I’ve been fascinated by the kinetic energy around me (the energy of movement),long before I knew what it was or that it seemed to seethe in and out of my life in somewhat predictable patterns. The kinetic energy of an object, I explained, is the energy the object produces while its in motion.

But what happens if the energy rush comes before the movement? What happens if things around you start going haywire, but nothing’s really moving? Until you walk by it, or turn on the computer, or try to connect to the high speed Internet the way I was when I WAS TRYING TO GET OUT THE DOOR LAST THURSDAY!!!

Eh-hem.

What if a person’s mere presence or emotional state or reaction to their circumstances could cause energy to move in the space around them?

I’ve wondered about that most of my adult life. When I’m in a hurry. When I’m stressed (particularly when I’m on a tight book deadline), things seem to jump off of counters when I pass through a room.Electronics stop running around me with comical frequency. Like all my watch batteries–dead within a week of me replacing them. One time, they all went dead in the same week. I’ve shut down the kiosks at the airport, trying to check in when I was running late for a flight. I regularly kill the registers at drive-through windows. The self-checkout lines at the discount stores. My husband has no problem, unless I’m with him. When they stop working, I jokingly say I’ll just step over here. No joke–as soon as I do, the thing starts processing again. I was checking my three cats out of the vet the other day, and both the front desk computers unhooked from their network and they couldn’t get them working again until I left. My babies were unhappy and I was worried about getting them home. I didn’t mean any harm, really…

And I know that sounds unhinged. I’m used to feeling that way about it myself, but the craziness keeps happening, at at some point you have to stop ignoring it.

So, if the phenominon I’m describing were real instead of a figment of my vivid imagination, what might be happening? Some would say it might be a mild form of psychokinesis–focusing kenetic energy to move or control objects. I get it, with me it’s more a matter of being nuts when I’m distracted in a dozen different ways. But in a book. In a story, wouldn’t that be a cool principle to work with? So many people have, but how could I do it differently…

Which is exactly what I’m doing with my Legacy series, particularly the three new books I’m writing a proposal for, that spins the Watchers’ continuing battle with secret government researchers beyond Sarah and Maddie Temple’s stories. The Brotherhood is protecting a new Legacy whose gifts could be manipulated into global psychic weapons, and the world at the same time. And why you’ll see Psychic Realm posts weekly going forward.

I’m fascinated by the parapsychological research out there, how I see pieces of my own zany experiences in the theories, and how I can paint exciting characters and stories based on what some believe is happening around us every day, if we’d just open our eyes to the truth waiting for us in our minds’ shadows.

What if the mind really can work like a walking force field or a remote control, and some are born with an energy force that ebbs and flows in unpredictable cycles, unless that person leans to control/channel the kinetic energy they create.

I won’t bore you with more details until next Tuesday, but feel free to chime in on the comments and make me feel better with your own strange stories.  Until then, to all my friends who’ve  been on the receiving end of my little misadventures with electronics, let me formally say, no matter how nuts it makes me sound, “I can’t help it. It’s kinetic…”

Delving into even more thrills and chills and parapsychology this year than last (actually, at the moment I’m researching theoretical physics and super string theory as ways to explain the improbable but not impossible psychic powers and phenomenon I’m writing about), makes ia GREAT time to look a little deeper at the “1″ and the numerology behind it, so here goes!

Beyond the basic symbolism of single digits, numerology tell us that number combinations and patterns hold even great power and significance.

Good news for me, since I’d already decided to play with repeating symbols and the combinations of them that appear to my new heroine. The numbers I’m zeroing in on for my new “Legacy” proposals are 3, 5 and 7 (all prime for a reason, since one of the new family’s three siblings is a math prodigy). 

But how could I combine the appearance of symbols and the repeating occurrence of visits from the heroine’s spiritual guides and make it all meaningful to the contemporary paranormal world I’m continuing to build for the psychic series? (Did I mention that the first book in the new three-book continuation is going to be a ghost story ;o) Numerology to the rescue!

