PAINTING A PICTURE OF MYSELF

Good Morning!

Being that I'm smack dab in the heart of promoting my books in the White Bird Series, I feel compelled to share a bit of background about myself and my story: why I began writing it, what I hope to accomplish, who inspired me to begin, where the information came from, and how my characters came into being.  I will mention also that I've included a Mission Statement on my website which explains a lot, but not everything.  Feel free to drop by and read it, at your convenience of course.

So then, where to begin? I guess as any good storyteller can tell you, starting at the beginning is probably best. I am an entertainer. Yes, you heard me correctly. At the heart of everything lives a young girl who was born to be in the limelight, however, it didn't really work out because she, she being me, was, and still is at times, extremely shy.  How can someone who shrinks when looked at by a stranger be the center of attention? Good question, and one that took me dozens of years to understand and then conquer.  I don't know when this began, but let's say it started in the school-age years when I first walked through the school's doors.  Immediately, I knew that I wanted to go home...and stay there. Forever.  Homesick on the first day of school is probably more common than I'm aware of, yet to me it didn't matter. I'll never forget how my stomach flip-flopped and my throat felt like someone had shoved a sock into it. My knees shook, my lip trembled, my head throbbed and I was terrified I was going to do something horrific, like throw up, or worse. Home is where I wanted to be, where I felt safe, where I could be myself and play with my dolls, where I didn't have to pretend to be someone that I was not, brave and confident, not someone who was going to burst into tears because she was terrified of the unknown. At a very young age, you see, I was already too concerned about what others thought of me. For those who understand, it's a hard cross to bear, not trusting others to like who you really are.  Anyway, because of this uncertainty, I shoved my enthusiasm for life down and kept it there until I felt safe enough to share it.  My mother has claimed over and over that each year in school, my teachers would basically tell her the same thing at winter conferences. "Paula is finally coming out of her shell. She is such a quiet thing, but I can see she's finally getting comfortable here." Again, for those who know me, you can understand. It takes a bit for me to warm up, then, bam! Silly me comes bursting out! Fortunately for me, I have a solid handful of girlfriends I've known for a good 30-40 years, they and my family know me better than anyone and they can attest to this fact.  I'll be the first one to make a spectacle of myself, as long as they are with me of course.  Their unconditional acceptance of who and what I am helps me feel strong in the face of the unknown.  Well, I could go on and on here, but I think you get the picture. As the years have gone on, I've gotten more confident to be myself and let others see the real me, but it's still not easy, something that most likely I'll work on my entire life.  

As I mentioned earlier, I am an entertainer being as I love to entertain, make people happy, tickle their funny bone, push their buttons, excite them, unnerve them, inspire them to find their passion. When I was five or six, my sister always reminds me, I wrote a play in our basement, then urged the neighbor kids to be in it.  I think it lasted all of two minutes, but it was a start. I wrote stories, made up card games, forced my parents to watch me and my friends act out commercials, you name it, and all the while I carried around with me a story about a girl, brave yet unsure, unaware of her abilities yet aware there was something unusual about herself, something special: she was born for a purpose. (A hint about my own purpose.)   As the years went on, this story slowly settled into the recesses of my imagination, then disappeared.
In 1986, my girlfriend and I became owners of a clown business, Miles of Smiles, and Axel the Clown, me, was born. Now I had a license to perform, act child-like, be insanely silly, bop people over the head with animal balloons, chase kids around with my over-sized scissors threatening to chop off their locks, delighted with their shrieks of glee. Basically, do anything that I wanted. When I put my clown pants on, watch out, I'll find you...  Being a clown satisfied a deep down need to entertain and this worked for a while, but very slowly the story about the young girl crept into my dreams: a story about a young girl who was born to somehow save the world. 

