I write romantic suspense with a psychic twist. In my latest, Enter the Nightmare, I set the story on another planet, one that was colonized by humans and then cut off from the home world. But at its heart it’s a murder mystery complete with gaslighting and a very hardcore escape game. (Winners get to live. So far there haven’t been any).
At signings and in interviews I am invariably asked two questions:
Question #1: Why do I like to work with psychic elements?
Answer: Let me count the ways….
Plots
The Appeal of the Amateur Sleuth
The psychic vibe allows me to craft crimes that go unnoticed by regular law enforcement. Hey, murder by psychic means looks a lot like death from natural causes. There are no obvious injuries. No signs of a weapon. No indications of blunt force trauma.
On the surface, it appears to be the perfect crime. Only someone with a sixth sense for detecting the seething metaphysical stains left by violence and panic and rage will recognize that the victim was killed. As the saying goes in my stories, It takes a psychic to catch a psychic.
This approach allows me to plot without factoring in the pesky details of high-tech forensics and the rules of police procedure. I’m free to take the amateur sleuth/Sherlock Holmes approach to crime solving.
And wouldn’t you know it, turns out there is no bright line separating the powers of intuition and astute observation from what we call psychic talents. A lot of readers who aren’t interested in the “paranormal” have no problem stepping over the murky border into the metaphysical realm. Everyone, it seems, has a story that begins with, “I don’t believe in the woo-woo thing but I remember that time I had a feeling I should not take that shortcut….”
I Avoid Supernatural Explanations
This is important to me because, although I love to read a good ghost/vampire/witchcraft story, I prefer to plot with devices that are rooted, however tenuously, in a plausible reality.
The Benefits of Dreams
One of the advantages to working with the metaphysical angle is that you get to make use of the weirdness of dreams—again without leaning into the supernatural. Even average, every day, normal dreams are strange. There’s still so much we don’t understand about the process of dreaming or the biological reasons for it.
Readers don’t have to be convinced that dreams are real. They already know that. They are familiar with nightmares and they’ve heard about lucid dreams. They are accustomed to the notion that dreams can convey warnings or slam us with flashbacks or provide insights that we missed while in the waking state. Drop a clue into a dream? No problem.
I Can Make Use of the Strangeness of Sleep
Everyone is fascinated by the dark side of sleep—insomnia, sleepwalking, night terrors, sleep paralysis hallucinations. They resonate with readers because everyone has been there or knows someone who has endured one or more of those very real, very creepy, experiences.
Government and Academic Credibility
Okay, so the CIA and the military have supposedly shut down their various and assorted mind control and psychic research programs–MKUtra! Stargate! Remote Viewing! —but the fact that they existed in the first place, operated for decades, and sent untold sums of taxpayer dollars down psychic rabbit holes makes it easy for readers to buy into the various institutions I invented for my JayneVerse: The Bluestone Project, the Agency for the Investigation of Atypical Phenomena, etc.
And let us not forget the major academic and research institutions that have been involved in serious psychic research. Duke University and Stanford were among the many that studied metaphysical phenomena.
Every time I open the cupboard door labeled “Paranormal Research Plot Ideas” inspiration falls out into my waiting arms.
Really, you can’t make this stuff up.
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Relationships
Romance
Working with the psychic vibe allows me to run a bit wild with my plots but what I really love is the way it provides depth to the relationships between my heroes and heroines. It also gives me a fresh vocabulary for describing the bond that grows between them as they experience an intimacy beyond the physical.
Character Flaws, Vulnerabilities, and Complications
The psychic element makes it plausible for a hero or heroine to question their own senses. It makes them vulnerable on a primal level. “Am I really seeing auras or am I hallucinating?” This opens up the possibility of some very realistic anxiety issues. A lot of my characters are forced to deal with flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks. Managing a sixth sense is hard. Wondering if you’re going mad, as the heroine of Enter the Nightmare does, is even more stressful.
And then there are the many ways having a sixth sense could screwup a character’s personal life. Think about it: What if you really did have a psychic-grade talent for probability theory that allowed you to predict the financial markets? You would certainly have a lot of new best friends but you wouldn’t be able to trust any of them. You would know they were just using you to make money.
And just try claiming you can solve a murder with your psychic powers. Sure, some would believe you, but most people would call you a con artist. Either way, how do you prove murder by psychic means? How do you provide evidence that will stand up in court? How do you live with the nightmares?
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Question #2: Do I really believe in the metaphysical/psychic thing?
Answer: Um. I dunno. Maybe?
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