Write what you know!

I think I have always been interested in the paranormal. My interest certainly became more focused in my junior year of high school when I took an elective course call “Parapsychology”.  In this course we not only looked at different paranormal events and phenomena but we also looked at different ways to research and examine the events in a more scientific vein. 

From here I remember taking out every book my library had on any subject that I felt pertained to the unknown.  In truth there weren’t many and those they had were pretty outdated.  But periodic trips to Manhattan to visit the big book stores and the few occult book stores I found in the “Yellow Pages” helped to quench my thirst.

This interest in the occult also included reading any fiction that involved paranormal mysteries.  To this day this genre is still one of my favorites.  Of course today we have the internet, this is a huge help in researching any paranormal event or topic.  However the biggest problem here is separating the truth from the B.S.  Unfortunately there seems to be a lot more B.S. then truth but with a little knowledge and some common sense you can weed through the B.S.  In addition 100s of podcasts have popped up with everyone having their own opinion.

So why am I telling you all this?  Well they say when you write you should “write what you know”.  That’s what I am doing.  The project I am working on now deals with the paranormal.  The plot line on which my book Voodou Street is built revolves around the occult topic of Zombies.   Relying on the subject matter that I know I can make my book more believable.  Certainly this is every authors wish.  If the story doesn’t ring true no one will read it.  A lesson I learned very early in my writing career.  This background knowledge also makes it easier to write the story.  I spend a lot less time researching and a lot more time writing.  Not to say that I’m not double checking things, after all no one can remember everything but it certainly makes the writing go quicker.

My upcoming novel, Voodou Street is coming along nicely.  We are in the 2^nd revision stage and think it will be ready this fall for publication.  More information will be released in the coming weeks.