So, Halloween is just around the corner and as always, everyone's mind turns to the dark and creepy (So glad I can have so company for the next month).  Anyway, I'm just curious, do you believe in ghosts?

We all know that feeling, the feeling that someone is watching you or that cold chill that goes up your spine when you walk past the cemetery.  So honestly, do you think it's all your imagination or do you think that there really are ghosts walking among us?

Considering that I write paranormal romance and that one of my series is centered around a Civil War ghost and his obsession with the reincarnation of his wife, I bet you can guess which side of the argument I'm on, but I'm starting to think that I'm not alone.

It seems more and more people actually believe in ghosts and paranormal activity. It's pretty evident with shows like Ghost Hunters, A Haunting, My Celebrity Ghost Story, and so on. Now there are even apps for your Android or iphone that you can use to detect spiritual activity around you. The interest seems to stretch beyond the Halloween season.

So, do you believe in ghosts? Do you have an awesome ghost story to share?

If you want

So, many of you know that I've been hard at work on a super secret project.  Well, now for the reveal..My next project is another Spiritus novel, this time told from Alastor's point of view!  I'm so excited to let everyone in on this that I'm showing off the cover, blurb, and doing a huge giveaway of all things Spiritus!  Available November 6th!


Possessed

_There are two sides to every story...

Alastor truly believed that his life was over the night his wife Becca shot and killed him over a century ago, but now he has returned as a spirit to haunt the reincarnation of his traitorous, murdering wife. Why now? Why Becca after all this time?

When Becca moves into her ancestral home in Corydon, Indiana, her life takes a puzzling and thrilling turn when she meets the ghost haunting the halls. As the seductive spirit lures her closer and closer, she learns about her own past and starts to understand that some mistakes are meant to last.

To Becca, Alastor is a seductive spirit that seems to see straight into her soul. To Alastor, Becca is what he has waited a century for--A second chance. But a second chance at what? Love...Or revenge?

How far will each of them go to rectify the wrongs of the past?

Giveaway!

To celebrate the upcoming release of Possessed, I'm doing a huge giveaway of the books that started it all!  Giveaway ends 10/10/13!

I'm super excited to reveal the cover for the new contemporary romance September Ends!  It is just beautiful and I'm definitely going to add this to my TBR list!

September Ends

Overweight and dull. That’s how I felt.

 My grandfather and brother died. I hid inside a black cave deep in my soul, numbed for a decade on meds, booze, and bad love, married to my glorious career.

 My name is Liz Snow, from Atlanta, Georgia, and this is my story.

 One hot summer I fell hopelessly in love with successful attorney, Peter William Hendrix III, from Chattanooga, Tennessee. We bonded because of Shelley and Keats. Pete introduced me to the works of modern English poet, Jack O. Savage, It was like The Poet was drawing us together through his blogs and poems, like he had a message for my life and my love with Pete Hendrix.

I lived it in my heart and soul.

 It all went tragically wrong once I learned Pete’s secret.

 As September ends I jet to London, England with an unstable mind and a broken heart. Pete Hendrix betrayed me big time. There was no time for revenge. My life was a kaleidoscope of stabbing shards of pain.

 London ignored me. Maybe I didn't exist. I was lost and lonely in a flat in Kensington.

I hear that Jack O. Savage will make a rare public appearance. I wrangle an invitation to the art gallery where he is reading. I was curious. Somehow, he was the cause of my trouble.

The rock-star-with-words was even more damaged than I.

 Jack O.Savage, The Poet became my friend.

Then, an unexpected kiss at a county fair on a perfect English summer's day changed everything forever. Jack the man became my lover.

Magic.

My elusive dream of a lifelong love began.

If Pete was what I'd always wanted, Jack was what I always needed.

The mystery unraveled as the kaleidoscope of my broken life evolved and I found myself living a rainbow of perfect bliss.

 Sometimes when you believe it’s the end, it’s only the beginning.

 

 September Ends is a contemporary romance with erotic and supernatural elements bound together by poetry. It reveals the intricate web of passion and desire which entangles Liz Snow, Pete Hendrix and Jack O. Savage. The story is told through Liz Snow’s diary, Jack O. Savage’s poetry, and from letters sent across the Atlantic. Traveling throughout the lushness of a summertime in Tennessee and Georgia, September Ends journeys into the elegance of London’s West End and is finally settled in the countryside of Cornwall, England, a decade later.

  September Ends is a story of sin, redemption and salvation through love because love happens when we least expect it.

Author Bio:

HUNTER S. JONE -Novelist. Exile on Peachtree Street.

Lover of all the finer things in life.

