Joanne Alain Cook's Blog

https://shepherd.com/bboy/2024/f/joanne-alain-cook

Embedded in the Wheel of Fortune card is the Comba Coven philosophy regarding the Trio of Wells. Each person consists of a core, a base, and a head well/cauldron that correspond to the alchemy tria prima. Further, each well leans between male/female or light/dark. It's the wheel that has become unbalanced in the Spectral Analysis Trilogy.

I spent some time envisioning the Kiki Mellow Tarot Card this summer and made a few prototype cards to share. Each character on the cards will be drawn as a reflection of a character from the trilogy, based on where they are in their character arc in each book. For instance, the FMC, Janine, starts as The Hermit because she enters the story as this card; a reflective, loner, seeking an understanding of her inner issues. Then in book two, she becomes Strength because she enters into a new phase of overcoming what life dealt her and embraces her past, her paranormal abilities, and some unique ideas (pagan philosophy). Finally, in book three, she becomes Justice. She determined to help reset the balance and met the consequences for the trilogy arc. Look out for the prototype cards soon to be shared.

New covers for the Spectral Analysis trilogy! Now, the books match. After spending a couple of years tied to a vanity publisher, I have the first book back under my care. A bit of editing, a new cover, and I'm now ready to fully promote this epic story of life energy, spiritual ideas, a bit of romance, darkness, pagan lore, and suspense mystery.

Sunny, windy, a short light snowfall, ending with another beautiful sunset. Right in the center of CA, we have it all.

December marks the 1 year anniversary of when I bit the bullet... sharing a story I wrote with more than just my daughters and husband. Oh, Henry, my first self-published novel launched in 12/2021 and has sold over 100 copies (my goal)! The story started out as an experiment in self-publishing. Could I design and draw a cover, format the interior, and publish with only the help of a freelance editor? It was only after the launch that I learned that it takes more than one novel for a successful following and the book needed to be part of a series...enter the idea of the SACTown Mystery collection, a second part of the experiment. My debut novel will now be part of a cozy collection of mysteries set in Sacramento. One planned publication each year for at least five books. This December (2022), Little Devil has launched and the working title for 2023 is Prima Donna. So far, the experience of INDIE publishing has been fantastic! Thank you to all the readers and reviewers. My next goal...break even on self-publishing before I retire, so I can keep writing and sharing til the end.

Bright yellow, soft, insoluble in water, it forms as it sublimes from hot gasses venting out of volcanic openings. Hence, it’s association with fire and Brimstone. 1000s of minerals contain sulfur. In its pure form, it is thought to prevent curses and loosen the hold of an evil influence.

Is this street haunted? Can you really even call it a street? Some say a small dark-haired girl wanders up and down on nights of the quarter moon, but I’ve never seen her. In Spectral Analysis, this is the street that is supposedly haunted by Henry Webber's niece. She was one of the victims of the River Ghost and lost her young life by drowning in the Rio Linda river years ago. That drowning happened on a night of the 1st quarter moon and now her spirit wanders every month on the moon anniversary of her death.

Spectral Analysis was only meant to be a short (NANO) book filled with scenes set in the local area. Written for my homesick, college student, it needed to be a ghost story, because we often joked that the area near our home was haunted by child ghosts (because the streets had "children's names"). I hoped adding familiar landmarks, with our haunted jokes, would ease her homesickness. But then COVID hit, and she was sent home early, and she said, "mom, let's write novels together for NANO since we're both together!" Being busy converting a science class from "in-person" to "zoom-virtual" gave me no time to develope another new story or new characters...but she insisted...so, I decided to use the same characters and premise from that ghost story and expand it. A few months later, the storyline had morphed into a trilogy. The second book includes more sci-fi (sorry, I was reviewing for the CSET physics test), and pagan philosophy (I was having fun), and social issues (we were watching trash TV) and served to connect the larger story arc from book 1 to book 3 without giving too much away. Book 3 concludes the conclusion of the main arc, while also directly addressing those social themes (sexism and the patriarchy). I had so much fun writing this story, I thought, why not share it. I've always wanted to write books, I've written a ton of stories, COVID still had us hiding in our homes with little to do, so I started looking into publishing...long story short, they're edited, formatted, covered, and ready for YOU!