Fiction Series Backstory

For the past several Mondays, I’ve been posting fiction series installments.

Sometimes, backstory gives additional incentive to read. So here’s some series backstory.

I’ve written briefly about my experiences with reiki healing.

Reiki is a Japanese healing practice focused on manipulating the soul’s energy, clearing cosmic gunk, and adding resilience to a person’s essence. Some call it bunk, but it works for me.

During my second reiki session, Megan, my spunky firework healer, ended with hands shaking. She put something on my forehead during the session. As I sat up, I tried to rub it off.

“I pulled three black pins from your forehead. Evil things. Been there since you were in utero. A curse from your mother’s side of the family.”

Believe or not, but I felt them come out. That’s why I touched my forehead while sitting up. She sensed their connection to old New Orleans voodoo going back generations.

Writers use our own experiences to build stories.

I took that incident into my new novel. Though the manuscript has morphed a thousand times from what it was initially, this fiction series is the first chapter I wrote. (Note: It is NOT in the book, nor will it be.) It is an imagined take on how black voodoo pins from New Orleans got into a daughter’s forehead.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT BELIEVE MY MOTHER PUT THEM THERE.

However, my parents did fly to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl before I was born. They stayed with my mom’s oldest sister. My mother DID pour wine down the toilet when my dad tried to drink it. My father DID go off with her brother and sister and get rip-roaring drunk, probably for the last time in his marriage.

Everything else spews from my very hyperactive imagination.

I’m NOT writing a Nowhere novel. In the coming weeks, I’ll share what I’ve been working on and why it matters. But for now, I hope you enjoy this fiction series.

One installment to go.

UPCOMING EVENTS

29 October 2019 – RADIO INTERVIEW, Morning Talk With Martha Zoller AM 550 WDUN
5 November 2019 – Beaufort, South Carolina
13 – 15 November 2019 – Greensboro Tri-Cities North Carolina
Including keynote speaker at Greensboro NC Garden Club!

I’m also contributing to an Oxford UK based publication on my experiences as an author. More as it develops.

WHAT I’M READING

Still this. While the writing is lyrical and hyper-creative, I am struggling through this book. Obreht is very original. Her prose is unique, every word inserted with thought and care. I hope it will grab me in the last 100 pages. I will post my thoughts regardless.

BEST ONLINE READ THIS WEEK

A Threat to Democracy: William Barr’s Speech on Religious Freedom Alarms Liberal Catholics by Philip Shenon for The Guardian

My article choice will become clearer as I talk about my novel-in-progress. For now, educate yourselves on some of the basic tenets of extreme evangelical thought.

Evangelicals aren’t all extremists. One of the challenges of writing about them is sheer diversity of experience. But I keep trying.

BEST LIFE HACK

MTM got a Peloton. Long story. More bank account hack than life hack, but I digress……..

In case you missed it, Andra started a new fiction series. This post includes all six installments. Come back Monday for the next bit.

To see what else Andra has been writing in series fiction, visit The Aftermath of Death, She Was Venus in Fur, Grief Out of Balance, For the Love of a Gun, Death by Toilet, Biscuits, Gardenias and a Funeral and Everything Dies. She’s also on Medium with a new story HERE.