Here are the individual meanings for the numbers I’ve mentioned:

• 1–Look back at my Jan 1st post.
• 3 –Symbolizes completeness and fulfillment. Something that contributes to your personal fulfillment. The resolving of conflict between to opposing psychic forces. Excellent! But it can also signify (especially in dreams) that something is nearly, but not quite, complete (4 symbolizes wholeness and the integrated psyche). Or that whatever lacking can only be provided by some part of your unconscious self you’re afraid to confront. Even more excellent for my tortured, gifted (but resisting) heroine!
• 5–The number for change. Since it follows 4, 5 is about starting over again.
• 7–Also a number for completeness, though also can signify a time for change. Like the number 6, there is often conflict inherent in a repetition of 7.

“What about the dates?” you’re probably asking. Number combinations and multiples are key when looking at them.

• 6 and 3 are often seen as the same thing when they appear, for example, since 6 is a multiple of 3.
• Combinations of the numbers in dates make all the difference in the world.
• 1.1.11 is 1+1+1+1=4 (again, a number for wholeness, which is where we were on the first of the month).
• 1.11.11 is 1+1+1+1+1+1=5 (and, thus, following the simplistic meanings given above, we’re starting over, which would be refreshing, considering what the country’s going through at present).

Numerology is so much more complicated than the above.But this is fun, right? And the possibilities for creating a world around the science of it is AMAZING!

Have a great, promising 1.11.11 day!

But it’s time to get them off the notebook page, and it occurred to me that if I blogged about what I was going to write about, maybe I wouldn’t spook my just-emerging muse still tired from my last deadline back into hiding. And maybe this would be fun for readers to see (sort of “behind the curtain”) as well as fellow writers. In fact, I spoke on a “What’s Love Got to Do With It” panel at Thrillerfest, and these are many of the “how romance blends into suspense/thriller plots” things I wished I’d had time to say but didn’t.

So, here’s a quick peak at some of the notebook pages:

And here’s what I have so far that makes enough sense to work with, based a few weeks of research refreshing my mind on what works in genre RS.

Character Contradictions

While this is an important component to any character, in category romantic suspense especially (where you have less space and time to develop internal and external conflict) nailing character contradictions is even more key. Things that might work in my two new ideas…

Keep in mind that I’ll likely reverse many of these traits (between the heroine and hero) as I write, because, well, I like to shake things up, and that in each case the parring is between a strength and a weakness, but which trait is the real weakness??? That will become the most fun dynamic to write ;o)

Heroine

Resourceful but Naive

Resilient but Vulnerable

Assertive but Dependant

Illusive but Familiar

Indomitable but Weak

Fighting but Frightened

Practical but Stubborn

Defiant but in Danger

Hero

Strong but Careful

Instinctive but Cautious

Brilliant but Reserved

Ruthless but Loyal

Closed-off but Heroine is His Weakness

Fearless but Old Barely-healed Wounds

Powerful but Restrained

Decisive but Reasoned

Deadly but Fair

Alone but with Broken Roots

Reserved but Engaged

Common Character Traits

From all the category stories I’ve read over the last few weeks, these are the character traits that most intrigued me–dominant traits, one or two of which will most likely drive the lead characters in my proposals.

Heroine

Surprising

Enigmatic

Nurturing

Intriguing (naturally)

Protective

Hero

Intriguing (again)

Forceful

Brooding (sigh…)

Comforting (surprising, but true)

Protective (no surprise, another trait the heroine will repeat)

Story Hooks/ Relationship Hooks

Continuing the heroine/hero obsession, I jotted down possible story and relationship conflict hooks that came to mind after reading (and while dreaming of how to thrill my own readers all over again). Not an exhaustive list, but these are the top pics I’m considering playing with. Again, this is for category romance, but I think you’ll see these enticements have a lot in common with mainstream suspense and thriller plots you’ve recently read (maybe even some of mine ;o)

These story elements will need to drive tension and suspense higher and higher from the first page to the last…

External Story Hooks

Crime must be solved before victim (hero/heroine) harmed further

Crime must be solved before suspect (hero/heroine/other) strikes again

Amnesia/Secret past preventing solving mystery

Secret that others are willing to commit crime to get

Business at stake–with a larger “at stake” effect for society

Legal ramifications at stake–beyond the hero and heroine’s lives

Underworld/Organized Crime power in the balance (I’ve done this a lot, but never tire of it)

