Religion Meets Paranormal
by Judy Alter
Disclaimer:
I do not write paranormal. I’m one of those pedestrian writers with my feet firmly planted on the ground and in reality. That’s not to say I don’t believe in some paranormal aspect to our lives. There are times, for instance, I’m quite sure I have second sight. I just can’t construct a story around an extraterrestrial civilization or a world peopled by ghosts, be they good or bad. My characters live in the real world.
I did once try a short story with more paranormal features—a ghost story or time travel, if you will, but I never did much with it. You can read it free at http://www.judyalter.com/free/TheVillageGaarden-WithRecipe.docx And a bonus: there’s a terrific recipe with it.
I have also dipped my toe in the paranormal waters in a couple of my series. In the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries, Kelly, a realtor in Fort Worth, Texas has an assistant with true second sight. Keisha, a black woman larger-than-life in every way—tall and big-boned, flamboyant in her dress and personality--knows instinctively when things are going to turn out badly, when Kelly is in danger—and she’s saved Kelly more than once. Even Kelly’s husband, Mike, who is a by-the-book police officer, comes to believe in Keisha’s powers and, to a certain extent, to rely on her. At a low point in her own life, Keisha loses those powers but as her wounds heal, they return, to everyone’s relief.
My Blue Plate Cozy Mysteries features Kate Chambers, who returns to a small East Texas town when her grandmother dies and she inherits the café Gram owned. Kate learned to cook by following her grandmother around the kitchen, and she cheerfully takes over ownership of the café. She is less cheerful about being near her twin sister, Donna, who is, to say the least, difficult. Kate’s discovery that Gram didn’t die of natural causes but was murdered sets her off on a second career as an amateur sleuth. So far, she’s solved four mysteries.
Throughout the four books, Kate hears Gram talking to her, though Gram never lingers for a response. Mostly Gram tries to mediate the relationship between Donna and Kate, but she is never shy about offering a platitude about trusting in God, being kind to others, and the kinds of things grandmothers say (with seven grandchildren, I should know those aphorisms).
When the fourth book, Murder at the Bus Depot, launched, a potential reader wrote that she needed to know if Gram was really talking or if those conversation were just in Kate’s imagination. She never, she said quite firmly, reads paranormal. I equivocated, told her one never knows what’s in an author’s mind, and she would have to decide for herself. She apparently did, because she wrote back most politely to say that we all know the dead are dead and can’t communicate (she referred me to a passage in Ecclesiastes), so she would pass on that series and read other of my mysteries. I thanked her and said I hoped she enjoyed whatever she read, and she replied, “I hope so too.” It was a totally polite exchange, but it amused me. Make a note never to invite her to a séance.
But it struck me as sad too, that a reader would limit her exploration of books and ideas to what fit into a firmly constructed doctrine. It’s one thing to say we don’t particularly enjoy a certain genre or we find a theme distasteful in fiction, but to take an inflexible position without trying the literature is so limiting. What about you? Are you willing to broaden your horizons, explore new forms and ideas? To put the question on the other foot, if you’re a paranormal reader, would you ever try a cozy mystery?
I have also dipped my toe in the paranormal waters in a couple of my series. In the Kelly O’Connell Mysteries, Kelly, a realtor in Fort Worth, Texas has an assistant with true second sight. Keisha, a black woman larger-than-life in every way—tall and big-boned, flamboyant in her dress and personality--knows instinctively when things are going to turn out badly, when Kelly is in danger—and she’s saved Kelly more than once. Even Kelly’s husband, Mike, who is a by-the-book police officer, comes to believe in Keisha’s powers and, to a certain extent, to rely on her. At a low point in her own life, Keisha loses those powers but as her wounds heal, they return, to everyone’s relief.
My Blue Plate Cozy Mysteries features Kate Chambers, who returns to a small East Texas town when her grandmother dies and she inherits the café Gram owned. Kate learned to cook by following her grandmother around the kitchen, and she cheerfully takes over ownership of the café. She is less cheerful about being near her twin sister, Donna, who is, to say the least, difficult. Kate’s discovery that Gram didn’t die of natural causes but was murdered sets her off on a second career as an amateur sleuth. So far, she’s solved four mysteries.
