In the summer of 2014, my youngest son was completely bored with the books on his shelf, and we still had so much summer vacation left to fill. It had been difficult getting him to read. Finding him a series he would stick with had always been challenging. I was forever on the lookout for anything that would keep him reading. So I set out to write a simple ghost story that would hold his attention. When it was done, I entrusted that manuscript to my husband to get it printed out for the kids and allowed him to read one of my stories for the first time. That story turned out to be The Ghost of Forlorn Lane. From the beginning, my husband really liked it and encouraged me to publish it. It was one thing to write stories for my kids; it was another thing entirely to put it out before the public eye. I wasn’t ready then, and I didn’t feel the story was at that point either.

     Shortly after writing Forlorn Lane, I realized that I needed to write a second YA Paranormal book. This time from a girl’s perspective, for my youngest daughter. I pulled out an old outline I had been toying with for years, gave it a new direction, revamped the Happy Haunts, and added Bob-o-Matic (AKA Sergeant Reed) as a character. Before I knew it, I had a rich story line that was begging to be told.

     Before I could finish the ending, my first grandchild made an appearance into the world, and my personal life became busier than I could have anticipated. I was now a full-time Grandma and still had my own youngest kids at home. The writing had to be put aside for the time being, but I hadn’t forgotten the characters I created.

     It was in the midst of this busy time that I lost my daughter quite unexpectedly. Nothing in my life has been the same, nor will it be again. Dreams and goals I had made for myself were all but forgotten as we tried to come to grips with what had happened to our family. The first year went by in a blur. The second year hit so much harder than the first it knocked the wind out of me. I am told that this isn’t unusual. In the third year, I became proactive with my healing and consciously stepped away from the heavier grief.

     I began to reach out, to explore the metaphysical world, and I started to follow an inner voice I had ignored for so many years. In honoring that voice, I was rewarded with confirmation and signs everywhere that I was finally headed on the right path.  It was time to pick up my dreams and march forward with them. It was laid on my heart that this was my time to start writing again. In writing, I found purpose, healing, and so many meaningful things. I still mourn the loss of my daughter. But in reworking my first two books and finally giving Hidden Lake it’s ending, I found that I could live in the present and find joy again. I could pick up my goals and work towards them, and I could make my daughter proud and honor her at the same time.

     These aren’t just books to me; they are anchors to a life I can enjoy again. I discovered that my dreams are still there, they are just slightly different from those I had before. I don’t expect everything to be the same because I am not the same. Even these stories are different from the first drafts I wrote. In a lot of ways, I like them better. I feel like they are stronger than the originals because I am stronger on the inside. And I cannot express how grateful I am that I found my voice again and can now continue in the storytelling that I have grown so much to love.

                                                        ★✩★ NEW RELEASE ★✩★ 

The Ghost of Hidden Lake 

 Avery isn't your average 14-year old girl. For as long as she can remember, Avery has been able to see, hear, and know things others don’t. Like her imaginary friend, who is not exactly imaginary. To Avery, he is simply Cousin Ricky. To others, he's known as The Ghost of Hidden Lake. Having gifts doesn't make life easier. In fact, whenever her secret gets out, everything in Avery's life becomes that much harder, which is why she prefers to keep her “woo-woo” hidden in the shadows. With her mom working two jobs, they barely see each other. Even more rare are the visits with her dad since IT happened and tore the family apart. IT, being that thing the family doesn’t talk about. To make matters worse, her mother's boyfriend lives to make Avery miserable. When a well-meaning police officer accidentally shares Avery's secret to the media, her world is flipped upside down. Will things ever get better? According to Grandma Millie, nothing lasts forever.

 
 

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Cover Reveal | The Ghost of Hidden Lake by Kimberlee Dodge

The Ghost of Hidden Lake is 99 Pennies in Preorder or Free in Kindle Unlimited!

Book 2 of The J Club will release on Tuesday, January 5th, 2021.

Avery isn't your average 14-year old girl.

For as long as she can remember, Avery has been able to see, hear, and know things others don’t. Like her imaginary friend, who is not exactly imaginary. To Avery, he is simply Cousin Ricky. To others, he's known as The Ghost of Hidden Lake.

Having gifts doesn't make life easier. In fact, whenever her secret gets out, everything in Avery's life becomes that much harder, which is why she prefers to keep her “woo-woo” hidden in the shadows. With her mom working two jobs, they barely see each other. Even more rare are the visits with her dad since IT happened and tore the family apart. IT, being that thing the family doesn’t talk about. To make matters worse, her mother's boyfriend lives to make Avery miserable. 

When a well-meaning police officer accidentally shares Avery's secret to the media, her world is flipped upside down. Will things ever get better? 

According to Grandma Millie, nothing lasts forever.

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 Finally seeing the end of the tunnel. 

We can breathe, we can breathe!

I feel like I've been stuck in the weeds since The Ghost of Forlorn Lane was released last Friday,  November 20th. As I wrote about last time, something didn't go as planned, and we discovered mistakes had been made. We talked about growth, learning lessons. I was going to treat this as a humorous bump in the road... until I had to spend 48 hours of mad editing because my "clean copy" decided to disappear. I couldn't get the new edits to load up,  my WiFi was down, and days went by with virtually no changes appearing on Amazon. And every time I clicked on my reports and saw another paperback had been sold, my anxiety went up.(Because my husband and I had been offering to replace bad copies with the ones that should have gone out in the first place.) Thank heaven that the Kindle version will right itself because I should NEVER feel bad about selling a book!

While all of this was going on, I was still diligently plugging away at polishing up The Ghost of Hidden Lake, and laying down the outline of The Ghost of Chapel Hill. Yes, I know, it's a lot. 

I realize, now that I'm (almost) sure that the RIGHT version is in place, that this hiccup only lasted for 5 days in the entire lifetime of this book. But for a minute I didn't think I was going make it without losing my mind.

I also realize that while these are growing pains and each bump is a lesson learned...sometimes it takes a few knocks before things finally click. 

And the exciting thing for me is, I think that Hidden Lake will go up quicker, and smoother than my first book. I will be so glad to hit that publish button! And I hope it's fairly soon, because I'm anxious to have Jason and Avery pair up, plus they won't quit talking in the background of everything I've been doing the last few days. They have a story to tell and they aren't waiting patiently for me to get to them. They will have their day soon enough! 

Have a safe, fun, and fulfilling Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, although with it being 2020, I'm pretty sure the Alien Invasion is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm kidding. Probably.