Small Community at stake–and through them some part of society at large

Witness Relocation (again, a personal favorite)

Scientific Secrets or Discovery at stake/being protected

Relationship Hooks

 Old Relationship, thrown back together

New Relationship, mystery/suspense makes them distrust

Disaster forces working closely

Boss/Subordinate and Role/Power Reversal

Peers in Law Enforcement on opposing sides of case

Stranded/Cut off from others–could one of them be the villain?

Relationship Ties To Plot

In every suspense/thriller I’ve ever written, the relationship drives the suspense story elements, and vice versa. In the shorter genre of category romantic suspense, it’s even more key that the characters, suspense plot and relationship conflict are established pretty much from page one. Every story I read while on vacation reinforced this necessity.

Here are the notes I jotted down to remind myself to hit and hit hard from the first scene of my new books:

Put characters in instant danger, giving them edge and appeal to the reader

Show instant attraction between the romantic leads, whether they want to be attracted to one another or not (in fact, they don’t want to be and that’s a BIG part of their problem dealing with whatever’s blowing up around them)

Make lead characters intelligent and cunning, and make sure these traits are appealing (a turn on) to one another (setting up reader expectation for just how tricky things are going to be, if they’re going to solve the crime/mystery/threat)

Draw characters that would ALWAYS avoid one another under normal circumstances, than make circumstances as atypical for each of them as possible

 Intertwine characters’ story lines so they can only escape danger/solve mystery/”save the world” if they fight together (and eventually stop fighting each other

Again…nothing new here, but seeing it in the notebook and typing in on the screen (combined with the chapter outlines I sketched for each new story) is making me smile and look forward to writing the pages coming my way. This is going to be sooooo much fun!!!

A NEW Spring to enjoy…

A NEW novel to revise…and it’s already a “Guaranteed Read” from Dorchester–learn more about this amazing publishing program I’m lucky enough to have been chosen for, and look for Secret Legacy in stores in November!

A NEW Harlequin Superromance release on shelves 4/10…and there’s already only one left on Amazon, so don’t miss your chance to pick on up on B&N or in your local bookstore/section of choice. Cool!

New contests to offer…win $20 Amazon Gift Certificates here AND here  (AND out here the week of the 10th, when I launch my blog release contest for everyone who visits and comments the rest of the month).

New travels to share…from the two weeks in March that saved my sanity and got me back to one (where I could relax into Secret Legacy and make it sing for you).

Of course I have more pictures to share than just this one with cover model and friend Bill Freda, but what a lovely place to start, right ;o) All week, I’ll be uploading pics to the blog so you can see why I’m feeling so amazing and new this Spring morning, while my teenager is upstairs sleeping ’til noon because it’s Spring Break, and my body’s luxuriously tired from hiking all day yesterday on a nearby mountain and my mind is dreaming up dream things to write so you can feel this new, too…

(NOTE: Many of these pics and stories were posted from the road last month on my Facebook feed and Twitter profile, where I do more frequent updates. Part of my new and improved “revised” year is to put content up when it’s happening, and social media seems to be the way to go for that for me. So, if you want to see the news while it’s happening, friend me on Facebook or join the 1,800+ strong (wow, really???) already following me on Twitter!)

To open this week’s picture show with more of what I KNOW you love most–NEW HUNKY GUY Photos!!!

I committed to several teaching gigs scheduled for early this year, BEFORE I learned I’d be having January surgery. It wasn’t easy to get packed up and hit the road for nearly two weeks, but lots of friends were there to make the experience amazing and liberating rather than just exhausting.

When cover model friend Bill Freda learned I’d be teaching at an event near him, he hopped over the night of the book signing to give me a hug and make me smile, and to wow the crowds as usual:

Of course, I taught while I was there, too, with my agent Michelle Grajkowski, and I spoke on a Romance panel with fab authors Virginia Kantra and Tara Nina. See–I was working. Really I was!

