Marilyn's Musings

This is a story about the results of childhood abuse and the resulting consequences in adulthood. Is also about an unwanted gift of astral projection, a friendship of opposits, a romance, and of course, a murder. This tale is very different than my others, but I think it has a lot of interesting twists. So where did this story come from? Many people and places: A family member who shared about her childhood abuse. My imagining what astral projections might be lijeand a few dreams I've had about it--plus some research. The main setting a lot like where we used to live in Oxnard. One of the pre-schools I once worked at including one of the teachers and a couple of students. Research about support groups for people with sexual problems. A whole lot of imagination. The first publisher for this book was extremely supportive and she later published the first three Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries as mass-market paperbacks. She also got me a spot on a Bakersfield talk show--she was located...

Many know that one of my publishers has had serous health problems causing me to take back all my rights. This was so difficult because we were good friends. The publisher who did my last Rocky Bluff P.D. mystery, said he'd republish the others, but this will all take time.  I had two other books with the publisher that did well over time--and though I wanted to self-publish them I really didn't have a clue how to go about it. Enter my good friends and angels, Lorna and her husband Larry, who generously offered to get both books ready for publication.  The first one is done: The Astral Gift The heroine is a young woman who, as a child, escaped from the sexual abuse of her stepfather through astral projection. As an adult, she continues to astral project, but has no control over when it happens.  No, I've never astral projected nor was I sexually abused as a child. The heroine is a day care center teachers--and yes, I've been one of those. ...

The Astral Gift is the first mystery I wrote and was published.  It has had an interesting publishing history. The first time it was published, different cover, it came out in mass market paperback from a company that turned out to be crooked. (I've had lots of experience with publishers who weren't on the up-and-up. This one printed 50 books which I managed to sell right away--and that was the end. The publisher disappeared. Next came an e-publisher, near the beginning of the e-pub era. We had some problems and I got my rights back. Oak Tree Press picked it up, but it has just been sitting there so I decided it was time to tell people about it again. The idea developed because I met a young woman who had suffered childhood sexual abuse--from there I imagined what ways she might have escaped mentally from the abuse--and ideas tumbled in.  Astral projection plays a big part in the story--and no, I've never experienced such a phenomena, nor do I want to, and you...