During the 1980s I discovered, then fell in love with divine metaphysics. I couldn't get enough. My mother and I went to class after class, workshops, weekend spirituality conferences, traveling to England, Sedona, Hawaii, Canada, anywhere there were known vortexes where we could tap into other realms, I was there discovering that there was more to life than I thought. I was more than just a mere human. I was an angel having a human experience. Wow. I was special!

 Then in 2000 I was introduced to certain groups that I mention in the Acknowledgements in my books who opened my eyes and heart even more. These channellers helped explain so much about the aspects of the divine human, then slowly, oh so slowly, my story began to resurface.  I had already sat down in 1995 at a very archaic computer and began pounding out a story about a young girl named Alex Farraday. She worked in a bookstore and loved a boy named Larry, a young man whose heritage was Lakota. He was the only person who could see her blue aura.  I dribbled out a few chapters, but my kids were small and I needed to be present with them, not at my computer, so I put the story away but never, ever forgot my characters.  As I explain in my bio, the characters evolved, their names changed but the story remained the same and then voila, something incredible happened in 2009. I was hit with the Adam Lambert bug. After seeing his performances on American Idol, something magical happened the story was unleashed.  I can't explain what happened with this guy. Every time that he sang I thought I was going to jump out of my skin! I got so excited! (This happened to me in my teenage years with Elton John.) Adam (hence the name Adam in my story) touched a cord in me that literally ignited Crystal's story. Whether or not it was the fact I thought he was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen, his incredible voice, the way he moved, his sincerity, his passion to be real, to be himself, he inspired me to finally embrace the fact that I am a storyteller and I do have a story to tell.  I also adore Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, stories and/or movies that transport you to other places. I thought to myself, why not blend my passions? My story about this young girl and boy, sharing my love of divine metaphysics and how this knowledge can make ones life so much happier, and magical realms where characters transcend you into another time and place. Crystal Blue was born and so was her story.

The premise of my books is this: In reality, mankind and the earth are moving into the 5th Age. Because we are shifting into an Age never seen before in the history of humanity there are going to be certain occurrences, in the animal kingdom, to nature, and with people and institutions that some might find frightening, unimaginable, heartbreaking, and many might fear their world is ending.  What I hope to accomplish with my stories is letting readers know in a roundabout way, through Crystal's travels, that everything is going to be okay. As my Mission Statement explains, I hope to encourage everyone to look at their life from a higher perspective, to see the bigger picture. The world is not going to hell-in-a-handbag, the world is going through the greatest compassionate shift in the history of humanity and it will get intense. We've already experienced certain weather events never seen before, the jet stream is changing, the ice caps are melting, fires are destroying millions of acres of forests, floods are wiping out cities, tornadoes ripping apart communities, animal species are disappearing, governments are falling.  Even though these incidents are heartbreaking and terrifying, they should not be feared but rather embraced.  We as a species are evolving into higher conscious beings and change is necessary.(This being said, I in no uncertain terms, feel apathetic to those whose lives have been turned upside down. Compassion is the lesson for this lifetime and this is what everyone needs right now.)
  Okay, back to Crystal's story. In reality mankind is moving into the 5th Age. We got that part. Now, in comes Crystal Blue. In Book One, Illuminating Crystal, readers are introduced to my heroine who wears her long dark hair in dreadlocks, a testament to her rather rebellious nature.  As the story goes along, readers discover that she's not your ordinary teenager. After finding an ancient manuscript in the basement of the bookstore (the manuscript is the Akashic Records in 3D,) Crystal meets some rather interesting characters and subsequently undergoes an intense transformation harnessing her with unique gifts so she is able to walk between worlds. Her human template changes due to the fact that her DNA was adjusted and her pineal gland was altered, her hair even turned blue. Just like the masters who walked the earth before her, she now has the ability to transcend time and space, to walk where only the bravest shaman dare tread, within and between the many overtones of earth.  This needed to happen because Crystal is a Child of the Stars, born for a purpose: to illuminate humanity by uncovering ancient secrets held and protected by indigenous tribes around the world. Crystal's ancestor is a Goddess from the Stars, a Star Warrior who made a contract with the ancient caretakers of the earth. If humanity survived until a particular date, if they did not annihilate themselves and the planet, then humanity would be shown certain gifts. Crystal's birth satisfied this contract and now it is up to her to see it through. She must travel the world within one years time, unveiling ancient secrets--the secrets of the divine human--as she goes which will enable mankind to survive the imminent changes ahead. However, she's a bit reluctant and would rather not go. After all, she's just found a bit of happiness in her life and would rather just stay at home (sound familiar?)  So basically, readers know this about Crystal: she's 18-years-old, she tends to swear, nothing too drastic just a 'damn' and 'bloody hell' now and then. She's just moved in with her older sister, Claire, a student at the University of Minnesota, and she doubts herself a lot. She's had a bit of a rough life, finding solace in her books and her music. And, she's fallen in love with the bookstore where she now works and with Adam. She doesn't want to go anywhere.  