That’s okay, because I have visions like this (my last day at the beach) to sustain me…

And I’ll need it. 

In my office waiting for me this fine Monday (while sea sounds play on my white noise machine) are:

• The galley proofs of The Firefighter’s Secret Baby (to celebrate, I’m sharing a new excerpt below ;o) that need to be printed and read and commented on.
• Drafts of THREE blog posts that go live this week: my I Write THOSE Books out Wed, including thoughts from literary agent Michelle Grajkowski; a Fresh Fiction guest blog, also out Wednesday; and a Borders True Romance guest blog that should be up on Friday.
• The first half of Secret Legacy that I worked my butt off drafting on retreat, which needs to be printed and rewritten like the dickens, so I can draft the second half (to celebrate, I’m including a new play list I hope you’ll enjoy ;o).
• The Dark Legacy contest prizes you’ve all been waiting so patiently for, which WILL get mailed out tomorrow…

So, I’m back and not going to be bored any time soon.

But I’m also feeling better and determined not to let stress take so firm a hold again. We need to breathe easy, if we’re going to be all that we’re meant to be. At least I do.

Here’s me breathing… And sharing some of the bounty with my blog buddies (enjoy a playlist AND an excerpt, while I clear my desk…):

Secret Legacy Play List, Take 2:

This is just an taste. I’m still weeding out a long list…

Richard Metting (the “mad” scientist from Dark Legacy) is Sarah Temple’s soul mate. Even if she won’t let him love her the way he longs to, he’ll do whatever it takes to protect her… Here’s some of the music that moves me when I think about his scenes (Click here for a VERY early draft excerpt and Sarah’s playlist):

Click on the song/link to listen at YouTube.

• Addicted (Enrique Iglesias)
• Desperado (The Eagles)
• She Will Be Loved (Maroon 5)
• Smooth (Santana/Rob Thomas)
• I Feel You (3 Doors Down)
• Let Her Cry (Hootie &  The Blowfish)

The Firefighter’s Secret Baby, Excerpt 2:

Click here for the earlier excerpt, if you need to catch up. This scene doesn’t immediately follow the earlier excerpt, but I think you’ll likie ;o) Those of you who’ve read my other Atlanta Heroes, enjoy catching up with recurring characters…

“Not while you’re making the kind of scene that’s going to get you tossed off this floor.”

Kate dragged him to a chair. She was a tall lady, but Randy still towered over her. She got him to sit, regardless, then settled beside him. The room settled silently around them, and that’s when Randy realized they were alone, at least for the moment. He was still soaking wet and filthy from the accident scene. And Kate was right–he was punch drunk. Reeling from everything that had happened. He’d been running on adrenaline and instinct for hours.

“Why are you so hung up on this victim?” she asked. “You’re usually thrilled to be the hero who walks off into the sunset. Not that anyone you’ve saved’s ever complained. But it’s not like you let the job get personal, Randy. Or much of anything else, for that matter.”

No, no one complained. And no one ever got close enough to mess with the calm Randy had carved out for his life. That’s how he wanted his career. That’s how he wanted his relationships outside his family. Except for his bond with the brothers and sister he’d do anything to protect, Randy just wanted peace. A peace that had been unsettled for months by his bizarre attachment to a woman he barely knew. And now…

Don’t let him destroy our baby, too…

Your victim is a principal in one of my operations…

“Who is she?” Kate asked.

Randy managed a careless shrug. “A pregnant twenty-something who’s banged up and giving birth.”

“Yeah. I could have read that off the EMT’s report. But who’s she to you? Where’re her people? It’s been hours since the accident. You’re the only one here waiting to see what happens.”

Randy nodded, even though was certain Federal Marshal Max Dean was ruthlessly asserting his authority somewhere nearby. Which only added to Randy’s determination to know what the hell was going on. He had no reason to believe that this woman’s child was really his, or to feel responsible for either of their well being. But there had been cold deliberation in Dean’s eyes. Randy couldn’t shake the unreasonable compulsion to protect Sam from the man and whatever else had her so terrified.

