Gather round, all. Today we have a visitor, so everyone be on you best behavior. I don’t want to have to call in the Werewolf monks to do security. They’re a bit testy as they’re latest batch of wine didn’t go as planned.
Want to play mind games? Then you’re going to love Ronnie Allen’s recent release, GEMINI.
His life is exactly the way he wants it to be—until he meets her…
Both psychic and clairvoyant, Dr. John Trenton is a forensic psychiatrist who has a wife he worships and a position as a department head at a hospital for the criminally insane in Manhattan. His patients—young adult men, who are some of the most psychotic and psychopathic criminals in NYC—enable him to live his life on the edge, just the way he likes it. Then he meets a woman who changes everything.
She is two days from accomplishing the revenge she lives for—until she meets him…
Stripper by night, school psychologist by day, Gemini obsessed Barbara Montgomery, makes a critical mistake and is committed for seventy-two hours of observation, where she risks it all in an unnerving escape. Furious with Dr. Trenton for interfering in her life, she is now determined to kill his wife and unborn child, along with everyone else who has ever caused her pain—real or imagined.
As the killing spree continues, John is forced to use all his ESP, as well as his knowledge and expertise, to interpret this psychopath’s Gemini obsession and unravel her dark and murderous past. But can he track her down and bring her to justice—before she destroys his world completely?
Check out Ronnie’s Video: https://vimeo.com/130146552
EXCERPT:
Okay, girlfriend. Let’s get serious here. Tonight’s gotta be the night. Time’s runnin’ away from me.
She jammed her eyes shut, swallowed hard, and blew out a prolonged breath. Tonight could be rough. Or impossible. Her heart thumped in expectation of finding the right person to accompany her in the train wreck of her life.
She had no choice, but to make it work.
Her life depended upon it.
Before she could overthink it, she grabbed the pink paisley duffle bag, which held her outfit for the job, off the Queen Victoria chair that graced the corner of the hallway. The entire getup could fit in her jeans pocket but she had to go fancy. She zipped up the black patent leather stiletto heeled boots, hesitating for a moment, contemplating if she was getting too old to wear them. After a last minute once-over in the full length mirror on the adjacent wall, she reconsidered. Nah, not with her knockout bod. Women half her age didn’t look so good. Not even any laugh lines around her eyes to give it away. She winked in the mirror and her emerald contact lenses twinkled back.
She eased the door closed to her ritzy Manhattan apartment at one a.m. with her right hand on the knob and her left palm on the door, guiding it to the latch so that her ears alone heard the soft clicks of the bolt.
Can’t wake those old geezers next door. Otherwise, I’ll just have to do what I do best.
Chills of anticipation snaked through her as she traversed the darkened hallway to the elevator all the while listening for footsteps in her neighbor’s apartment. The elevator door opened. She slipped in.
All was good.
They got to live another night.
Leave a comment with your birth day and month (no year), and Ronnie will giveaway one free, two-line tarot reading to our first ten visitors.
Welcome to my corner of the swamp, Ronnie, shall we begin our interrogation interview?
Thank you so much, Jami, for hosting me. My debut novel, Gemini, a psychological thriller, was recently released, last Saturday, by Black Opal Books. I love your questions, so here we go.
As children we tend to have an idea of what we want to be by the time we’re ten. Before you decided to pursue the artistic dream of being a writer, what did you want to be and why?
I love animals but only wound up having a dog for five days. I was about ten. The doctors told my parents I couldn’t have any pets because I had severely debilitating asthma growing up and it’s still an issue, but well controlled. Since I was an only child, my parents thought it would be a good idea to try it, anyway. We got a lab shepherd mix from Bideaway home for dogs on Long Island and named him Friday. He was precious. We lived in a three story walk up and my dad with a heart condition couldn’t do the walking up and down three times or more a day to walk him. We brought him back with me hysterical after five days, my parents blaming the asthma for his return. In reality it was not the asthma. I wasn’t allergic to him at all. It was that walking him was too much strain for my dad. Asthma did initiate many of the traumas in my childhood, which I deal with in Aries, the second in the Sign Behind The Crime series that will be out in the fall. The antagonist, the killer, is an asthmatic. She goes through many of the experiences I had. So to answer your question: what did I want to be? A Veterinarian. I even applied to a university in the state of Washington that had a fabulous pre-vet program. My parents forbade it. My doctors forbade it. Me, being the good little girl at the time, listened and went to a university on Long Island instead. I majored in psychology and education, got my MS degree in School Psychology. At first I wanted to psychoanalyze myself, get rid of the asthma and then go to Vet school. Didn’t exactly happen that way. But today I have two cats, our two dogs passed over the Rainbow Bridge with another cat, and I’m not allergic to any of them.
