Guest Post, Review, and Giveaway with author M.C.V. Egan and her novel The Bridge of Deaths

Hello Everyone!  Today we have with us M.C.V. Egan and her Halloween tribute to kick off my Spooktacular Author Highlight!   She shares with us a spooky short story.  Stay tuned afterwards for a review and giveaway of her spooktacular novel The Bridge of Deaths.  If you have any problems posting a comment please email the info and I will post!! viajeradelmar@aol.com

                Over Dinner One Night in Late October 2008

By, M.C.V. Egan

It was The Skeptic at the table that started the conversation; all of us had ordered dinner and were sharing a very bold Pinot Noir. It was one of the best from Burgundy or so we were told by the price. I was looking through the wine at the crackling fireplace, the fire had the rich colors of fall and it added to the feel of the season. After so many years in Florida it was so nice to experience autumn again. I felt a chill in the back of my neck and my mouth felt dry, like someone knew my secrets. The pretty woman none of us knew who had just started dating one of our newly divorced friends was the first one to answer.

“I had an old auntie who swore she heard ghost, but I have never known anyone who actually saw them.”

The laughter and looks from the others made me feel more at ease.

“She heard them but could not see the?” This was said in unison by more than two at the table, we had all known each other since our teens and that was not uncommon. Laughter and a toast of course followed this, but the young pretty blonde did not waiver.

“Yes, absolutely. Why do you think they are called Poltergeists? It is German for noisy spirits.”

Somehow this made everyone take notice, and question the original impression that she was just another dumb blond by The Player’s side.

“She is actually right, Polter or Poltern has something to do with noise and geist can be spirit or ghost.” Explained The Linguist amongst us.

“Please don’t ask him what else it could mean or there goes half an hour of potentially interesting conversation,” this from our pragmatist The Lawyer.

“Well so back to the question, have any of you ever seen a ghost?”

“I haven’t but I do know the way the Ouija board always moved for her when we were in high school, she’s our most likely source.”

All eyes were focused on me, we were all brought up to be conservatives and Catholics, that’s where we met at a private Catholic school that had just gone co-ed, the first to do so. It was so ironic that even though The Skeptic had started this, he was indeed the one who came to my rescue.

“She was pushing it with magnets, remember how we found them?”

It was my turn to speak.

“Okay so I earned my nickname as The Prank, before any of you earned yours! But tell me Skeptic, what did you see? What’s with the ghost question? What spooked you?”

He took a hefty swig of the Pinot Noir as our food was being served. It was a private dinning room and we waited till the last plate was placed in front of us and we were asked if we needed anything else, so The Skeptic share his experience.

“I had to go to Florida on business last week, and I booked a hotel on-line, it looked nice enough and the price was right.  I got there late, very late at night. It was the Biltmore in Clearwater, Florida. I was given a room in the fourth floor, and it felt like I was alone. I had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing. Starting from the guy who checked me in. Anyhow I got up at night to go to the bathroom and noticed a white stain on the floor, it was candle wax, but it was still sort of gooey. I know I heard some odd sounds, but frankly I’d taken a sleeping pill, and you know how it is with all those new pills, it could get recalled for side effects, and maybe this one doesn’t make you get up and eat, but rather see and hear things.”

“Were you drunk?”

Laughter and cheers again in unison.

“No, I wasn’t and it get weirder, The next day when I went to check out, I was told that they could not find me in their records, and when I said I was on the fourth floor, they laughed and asked who had sent me from corporate?”

No one was laughing now.

“Anyhow I looked it up on-line and…”

The Tech Master interrupted, holding his latest gadget.

“It is known as a haunted floor, well parts of the fourth floor and the entire fifth floor! Are you sure you were not drinking? The rooms on the fourth floor are only used for ghost field trips! It’s right here on-line the Pensacola Paranormal Society.”

It was the pretty blond who broke the silence.

“That is so cool, you are here and you are fine, so you have great story to tell.”

“I do not believe in ghosts.”

“Well they obviously believe in you, they even checked you into a hotel, you did not just see a ghost you touched one, and what’s more the wax you described sounds just like ectoplasm.”

“Ectoplasm?”

“Well I think that’s what it is called some sort of ghost goop, residue from the spirit.”

The Tech Master and his gadget interjected again.

“According to my dictionary it comes from a Medium not a ghost, so maybe it came out of you!”

The skeptic was nervous and visibly annoyed, he regretted having shared his story. I had nothing to lose and I had always been especially fond of him.

“ I have seen ghosts, several times and at that very hotel once or twice.”

Now you could hear a pin drop, and I thought at the very least The Skeptic and the Blond would be my allies.

“Yes, I cannot control it and I only see them in an environment like that hotel. It is a great famous conduit of spirit energy as it has water sources that run underneath and nearby.  There is so much out there, so much is documented, it really does not make sense to be a skeptic.”

“But it goes against everything I believe, what the hell is a ghost? What would it be doing here? There is heaven, there is hell, purgatory, Limbo…”

“No, no more Limbo, it’s been abolished by the Vatican.”