Reason was how the world of fire and rescue worked. Weighing the odds, making the tough choices, getting the job done, then stepping away before getting emotionally attached. Except fear had been riding Randy hard when he’d surprised his team and insisted on riding in Sam’s ambulance. Fear had kept him pacing at Atlanta Memorial ever since.

“I have no idea who she is,” he finally said. “But… I have to know she and her baby are okay.”

Kate nodded slowly.

“Martin said alerts have gone out, trying to find contacts for her ID and description.” Kate’s hulking brother taught at the Police Academy. He could easily use his contacts at the Atlanta Police Department to quietly feel things out. “I suppose it’s possible no one knows she’s missing yet.”

“It’s also possible the ID we found in her purse is a dead end, and we’re not meant to find out where she and her baby belong.”

“Is that why you’re calling her Sam when her license says her name is Robyn?”

“Something like that.”

Don’t tell anyone that you know…

“You don’t think this wasn’t just another accident, do you?”

“A witnesses at the scene said someone hit a minivan, sending it skidding it into her car.” Randy stuck to the facts. Letting the rest in would accomplish nothing. “It sounds like the vehicle that caused the pile up had been dogging Sam for miles.”

“And how, exactly, do you know this Sam? Why don’t you want me using any other name but Robyn Nobles with the staff?”

Kate’s perfectly logical questions hung in the air, waiting for perfectly logical answers.

“Got a dollar?” Randy asked.

When Kate fished into the pocket of her scrubs and handed a bill over, he headed for the hall and the dilapidated vending machine that had already denied him Yoohoo twice. Ignoring that his friend was walking at his side, Randy inserted the money into the machine.

Wrrr.

Grind.

It spat the bill back at him.

“Damn it!” He pounded the side of the contraption with a clenched fist and inserted the dollar again.

“So, your plan is to make Herbie pay,” Kate said, “because you can’t smack around anyone else?”

“Herbie?” The bill flew out of the slot and drifted to Randy’s feet.

“This old wreck picks and chooses who it wants to bestow its bounty on. It’s not mercenary. Herbie will always give you your money back if he’s not feeling the love. But he’s fickle. Reacts badly to stress. An from the looks of you, I kinda feel bad for whatever soda you get your hands on. You’re crush it to oblivion when you’re done. You can understand why Herbie would feel protective.”

Randy eyed Kate. Never-ending overtime on the pediatric ward and dressing daily in cartoon scrubs had shredded her sanity. He wadded her dollar into a ball. Kate chuckled. He threw the money to the floor and stomped away from the evidence that a tyrannical drink machine had gotten the best of him.

He was furious. Deadly furious–at himself. He didn’t know anything about the woman his team had extracted. Not her mind. Her fears. Her secrets. All he knew was the instinct to pull her close. The memory of her contented sighs in Savannah. Both had been messing with his head for months. Was that really all this was–him being hung up on a one-night-stand?

He might be a shallow sonovabitch when it came to relationships. But this was about more than him not being with another woman since St. Patrick’s Day. Seeing Sam again had stirred up more than a physical itch he needed to scratch. He was terrified for her and her unborn baby, and it had been a lifetime since any emotion had had that kind of power over his life.

The elevator by the soda machine dinged. Randy’s sister emerged.

“Emma!” Kate said.

Emma stepped onto the floor, stalled beside Herbie and pulled a wrinkled bill from her purse. She feed the machine, scooped up the can that was agreeably provided, collected her change and marched down the hall toward them. Her expression was worried, but her determined stride said I’ve got this covered.

Classic Emma.

She’d had had everything covered for as far back as Randy would let his memory go.

She reached his side and held out the can.

“You must be needing a chocolate fix something awful by now,” she said.

Kate hugged her, the she and her pink scrubs with yellow ducks floating all over them headed down the hall.

“I’ll let you know when there’s an update on the patients,” she said over her shoulder.

“Patients?” Emma asked while Randy sat in one of the lounge’s chairs and snap open his drink. She joined him. “You said you knew a woman in the accident. That you might need Rick’s help with information about her. Was there someone else in her car?”

Randy downed half the Yoohoo and let its coolness smooth the edge off the drive to go hand-to-hand with Herbie.

