Author Reading Feb. 16th on Speculative Fiction Cantina Blogradio

I will be reading from my urban fantasy novel, How the Vortex Changed My Life (#8 runner up of the Top 10 in the Science Fiction/Fantasy poll of P&E Readers Poll 2017) during one of the half hours of the blogradio show, Speculative Fiction Cantina on February 16, 2018. The time of the show is 6:00-7:00 P.M. EST, with other time zones being at Central: 5:00 P.M., Mountain: 4:00 P.M., and Pacific: 3:00 P.M. Author Judith Howell is the other author reading from her novel during that hour also.  The link is here.  

Appearance on TV Talk Show, Virginia This Morning

I was interviewed because of my new book, How the Vortex Changed My Life, on Virginia This Morning TV talk show earlier today, October 30th. You can see the interview at Richmond author Pamela K. Kinney’s spooky area thriller

My Urban Fantasy Novel, How the Vortex Changed My Life is Live on Kindle!

My latest release, How the Vortex Changed My Life,  is now live in Kindle at Amazon! Hopefully, in the next few days, the trade paperback edition will be available too. It is an urban fantasy novel, set in Richmond, Virginia. You can purchase it at AMAZON

Book blurb:
Cat Viggolone just can’t get a break. She'd gotten married, but that ended when the husband left her for his younger secretary. She'd wanted children. That flew out the window along with the cheating husband. There’s the career, but working a window at the Virginia DMV can’t really be classified as a great career choice. At thirty-three, her life had become positively dull.
Then the vortex opened.
Sucked up into a corridor just outside of Hell, she meets Connor, a werewolf, and Larry, a demon that looks like a blue-eyed eyeball. They escape back to earth, only to find that the vortex has opened up in downtown Richmond. The town is going to hell, literally. Besides a grayness seeping out and turning all living things into zombies, monsters and demons are invading Cat’s world.
Will Cat and her new friends (including an angel named George) be able to stop the vortex before it claims the entire planet?
Cat’s life is definitely no longer humdrum and ordinary.

• ASIN: B075PX4QLW

Supernatural Friday: Snow Angel (Original Story)

Since a nasty snowstorm is suppose to hit my area, I thought to post again my short fantasy story, "Snow Angel." 

You never know what a snowstorm may bring with it.

(This story is copyrighted, so just share the link if you want others to read it.)

Snow Angel

By

          Pamela K. Kinney

I remember that winter night when I saw the snow angel. It had just started to snow after supper, about six o’clock. Thanks to the weather, when the sky would have been just turning dusk, instead darkness covered the scene like a shadow.

Pressing my face against the ice-cold glass of the large picture window in the living room, I watched the snow falling in the dark. It was illuminated by an eerie kind of ghost-light. At least that’s how I thought of it.

Silence. The only movement came from a lone cat struggling through the drifts to disappear down a storm drain across the street. 

I sensed rather than heard someone behind me. I blew out my breath, fogging the glass.

“Mom, it’s time for bed.”

My daughter, Marie. Of course, who else would it be, since I lived with her and her husband, Andy?

I looked over my shoulder at her. “This feels like a reversal of when you wanted to stay up later. Remember those days?”

She sighed. “I’m sorry, Mom, but the doctor gave me strict instructions that you get enough rest.”

Grumbling, I moved away and headed down the hallway to my bedroom, Marie close on my heels. Not caring, I shrugged off my clothes and flung them to the floor. Marie flashed frustration on her face, but stooped and picked up the clothing, tossing it in a hamper nearby, snatching my nightgown and slipping it on. I ducked beneath the soft pink blanket on my bed. My daughter leaned over to give me a kiss on my cheek. Feather-soft, her lips tickled my skin.  

“’Night,” she said, her voice a whisper, “and dream of snow angels dancing in the snow.”

“That’s silly,” I said. “I only told you that story when you were a kid to get you to sleep during the night. It was my way of getting you to not worry about monsters in closets or under your bed.”

“There are all kinds of angels in Heaven, Mom. The snow angel is God’s own special answer to make sure that snow falls just right so that children will have a wonderful winter world to marvel at.” She stroked my hair. “Least that’s how you explained it to me. Now go to sleep.” 

She left me alone. I didn’t feel somnolent.  Instead I never felt so wide awake.

