That’s the Spirit!…..Author Victoria Laurie

I believe authors add another layer to their stories when they draw from their own personal knowledge and author Victoria Laurie is no exception to the rule.

A real-life professional psychic, Victoria draws from her career as a gifted intuitive to create the characters of Abigail Cooper and M.J. Holiday in her paranormal mystery series. Her newest release is GHOUL INTERRUPTED (Obsidian Mass Market Original, ISBN: 978-0-451-23550-3, January 3)

Here’s a brief synopsis of GHOUL INTERRUPTED: M.J. Holliday and her crew interrupt the frantic schedule of their reality TV show, Ghoul Getters, and hotfoot it to New Mexico, where a dreadful demon is waging tribal warfare. Sam Whitefeather—M.J.’s spirit guide—urgently needs her to help stop this evil spirit from wiping out the descendants of his tribe. It doesn’t take a psychic to predict that M.J.’s going to have a devil of a time making New Mexico a demon-free zone. 

  
Victoria stop by today to talk about a new adventure she’s undertaking.

Next week I’m flying to New York to film the pilot episode of a new show for The Syfy Channel called, “School Spirits.”

In a nutshell, the show will be about hauntings that have taken place on school campuses and it will features stories from teachers, students and alumni.

A very dear friend of mine knows the executive producer and she heard that he was looking for people to interview for the show. As she also knew that I had a doozy of a ghostly encounter near my high school when I was eighteen, she talked me into submitting the story.

Syfy loved it and my episode, “Seaholm,” will air at the end of June.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, it kind of has everything to do with why I write what I write.

I won’t go into the ghostly encounter here, (you can see it in June!) but let’s just say that the events of that night 27 years ago so frightened and traumatized me that it took almost two decades to come to terms with it. For years and years I wondered what I had done to cause the wrath of that particular spirit. Why was he picking on me?

And it was because I wanted to understand what had actually taken place on that dark and lonely road leading to my high school that I began to research things that go bump in the night. What are these spooky things called ghosts and why do they act the way the do?

The results of my research surprised me. Not only did I deal with the almost crippling fear of the dark I’d carried since childhood, but I began to see the world of spooks in a whole new light. And once I understood the mechanics, I really wanted to share my findings with others, and that drove me to create the world of M. J. Holliday and her fellow ghostbusters, featured in my paranormal series, Ghost Hunter Mysteries.  

Writing about M. J., Gilley, and the gang has been great therapy, let me tell you! My mission of course is always to entertain my readers – make them laugh, feed them some suspense, a good mystery, and maybe also help them to understand why spooks act the way they do. I figure if I can help even just one person overcome their fear of things that go bump in the night…well then, I’ve done my job, but if I can also make my readers laugh and keep turning those pages, then I am well and truly blessed.

So, wish me luck next week as I retell the frightful story that changed my life in ways I never could have anticipated. A story that would ultimately launch my career and help bring spooktacular mysteries to a comfy reading corner near you!

Victoria, thanks for guest blogging. It’s so interesting that some that helped you overcome your fears turned into a wonderful mystery series for others to enjoy. Wishing you much luck in New York.

Victoria lives in beautiful Austin, Texas, with two spoiled Dachshunds – Lilly and Toby - and one opinionated parrot named Doc. For information about upcoming novels, visit her at her website at www.VictoriaLaurie.com. 

Do you believe in ghosts? Do you enjoy reading about ghostly encounters? Thanks so much for stopping by today.