books just slightly out of this world
Whoopee! I just signed with a new narrator to read Under the Stone Paw! Beneath the Hallowed Hill is also in production. Both books in the Power Places Series will be on Audible for you to listen to soon.
To celebrate, I’m offering Beneath the Hallowed Hill for $.99 starting Sunday, August 14th for two days.
I’m happy to announce that new editions of the Power Places Series have been published. They have new covers and the second book is freshly edited.
A forgotten family legacy.
Six crystal keys.
One shot at unlocking the secrets beneath the Sphinx.
Anne Le Clair, a successful, young attorney, has always managed to remain free from her family’s gothic past—until now. When she inherits her eccentric aunt’s antique necklace though, she finds no escape from its secrets. Anne is immersed in a crash course of forbidden wisdom, secret societies, and her family’s own legacy. She soon discovers that her aunt’s necklace is one of just six powerful “keys” that, when combined with the other five at the appointed time, unlocks the legendary Hall of Records. However, another group, the shadowy Illuminati, is working behind the scenes to uncover the same powerful secrets—and make them their own.
Katherine Kurtz, author of the Adept series, says “ . . . one of the best esoteric novels of the past decade. Crater knows her way around Egypt and its mysteries. Evil Illuminati, ancient artifacts, and conspiracies abound. Surpasses the Da Vinci Code.”
The Illuminati have opened a hole in time
And now one of them is stepping through
Anne Le Clair travels to Glastonbury with her fiancée, Egyptologist and mystic Michael Levy, to investigate a house she inherited from a mysterious aunt…only to find trouble waiting. One of Avalon’s sacred twin springs is failing. Together, Anne and Michael try to restore the water flow, but discover there is much more at stake: the Illuminati master Alexander Cagliostro has activated an ancient crystal tower, tearing a hole in time which threatens much more than one sacred spring.
Meanwhile, in ancient Atlantis, Megan, priestess of the Crystal Matrix Chamber, flees the destruction of her world carrying with herself a vital artifact.
Reblogged from Mysteristas:
When my first novel was published, it was before the age of social media. Not that long ago, really. I didn’t hear much from readers directly. My publisher was a middle-man. I did get forwarded a letter or two, but that took a long time. It took a while to answer, too. And I had an option of whether to engage or not.
Now I hear from readers directly and immediately.
Like, “I couldn’t put it down.”
“Do you think that ritual in the end of Beneath the Hallowed Hill would actually work?”
That one stumped me.
This appeared on my Facebook page recently: “Like The Star Family? I LOVED this book! I could not have asked for more of my interests in one novel. Religion, sexuality, green energy, big oil, sacred geometry, chemtrails, ley lines, aliens, physics, trafficking, the Koch bros, ancient technology, and don’t get me started on the MUSIC! I could hear every note and each nuance. I completely related to Jane, wise yet naive, a pillar of strength and still fragile. If I didn’t have an enormous backlog of books waiting to be read, I’d read it all over again.”
Be still my heart. Thank you, Jennifer Knotsmed.
Or “Your new novel is great. When’s the next one coming out?”
I want to say, “Can’t I just lie here in a heap for a day or two to recover before you ask me that?” What a compliment, though.
Mostly I hear about my readers’ pets, what other books they’re reading, how their day is going. I learn a bit about their world views—all courtesy of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.
The divisions have been removed. Most writers are no longer those mysterious beings who sit in their rooms and spin out their web of words so mysteriously like the Lady of Shallot. We’re present, visible, warts and all.
Is this a good thing? Have we lost anything? We’ve certainly gained the joys of hearing from more readers.
D. J. Adamson published this article from me in her newsletter, which you can find at http://www.djadamson.com/blog/
Sometimes the bad guy is just more—well—interesting. Think of Hannibal Lecter. During our viewing of the first hobbit film, the audience oohed in delight when Gollum took the stage. We’re way past the “good ole days” when the hero was squeaky clean, like Clark Kent with his starched white shirt, his black framed glasses, and his mild manners. We don’t expect the hero to always speak politely, do good and pick the car up for his grandparents. Oops. See there? Even Superman has a dark secret.
We want some bad in our heroes. We want them to be struggling humans just like we are. Kent Clark is the consummate outsider, copying the ways of his guest planet desperately so he can fit in and get the girl. He’s the nerd’s hero. “See, you picked the captain of the football team and look what a gem you missed in me.” Then there’s Aragorn, the dark and dangerous Strider who turns out to be the hidden king of all the lands—once he finds his courage to face the ultimate temptation of the ring of power.
We want some good in our villains, too. There needs to be some spark of light in them that we can cheer on. We adore Lecter’s good manners, while we roll our eyes at Kent Clark’s. What a delicious combination—a man with impeccable manners and gourmet tastes who eats people who we secretly think deserve it.
Which reminds me of Dexter. He’s another sympathetic mass murderer. Then there’s Gollum, who has struggled with a power much greater than himself and become a ruin. But we can sympathize. Who hasn’t felt overwhelmed by the world at times? Who doesn’t want to believe that even the worst can rise up and ironically save the day?
