ordinary clothing. People notice things like jewelry. If you don't think so wear a large diamond ring one day and see if that changes the quality of the service you get at commission stores.

Blending in is very important for paranormal creatures. If you can blend in your less likely to be noticed and remembered. Being remembered is usually bad because of all the things that can go bad when you are remembered. For example Van Helsings - Van Helsings are people who Fancy themselves great hunters of the paranormal and go after then with great enthusiasm. You get a good Van Helsing on your trail and you might as well chalk yourself up to being dead or a murderer (it may be self defense, that doesn't mean you wont be in jail). So blending in is good.

No Dominion by Charlie Huston

No Dominion by Charlie Huston. Scifi or Fiction. Pages 251. Joe is just a regular guy. All he really wants is to keep a roof over his head, make his girlfriend happy, and keep a few pints of blood in the mini fridge. Course when his rent is over due, his girlfriend is sick, and he's down to one pint in the reserves he knows he's gotta go out and do a job. Only one thing. He's running out of places of employment. He's going to have to go back to Jerry to see if he can get something out of their expired friendship. Unfortunately things are going to get messy. This book was really good. I really like Huston's work. He really captures what those of us with low ambitions want in this world. Just to be left alone.

Sorry this got up a bit late today I had to finish reading it.

Unlucky Luck

No you all might be confused as to what this means. Well unlucky luck is good things that wouldn't have happened without bad things happening first. This can be applied to many paranormal creatures.

Vampires - This creature has unlucky luck. They wouldn't be a vampire which is a lot of cases lucky if they hadn't had the unlucky bit of dying first.

Werewolves - Two theories of here. One where unlucky luck is present one where it isn't. Genetic theories lack the lucky luck. They may be lucky but they miss the unlucky part. If they are bit they get the unlucky luck. Same as vampires they get to be werewolves but they have to live through the bite which is unlucky.

Ghosts - Unlucky luck is important here. Being a ghost may just be plan unlucky. But if you like being a ghost then it's unlucky luck since you have to be dead to be a ghost and most people find being dead unlucky.

You all get the point. Have a fun day.

Drugs for Vampires.

Vampires and drugs are an interesting combo. In most books vampires can not ingest drugs directly but need to have a human take them first then drink from the human. Even under those circumstances it is unlikely the vampire will get high for long. The rare case however is when a drug has been invented just for the vampire. It's a difficult situation for most involved. At least you get a crazy vampire running around killing for his next high. At best you have a cure for some vampire disease. Most of the time you end up with vampires on the rampage. Because of the different blood chemistry's with age and sire it is hard to invent anything that works globally. Well at least that's my theory. :)

Sex and the Single Witch - Anthology.

Sex and the Single Witch - Anthology. Romance. 352 Pages. All three stories were entertaining to different degrees. I'm going to break it down to it's separate parts.
Trouble with Witchcraft by Holly Chamberlin. This was a fun story and I think the best one of the book. Lia is a witch with less the effective spell craft. Her familure is a large cat that loves to spend time criticising what she's going to do. The few times she tried to cast love spells in the past they've gone horribly bad. Now her only human friend has begged her for a spell to attract men. While she considers doing the spell she finds her own love life tossed upside down. It actually delves into some magickal concepts that I find interesting and makes some important points.
Single White Witch by Carly Alexander. This was the second best story. It could have easily been the best had the author added a bit more info about how the witch world actually worked instead of blurring it. The concept was one of a witch who wants to remain on the mortal plain instead of going back to her home plain to spit out babies and conger food. In order to do this she has to try to find a mortal man to marry. All the while she writes a column for the witch world about her experiences in the dating world.
The Witches Guide to Life by Theresa Alan. The story was OK. Both it's best aspect and worst aspect is the moral it sends the people reading it. Basically the problem I had with it was that the main character is one of the smiley happy people I just want to beat up most of the time. Her life revolves around being happy and painting. Her sister is very depressed with her own life and her sister keeps trying to spell it better. I don't know what else to say it was really just missing something.

Domestic bliss

I'm reading a series of short stories about witch's and in it there is one story where on the witch plane of existence they are supposed to marry and be happy to be domestic and spit out babies. Lots of babies. OMG I would so brain myself. I don't mind being crafty but without a heavy mixture of video games and reading I get really bored really quickly.

Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Pages 375. Teen. Terry Pratchett writes wonderfully funny and inventive science fiction books and he didn't lose that when he wrote Wee Free Men for the teen section. Tiffany is a teenager growing up on the chalk. Her family are Shepard's and she makes cheese while reading the dictionary. The chalk is very lucky to have her. The Queen of the faeryworld comes to the chalk and there is no one but a little girl to stop her. Check it out. I will be reading the rest of them later. :)

Would you die to live a dream?

There are a number of paranormal creatures that make you live your dreams/nightmares. OK so you don't wanna live your nightmares. That's a no brainer. If I lived in a world where I was always waking up late to work I'd hope for death. But if you could live in your dreams would you? You can't eat or drink when you're sleeping so by design you will die when your body gives out. But would it be worth it to live in your dreams? I don't think it would. I think there is the possibility (no matter how small) that you will find your dreams on your own. Second there are little things to make you smile each day if you just look for them but if you trade your life for a dream you wont get to share it with those you love. Dream versions of your loved ones are just no good.

Don't eat or drink anything in the faery realm

One of the biggest rules when visiting with the faery is to never eat or drink anything while you're there. I don't know how it works but supposedly if you eat anything in faery you'll become trapped there. Unfortunately none of the food is actually real so you can starve to death eating tons of stuff. So you wont live long if you do eat the food there. The faeries will throw all kinds of food in front of you over and over until you finally succumb or leave. My suggestion would be to leave.

First sight

First sight is a great concept put forth in Terry Pratchett's books. Basically the idea is you see what's actually there versus what you think/want to be there. So when magickal things happen and most people can't see them because they don't believe in magick the person with first sight sees everything as it is. It also explains why eye witness accounts of things are so frequently off. I mean other then the trauma usually associated with needing an eye witness.

But you were such a good student

Why is it that the bad guy was always trained in the ways of the magical arts by the guru of the good side? I mean don't the bad guys ever teach anyone? It always seems like someone is going on and on about how the big bad guy was their best student ever and they can't believe they turned to evil. I mean now they have money, power, and fame. Wasn't living in poverty living off goodwill good enough? Some day I wanna here I have no idea who this bad guy is I wonder if they opened a bad guy school? Or even huh this isn't one of my students I wonder if it's a student from that other guru? It would be interesting.