Guest Post: WRITING, RESEARCH AND SEX by Debbie Christiana

Thank you, Denise, for having me as your guest today.  I’m Debbie Christiana and I write paranormal women’s fiction and romance.

Research is one of my favorite things about writing.  Folklore, myths and legends shape many of our present day traditions and beliefs.  With the internet at our fingertips, it’s never been easier to discover out-of-the-ordinary events that have taken place in human history throughout the world.

I prefer to write contemporary stories, but I love historical fiction. When I write about a different time period, whether it is the characters’ former lives or skeletons from the family’s past, it gives me the opportunity to keep the main story in modern times while adding a splash of history.

In my current release, Twin Flames from Black Opal Books, the hero and heroine, Marc and Natalia, discover they have spent many past lives together.  I wanted their past lives to be exciting and unique so I googled obscure events in history and never looked back.  While exploring a time in American history on a little known Omaha Indian Reservation, I stumbled upon how highly the Omaha people regarded the men of their tribe referred to as the Mixu-ga. Mixu-ga translates to instructed by the moon, and follows the tradition of those born with “two spirits” both male and female.  I hadn’t planned to weave a gay Omaha Shaman into my story, but before I knew it, he landed a supporting role and became one of my favorite characters.

I also spoke with two experienced therapists who regress people to remember their past lives. Both women were generous with their time and help. One even let me use her method of having my characters visualize a long hallway lined with various doors.  Each door represented a past life and they chose the one they wanted to open.  It was very cool.

In my current work, the main character, Sofia is an Italian hereditary witch or a Strega.  Stregheria or La Vecchia Religione, (The Old Religion), has similar rituals to Wiccan traditions but, in and of itself, is very different.  Growing up with a grandmother who loved to tell stories of the Strega that resided in her Sicilian village, discovering the mysterious world of Stregheria has been fascinating.

On the other side of the coin, I don’t want to say love scenes are my least favorite thing about writing, but I do struggle with them occasionally. Not for reasons you may think. I’m a huge fan of love scenes and they don’t embarrass me.  The challenge is writing something unique and not cliché.  The setting is important. Does the couple always have to make love in bed?  Sometimes it’s fun to add a little humor. We’re all human and mishaps happen all the time in life, even in the bedroom.  I hope I’m not the only one who has had a misfortune or two in that department – including a visit from little ones because we (my husband) forgot to lock the door.

If I get stuck, I go back to my research.  Researching sex is great fun.  There is an unending supply of websites about customs, taboos, habits and sexual practices from different cultures and times in history. Some are silly. Some are bizarre. But they are all interesting.

Following the theme of research, here’s an excerpt from Marc and Natalia’s regression to the first life they spent together – 8,000 years ago. Sorry, there’s no sex in this scene.

EXCERPT:

