4 A.M in the Rocky Mountains. I made coffee and listened to the ferocious wind in the pines. If it's a micro-burst, some Aspen trees usually fall. Aspens are actually one big family all joined together underground. We humans, who live above the ground, seem to have trouble thinking of ourselves as one big family. I wonder if the Aspens miss their relatives when they topple? In any event, it's not windy today. This was the description of a typical winter morning when I came downstairs to begin writing.
Writer's BLANK. I had no idea where I was going with this story. Then, I suddenly began typing and the story began. Sounds nutty? It was. This novel, SAME MOON, SAME SKY is available TODAY as a Kindle eBook on Amazon. It should be readable on many ereader devices including Nook. Followed in short order by four of my other novels. But this story is special.
I have never met my writing partner, Elisa Medhus, an M.D. in Texas and I never met her son Erik. What made this fictionalized story of Erik come together or get started in the first place is a mystery. I found Elisa's blog: www.channelingerik by chance on the net and began reading it this January. Eventually, we sent emails back and forth about life experiences: supernatural and otherwise. Elisa has written several non-fiction books and wanted to write a novel. I sent her some suggestions on how to get started, but she emailed me back and said she didn't think she could write fiction.
Hence, that windy morning in February 2011. I don't know what gave me the gall to do this: I wrote the first chapter and emailed it to her. Her beloved Erik died in 2009 at age 20. I hoped whatever I wrote didn't make her sadder than she already was. She mailed me back and said she loved the chapter and so my adventure with Elisa and Erik began.
I always write with humorous overtones, but writing a novel about a fictionalized Erik was a challenge. I'd think of something to give my character, like a Les Paul guitar. I'd send the chapter to Elisa and she'd say, "I gave Erik a Les Paul." Then, I'd say, "I think I'll give Erik a really fast motorcycyle." And she'd respond with "Erik loved to ride my Ducati." And so it went with more and more coincidences about a young man I didn't know. The chapters rolled off my computer every morning, and I honestly had no idea where they came from. You might like to know that Erik and I were/are both hunt and peck typists....index fingers only, if you will.
As the chapters would go out in the morning, Elisa would reply that same day with comments and edits. Her writer's voice blended seamlessly with mine (or Erik's) and I don't think readers will be able to detect where my writing left off and Elisa's and Erik's began. If this is too woo-woo for you, whatever. You wouldn't be reading this is you didn't have an interest in the supernatural.
One morning, about 8 A.M., I went back upstairs to my bedroom. No dirty laundry, clean sheets, a really nice room. It smelled like a guy's locker room after a sweaty football practice. At the very least, dirty sweat socks. Elisa laughed when I told her. Sweat socks are one of Erik's calling cards. An hour later when I returned to the room, the smell was gone. Remember: February, closed windows, and we do not have forced air heat which might waft smells around. And we don't have a young male athlete leaving dirty laundry tossed around.
I have to warn you, SAME MOON, SAME SKY is riddled with "bad" language typical of a twenty year old boy. It's Erik. Exactly Erik....so says Elisa. When you read her blog: www.channelingerik.com, you'll see that when Erik was HERE on Planet Earth and now THERE wherever 'there' is, he's retained his ability to cuss. If he needs four letter words to get his message across, I can type those. No problem.
I'm now writing a sequel to SAME MOON, SAME SKY which is tentatively called "T". We'll see how that goes and whether Erik can tear himself away from wherever he is and whatever pranks he's up to long enough to help me out again. Meanwhile, four of my other novels are being converted to upload properly to Amazon.
In my ignorance, I thought I could upload a nicely formatted PDF to Kindle from my computer, just as I did to an iPad. The PDF converted to an iBook of the novel on iPad looked great. The PDF at Kindle looked like crap. However they convert it to work across many ereaders caused this messed up formatting. I IMMEDIATELY UNPUBLISHED IT AT AMAZON. I didn't want anyone to spend $2.99 and get this horrific mess. They did WARN me at Amazon that a PDF might have problems. They were right. Fortunately, I found a company which has done a magnificent job of making this conversion and I'll tell you about that in another blog.
To purchase this book at $2.99 go to Amazon Kindle and search for: SAME MOON,SAME SKY by Elisa Medhus, M.D. and E.J. Daniel
More later on ghosts and spirits in my other novels and life in the Rocky Mountains with people and beasts, wild and domesticated. E.J.Daniel.
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