Gracen Miller: Coffin Hop

Showing posts with label Coffin Hop. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Coffin Hop ~ Episode 8

There are several of us in the Coffin Hop Tour. Visit all of us for spooks, chills and candy galore! Okay, maybe you won’t get any candy, but it’s Halloween and this Coffin Hop is guaranteed to put you in the spirit for a ghoulish 31st!

To go back to the list of participating

Coffin Hoppers, click HERE.

Since it’s the final day of the hop, I’m going to make this one sentimental. When my youngest son was born, I gave him the middle name of my favorite uncle who was like my grandfather—Avery. Uncle Avery wasn’t blood related, but he was married to my Aunt. I loved that man and have the fondest memories of him. He was a huge part of my life and I spent ever afternoon with him after school. We did things together. Fished, drew, he read me stories and sometimes he’d tell me stories. Other times I’d cuddle in his lap and watch TV, or we’d bake a cake.

Then just after I turned 10 in October, he died suddenly in November. It was the first time I’d ever been impacted by death. And his passing altered my life dramatically. Suddenly, I had to find a different place to stay after school.

I have one photo of him from when I was around 5 years old. Other than that, all I have are the memories of him in my head. It’s a photo of me on the sofa with him and his wife, Aunt Net, and we all look grumpy as hell. I clearly remember being irritated that my mother wanted a photo of us when I just wanted to spend time with them. I’m so glad I have it now!

(L-R) Aunt Net, Me and Uncle Avery

Like I said I gave my youngest son—he’s nicknamed NoNo—Uncle Avery’s name as his middle name. Just after NoNo was born, I had him on the changing table putting his pajamas on him. I felt the presence of someone come up behind me and wrap his arms around me. I didn’t have to ask who it was because he let me know who he was immediately. I knew it was his way of saying thank you for honoring him this way. I’ve felt him off and on over the almost 11 years of NoNo’s life.

I hope y’all have enjoyed my 8 Episodes of the Coffin Hop. Hope I didn’t scare any of you too bad, or maybe all of you just believe I’m crazy now. ;-) In any event, good luck to all of you on winning the signed Road to Hell series books, Pandora’s Box and Hell’s Phoenix. I’m leaving to go out of town today, but I’ll draw the winner tomorrow. However, I’ll be unable to mail the books until next Monday. I hope everyone has a very Happy and safe Halloween!

Huggles,

Gracen

Return here each day of the Coffin Hop for a new episode of "Haunted Gracen" and for extra chances to win!! Note: Links will be posted at the top of the blog for each Episode for ease of locating the post.

To be taken back to the main hop link, click here ---> COFFIN HOP

CLICK PHOTO TO BE TAKEN BACK TO COFFIN HOP

Where you can stalk me—not really!—but I would love to meet and interact with you:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gracen.miller

Road to Hell series FB Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Road-to-Hell-series/112564408814796?ref=ts

Website: www.gracen-miller.com

No hop is the same without a contest!

NOTE: Rafflecopter has been kind of screwy the last couple of days. So, if you're having difficulties with the Rafflecopter, please tell me in the comment section and I'll physically add you to the rafflecopter. However, by clicking on "a Rafflecopter giveaway" below, it should take you directly to the Rafflecopter link so you can participate. A rule that is still valid is that you must leave a comment on each day's blog post or your entries will be eliminated.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To go back to the list of participating

Coffin Hoppers, click HERE.

Book 1 Road to Hell series

BLURB (horromance - a mix of horror and romance):

Where does the road to Hell begin?

What happens when your son turns homicidal overnight and your husband disappears on his way to work? Do you cower in fear or fight for your life? Madison Wescott fights against the odds. Distrustful of a God she doesn't believe in, she finds herself face-to-face with a world she didn't know existed and discovers her own soul is darkened with demonic connections.

With good intentions? Or by demonic design?

Phoenix Birmingham bursts into Madison’s life in a whirlwind of sarcasm and sexual appeal. A hero for the masses—and for her jaded heart—but few will ever know the sacrifices he has made or the sacrifices to come. Discovering her entire life has been influenced by multifaceted paranormal beings, Madison is determined to defeat the apocalyptic blueprint fate has decreed, but only one man dares to challenge the supernatural forces manipulating them. Even with Phoenix's aid, can destiny be denied? Or will demonic design prevail while they pay the crucial price with their souls?

In a small, sleepy Alabama town the battle for mankind's liberty has begun...

Pandora’s Box Buy Links:

Decadent Publishing: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=326&osCsid=197c7ca45f989e3b22059c5b92c9475d

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HRSZRG/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0V85TMYT088EG6C8W16V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pandoras-box-gracen-miller/1105010763?ean=2940011467097&itm=3&usri=gracen%2bmiller

ARe: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-pandora039sbox-594252-140.html

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82329

Book 2 Road to Hell series

Blurb:

Hell’s become more than just a playground for the wicked…

Going to Hell was supposed to save Madison, but knowing she’s dead because of his failure leaves Nix with only one thing to live for. Revenge. With Micah’s help he learns to use his Messianic power. Anything for Mads has become his mantra, even if it means killing innocents to gather the power he needs to succeed. A tsunami he unleashes on a Gulf Coast city is stopped with magical interference, and Nix is more than surprised to feel Madison in the opposing magic. Can he and Micah set a trap to lure her out?

