In her past life,after causing the death of a little boy, Nikki was so devastated that her soulmate promised to murder her in their next life, to make her pay for what shehad done. With no knowledge of this, Nikki lives for years as an addict, downon her luck, until she is rescued by Ken, who helps her with all aspects of herrecovery. With the help of a few new friends and a cat named Destiny, Nikkiturns her life around. What she doesn’t know is that someone out there isdestined to kill her, and he is watching, his passion for killing her growingstronger each day. The question is: Can an agreement made between two souls bebroken, and how far will one soul go to keep a promise made in a desperateattempt to save the other?

 

Where to Find To Haveand To Hold, To Love and To Kill:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Have-Hold-Love-Kill-Agreement/dp/1685133428/

https://bookshop.org/p/books/to-have-and-to-hold-to-love-and-to-kill-an-agreement-of-souls-amy-s-cutler/20601757?ean=9781685133429&next=t

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200655790-to-have-and-to-hold-to-love-and-to-kill

 

Creating the PerfectAmbiance to Write Paranormal Tales

Currently on my desk, Ihave a candle from a company called Mythologie, and the candle is calledPhoenix. The scent includes grapefruit, cinnamon, clove and vanilla, and has acrackling wooden wick. I burn this when I am working on a special project, anon-fiction piece that includes the mythological story of a phoenix. When Ilight this candle, I immediately focus on the story, and with the crackle ofthe wick, I am drawn closer to the words. Do I need the candle to write thisstory? No, of course not. It is the intention behind the candle that I desire,and that is to create a space where my mind blocks everything out but the storyin my head.

As often as possible, Itry to start a writing session with a clear desk and whatever props mightinspire me. These might be a candle, a photograph, some books (The AmityvilleHorror is almost always in sight), or a playlist curated to inspire aparticular story. I also like to write outdoors, where I can close my eyes andallow the sounds to filter their way into my tales. The set-up for writing aparanormal story can be quite fun. A perfect vision for me would be a fullmoon, lots of candles, and a silent house. No dogs barking or chewing on bones,no background noise of the television or Instagram reel, just me, my keyboard,and the glow of the moon. If I were to give myself a nice date-night, thatwould probably be it. In that setting, something spooky always ends up on thepage. Sounds nice, right?

Back in reality, where Iusually live, I do not always have a clear desk, and I find that I’m out ofmatches. In these cases, it’s just a matter of turning inward, and creating aspace inside that blocks out the mess of the outside. Writing is a bit of meditation,and even when it starts out hard and the noises from the outside (or theinside) create a distraction, if you sit with it long enough, a nice tunnelvision begins to form, and even amidst chaos, a calming focus can take over.Before you know it, an hour has passed and the word count has grown.

When writing a paranormalstory, I also like to sit for a moment before each writing session and picturethe characters in mind. I sort of talk to them, picture them in the settingthat I have written them into. See if anything has changed, if there are anypivots that the story needs to take. This can be helpful when writing anystory, but it is special with a ghost story, because when we write aboutghosts, it seems like the crack between worlds opens a bit. And sometimes, ifI’m lucky, those ghosts will whisper back to me. Put pen to paper when there’sa ghost in your ear, even a 100 percent imaginary ghost, and magic can trulyhappen.

 

About the Author

 

Amy Sampson-Cutler,author of "To Have and to Hold, toLove and to Kill: An Agreement of Souls" and "A Shadow of Love," is a writer whoearned her master's degree in creative writing from Goddard College. Her workcan be found in Slut Vomit: An Anthologyof Sex Work, Tales to Terrify, WOW! Women on Writing, The Pitkin Review andmore. She is the Executive Manager at Mount Peter Ski Area, where she grew upskiing in the winter and dreaming up stories in the summer. Her favorite daysare spent knocking around story ideas with her husband. She lives in the HudsonValley with her husband, son, and a ridiculous amount of furry family members.

 

She can be contactedthrough AmysHippieHut.com. Also follow her on:

Facebook: https://facebook.com/AmysHippieHut

Instagram: https://instagram.com/amyshippiehut