I was surprised when my favorite villain took over the second book in my series, Beneath the Hallowed Hill. The best of the dark magicians who serves the Illuminati in their quest to keep control of the world’s power and wealth, Cagliostro is suddenly overcome with longing. For what? For the truth of who he is and his lost love, a beautiful red head whose bell-clear laugh haunts him. He goes in search of these things and in so doing destroys Atlantis, but saves modern-day Glastonbury.
“Stories are equipment for living,” theorist Kenneth Burke declared. We read and watch stories to know about the world and ourselves. The polar opposites of children’s literature just don’t do the job.
Today please welcome J. Robert Kennedy. I discovered his first book The Protocol during an Amazon Kindle sale. Much to my delight, it was about crystal skulls. As many of you know, Stephen and I met during a meditation session with Max, the Texas Skull. Max makes a guest appearance in my second book, Beneath the Hallowed Hill. Stephen started researching the skulls in the 1980 at the Rosicrucian headquarters in San Jose and has written a book with David Hatcher Childress, The Crystal Skulls: Astonishing Portals to Man’s Past. So I recognized great research when I read it and enjoyed the first of many thrill rides with archeologist James Acton. It’s an honor to have a best-selling writer visit us.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I wrote my first story when I was five. Everyone in it died. I still have it, illustrations and all. I think it ends with something like, “And no one in the kingdom was ever happy again.” Creative Writing was my favorite part of school and I still have many of my short story assignments in a filing cabinet somewhere. When I look back at them occasionally I have to laugh at what I put my poor English teachers through. My favorite teacher was my grade 8 & 9 Language Arts teacher, Miss Boss. I was able to find her on Facebook and send her some of my books. I even dedicated one to her, and named a character after her in another.
As an adult, career and family came first, but I was haunted for years by the vision of a young girl walking through tall grass, the blades flowing through her fingers. One night about ten years ago I finally sat down and wrote the story. A few years later after encouragement from friends I sent it to a magazine and it was immediately accepted. Another short story acceptance and I was ready to try a novel.
A friend had just seen a documentary on the crystal skulls and suggested I write a book about them.
Challenge accepted.
This book, The Protocol, was accepted by a traditional publisher; however after many headaches and false starts, it was finally published after over three years of waiting. My second novel was accepted by a different traditional publisher, but the eBook craze had just started and I decided after my first experience going independent might be a good idea. A month later I bought back my rights to The Protocol.
Three years and fifteen best sellers later and I think I made the right decision.
Please tell us about your latest book.
My latest book is called The Venice Code. It is book #8 in my James Acton Thrillers series, and ties up a lot of loose ends left dangling as teasers in previous novels. It is closely tied to my debut novel, The Protocol, as it deals with the discovery of a thirteenth crystal skull. It’s written in such a way that you don’t need to have read The Protocol or the other novels to enjoy it, however if you do like it, please feel free to buy the others to see how it all ended up culminating in The Venice Code.
Does this book fit into a series?
Yes, it does. The focus is on two archeology professors—now engaged—James Acton and Laura Palmer. They keep stumbling into situations that have them fighting for their lives, and friends made along the way either try to help them or they them, such as a crotchety Interpol agent, a young Scotland Yard detective, and the elite Delta Force. Acton has been described as Indiana Jones meets Jack Bauer.
How did you prepare to write about the book’s specific area or field of study?
My process is to just start writing and see where it goes. As I move forward, anything that I don’t have an answer to, such as a character name, a location, a type of weapon, etc, I’ll just put an X or Y in the document so it doesn’t slow me down. I then have an open email where I put questions for my researcher (my dad!) who then looks up the information I need to fill in those X’s and Y’s. It makes for a very quick, efficient process.
How does this book fit into your real-life interests?
I love action movies, and when I write I picture everything as a movie so I visualize the fights, the gun battles, the explosions and try to convey that on the page. Growing up as a military brat I was exposed to the military life constantly, and loved it. I am a huge supporter of our troops and try to highlight the sacrifices they make every day in my books.
What are you working on right now?
I’m working on Acton #9 right now. I can tell you that it once again mixes the historical with a modern day, “ripped from the headlines” event. If you want to know more, you’ll have to buy the book!
My website: http://www.jrobertkennedy.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.-Robert-Kennedy/e/B004GV2OR6
http://www.amazon.co.uk/J-Robert-Kennedy/e/B004GV2OR6
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/Search/Query?q=j+robert+kennedy
Listen to Megan’s trip to visit the fae in Beneath the Hallowed Hill with a couple of new paragraphs not in the current edition.
The latest Broad Pod, September 2011: Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups, is available for you to enjoy!
Thank you, L.C. Hu, writer, artist, and all around geek, for hosting and assembling this episode. Dragons and magical beasts, peasants and princesses, heroes and tricksters—fairy tales are some of the first stories many of us hear as children; is it any surprise that they continue to inspire us into adulthood? This month brings us five new interpretations of the fairy story, as varied and wonderful as the tales that enchanted us as children.
