Murder One - 2008 April

Cheryl: Is there anything you'd like to add to the course description?

Mary: This is a light-hearted workshop, for the most part. Crystals, tarot cards, pendulums and other psychic tools both protect psychics and extend the range of our abilities. They also entertain us, comfort us, and add to the sheer joy of living, and I hope this workshop will capture the fun side of psychic tools as well as their usefulness.

I'm adding a section on stalkers that wasn't mentioned in the original workshop description. I have some material for women from a training I took recently, courtesy of the Rio Rancho, NM, police department, and I have some material specifically about psychics being stalked and being hired to do "psychic stalking". Safety tips and material for writers.

Cheryl: How will multi-published authors benefit from taking your course?

Mary: For one thing, I share lots of references, both print and online, for research after the course ends.

Maybe the most important material, though, focuses on psychic giftedness and the tools that fit the character's specific gifts or don't. And, I have a lot of stories to share from my own more than thirty years as a professional psychic and active member of the psychic communities in several states. I hope people will take away a useful understanding of the connections between psychic tools, psychic gifts, and the personalities of characters.

Cheryl: Have you given a course like this and learned of someone's success who's taken it?

Mary: I've been teaching writers about psychics for a number of years and hear regularly from former students who have used material from the course or research sources from the workshops for their own work.

Cheryl: How does your course differ from other courses like this that might be available?

Mary: I'm a writer and a psychic. I've been teaching psychic development workshops since 1983, and I've been teaching workshops for writers since about 1993. There are other professional psychics who write and writers who are gifted psychically, but not many who have my years of experience in both fields and my years of experience teaching about psychic gifts.

I think my courses are more flexible than most, too. If several students need information, I'll usually add it to the workshop even if I have to write a bonus lesson. I think it's unusual to find psychics who use as many tools as I do comfortably (even though there are still some tools that just don't work for me), so I've got enough experience to be able to change directions. And I'm willing to talk about the things that go wrong, the puzzles that still puzzle me. What it's like to live as a psychic, not just work as one.

Cheryl: What do you hope students will take away from your course?

Mary: I hope they'll have fun. I hope they'll learn that psychic work is work that requires both integrity and self-knowledge, but that they can have fun with their characters and use the characters' own tools to cause conflicts and harass their characters.

And I'll tell stories. Living with psychic gifts requires a good sense of humor.

Cheryl: Stepping away from the course now, tell us a little about yourself. What kind of suspense do you like to read?

Mary:I'm an omnivorous reader. Among my favorites: Rebecca York, Erica Spindler, Anne Stuart, James Patterson, Tami Hoag. And while they're mysteries are more than suspense, I never miss anything by Sue Grafton or Sara Paretsky. But I also enjoy finding new authors. One of my special treats is a subscription to Publishers Weekly (a Christmas gift from my DH) because the reviews there often lead me to new authors and a run on the library to catch up with a new series. I'm forgetting so many. Thomas Perry did a great short series. Nina Bruhns, a Daphne winner (I always read the Daphne winners because that's where I've found some of my favorite authors). And while it's not suspense, Barbara Samuels for women's fiction, her GODDESSES OF KITCHEN AVENUE is one of my all-time favorites. Marjorie Liu, superb paranormal suspense. And did I mention Tony Hillerman? Michael McGarrity? Pari Noskin-Taichert (funny mysteries set in New Mexico). Give me a good story about interesting characters who have to stretch and grow to reach a worthwhile goal, and I'll sit up until 3 a.m. reading.

Thank you, Mary!
Cheryl Wyatt

$15 Members

$30 Non-Members

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