Throughout the four books, Kate hears Gram talking to her, though Gram never lingers for a response. Mostly Gram tries to mediate the relationship between Donna and Kate, but she is never shy about offering a platitude about trusting in God, being kind to others, and the kinds of things grandmothers say (with seven grandchildren, I should know those aphorisms).
When the fourth book, Murder at the Bus Depot, launched, a potential reader wrote that she needed to know if Gram was really talking or if those conversation were just in Kate’s imagination. She never, she said quite firmly, reads paranormal. I equivocated, told her one never knows what’s in an author’s mind, and she would have to decide for herself. She apparently did, because she wrote back most politely to say that we all know the dead are dead and can’t communicate (she referred me to a passage in Ecclesiastes), so she would pass on that series and read other of my mysteries. I thanked her and said I hoped she enjoyed whatever she read, and she replied, “I hope so too.” It was a totally polite exchange, but it amused me. Make a note never to invite her to a séance.
But it struck me as sad too, that a reader would limit her exploration of books and ideas to what fit into a firmly constructed doctrine. It’s one thing to say we don’t particularly enjoy a certain genre or we find a theme distasteful in fiction, but to take an inflexible position without trying the literature is so limiting. What about you? Are you willing to broaden your horizons, explore new forms and ideas? To put the question on the other foot, if you’re a paranormal reader, would you ever try a cozy mystery?
Murder at the Bus Depot (Blue Plate Cafe Mystery #3)
Genre: cozy mystery
Is the depot a symbol of the worst episode in a town’s history or does it stand for revitalization, bringing the citizens of Wheeler together with pride in their community?
Kate Chamber’s trouble antenna go up when Dallas developer Silas Fletcher decides to help “grow” Wheeler. She and her brother-in-law, Mayor Tom Bryson, have less spectacular and drastic ideas for revitalizing the town. When Old Man Jackson dies in an automobile accident, the specter of the past comes back to haunt the town. Thirty years ago, Jackson’s daughter, Sallie, was murdered at the bus depot . The murder is still unsolved.
Kate and Silas clash over almost everything, from the future use of the abandoned depot to a fall festival celebrating Wheeler.
Another murder at the depot blows the town apart, and Kate knows she must do something to solve the murders and save her town, let alone the festival she’s planning.
Buy Link:
www.amazon.com/Murder-Bus-Depot-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B078WFDJPR/
About the Author:
Judy Alter is the award-winning author of three mysteries series: Kelly O’Connell Mysteries: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, Danger Comes Home, Deception in Strange Places, Desperate for Death, and The Color of Fear, and the forthcoming Contract for Chaos; four in the Blue Plate Café Series: Murder at the Blue Plate Café, Murder at the Tremont House, Murder at Peacock Mansion, and Murder at the Blue Plate Cafe; and two Oak Grove Mysteries: The Perfect Coed and Pigface and the Perfect Dog. She is also the author of historical fiction based on lives of women in the nineteenth-century American West, including Libbie, Jessie, Cherokee Rose, Sundance, Butch, and Me, and The Gilded Cage, She has also published several young-adult novels, now available on Amazon.
Find Judy at http://www.judyalter.com or her blog, Judy’s Stew, at http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com.
Judy Alter is the award-winning author of three mysteries series: Kelly O’Connell Mysteries: Skeleton in a Dead Space, No Neighborhood for Old Women, Trouble in a Big Box, Danger Comes Home, Deception in Strange Places, Desperate for Death, and The Color of Fear, and the forthcoming Contract for Chaos; four in the Blue Plate Café Series: Murder at the Blue Plate Café, Murder at the Tremont House, Murder at Peacock Mansion, and Murder at the Blue Plate Cafe; and two Oak Grove Mysteries: The Perfect Coed and Pigface and the Perfect Dog. She is also the author of historical fiction based on lives of women in the nineteenth-century American West, including Libbie, Jessie, Cherokee Rose, Sundance, Butch, and Me, and The Gilded Cage, She has also published several young-adult novels, now available on Amazon.
Find Judy at http://www.judyalter.com or her blog, Judy’s Stew, at http://www.judys-stew.blogspot.com.
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