Pandora’s Box…once you open it, there’s no turning back!

Madison has done the unthinkable, opened Pandora’s Box to save Nix from Hell. And failed. She’s willing to risk her own life to rescue Nix, but she worries about the welfare of her accomplice in the mission and leaving her son behind. Following up on a lead, she’s ambushed by Nix and Micah. Shocked and hurt to discover Nix has become a willing participant of Hell, she’s more certain than ever she won’t escape the demonic fate her husband outlined for her. While in Hell, she discovers denying the emergence of her succubus is futile, which means getting Nix out of Hell after embracing her inner demon just became a very real dilemma…

CLICK PHOTO TO BE TAKEN BACK TO COFFIN HOP

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Coffin Hop ~ Episode 7

To go back to the list of participating

Coffin Hoppers, click HERE.

Random incidences with ghosts….

Bridgette’s mother:

My girlfriend, Bridgette’s mother passed away a couple of years ago. I agreed to help her go through a humongous box of documents in search her mother’s life insurance policy. We spent a couple of hours going through the box, but the life insurance policy was nowhere to be located. We decided to take a break and go eat lunch. Bridgette has a short flight of stairs leading into and out of her house, like 2-3 steps max. What I’d call a stoop, more than a porch. I always watch my footing when I go down them because I’m not only a klutz on stairs, but she doesn’t have a handrail.

When we returned from lunch, the welcome mat on her stoop had a piece torn off it in the shape of a cross. It hadn’t been there when we left. I snatched it up and told her that was a message from her mom. Upon entering her house, the insurance documents were on her table. If that’s not the power of a loved one protecting her from the other side, what could it have been?

About a year ago, her mother was driving me nutty. I’m not the type of person who’ll pick up the phone and say a spirit is driving me crazy to give you a message. But her mother wouldn’t leave me alone until I did just that. When I called, is said something like, “You can think I’m crazy if you like, but your mom won’t leave me alone and I have to give you this message. I don’t know what it means, but she wants you to know she’s with you.”

Bridgette knew immediately what it meant. It was her son’s 15^th birthday. Yeah, I should’ve known that, but I think her mother had me so frazzled that I wasn’t thinking clearly.

Another time Bridgette called and said she thought her mother had been with her and she wanted to know if I knew anything. I told her I’d ask the spirit world. The message I received was that it was her mother and that she’d known Bridgette needed her, so she was there to comfort her. Unknowingly to me, she’d been going through some difficult issues with her son’s friend’s parents.

Unknown Smoker

Last year, I told my mother I kept smelling cigarette smoke. No one in my house smokes, so this bothered me because I worried there was an electrical short in the walls we couldn’t see. This went on for months. My husband never smelled it, not even when it was prominent to me. I felt like there might be a presence responsible for it, but when I’d ask who it was and what they wanted, I got nothing. Then my mother, who lives 3 hours away, came for a visit during Christmas. A day or so into her visit, she asked me if I was burning a candle or if something else was burning. I got excited because someone other than me smelled the smoke! At that moment, I told her the message was for her, not for me. She wouldn’t tell me who she thought it was and refuses to talk about who she thinks it might’ve been, but the visitor hasn’t returned and I no longer worry there is an electrical fire brewing in my walls.

Former Client:

When I worked in the paralegal world, I had a client that was about 20 years older than me and I adored him. He was a sweet, gentle man, someone we’d call an old soul. He’d lost his arm while working on the railroad. We’d handled his worker’s compensation case. About a year after his case was settled, he was in a car wreck and passed away, leaving a huge settlement to his family. Recently, he came to me and spent a good amount of time just standing on my back porch. I asked him if there was something he wanted, a message he needed to give his family, maybe? Not that I knew how to get in touch with them after all these years. His reply… “He just wanted someone to remember him because his family had forgotten about even though they enjoyed his money.”

Nightly Visitors:

I receive the occasional nightly visitor that’ll wake me from a dead sleep. One was of a young black girl in her twenties. She was beautiful and she wanted me to give her family a message about her murder. That one was disturbing. I couldn’t understand her. For some reason her words were garbled and unintelligible. The more I said, “I can’t understand you,” the more agitated she became, the faster she talked. I finally had to send her out of my home. The look she gave me, like I assisted with her murder…I’ll never forget it. That one will haunt me for a long time to come with questions. Could I have helped bring peace to her family? I’ll never know.

Other nightly visitors are evil, brooding and wake me just to frighten me. I get this sense that they cannot touch me—why I believe this I don’t know—and that they cannot touch me irritates them. I sometimes, also, get the feeling that sometimes they’re waiting for that one slip up on my part, to invade any weakness I may show and wreak havoc on my life. These visitors won’t leave when I tell them to depart. Doesn’t matter how much I command it, but shielding myself in the ‘white protective light’ seems to always help soothe me and anger them more. Thankfully they don’t come often.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my spooky experiences and I hope you’ll join me for tomorrow’s final episode of Haunted Gracen on the Coffin Hop.

Huggles,

Gracen

To be taken back to the main hop link, click here ---> COFFIN HOP

CLICK PHOTO TO BE TAKEN BACK TO COFFIN HOP

Where you can stalk me—not really!—but I would love to meet and interact with you:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gracen.miller

Road to Hell series FB Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Road-to-Hell-series/112564408814796?ref=ts

Website: www.gracen-miller.com

No hop is the same without a contest!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To go back to the list of participating

Coffin Hoppers, click HERE.

Book 1 Road to Hell series

BLURB (horromance - a mix of horror and romance):

Where does the road to Hell begin?

With good intentions? Or by demonic design?

In a small, sleepy Alabama town the battle for mankind's liberty has begun...

Pandora’s Box Buy Links:

Decadent Publishing: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=326&osCsid=197c7ca45f989e3b22059c5b92c9475d

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HRSZRG/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0V85TMYT088EG6C8W16V&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/pandoras-box-gracen-miller/1105010763?ean=2940011467097&itm=3&usri=gracen%2bmiller

ARe: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-pandora039sbox-594252-140.html

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/82329

Book 2 Road to Hell series

Blurb:

Hell’s become more than just a playground for the wicked…

Pandora’s Box…once you open it, there’s no turning back!

CLICK PHOTO TO BE TAKEN BACK TO COFFIN HOP

Monday, October 29, 2012

Coffin Hop ~ Episode 6

To go back to the list of participating

Coffin Hoppers, click HERE.

After the 5 days of Haunted Gracen, is it any wonder that I write in the paranormal genre? I’ve mentioned before that I named the heroine in the Road to Hell series, Madison, after a young girl I knew who had breast cancer. I’d nicknamed her Madz and at 18, she taught me so much about life. Sick Madz was full of more life than many non-sick individuals I know. She loved every moment of life.

I met her through the Supernatural forum boards. She and I both had a love for Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), so we clicked quickly. I was the “General” of the group because I’d created this particular “group” on the board.

A member in the group even gotten word to Jensen Ackles about her being sick. He’d signed a photo of himself made out to her, then took a picture of himself holding the photo. She and I spent the final evening of her life online chatting about Jensen Ackles and watching him on Chelsea Lately. Thinking of her from that evening, how much fun she and I had…all she’d wanted to do was stay up to see him. Watch the one man that made her smile and it was midnight before the show ended. She was exhausted by then and immediately said goodbye. Knowing how sick she was, I was still hopeful there’d be some miracle cure that’d save her. That was to be her final act and the last time I’d ever talk to her. At 6 a.m. the next morning she passed away. Thinking of her now brings me to tears.

But, I’d never met her, just developed a strong Internet connect with her, so I’d never actually seen what she looked like. Anyone who thinks it’s silly to call internet friendships not as “real” as real-life ones, they’re wrong.

One evening about 6 months after Madz had passed away, my dog, Bama, jumped up off the sofa and ran to the beginning of the hallway, which leads to our front door. Her tail was wagging and she was looking up and whining like she does when she’s happy to see someone. My husband was out of town with our children at the hunting camp, so I was alone in the house. I went to investigate and no one was there. But I kept getting the sense that a young girl was peeking around the corner at me. Used to spirits walking in and out of my house, I brushed the event aside and went back to watching TV.

Bama and I sat back down on the sofa and before the hour passed, she was jumping off the sofa again, this time stopping at the entrance to the kitchen. As before, she’s wagging her tail and whining, looking up like someone is there.

Aloud I asked, “Who’s there?”

I got the image of a girl with shoulder length brown hair, young, maybe 18 or 19. Taller than me. No shocker, since I’m short. I asked what she wanted and in my head I heard, “I wanted to meet you.”

The spirit left after that and has never returned since. A couple of months later I received an email with a photo of Madz attached. The girl in the photo was the spirit girl. I sat and cried for the next half hour. Every time I tried to pull my emotions back together, I’d think of the spirit and that photo and I’d cry all over again.

That’s been a good two years now and to this day, I still get torn up when I think of Madz and when I think of this momentous event. Yes, even right now I’m sniffling through this post. I like to think maybe I impacted her final days as much as she did mine and that's why she came to visit me.

I wish all of you could have met Madz! When things aren’t going so well, I’ll think of Madz and how during her final days she was still upbeat and full of life. The least I could do was immortalize her name as a character.

The dedication in Book One of the Road to Hell series, Pandora’s Box, reads….

In memory of the real "Madison", an angel that died much too young. May you rest in peace knowing you are loved and your memory will never die.

Huggles,

Gracen

To be taken back to the main hop link, click here ---> COFFIN HOP

CLICK PHOTO TO BE TAKEN BACK TO COFFIN HOP

Where you can stalk me—not really!—but I would love to meet and interact with you:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gracen.miller

Road to Hell series FB Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Road-to-Hell-series/112564408814796?ref=ts

Website: www.gracen-miller.com

No hop is the same without a contest!

a Rafflecopter giveaway