I slipped out of bed and sat on the window seat by my bedroom window. I peered through the glass and tried not to smog it up with my breath, hoping the snowflakes were still lit up with that odd glow. Thank goodness, they still were.

Just then, I noticed a dark shadow moving in the distance, outlined by the glow, too. Flickering off and on like a shorted bulb, it appeared to be gliding closer and closer to the house. I rubbed my eyes, thinking they were playing tricks on me. But when I took my hands away, something peered back at me from the other side of the window, and it was not my own reflection! 

Heart pounding, I toppled off the window seat. Its head—at least I assumed that was its head—popped through the glass as if it were water and looked down at me. Twin orbs of icy-blue glowed from that dark visage. The glow grew brighter and brighter. Unable to move or speak, I fell into that glow and a sense of peace and warmth filled me. I stood. 

“Who are you?” I whispered.

Silence.  It slid its head back through the window. I got the feeling that it wanted me to join it outside. Not even stopping for a robe or shoes, I unlatched my window and shoved it and the screen up. Frigid air invited itself in and I shivered, but I still climbed out. I dropped down into a soft drift of snow piled beneath my window. To my surprise, I didn’t feel the cold snow squished between my toes and the freezing wind of the blizzard biting into my exposed skin. A warmth filled me, and, feeling giddy, I danced through the snow, laughing. 

My visitor took my hands, and I stopped dancing and looked up at it. It loomed over me, the ghost-light revealing a long figure of ice and snow. Its wings, made not of feathers but icicles, chimed like church bells. The being was glorious and terrifying at the same time. I wasn’t frightened. 

“You’re a snow angel, aren’t you?” I asked breathlessly. “A real snow angel.”

It just pressed me against it. Together, arm in arm, we danced a waltz through the snowflakes. We seemed to be floating on air. Magical, like Christmas morning or that first kiss. 

There was nothing to fear, and, when the angel offered, I let it fly me up, up, through swirling snowflakes, high above the neighborhood.

****

At first I never gave a thought to my family. But when I heard the screaming and crying from far away, it drew me back. I peeked at the scene below. Morning had dawned and the snow stopped. Something small and indistinct dressed in a pink nightgown lay blanketed by snow right under my bedroom window. 

The window was still propped open. Marie dropped to her knees in the snow and snatched up that still form, screaming and crying. Andy stood over her, talking on his cell phone. 

Marie stared up at the sky. She acted like she couldn’t see me. But I saw her tear-stained face and the pain in her eyes. “Why, God, why?”

I wanted to go to her, but I felt a touch on my shoulder and I looked to see the snow angel hovering beside me. It held out a hand. I took it.

I looked back at Marie and said, “It’s all right, everything’s all right.”

Ready now? 

I nodded with a smile. We rose higher and higher and passed through a tear in the sky that appeared.  The tear closed behind us and I passed through shining gates, entering the snowy fields of Heaven.

Supernatural Friday: Demonic Entities

In honor of the anthology, Southern Haunts: Devils in the Darkness, that my short story, "Let Demon Dogs Lie" is included with 20 other stories, I wanted to touch on demonic entities for today's Supernatural Friday. 

What makes a demon, and are they in all the world's myths and legends, or just the Christian Bible? Every culture in the world has some sort of demon belief. Of course, the most widely known are concerned with the Judaic, Christian, and Catholic sources. Gemon is also called diamon and daemon (from Ancient Greek).

Hard to really pinpoint the first demon tale, but a good place would be the Persian and Assyrian empires. In the ancient past, demons had both capacity for both doing evil and good. The word "demon" meant 'celestial body,' maybe coming possibly from Indo-European sources. Also in all religions and cultures, demons are likely more than half animal, besides grotesque in appearance.

Devil and demon were confusing in their meaning in Orthodox traditions. A devil usually fought a divine authority for control of existence. Such scenarios had the "end of time" where good vanquishes evil.

Demons are like angels and under control of the Devil--unclean spirits. Malevolent, they always seek to torment humanskind with their wickedness. Demons did this by whispering wicked ideas into humans' ears, with corruption of said human as the goal. They also wandered the world as spirits to torment and frighten mortals with their forms. Last, they possess a living body, controlling the actions, with harm to the possessed in mind.

Demons in many Christian stories and legends are also summoned and controlled. Many times this is a wizard, sorcerer, witch, Satanist, and even by a normal human. And of course, the Christian Devil has horns and a tail, with a pitchfork. Though that was not aways the look he had, not until after pagans turned to Christianity in medieval Europe. No doubt, this came from the horned God and Goddess of the old religion.

