Welcome Guest author Jamie Rush & Enter To Win!

Welcome Guest Author Jaime Rush!
OUT OF THE DARKNESS, Avon Books
http://www.jaimerush.com/

What, are you psychic or something?

I grew up on stories about ghosts and my mom's psychic experiences, so I never questioned that psychic stuff was real. Yeah, there are a lot of people who fake their abilities for money, but I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about people who truly have a gift…or a curse, depending on how they see it.

My earlier books (written as Tina Wainscott) played with themes such as body switching, near death experiences, twin connections, cellular memory, and psychic connections. I love that it could be real. It's on the edge, accessible to all of us. Who hasn't had a whoo-whoo experience? A knowing? If you haven't, someone you know has, I'll bet. Just recently a man I met, upon hearing what I write about, recounted an out of body experience he'd had. People who see a relative's spirit in the night and discover they passed over. I have had knowings.

When I was 19 and doing temp work, every time I saw a Toyota Supra, a sports car way out of my current financial picture, I knew I would have one. It baffled me, frankly. (Hello, between jobs, 19 years old) When I heard on the local rock station that they were hosting a hand-a-thon and the winner would get a brand new Toyota Supra, I didn't hesitate to enter. Without that knowing, I probably would have, considering it was a competition where twenty-eight people put their hand on the car and whoever was the last person standing won it. I had to enter, and I kept that knowing with me hour after hour, hallucinating, people dropping off in fugue states and sleeping right there, even when it came down to me and one other guy, and he tried giving me the evil eye. Seventy-four hours later, I won that car. It was the same with getting published, knowing I would meet a great guy, and recently, lingering when the light turned green instead of gunning it (I still have a Supra). The car in the right turn lane came into my lane and would have hit me if I'd been in my usual spot.

I believe we all have the ability to expand past our five senses. What could be more fascinating, more mysterious, than the human brain? Our soul? We are amazing creatures. If we don't get in our own way, think of the things we can accomplish.

It was interesting to find how tested psychic abilities are. There have been some interesting and compelling data, though you can't just produce results on command. Our own government even created a program that used gifted people to remote-view (psychically spy) on our enemy, which was primarily the USSR at that time. Several agencies had custody of this program, best known as Stargate, over twenty-four years starting in 1971. The Soviets were also pursuing paranormal means for spying and warfare.

It was this program, in fact, that inspired my Offspring series. The government had also given one of their own people LSD without his knowledge to see if it would make him more susceptible to interrogation. It only made him hurl himself out a hotel window to his death. My mind started playing the writer's What If? Game. What if the government created a program that employed people with different, and potentially dangerous, psychic abilities? What if these people were given a substance that enhanced those abilities, but ultimately made them crazy and so they had to be terminated to protect the program? What would happen to their Offspring, who might have inherited both the ability and possibly the insanity as well? What if the man behind the original program began searching for the Offspring, to either use them for a new program or terminate them? And thus, my group of Offspring began forming, joining together to find the truth about who they are and who killed their parents. Different people, outcasts, fierce, loyal, banding together to survive.

OUT OF THE DARKNESS is book two of the series, and I've tried hard to make sure new readers are caught right up to the action without an information overload. In a flash, Zoe Stoker goes from tattoo artist to target of an assassin. All her life she's felt like a freak, and now the Offspring, people who also have remarkable psychic abilities, are her only hope. The enemy grows more dangerous…and so do her feelings for one sexy loner as she gains command of her powers and loses control of her heart.

I have another way to honor you, reader, writer, bookseller…everyone. I'm giving you the opportunity to be in a book. Yes, you can have your name in a nationally-published book! All you have to do is fill in your name and email address in the form at my site. There is no contest, no "lucky" winner. You're all winners to me. Tell your friends! Post it on your blog! Names will be included in my third book of my Offspring series, TOUCHING DARKNESS, scheduled for summer 2010. See http://www.jaimerush.com/ for details.

I also host my Kick Butt First Line contest for readers and writers. Shocking, suspenseful…make us want more! Cash prizes! Contest runs from September 15 through November 1, 2009.

Thanks Jaime! She's been nice enough to offer a copy of Out of the Darkness to one lucky reader! So tell us, have you or has anyone you know, had a whoo-whoo or psychic moment? Leave your comment below and I'll choose a random winner on Friday Oct. 9th. Good luck and Happy Reading!