If your characters came with a warning label what would it say?
“Hot to the touch.” and “Beware of the killer within.” Um, that last one would be a great title. I’ll keep it on the back burner.
Growing up, what was your favorite character, and did you create a character that might resemble you?
This is a fun question. Tarzan was my favorite TV show. It started when I was three-year old. Even then, I loved the muscular men with strong physicality. Mainly because I was so overprotective from the asthma. I never roller-skated or rode a bike. I wasn’t allowed to be in a pool, either. As I’m writing this, I’m poolside and will go in for my workout soon. I still love the body-builder type jock men. They made up for the physical strength I didn’t have. As an aside, I never dated a man who wasn’t Mr. Muscles. My husband’s a jock and we raised one. Does any of my characters resemble me? Hell yes! In Gemini, stripper by night, school psychologist by day, Barbara Montgomery has the job I had in the NYC Dept. of Education for a time when I was a crisis intervention specialist. There’s a chapter with her in a situation I was in, many times. But no person in the novel is anyone I personally know. Forensic psychiatrist, Dr. John Trenton is both psychic and clairvoyant and practices the alternative therapies and metaphysics as I do, as a board certified holistic health practitioner. I work with people making the mind/body connection. He uses a therapy that I was in for two years that helped me resolve the childhood traumas. It was so many years ago that they pop back up now and then but I use my strategies now for controlling them. In Aries, as I mentioned above, my character, AriellaRose Larcon goes through the traumas I did as a child and young adult. My male characters are martial arts fighters because I like men who are protective. Dr. John Trenton is a third degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Frank Khaos in Aries is a third degree Black Belt in BJJ and has his own training gym in Harlem, NY where he rehabs NYC gang members.
Share one uniquely strange experience you’ve had that remains crystal clear to this day.
More traumatic than strange. I’ve had a few. Think I’ll talk about two. One was when I was three and vacationing with my parents in a motel in New Hampshire. I was playing with the hot, yes, muscular, life guard who was teaching me how to swim. He went underwater and I went under, after him. My mom panicked, jumped into the pool grabbed me out yelling that I could drown. She never let me go into a pool again. The second was when I was in a coma for twelve days in 2000. The docs told my husband and son I had less than a 2 % chance of survival. Well surprise, surprise. Here I am. I won’t go into the story here, but if readers would like to read “My Journey Back,” the full story is on my alternative healing web site. http://www.thecrystaltarot.com.
What is the one genre you won’t try and why?
Writing historicals. Maybe because I had a painful and traumatic childhood so I only want to live in the present and not dwell on the past. How’s that for a mind/body connection? Just thought of that now, BTW. Also, history was my least favorite subject in school. I liked American history better, but never could get into world history.
What is the best advice you can share with others?
From Anthony Robbins, “The future does not have to equal your past.” He’s one of the coaches that had helped me get over ‘my past.’ And, “Never give up.”
Time for our fast and furious answers…
Blades, guns, fists or feet? Blades, in Aries. Guns in Gemini.
Favorite Fairy Tale? Cinderella
Titles waiting to be read? Catherine Coulter, The Lost Key; J.A. Jance, Remains of Innocence; Lisa Gardner, Crash and Burn; Karin Slaughter, Cop Town; Julie Garwood, Fast Track
Greatest one liner? Never give up.
Strangest items in my writing cave? Not really strange, they’re necessities. Statues of my Goddesses and Lord Ganesh.
Favorite supernatural creature? dragon
Ronnie is nice enough to give gifts, so take advantage!
GIVEAWAY
And for the first ten of your readers who leave a comment along with their birth date, day and month (no year), I’ll do a two sentence Tarot year reading for them, and write the reading in reply to their comment. The Tarot year is from Jan. 1-Dec. 31. I’m a certified Tarot Master Instructor and have been teaching Tarot and doing readings since the mid-90’s. I’m no longer taking clients, since writing has taken my time 24/7. So this is a fun opportunity.
Want to track down, Ronnie? You can find her and GEMINI at any of the following: