Friday Guest Blogger

Please welcome my guest blogger, Juli D. Revezzo, author of  The Artist’s Inheritance.

Guardians and ghosts

by

 Juli D. Revezzo

We, as humans, are a superstitious lot. The belief in ghosts and guardians have been with us from the time of the first humans. The ancient cavemen revered the spirits of their ancestors, and even today American Indians and other peoples do as well. Many people believe in guardian angels.

Researching this subject can bring up quite few pages in ye ole Google land. With the help of the popularity of shows like Ghost Hunters and writers like Sylvia Browne it’s clear the belief remains strong. Many books and websites seem to pop up every day witnessing that These Things Are Real and we gobble them up.

There are different distinctions of these entities (and this isn’t meant as a primer, just a very rough, very short overview). The guardian keeps you out of trouble, or saves you from imminent danger. Sometimes it just gives reassurance when you need it (say going into that scary dark closet or attic). Ghosts come in different forms, strangers, ancestors, departed friends—they can give you direction.
Or just scare the beejesus out of you.

Personally, I prefer the guardian ones. There’s a few things I’ve read you can do to attract a guardian. Some people leave little offerings for them—or maybe just offer up a bit of your morning coffee while asking for their assistance? There’s also the age-old Dumb Dinner (aka Silent Supper), as it’s called, usually done at the Samhain holiday—aka Halloween. For that, you leave a small bit of bread and wine (or tea or milk) out on the table for your guest.

Then, there are the ones that ask for your help, which might present all sorts of problems for living folk. How do you find something a ghost lost long ago? What if they what they want to do with it will ultimately harm you? I’m not well versed in dealing with those but I can point you to some books and interesting websites. At any rate, such tales fascinating research for stories and books. I used a few, working them around to add flavor to my own my new book of a woman and her guardian Civil War-era ghost in The Artist’s Inheritance.

Want to learn a little more about my Cait and her spirit-filled family? 
Okay, here’s a little teaser:
Settling into their new home in Gulf Breeze, Florida, Caitlin finds strange changes coming over her husband Trevor. He seems obsessed with a beautiful chair he’s carving.
When the nightmares deepen and ghosts begin lurking—she knows something’s not right, and not just her newfound precognitive abilities. It’s the damned chair, she’s sure. Could it be just what it seems: a mundane piece of furniture? If so, why is it attracting dark forces—the forces she suspects drove Trevor’s siblings to insanity and suicide?
Before the same happens to Trevor, Caitlin must convince him to sell his art. But armed with only a handful of allies, and little experience of the supernatural, she must proceed with caution against the hellish forces besieging her family. If she succeeds, she will break the ancestral curse. If she fails, she may lose forever the one thing she cares about most: her beloved Trevor.

The Artist’s Inheritance is available now at Amazon.com and it’s also in various formats at Smashwords

Bio:
Juli D. Revezzo has long been in love with writing, a love built by devouring everything from the Arthurian legends, to the works of Michael Moorcock, and the classics and has a soft spot for classic the “Goths” of the 19th century, in love of which she received a Bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of South Florida. Her short fiction has been published in Dark Things II: Cat Crimes, The Scribing Ibis, Eternal Haunted Summer, Twisted Dreams Magazine and Luna Station Quarterly. She also has an article and book review or two out there. But her heart lies in the storytelling. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America, the Tampa Area Romance Authors, and the special interest RWA chapter Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal. The Artist’s Inheritance is her first novel.


Juli D. Revezzo’s site links:
Author Webpage
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
Goodreads

References:
Spirits, Ghosts, and Angels: The Metaphysical Institute
Real Ghost Stories: Your Ghost Stories
Sylvia’s Articles “Ghost Story”: Sylvia Brown
Samhain Tradition-Silent Supper by Starwitch: Everything Under the Moon
Haunted Objects: Stories of Ghosts on Your Shelf by Christopher Balzano
Tales of Ghostly Horror: Real Life Encounters with the Supernatural by Peter Drake
The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide by Michelle Belanger

These are just a few. I’m sure you can find more if you put in time at your local (hopefully not haunted!) library. So, do you believe in ghosts or guardian angels? Any stories of such things that you’d care to share?
Thanks, Clarissa, for having me here today!