The art form I create when writing is much more interesting than anything you will ever know or learn about me. However, since you ask, I have lived in Tennessee and Georgia my entire life, except for one “lost summer” spent in Los Angeles. I was always a complex kid. My first published stories were for a local underground rock publication in Nashville. I have published articles on music, fashion, art, travel and history.

Currently, I have a music/entertainment blog @ExPatsPost.com. My debut novella, Fables of the Reconstruction,  was published in 2012.

Edgar Allan Poe and Anne Rice have always fascinated me, although like any Southern girl, I will always idolize Margaret Mitchell for writing Gone With The Wind. I also adore the works of John Grisham, and own a huge selection of his books. I live in Atlanta, Georgia with my husband, my books, too many clothes, too many shoes and way too many stacks of notepads and journals.

September 2013 will see the launch of my first novel, a contemporary romance, written in collaboration with English author and poet, R.J. Askew.

Links:
Goodreads:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6561688.Hunter_S_Jones?from_search=true
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Hunter-S.-Jones/e/B009SLNLKS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1380043599&sr=8-1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/huntersjones101
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/messages/HunterSJones101 
Blog: http://www.huntersjones.com

So, I've been hard at work on my super secret work in progress and lately it's made me wonder just what it is that makes a great love affair so great?

Take for instance oneof my all time favorites, the affair between Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. What is it that made their romance so amazing? Was it that they were both married at the time? Was it their celebrity? Was it that their affair played a part in the casting of one of the most popular movies of all time? Was it that this love took them to the depths of mental illness and back?

The two met when Olivier congratulated her on her performance after seeing her in The Mask of Virtue. The two began an affair, while married to other people, during the filming Fire Over England together. When Olivier came to Los Angeles, Vivien came with him, not just for support, but because she had set her sights on the most sought after role in Hollywood: Scarlet O'Hara.

Vivien did win the role, but at a price. When Olivier left Los Angeles, she was in the middle of filming and stayed behind. One Gone With The Wind legend is that while filming the final scene, where Scarlet watches Rhett walk off into the mist, is that those tears are real because Vivien was told that there were still scenes to reshoot so she wouldn't be able to return to Olivier as quickly as planned.

Once filming wrapped she did return to Olivier and the two were married in 1940. In 1941, the pair portrayed another great affair in That Hamilton Woman where Olivier played Lord Nelson and Vivien played Lady Emma Hamilton. The parralls between the two couples were obvious and their fame only increased when they returned to England.

The begining of the end started in 1943. Vivien was performing for troops in North Africa when she became ill with coughs and fevers. It wasn't until 1944 that she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis in her left lung. She spent several weeks in the hospital and seemed to recover.

In 1945 she discovered she was pregnant while filming Caesar and Cleopatra, but suffered a miscarriage that drove her into a deep depression.  It was during this low point that she turned on Olivier, assaulting him physically and verbally until she would collapse on the floor sobbing. It was the first of many breakdowns that she would suffer, but Olivier remained by her side.

In 1947, Olivier was knightted and the pair became Lord and Lady Olivier and in 1948 he was on the board of the Old Vic. The pair embarked on a six month tour of Australia and New Zealand to raise funds for the theatre, but it was during this trip that Vivien suffered from insomnia and violent mood shifts. Olivier claimed that he "lost Vivien" in Australia.

Leigh's fragile mental state was challenged further by her desire to portray Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. She won the role for both the play and later the movie version with Marlon Brando.

Though proud of her work, Leigh would say playing Blanche DuBois "tipped me over into madness."  She won her second Best Actress award, but the damage was done.

Leigh appeared in a few more plays and films, but a second miscarriage pushed her into a depression that lasted for months.  Her breakdowns became mmore frequent and Olivier did his best to hide her condition from those around them.

Olivier discussed the years of problems they had experienced because of Leigh's illness: "Throughout her possession by that uncannily evil monster, manic depression, with its deadly ever-tightening spirals, she retained her own individual canniness – an ability to disguise her true mental condition from almost all except me, for whom she could hardly be expected to take the trouble."

The two divorced in 1960.  It was the end.

After the divorce, Vivien became: Vivien, Lady Olivier.  She asked to be addressed as such until the day she died.

She was quoted as confiding that she "would rather have lived a short life with Larry [Olivier] than face a long one without him". (Per Wikipedia)

Vivien passed away on the night of July 7, 1967 due to complications of a reccurance of Tuberculosis. Olivier was notified and came to her home where he prayed over her body "for forgiveness for all the evils that had sprung up between us".

She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at Tickerage Mill, near Blackboys, Sussex, England.

So that was end of the love affair that madness