“Okay, Natalia,” Dr. Ellis said soothingly. “As you go deeper into your relaxation, I want you to think of a safe place where you enjoy going.  While there, you feel like you want to sit down and relax.  You’re comfortable here and realize this place has special energy.  This energy will permit you to connect to infinite knowledge.  Only you can allow yourself to go there and to do that you must be in a very deep state of meditation.  I’m going to count backwards beginning with five.  I want you sink deeper after I speak each number.  By the time I get to the number one, you should be at the deepest point in which you’re comfortable.  Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one.” Dr. Ellis gave Natalia a few minutes then asked, “How you are feeling?” “Good. I’m very relaxed.” “Now, I want you to envision a long hallway.  There are many doors down this hallway.  Each door represents a past life that you’ve had.  We won’t open every door, just the ones you want to, the ones that will be helpful to you at this time.” “Okay.” “I want you to find the door that will show us the first time you met Marc. “Do you see it?” “Yes.” “Can you describe it to me?” “It’s . . . old.” “Hundreds of years old?” “Much, much older.” “How old?” “Prehistoric.” “Natalia when you open the door, what do you see?” She sat quietly for a few minutes before she spoke. “My mate and I are wandering in the snow; I am with child.  The rest of our tribe has died off from a sickness.  We come across another tribe and watch them from the hills above.  My mate will hunt for an offering and maybe they’ll let us stay with them.  He finds me shelter underneath some rocks, covers me with animal skins and gently touches my face.  I smile and nod. I know this is how is has to be.  He’s gone a long time and I don’t know what I’ll do if he doesn’t come back.  I’m happy and relieved when I see him with a large animal tied to a stick. I shouldn’t have worried. He was the best hunter in our tribe. We look at each other and start down the slippery embankment.” “Some one sees us walking down the hill and tells the elders of the tribe. They are waiting when we arrive at the bottom.  They are cautious at first but impressed with the kill.  They could use another hunter and this much needed food.  They realize I will need the help of the women of the tribe very soon.” “We are allowed to stay but we don’t know for how long.  We build a dwelling from animal skins we’ve carried with us and wood we find. We keep to ourselves except when there are jobs to be done.  Since the child will come soon, my job is to soak bark, strip it into thin pieces and make rope for the hunters.” “My mate makes sure I have enough food. He was a highly respected member of our tribe, and wears strings of large animal bones and teeth around his neck as a sign of leadership. One younger male keeps touching it and he offers one to him in return for extra meat, which he gives to me. I have chosen well.” ### MARC . . . I see the male and female walk down the hill towards us.  I am curious about them but keep my distance. The elders will decide if they can stay or not.  To show he is a skilled hunter, the male hands the elders a large animal he has killed.  The female is with child.  One of the elders tells me to take the male and help clean the animal.  The female goes to the dwelling with the other females.” ### NATALIA . . . “My mate comes to tell me he is going hunting with the other males of the tribe.  He touches my stomach and smiles.  The next day I’m not feeling well.  I go to one of the older women and tell her I think the child is coming.” “Natalia,” Dr. Ellis interrupted her briefly. “Do you want to relive the whole birth?” “No! It was so cold and long and hard.” “Continue after the baby is born.” ### MARC . . . “I take the new male and the other males out for a hunt. I know he’s a good huntsman, but I’m the leader of the hunt in this tribe. We walk for a long time and the sky is dark.  We find shelter and try to get some rest before early morning when the animals start to stir. We wake up to noises in the woods and come quietly upon a pack of wild boars. The new hunter knows he must contribute to this kill if he and his mate are to be fully accepted into the tribe.” “Everyone is quiet, waiting and watching the beast’s movements.  The new hunter charges one of the animals, spear in hand. We scream for him to stop but he doesn’t. The male boars have their tusks up and are ready to attack.  We try to surround one or two of the animals when the new hunter hurls his spear at one of the large boars.  It grazes the beast but doesn’t wound it enough for us to catch him. There is much confusion and spears are thrown in every direction.” “When it’s all over, the new hunter and another male are dead, gored and trampled.  I have a spear in my left shoulder, and I’m bleeding.  Someone pulls the spear out and I scream.  They pack snow around my wound and cover it. They lay me on an animal skin and pull me back to the tribe. I am unconscious for most of the journey. . .

BLURB:

She’d never met him before…or had she?

The last thing forty-year old Natalia Santagario expected was to be sitting on a ManhattaN barstool ogling a man she’s never met, but swears she knows.

He didn’t know her at all…or did he?

The mysterious dark-haired woman at the end of the bar stops twenty-eight year old Marc Tremonti in his tracks. His head assures him she’s a stranger, but his heart tells him otherwise.

Together they embark on an adventure that will change their lives forever.

Their attraction instant and enigmatic, they undergo past life regression and discover that, not only have they spent hundreds of lives together as lovers, Natalia holds the secret to Marc’s puzzling birthmark.

But what should have been a joyful reunion is complicated by a kind, albeit confused, almost ex-wife, a bout of temporary amnesia and a mischievous ghost from their past.

What else could possibly go wrong?

BIO:

Debbie Christiana would sit in her room as a little girl and write stories about ghosts, unexplained events and things that go bump in the night. She combined her love of the paranormal with her fascination of unusual love stories and decided to write paranormal romance.  Her novel, Twin Flames, was released in the summer of 2011 with Black Opal Books.  In February 2012, her short story, The Land of the Rising Sun, was one of ten included the anthology BITES: Ten Tales of Vampires.  Debbie is a member of RWA and Secretary of the Romance Writers of Connecticut and Lower New York.  She lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children.

www.debbiechristiana.com

Twitter @DebChristiana

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