Sigmund Freud developed the concept that demons were the important relation of living to the dead, revealing that demons are thought of those as those who recently passed away shows how much mourning has on the origin of belief in demons.

Find Southern Haunts: Devils in the Darkness at

 Kindle

Amazon Print

Nook

Barnes and Noble Print

Kobo

 

Supernatural Friday: About Those Other Angels: Guest Blogger Jean Graham

Today, I have a guest blogger for Supernatural Friday who also happens to be an old friend (we bought met each other for the first time in 1973), Jean Graham. She is blogging about vampires. She also has two vamp short stories in two anthologies.

Blame it on Bram Stoker, Barnabas Collins and a guy named Nick Knight. I love vampires. Always have, whether they’re in books, on the big screen or on TV. I love them in all their forms and nuances, from cape-twirling fiends to dentally-challenged love interests, and I’ve written short stories about them since grade school. Over the years, a number of those stories have made their way into print, though it hasn’t always been easy to get around those ubiquitous rejection slips.

You’d think, in this age of Twilight and a dozen other best-selling book series about vampires, that editors would be eager to publish vampire stories. Alas, most are not. “Tropes!” they cry, callously labeling our favorite undead characters cliché and unwelcome in their pages. Some will, however, hedge a bit and add, “Not unless you do something really new and different.”

Hmm. Well, how about something very old and different? In centuries past, vampires were believed to be demons – you know, those other angels – who possessed and reanimated the dead. In Stoker’s Dracula, the Count could transform himself into a mist, a bat or a fly on the wall. Combine those two supernatural milieus, and you have the critters that inhabit my own vampire stories.

Jean Graham

My vamps’ most recent appearances have been in two paperback and e-anthologies published this year. “Nightcrawlers” is in Arcane II and “Turning Worms” in Dying to Live.

Here’s an excerpt from the latter:

“Matt, sweetie.” Betty’s long eyelashes fluttered innocently. “Didn’t you tell me once you knew someone who knew someone who could ‘take care of’ a problem like this, you know, permanently? Well, why don’t you tell that Janice bitch about those friends of friends, too? Just rattle her cage, okay? Shake her up a little. But get her off my back!”

Oh, this was delicious. Lovely, naked, unabashed hatred. The demon drifted still closer, savoring the moment. And in that moment, Betty Boyle began to realize that something was amiss.

The half-empty cola can tumbled from spasming fingers, bounced off her 60-inch thigh and sploshed onto the carpet.

“Hang on again, Matt.” Betty clicked HOLD again, pressed a fist to her considerable cleavage and belched loudly. “Damned indigestion.”

“I’m afraid,” the demon said, “it’s a great deal more than that.”

His sudden appearance in human guise startled Betty enough to send the keyboard on a short flight from her knees to the detritus-encrusted floor.

“Who the hell are you?” The question came out in a wheezing gasp.

“Precisely.” Proteus always found it so amusing when mortals answered their own questions.

If traditional vampires are more your cup of tea (er... cup of blood?), you may want to check out my Dark Shadows and Forever Knight fan fiction at http://jeangraham.150m.com/ where you can find info on my other pro sales.

Jean Graham's Bio:

Jean Graham is a San Diego native (still lives there), founder of the science fiction organization S.T.A.R. San Diego, and is an “original Trekkie” who lives with five cats, 6000 books, 1000 DVDs, and a very indulgent husband. Feedback on any of her fiction is always welcome. Besides her website, also find her on Facebook.

Find Dying to Live anthology in Print PRINTand on KINDLE

Arcane II in print PRINT and on Kindle 

Supernatural Friday: The Devil in Folklore

The Devil is one of two main characters in my newly released short story, “Devil in the Details”  in the anthology, Harboring Secrets. The protagonist for ages against God and his angels, he has been known as Lucifer, a fallen angel, Satan, the Great Horned God, Mammon, dragon, Father of Lies, Abaddon, Accuser, Apollyon, Cloven Hoof, Beast, Beelzebub,  and Belial, to even name more names. The Devil is believed in many religions, myths and cultures to be a supernatural entity that is the personification of evil. The nature of the role varies greatly, ranging from being an effective opposite force to the creator god, locked in an eons long struggle for human souls on what may seem even terms to being a comical figure of fun or an abstract aspect of the individual human condition.

