Crystal Illusions Blog Tour Stop with JE Taylor

Hello and welcome to another stop on my blog tour. Roxanne was kind enough to allow me your undivided attention today and I thought it would be interesting to delve into a strong supernatural theme in most of my books. Now this usually isn’t displayed in the paranormal realm. In other words, I usually don’t have preternatural beings like vampires or werewolves in my fiction. I have been known to have an angel and a ghost or two show up, but most of my supernatural themes run in the form of ESP. Telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, coercive persuasion (a.k.a. mind control), and even a bizarre form of astral projection all have found their way into my books.

It’s a subject matter, like ghosts and haunting, that I’ve always been curious about. We’ve all experienced déjà vous from time to time and most dismiss it as just coincidence. What if it’s a sign that we’ve had a prior glimpse of the future and time has just caught up with us? I’m of the belief that we all have a touch of something – and it would be neat if science created a way for us to tap into that part of our brain that lay dormant ninety-nine percent of the time, but then again, how weird would it be to really hear someone else’s thoughts?

I don’t know about you, but sometimes this would be handy and in other situations, I’m not sure I’d want to know what someone was thinking. In certain jobs, like my main character in Crystal Illusions, this ability would be an advantage. My main character works for the district attorney’s office and how cool would it be to hear the thoughts of others. Carolyn’s only issue is she doesn’t have control over when this function turns on or off, so it’s about as reliable as a teenager presented with juicy options.

If I was given the option of being granted just one extra sensory gift based on the arsenal of choices found between the covers of my books, I’d be hard pressed to pick just one. It comes down to whether I’d want to control matter or control minds. Absolute power corrupts and both of these lean into that realm and I’m not sure if I’d be able to resist using mind control to suit my own purposes. I think that bodes for purely selfish temptations. Which leaves control of the physical world, including telekinesis and the ability to heal and I’d prefer this to the mind control option because, frankly, I don’t have the squeaky clean moral compass that would be required to handle mind control.

Neither did my characters and it’s been an interesting journey trying to keep them on the straight and narrow. Each gifted character has struggled with their own moral compass in relation to the powers they hold and sometimes they cross the line. In Crystal Illusions, Special Agent Steve Williams has a few moments where he exercised his ability to make people do as he wishes, but his application of that is much more chivalrous than how Chris Ryan used those same powers in Mind Games.

So, if you had your druthers, which form of ESP would you prefer to be saddled with?


Thank you for swinging into this stop on my Blog Tour and I hope you’ll check out my character interview over at Bitten By Books on the 20th for a chance to win a $50.00 Amazon gift certificate.

If you’d like to check out Crystal Illusions, you can purchase it here on Amazon.

Assistant D.A. Carolyn Hastings has an uncanny knack for putting away criminals. With one of the best prosecution records in recent history, her future as Manhattan’s next District Attorney looks certain. But her sixth sense for winning cases threatens to work against her when she starts seeing a string of murders through the eyes of the killer.

With suspects piling up as fast as bodies, and the motives of those closest to her questionable, Carolyn doesn’t know who to trust. When the FBI assigns Special Agent Steve Williams to the case, Carolyn discloses her deepest fear - that the man she loves may be the one responsible for the city’s latest crime spree.

The only thing Steve knows for sure is Carolyn has an inexplicable psychic connection with the killer, and all the victims have one thing in common…a striking resemblance to Carolyn Hastings.

And he knows it’s only a matter of time before this psychopath knocks on her door.

“Taylor has a strong thriller where every single character has reasonable doubt flashing like a neon sign hanging over them, and right from the beginning you are trying to guess who the killer really is. Gripping, rich and magnificent - crime whodunnits don't get any better than this!” Author Poppet / Gemma Rice – Author of Quislings, Blindsided, Djinn and Dusan


Until next time,
Ciao,
JET