“Whatever, it does not make sense, it was some cruel practical joke, or a counterfeit Chinese sleeping hallucinogen passing off as a generic sleeping pill, but there are no ghosts.”

“Limbo was abolished? Where was I?” Our friend The Party animal.

“It was several years ago…. 2005 or so.” Our Linguist always doubled up as the Jeopardy Master.

“ Must have been 2005, I was in re-hab.”

“Was it that long ago…”

The mundane conversation was like the sound of a babbling brook in the background. I had finally had the courage to open up and tell them who I really was and no one wanted to know. But I had earned the Drama Queen title far more than I had earned the Prank.

The waiters collected the plates and poured water in our glasses as one leaned over and whispered in my ear;

“Don’t worry ma’am, I see the ghost in the corner as well, he loves to attend the private room meals.”

So what do you think?  Fact or Fiction?  Maybe both?  Sometimes facts can be far scarier than fiction!  Be sure to check out MCV site http://www.thebridgeofdeaths.com/. Now onward to the book!!!!

On August 15th, 1939 an English passenger plane from British Airways Ltd. Crashed in Danish waters between the towns of Nykobing/Falster and Vordingborg. There were five casualties reported and one survivor. Just two weeks before Hitler invaded Poland with the world at the brink of war the manner in which this incident was investigated left much open to doubt. The jurisdiction battle between the two towns and the newly formed Danish secret police, created an atmosphere of intrigue and distrust.

In the winter of 2009-2010 a young executive, Bill is promoted and transferred to London for a major International firm. He has struggled for the better part of his life with nightmares and phobias, which only seem to worsen in London. As he seeks the help of a therapist he accepts that his issues may well be related to a 'past-life trauma'.

Through love, curiosity, archives and the information superhighway of the 21st century Bill travels through knowledge and time to uncover the story of the 1939 plane crash.

The Bridge of Deaths is a love story and a mystery. Fictional characters travel through the world of past life regressions and information acquired from psychics as well as archives and historical sources to solve "One of those mysteries that never get solved" is based on true events and real people, it is the culmination of 18 years of sifting through sources in Denmark, England and the United States, it finds a way to help the reader feel that he /she is also sifting through data and forming their own conclusions.

The journey takes the reader to well known and little known events leading up to the Second World War, both in Europe and America. The journey also takes the reader to the possibility of finding oneself in this lifetime by exploring past lives.

My Review

There comes a time, in every avid readers life, when he or she hits a book that makes you stop, think, and question or reanalyze your belief system.  I have avoided quite a few books such as these for personal reasons for quite some time, but there was once a time when this particular would have hit my radar the moment it came out.  I came upon an ad of this book that was up for review and after reading a brief description knew I had to read it.  I use books at an attempt to escape life through fantasy, it is a welcome repose for the goings on in my everyday grind.  I wasn’t sure what to expect when I received this book in the mail, but I must say it has hit my must read list.  I grew up in an environment similar to Maggie’s with Bill reminding me a lot of my father.  This book hit home for me in quite a few aspects, except of course the actual experiences that our three characters went through in dealing with past life regression.  But I am jumping to far ahead so I must retrace back and allow a brief description to flow.  It is an interesting novel and it has three main characters that encompass the story.  Catalina was the shining star of the three, and it is her journey that ties everything together.  This book began as a quest to answer questions dealing with the strange and unsolved mysteries surrounding the death of her grandfather.  After years and years of research through conventional and unconventional means, Catalina is forced to stop once again in order to return to work.  She has pushed aside her dream so many times because life has a way of interfering.  Sound familiar?  I think all of us can relate in some way to this ambitious and dedicated young woman.  She went to extremes most of us wouldn’t have thought possible.  Then, a mere week before she starts packing up her research to rejoin the working world, she receives an email from Maggie on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.  Being hardened by many disappointments over the years, she does not over react to the email.  She just sends a response.  Her response opens up the opportunity to find the missing link she has been searching for.  So our story begins and ends with a loveable European couple that had the courage to search out the truth.

I, like Catalina, am skeptical concerning matters of reincarnation and past lives.  There are many people out there who try to make money off of just about everything.  But this book isn’t about those people.  It’s about a girl and her unusual journey to find the truth and the many paths she took along the way searching for answers.  I was sucked into this novel after the very first chapter and found it quite difficult to put down.  I have read (surprisingly) most of the books noted or referenced in this novel.  I love Brain Weiss ‘, as he puts a logical spin on his studies.  It creates a comfort zone for logical people or skeptics.  I enjoyed this book immensely and my inner geek jumped up and down with joy at having been allowed out.  I hope to read many more novels from the author.  She has a gift that should not be wasting away in some dreary form of employment.

And Guess what?  One of my lucky readers from the US or Canada has a chance to win an autographed copy of this wonderful novel!!  All you have to do is be a GFC follower and leave a comment with your email address at the bottom of this post!  Good luck to all and say Hi to MCV as she will be stopping by and answering questions!