While mainstream Judaism contains no overt concept of a devil, Christianity and Islam have variously regarded the Devil as a rebellious fallen angel or demon that tempts humans to sin, if not commit evil deeds himself. In these religions, the Devil has assumed more of a dualistic status commonly associated with heretics, infidels, and other unbelievers.
In mainstream Christianity, God and the Devil are usually portrayed as fighting over the souls of humans, with the Devil seeking to lure people away from God and into Hell. The Devil commands a force of evil spirits, commonly known as demons. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) describes the Adversary as an angel who instigates tests upon humankind. Many other religions have a trickster or tempter figure that is similar to the Devil. One of these is Loki in the Norse mythology.

In one legend from Colonial America, the lawyer Daniel Webster goes up against the Devil and wins. There’s even a well know rock country song, 'Devil Down in Georgia,' where the fiddler in the story out fiddles the Devil. Another is folklore about a real person in history, Colonel Philip Lightfoot must danced against the Devil to save his land  at what is known as Dancing Point today. The legend says that the Devil caused the barrenness in the land and remarked that it was his, not Lightfoot’s. Colonel Lightfoot agreed to a contest between the two of them. They would see who was the best dancer and could last the longest, with the land as the prize. They marched to Dancing Point at dusk and shed their coats and tricorns. After building a large fire, both proceeded to dance their hearts out. Around and around a tree stump they whirled. Lightfoot had claims to being an accomplished dancer and he proved it that night. The Devil didn’t give up, as he was determined to win, but when the first rays of dawn painted the morning sky, the Devil knew he had lost. He limped away in humiliation, crossing the James River to Surry County. The old-timers report that he still lives there. This tale is in chapters in my Haunted Virginia: Legends, Myths and True Tales and Virginia's Haunted Historic Triangle: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and Other Haunted Locations. 

Another tale is about the Blues singer Robert Johnson who is supposed to have met the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi, the Devil took his guitar off of him, tuned it, played a few songs and gave it back, from then on Robert Johnson could play the Blues better then anyone alive.

But most times, the human doesn’t win and loses his/her soul. Just as what happens to my heroine in “Devil in the Details.” Another such folklore where the mortal lost concerns a girl rushing to a dance. Her mother forbids her to go, saying the preacher said the dance was going to the devil. The girl goes anyway and ends up dancing with this handsome young man. He whiles her around ad around until she vanishes. He then bows to others at the dance and vanishes. The girl is winging her way to Hell.

There is also one from Devon England that in the 1800's a set of footprints in the shape of hoofs appeared over night in the snow going for hundreds of miles appearing to go straight over the roofs of houses and barns.

There are tons of stories of the devil in southern folklore. One told of how the devil would hide among goat herds in the form of a large billy goat. When a prospective sinner drew near, the devil stood on his hind legs and follow him until the person came to a crossroads. If the sinner would turn to confront the devil before he/she reached the crossroads, the devil took his/her soul. If not, then the sinner had best get to church as soon as possible and confesses his sins before he pass those same crossroads again. In the French-Canadian folktales of the 19^th century argues that the legends involving the Devil can be categorized according to a trinity of basic tale types. The first type is the “beautiful dancer,” the second is the “builder of bridges and churches” and the final is the “instigator of pacts.”

Devil be or not, one should never sell their soul to strangers, for after all, the Devil is the Prince of Lies after all.

Here is short excerpt from "Devil in the Details."

They say the devil is in the details. Most especially when one sold their soul to the Devil in a literal sense. Then life and death becomes extremely important. 

I should have read that contract better before I signed it in blood ten years ago. 

Jenna tossed back the glass of scotch she held. The amber liquid burned a path down her throat to her stomach. The glass clinked loud as she set it down next to the empty bottle. It toppled over and spilled the scotch across the table’s surface. 

A giggle escaped her. Who gave a damn about a mess on one measly table? Or that she never been so drunk in her life. Not with her soul in trouble. Hell put things into perspective.

Buy Harboring Secrets in print at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books A Million and at your local independent bookstore. It is also available  on Kindle and as a Nookbook on BarnesandNoble.com. 

