UFI welcomes Ann Gimpel Author of Witch's Bounty. Thanks for Joining us!!
Musings on the Paranormal Genre
I believe in paranormal phenomena. I actually believe it’s a prerequisite for
anyone writing fiction with paranormal elements.
Let me kick this off by sharing one of my experiences. About twenty years
ago, I was living in Shingletown, California, a small community a few miles east
of Redding. I took a shortcut one morning on back mountain roads to drive to
Burney where I was scheduled to do a radio broadcast. Coming down Highway 44,
the steering wheel of my Volkswagen Rabbit ripped its way to the stops. My car
spun a few times and slammed into a snow bank leaving me shaken. I looked at the
clock: 7:58 A.M. I hadn’t been speeding. The pavement was bare and dry. I was
worried I’d developed a mechanical problem in the steering mechanism, but when I
fired up the car and drove the rest of the way to my destination, it didn’t
misbehave. I found out later that day a very, very close friend of
mine—basically the brother I never had—died at exactly 7:56 that morning. I
figured Don was trying to take me with him.
I’ve had other experiences over the years that defy rational explanations.
I’ve also had many, many patients over my long years as a therapist relate
fantastic events. One of the reasons I was drawn to Jungian dream work is its
emphasis on the paranormal. It’s not widely known, but Jung was a mystic. Before
he’d accept a patient, he insisted they have their astrological chart done. He’d
look at his chart next to theirs (synastry) and decide whether he could work
with them.
Dreams speak to us in symbols. But it goes far deeper than that. Symbols have
archetypal value; they’re also unique to the dreamer. So, for example, snakes in
my dreams might mean something entirely different than snakes in yours. This is
why “kitchen table” dream books that list symbols and their meanings are less
than useless.
I had a bad climbing fall once. Fortunately, I wasn’t injured beyond
contusions that started with my forehead, extended to a very black eye, and
covered one arm and both legs. It took a couple of months for the bruising to
totally resolve. At one point, I dreamed I was standing by myself in the middle
of an empty plain. It was twilight. A phalanx of snakes slithered toward me from
every direction. They crawled up my body and wound around me. In the morning, I
felt like I’d turned a corner and was well on the way to having my body mend.
In my dream, snakes were a positive factor. In many of my clients’ dreams,
they’ve been portents of disaster. That’s what I mean by symbolism in dreams
being unique to the dreamer. Interestingly, when I told my own analyst the
dream, he clucked at me, went to a closet, and drew out a painting. It was an
almost exact depiction of my dream, except instead of snakes, it was sea
serpents swimming toward the central figure. One of his other patients had
painted it years before. That would be a good launching point for a discussion
of the Collective Unconscious, but this blog post isn’t the place for that.
If you pay attention to your dreams, over time you learn the language unique
to your psyche. Years ago, Marie Louise Von Franz and Fraser Boa made a movie
called the Way of the Dream. It’s available on You Tube. If you’re truly
interested in Jungian dream work, this is a must see. It’s clearly dated since
it was made in 1995, but Von Franz was Jung’s primary disciple. She joined Jung
an analysand when she was 18 and never left. Oh, she attended college and
graduate school, but she lived all her life at Bollingen, Jung’s retreat in
Switzerland.
This blog post is long enough. I usually like to cap them at 500 words. If
you have any questions about Jung or dream analysis, I’d be glad to try to
answer them. I’d also love to hear about your paranormal experiences. Really, I
would.
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Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as
a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have
been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the
backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not
1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those
in love with the mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s
writing evolved. Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag
friends and relatives along, Ann prefers solitude. Stories always ran around in
her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when
challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company.
Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months
later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a
beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.
Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short
stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print
and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has
always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.
In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of
camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke
is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone
else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life
together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids
round out their family.
Find Ann and her books
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Witch's Bounty
The Witch Chronicles #1
One of only three
remaining demon-stalking witches, Colleen is almost the last of her
kind. Along with her familiar, a changeling spirit, she was hoping for a
few months of quiet, running a small magicians’ supply store in
Fairbanks, Alaska. Peace isn’t in the cards, though. Demons are raising
hell in Seattle. She’s on her way out the door to help, when a Sidhe
shows up and demands she accompany him to northern England to quell a
demon uprising there.
Duncan swallowed uneasy feelings when the
Sidhe foisted demon containment off onto the witches two hundred years
before. He’s annoyed when the Sidhe leader sends him to haul a witch
across the Atlantic to bail them out. Until he sees the witch in
question. Colleen is unquestionably the most beautiful woman he’s ever
laid eyes on. Strong and gutsy, too. When she refuses to come with him,
because she’s needed in Seattle, he immediately offers his assistance.
Anything to remain in her presence.
Colleen can’t believe how
gorgeous the Sidhe is, but she doesn’t have time for such nonsense. She,
Jenna, and Roz are the only hedge Earth has against being overrun by
Hell’s minions. Even with help from a powerful magic wielder like
Duncan, the odds aren’t good and the demons know it. Sensing victory is
within their grasp, they close in for the kill.
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