Ann Gimple Tells About Her Transformation Series
Hi
Marilyn,
Thanks
for inviting me to guest blog on your site.
You’d
asked about what inspired me to write the Transformation Series. It’s not
accidental that the main character in Psyche’s
Prophecy, Psyche’s Search and Psyche’s
Promise is a psychologist. Since that was my chosen vocation for many
years, it’s something I can write about with a great deal of familiarity. I’ve
been pleased when reviews of Psyche’s
Prophecy and Psyche’s Search have
found them eerily close to real life.
Because
I write genre fiction—in my case contemporary fantasy—the psychologist in
question has psychic abilities. Lara McInnis has the sight. She also reads auras. I’ve had a lot of fun applying her
expanded sensory abilities to the practice of psychology.
Another
strong interest of mine is ecology. It’s no surprise that my novels and short
stories often have a green twist. The Transformation Series is set in a
dystopian near future where we finally managed to run fossil fuel supplies dry.
Society is imploding because of shortages of everything from food to gas for
people’s cars.
I
prefer contemporary fantasy to high fantasy. There’s something about a real
world setting that makes the addition of magic grittier somehow. Readers expect
magical things in alternate worlds, but when a main character is flattened by a
vision in the middle of her daily jog around Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, it
feels far more powerful to me. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of the unexpected
against a life that looked normal until just a couple of pages ago. If it’s
skillfully woven, I think a modern world with magic is far more interesting
than one without.
Don’t
get me wrong, I’ve written my share of high fantasy, and science fiction, too.
Genre fiction opens many possibilities. Its relative popularity speaks to
readers’ desire to have books transport them outside themselves to a new,
plausible reality. The very best books suspend disbelief while you hold them in
your hands flipping pages (or clicking buttons!).
What
have some of your favorite books been and why do they loom large in your
memory?
(This question is for the readers of my blog--and be sure and check out the information below about the books and Ann herself.)
(This question is for the readers of my blog--and be sure and check out the information below about the books and Ann herself.)
Psyche’s Prophecy
Book
One of the Transformation Series
By
Ann Gimpel
What if your psychotherapist
could really see into your soul? Picture all those secrets lying hidden,
perhaps squirming a bit, just out of view.
Would you invite your analyst to take a peek behind that gossamer
curtain? Read your aura? Scry your future…?
Classically trained at the Jung
Institute in Zurich, Doctor Lara McInnis has a special gift that helps her with
her patients. Born with “the sight” she
can read auras, while flirting with a somewhat elusive ability to foretell the
future. Lara becomes alarmed when
several of her patients—and a student or two—tell her about the same
cataclysmic dream.
Reaching out to the Institute for
answers, Lara’s paranormal ability sounds a sharp warning and she runs up hard
against a dead end. Her search for
assistance leads her to a Sidhe and ancient Celtic rituals blaze their way into
her life. Complicating the picture is a
deranged patient who’s been hell bent on destroying Lara ever since she tried
to help his abused wife, a boyfriend with a long-buried secret and a society
that’s crumbling to dust as shortages of everything from electricity to food
escalate.
Psyche’s Search
Born with the sight, Laura McInnis is ambivalent about her
paranormal ability. Oh it’s useful enough some of the time with her
psychotherapy patients. But mostly it’s an embarrassment and an
inconvenience—especially when her visions drag her to other worlds. Or into
Goblin dens. In spite of escalating violence, incipient food shortages and
frequent power blackouts, Lara is still far too attached to the comfortable
life she shares with her boyfriend, Trevor, a flight attendant who lost his job
when aviation fuel got so expensive—and so scarce—his airline went out of
business. Forced to seek assistance to hone her unusual abilities in Psyche’s
Prophecy, Book I of this series, Lara is still quite the neophyte in terms of
either summoning or bending her magic to do much of anything.
Reluctantly roped into channeling her unpredictable psychic
talents to help a detective who saved her from a psychopathic killer, Lara soon
finds herself stranded in the murky underbelly of a world inhabited by
demons. The Sidhe offer hope, but they
are so high-handed Lara stubbornly resists their suggestions. Riots, death on all sides, a mysterious
accident and one particular demon targeting her, push Lara to make some hard
decisions. When all seems lost, the Dreaming, nestled in the heart of Celtic
magic, calls out to her.
Short Bio:
Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian
bent. Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness
photography and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the
unusual, she began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her
short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies and she has
published two novels, Psyche’s Prophecy and Psyche’s Search.
Psyche’s Promise, last book in
that series, is slated for release during the summer of 2012. A
husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her
family.
The Transformation Series is about finding out who we truly
are when the chips are down. About what is real and what is illusory. About
what matters and what doesn’t. It’s easy to show our best side when everything
is going well. How about when the world is disintegrating around us? What
happens then?
The remote location that was supposed to solve all Lara and
Trevor’s problems has done anything but. Still dogged by Goblins, Lara looks to
the Sidhe for help, only to find them less than available. Though she works
diligently, her crash course in magic proves woefully inadequate. With Brad’s
love for her finally coming to the fore and Trevor captured by demons, Lara
curses her decision to leave Seattle. “If only I’d known,” she cries, knowing
she can’t go back. Or can she?
In this final book of the Transformation Series, Lara and
Trevor’s relationship undergoes stresses that threaten to annihilate them.
Constantly hungry, besieged by dark forces, they need every resource they’ve
developed as a couple to keep from ripping each other apart. With Lillian and
Raven— two ancient Celtic mages— off fighting their own war against Goblin
hordes, Lara has only herself and her half-baked magic standing between
survival and certain death for both her and her unborn child. After Lara is shanghaied by a Goblin
lord, Trevor plays a risky game, calling up magic not meant for mortals. Will
he be able to rescue his love? If so, what will be the cost to himself?
Comments
@ Dawn and Lee-Ann. Thanks so much for your kind words! They're much appreciated.