 

Supernatural Friday: Angels-Part 1

In 2011 I blogged about demons. Today, for the first Supernatural Friday of the year, it will be about angels. That's not to say I won't talk about Lucifer/Satan or any of his dark angel followers, which are demons, as they too, are angels. Today's subject will be angels in Christianity. Check back next week, for angels in other religions.

Angels in Christianity are pure spirits created by God. The Old Testament theology included the belief in angels: the name applied to certain spiritual beings or intelligences of heavenly residence, employed by God as the ministers of His will.

The Hebrew and Greek words for angel originally meant messenger. Depending on the context, it could refer either to a human messenger (possibly a prophet or priest, such as Malachi, "my messenger", but also for more mundane characters, as in the Greek superscription that the Book of Malachi was written "by the hand of his messenger"  or to a supernatural messenger, such as the "Mal'akh YHWH," who is either a messenger from God, an aspect of God (such as the Logos), or God Himself as the messenger (the "theophanic angel.") The prophet Malachi took his name from this word, as he was supposed to be a messenger, and he prophesied about the coming of "the messenger of the covenant", Jesus Christ (Malachi 3:1).

The theological study of angels is known as angelology. In art, angels are often depicted with wings; perhaps reflecting the descriptions in Revelation 4:6-8 -- of the Four Living Creatures (τὰ τέσσαρα ζῷα) and the descriptions in the Hebrew Bible—of cherubim and seraphim (the chayot in Ezekiel's Merkabah vision and the Seraphim of Isaiah). However, while cherubim and seraphim have wings in the Bible, no angel is mentioned as having wings. Philosophically, angels are "pure contingent spirits.

Besides Dominionations, Thrones, and Archangels, the Old Testament specifically mentions two others, Seraphim and Cherubim. It was said that God bestowed upon angels great wisdom, freedom, and power. Both the New Testament and Old Testament refer also to the fallen angels. The Temptation of Adam and Eve presupposes the existence of bad spirits or demons who were cast into Hell from which they have no hope of redemption. And yet, they have been said to try to tempt us, seducing us to do wicked deeds.

In Christianity, angels are said to be spiritual or bodiless persons. These spiritual beings comprise the celestial court and according to the Bible, they carry out missions at God's command. In order to complete these missions, they have at times assume bodily form. According to the Bible, their missions are sometimes of great importance. Unlike us, they are non-bodily creatures, their response to God's love did not require time and reflection to grow and mature, so they can respond to God with love and bliss. 
Jesus Christ was reported saying that angels (children or "sons" of God) live forever and are of one gender. Supposecly, so that those called "sons and daughters" (humankind?) of God when he returned will be allowed to live forever and not marry. "They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God. being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20:35.36)

There were angels in Christianity, are said that because of their pride, did not return God's love. God did not destroy them, but put them in the pit, or Hell. These are the Fallen Angel, or demons or dark angels. The head of these was Lucifer, or sometimes called Satan.

Only occasionally are angels given names. Michael, the archangel, was "the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people (Israel)" (Daniel 12:1). Of the most significant of angelic appearances, came from the angel named Gabriel. He was sent twice to the prophet Daniel. On the second occasion Daniel was at prayer, and Gabriel, "being caused to fly swiftly, touched me ... and talked with me" and proceeded to prophesy the date of the first coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ (Daniel 9:21-27).  Gabriel appeared again, first to Zacharias, the priest while on duty in the temple, and six months later to Mary, Jesus' mother. The angel proclaimed to Zacharias,  "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God: and am sent to speak unto thee" (Luke 1:19). His mission tp Zacharias was to announce the miraculous birth of John the Baptist. Gabriel told Mary that she had found favour with God, and she would be the mother of the expected Messiah. Gabriel told her that she would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit and her son would be Jesus, the Saviour, and he would be the Son of God and would occupy the royal throne of David (Luke 1:26-33). Joseph, her husband-to-be, also received angelic messages advising him what he must do in this unique situation, since he and Mary were not married at the time but betrothed and he, of course, was not her unborn child's father.

Identification of archangels, besides Gabriel and Michael also include Raphael, Uriel, Raguel, Remiel and Saraqael. While this today is non-canonical in most Christian Churches, these angels' names were quoted in the New Testament and by many of the early Church Fathers. Many Christians regard angels and archangels as asexual, not belonging to either gender. And yet, angels are on the other hand have been described as looking like male human beings, hence the masculine names. Although angels have greater knowledge than men, they are not omniscient, as Matthew 24:36 points out in the Bible.