Excerpt from A SOUL'S KISS

"A SOUL'S KISS delivers the right balance of romance, suspense, and the paranormal."

Synopsis:

Seventeen-year-old Jessica thinks high school would be perfect if she could win over Hannah’s boyfriend, Michael, but a horrible accident changes everything.  Jessica’s physical body falls into a coma while her spirit splits off to invade the thoughts and dreams of those around her, including Michael, Hannah, and even Tyler, who has a crush on Jessica.

As she harvests slivers of others’ souls she also learns everyone’s secret memories and starts to suspect that Michael isn't as wonderful as she thinks he is. 

When she invades Hannah, she has a chance to be with Michael, but now Hannah is interested in Tyler. 

Excerpt:

I think about Michael, but Hannah’s face keeps interrupting every memory. I think about Rashanda and Tyler, but again Hannah’s voice splits my thoughts in two. Her voice. And what I last heard her say as I sat behind her in her friend’s car. Last night: “We could make Andrew the next victim if you want.”

“We could make Andrew the next victim if you want.”

It echoes. I can remember the entire conversation. And more. I can remember touching my forehead to the back of her head. I got inside, but she would not acknowledge me. I could not get past the boxes of darkness that litter her head. It was like there were doors and more doors, all of them closed, and I didn’t have the keys to open any of them.

And now I'm stuck. There’s no pulling back out of her mind. Last night I felt her nausea, her migraine. I heard Brittany’s voice, took in their conversation, their good-byes, the walk into the house. I saw her father, felt Hannah’s disappointment – a mixture of repulsion and love as she sneaked past the snoring hulk sprawled on the living room couch. I remember her, us, getting ready for bed.

And then this blackness.

My heart, or maybe it’s Hannah’s, stutters to life in a race to beat my mind to a horrible conclusion: I am stuck in Hannah and Hannah is waking up.

(A SOUL'S KISS is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.)

My Cool Stupeflix Video

The Book of Ecclesiastes, part 3

After bewailing the vanity of life and arguing that there is nothing better than to be happy and do good, Solomon continues in chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes:

 11 I have seen something else under the sun:

   The race is not to the swift
   or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
   or wealth to the brilliant
   or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

Time and chance – that’s an interesting translation. The original Hebrew has “the time of mischance comes to us all” meaning that we all die. “Mischance” was a euphemism for death. Yet wise old Solomon wasn’t completely sold on hopelessness. His conclusion finishes out the book. Read 12: 13, 14:

13 Now all has been heard;
   here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
   for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
   including every hidden thing,
   whether it is good or evil.

Whew! That will sober you up.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, part 2

After all the disappointment and feelings of meaninglessness in the first two chapters of Ecclesiastes the next three chapters look at earthly happiness, its difficulties and means of advancement. Read 3: 1-8:

1 There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 2 a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 6 a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 8 a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

Pete Seeger adapted these verses into the lyrics for the song Turn, Turn, Turn, sung by The Byrds.

The Book of Ecclesiastes, part 1

We don’t know who wrote Ecclesiastes, but tradition assigns authorship to Solomon. The word Ecclesiastes comes from the Greek word Ekklesiastes which means “speaker of a called out assembly”. The Hebrew Bible calls this book Qoheleth from the word in verse 1, chapter 1, that many translations have as “preacher”:

1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

or as you see here “teacher”, but the original means “assembler” or “collector” of wisdom. Who was a collector of wisdom and son of David? Solomon seems to be the obvious answer. After his scandalous backsliding he made public what he learned from his experiences. Whereas in Proverbs he reveals God’s wisdom, in Ecclesiastes he despairs over the complexity of life, the failure of natural wisdom and the futility of looking for truth and happiness apart from God. The major theme of the book is that without God’s blessing nothing satisfies, not wisdom, power, pleasure or riches. In fact, without God those things bring disillusionment and disappointment.

The Book of Leviticus, part 2

Chapter 23 of Leviticus starts with what I think is a pleasant contrast to all the previous negative prohibitions and sacrifices. The Lord appoints some feasts: The Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles. These are wonderful “parties” and have special significance to Israel, but even more significance to Christians. Why? Because they have been or will be fulfilled in Christ.

First of all Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits fall on the 14th, 15th and 17th of the Jewish calendar month of Nisan. These are spring feasts. Pentecost is 50 days later on the 6th of Sivan, a summer month. The last three feasts are all autumn festivals falling on the 1st, 10th and 15th of Tishri.