“There’s baby.” He tunneled his free hand through his hair. “The victim is pregnant. Very pregnant. No one’s saying anything about either of their conditions yet.”

“And?” Emma had on her lawyer’s face. The one that revealed nothing about what she was feeling, while she listened to absolutely everything that was being said.

“And it sounds like Sam and the baby were in trouble a long time before the MVA,” he added. The kind of trouble that Emma’s APD Detective husband could look into.

“And?” Emma asked again.

“And I owe it to her to–”

“Owe it to her?” Emma slipped her hand into his, like she had when he’d been a little boy and their world had fallen apart. “Randy, this woman. How do you–”

“We…met. On my trip down to Savannah in March.”

Emma watched him drain the last of his drink. When he didn’t say anything else, she headed back to the vending machine and beguiled another can out of the beast. She returned to Randy’s side, her eyes narrowing.

Her mind had always been able to sift through facts faster than should be legal.

“You met this woman the weekend you and Chris and Charlie and some of the guys headed south to blow off steam?” she asked. “Only you came back more uptight then ever. You’ve been impossible to deal with, the few times any of us have seen you off the job. All because of some hook up you haven’t wanted to talk about. And now she’s here…and she’s very pregnant?”

“Yeah.” Randy took the fresh Yoohoo. He handed over his empty can, which he didn’t remember crushing. The thing was little more than a ball of aluminum. “That weekend… It was strange. We were both looking for something easy and fun. It shouldn’t have meant anything more. Except it did, somehow. Being with her was…different. There was a connection. At least I thought there was. But when I woke up the next morning, Sam had bolted. I figured I’d never see her again and tried to tell myself it was a good thing.”

“And now that you have seen her again?”

Randy curled his fingers around his drink.

“She’s in trouble, Em. I’m sure of it. Nothing she was saying at the scene tonight made any sense. But I think she was in trouble when I met her in March. Maybe that’s what stuck with me all this time–what I couldn’t let go of.”

“You do have a weakness for saving people.” Emma nudged his shoulder with hers, only half kidding. “My little brother, the hero.”

Her biggest worry for him–for Randy and all his brothers–was how much of themselves they buried in their jobs. For Randy and Charlie and Chris, navigating personal relationships was the impossible thing–not walking into a blazing infernos for a living. So far, Em had been the only one who’d carved out a life with someone.

“If Sam wanted a hero,” Randy reasoned out loud, “she wouldn’t have run that morning.”

“I don’t know about that. I almost torched what I had with Rick, before I learned how to stop shoving the him away.”

“That was different.”

Emma had always been different.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I wasn’t pregnant with Rick’s baby when he gave me the space enough to realize I couldn’t live without him. If I’d been carrying his child, he wouldn’t have let me out of his site, whether I wanted to be saved or not.”

“I don’t know what this woman wants. I don’t have the first clue what’s going on.”

It wasn’t an admission anyone who knew Randy was used to hearing. His sister’s eyebrows disappeared beneath her honey-colored bangs. But she didn’t push. Her silence was a open invitation to trust her with more, whenever he was ready.

And Randy did trust her. There was nothing his family wouldn’t do for him. Whatever secret Sam was keeping, even if the danger she’d been rambling about was real, Randy’s brothers and sisters were his safety net.

“She said someone was after her,” he admitted. “That whoever it was would be back, and she and the baby were in danger. I don’t know how much of it is true, or even if the child is mine. But she was terrified. Then a federal marshal showed up on the scene…”

Emma nodded. Her lawyer’s face was back, but she kept hold of Randy’s hand.

“And you need to know what about Sam’s situation is real,” she said. “So you’ll know where you stand once she’s stable enough for you to ask about the rest.”

The rest.

Sam and the baby and what the hell they meant to Randy…

“I need Rick’s help, Em. Your husband’s a bulldog. He knows exactly how to bend the rules without breaking anything important. He’s served as APD liaison on tasks forces with God knows how many federal agencies. He has to have a few favors to call in. I need to know everything he can dig up on this woman, her federal handler and whoever she’s running from.”