So then what about Adam? What's his role? Well, for starters, he's the only one capable of seeing Crystal's blue aura.  These two have a special connection, yet they're warned not to get too close, otherwise certain destructive forces are at risk of being released.  Readers know this about Adam: He's handsome and when Crystal talks or even looks at him her ears begin itching and her palms start to sweat, which makes her want to scream. He's half-blooded Lakota and his eyes are arctic-blue, belying a certain heritage that's not from the plains of the Midwest.  He, along with the elderly Cosmo Attis, own the bookstore in Minneapolis where Crystal discovers this ancient manuscript.  As you can see in the picture I've provided above, there's a large black dog who looks at Crystal adoringly.  Readers who've read my books know who this is, but for those who haven't I will not divulge how and when he and Crystal meet.

There are many, many characters in my books.  If you visit Shelfari, you can meet some of these characters, but not all of them.  You can visit my website and read more about each book. What I've done beginning with the third book, Little Blue Star, is I've added a Cast of Characters so readers can keep track of who everyone is. 

At present, I've written and published three novels in the White Bird Series. Illuminating Crystal. Crystal Blue Sky. Little Blue Star. I will continue writing and publishing these novels I've found are hard to categorize and written for a wide audience until Crystal's story is completed.  Each time Crystal visits, honors and meets with the Elder of an indigenous tribe, whether it's in North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe or Antarctica, secrets of divine metaphysics, or, secrets of the divine human will be shared and  I promise you this: there will be no less than 8 books in this series and I am honoring my promise to publish at least one, if not more, each year.  I understand how it is to finish a book and want to read more, especially if the characters and the story leave me wanting more! At the end of each book I post a release date and as yet have honored this and will continue to do so. After all, this is my passion: Writing. Sharing the fact that we as a species have already ascended into masters, we just don't know it. Now, we get to experience the shift and will bear witness to something never seen before in the history of humanity.  I can only hope my books will be embraced as a record of this event.  I now truly believe that my purpose for being here, being alive at this moment in time, is to share my story and entertain anyone willing to read it.  However, if I'm really honest about all of this, I don't really believe I have a purpose for living, but rather a passion for it. I don't think we need a purpose anymore, I think being alive and bearing witness to this shift, experiencing life is enough.  But finding and pursuing your passion can enhance life, breathe energy into it. Then, if one wishes to share their passion with others, I think it can magnify a certain light that can illuminate the dark recesses of another's own imaginings, help them to discover how truly special they are.

So then I bid you all adieu.  I hope that you've gained a bit more of an understanding about why I've written my books and what I hope readers can gain from them.  As I mentioned earlier, as an entertainer I like to make people happy, tickle their funny bone, push their buttons, excite them, unnerve them, inspire them to find their passion.  My greatest wish is that my books do this and I can touch an audience of readers so that they too can discover they are angels having a truly incredible human experience.

Have a lovely, lovely day.

Paula