The Orphan, The Soulcatcher and the Black Blizzard by Kimberlee Ann Bastian

Author Kimberlee Ann Bastian has stopped by my blog today with a guest post for her blog tour. Check it out!

My Lightning Bolt Moment

By: Kimberlee Ann Bastian

Most people know the story well, about how J.K. Rowling came up with the idea for Harry Potter on a train ride from Manchester to London. For me, my bolt of lightning was not so obvious, at least not initially. I met my muse during the fall semester of my sophomore year of college. I was taking public speaking at the time and our latest assignment was to write an informative speech. We were allowed to choose anything as a topic and being that it was October, I thought it would be fun to talk about the history of Halloween. 

I researched the topic online and to my surprise; I did not have to dig very far. The History Channel already had its Halloween spread active. Combing through the information, I came across the history of the Jack O’ Lantern and learned that the practice came out of an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack. As the story goes, Stingy Jack tricked the Devil twice, each time making a deal, that if he should die, the Devil could not take his soul. When Jack died, God would not let such an unsavory character into heaven and true to his word, the Devil did not claim Jack’s soul. From that day, Jack was doomed to roam the earth, with only an ember inside a hollowed turnip to light his way. 

From there, I tried to learn more about this Stingy Jack, but no other stories were written about him, nor could I find the true origins of his Irish folktale. It fascinated me, the lack of information about this ill-fated character, confused why no one would have written a story about his wanderings. I mean I wanted to know what a mortal soul would do with his eternity. Would he fall in love? Would the Devil still be trying to get one up on him after already being two behind? Would he change his ways? Would he be granted a reprieve and be allowed into heaven? I wanted to know! The Orphan, the Soulcatcher, and the Black Blizzard is the precursor to finding out the answers to these questions and at the same time, building an even grander story in what will soon be a nine-part saga.

  

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