Catherine Lundoff tells us of Vadija the Merry, whose laugh inspires a talespinner to begin a life-changing journey. Shauna Roberts gives us a
science fiction retelling of the old tale Maid on the Shore. Theresa Crater leads us down beneath the Tor to meet the fae, as we follow a young woman’s initiation to become a priestess. Vonnie Winslow Crist spins us a tale about a young man who makes a deal involving death, deceit, and
devotion with a swan maiden. And Trisha Woolridge enchants us with the story of a young woman wandering her uncle’s manor, who discovers a curious portrait in a dusty side room.
So sit back, and let yourself be swept away by these five fantastic fairy stories.
Mystery writer Steve Berry puts a section at the end of his books that talks about what’s real and what’s made up. Yes, mystery and fantasy writers do research and use it in their novels. What we do with that research is sometimes made-up, but it’s the mix of the real and the imagined that makes for a compelling read.
In Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Megan attends an Emergence Ceremony at the age of thirteen to discover her place in Atlantean society. She travels with her parents to the Temple of the Oracle where she consults with a circle of crystal skulls.
Crystal skulls do exist. Crystal skull researcher Nick Nocerino classified three types of crystal skulls: contemporary (less than 100 years old), old (more than 100 years old), and ancient (more than 1,000 years old). There are thousands of contemporary crystal skulls carved in Latin America and China predominantly.
But why? After all, the skull and cross bones is used to label poison. We think of them as representing evil. Mexican and Latin cultures use these skulls on the Day of the Dead and to meditate on death, but the Maya see these skulls as images of enlightenment.
Why enlightenment? Next time you’re in a crowd of people, look around at all the faces. Notice how different everyone is. Yes, we have two eyes, one nose and mouth, etc. (for the most part), but we all have particular features and are each different from the other. But imagine the bone beneath the face. Imagine the skull. They all look alike.
The skull represents this underlying sameness. It represents Divine Consciousness, that I Am presence that we all are at our very foundation.
Are there really ancient crystal skulls? We’ll talk about that in another post.
At the end of Under the Stone Paw, the characters who are carrying crystal keys go into the temple beneath the Sphinx and they all slip into a higher state of consciousness. I describe it this way: “Just as a river surrenders to the sea, all their limitations simply washed away. A door opened in their unified mind, an ancient door containing certain knowledge.”
At the beginning of Beneath the Hallowed Hill, Michael asks Anne if she misses being in that state of consciousness: “In the temple, when we all merged, that moment of—” he searched for the right word, “—illumination.” Anne turned back to the road. Now they were driving through a tunnel of trees. “It was real, then.” Michael nodded.
All the spiritual traditions agree with Michael. Humans can experience enlightenment. When I was studying to become a meditation teacher, I learned a simple way to describe different states of consciousness in terms of the objective measurements of the physiology and the subjective
human experience. In other words, a physiologist could read our measurements in another room and know which state of consciousness we are likely experiencing.
Let’s start with the ones we’re most familiar with. In waking state, the brain expressed beta waves, our blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen consumption is at an active rate. Objectively, we experience what we call the real world, external reality.
In the sleeping state of consciousness, the brain goes into theta and delta waves. The heart rate slows, along with blood pressure and oxygen consumption. Objectively, we are not aware of anything. During dreams, the brain goes into alpha and the heart rate and other measurements can rise. We also experience rapid eye movement. Subjectively, we experience our own private movie. Humans don’t call this the real world, but
think of dreams as messages from our deeper selves. Of course, this can be more complicated, but for now, that’s enough.
Maharishi, my meditation teacher, talked about other states of awareness, starting with transcendental consciousness. This is that state we sometimes reach in mediation or listening to music or sitting in nature where the mind quiets down completely and merges with the larger divine consciousness that we are all an expression of. In this state, our brain waves are synchronous across the hemispheres, a very rare occurrence, and we experience alpha and theta waves. Our body’s activity slows to a deep state of rest. The breath rate slows and breathing is shallow. The heart beats very slowly. Yet subjectively, we are cmpletely awake, but the mind is quiet. We are not aware of anything. We become Awareness itself.
The purpose of meditation, contemplative prayer, and other spiritual practices is to reach a state in which this connection with the root awareness of the universe is constantly there. We do not lose touch with it again. Our individual awareness floats like a small boat on top of the ocean of universal consciousness. Subjectively, we feel whole. What we need to know is delivered to us through that universal awareness. Our actions are in harmony with the laws of nature. Maharishi called this Cosmic Consciousness.
Many spiritual traditions discuss this state of consciousness. Rumi and the Sufis call the Divine Consciousness the Beloved and writes eloquently and poignantly of the human yearning to unite with the Divine Beloved. “A craftsman pulled a reed from the reedbed, cut holes in it, and called it a human being. Since then it has been wailing a tender agony of parting, never mentioning the skill that gave it life as a flute.” We yearn to reconnect.
Christ said, ”Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” Western metaphysics speaks of the individual consciousness climbing the Tree of Life like a snake (kundalini) and finally resting its head just beneath the Crown, the great I Am presence.
The spiritual traditions agree. Enlightenment is your birthright. That’s why I love exploring higher states of consciousness in ordinary humans in my novels.