Thursday, April 11, 2013

Teens Hunting Ghosts


Ever wondered what it felt like investigating a haunted house? Ever wanted to know if ghosts were real? A.S. Santos, author of the SPRG Series, a paranormal romance trilogy, introduces her first book; Voices in The Theater, with bizarre and dangerous supernatural occurrences. Her book is about one teenage girl's psychic abilities, and the unseen world that exposes her to danger & love.

About the Author

A.S. Santos has been writing for magazines since the age of 14, and has worked professionally as a scriptwriter for TV, a magazine editor, a creative writing teacher, and a creativity workshop facilitator.

The author’s own experiences with the paranormal began in high school, during encounters with the Ouija board. At first it had seemed like a game, until those experiences turned disturbing... then frightening.

Since then, Santos became interested in the paranormal, but mostly in the scientific theories about what makes paranormal phenomena possible.

In 2009, Santos was working on a personal project, a little booklet called “The Top 12 Things Teens Need to Know About the Paranormal.” It was to have been the booklet that the author would’ve wanted to have back then during those teen years, the booklet that would help teens today better understand the paranormal experiences they may have.

However, that booklet project was abandoned, because in the middle of researching it the author suddenly had the idea for a three-book series about a teenage girl who gradually develops her psychic abilities upon joining her school’s paranormal research group.

And that was the beginning of the SPRG series.

Santos is currently working on Book 2 of the SPRG series, titled Corpse in the Mirror.


Voices in the Theater 

Samantha Davidson never expected more from her ability. 

Sam is a girl from New Jersey who never actually lived a normal life. She can hear sounds and voices not most people do. 

It was since her grandmother’s tragic death that Sam realized she can hear the most unusual things. At first she began hearing her dead grandmother’s voice, but then it developed to the point where she can hear people’s thoughts. 

Seeking for answers, Samantha Davidson joined a paranormal research group in a university she was enrolled in within the new country she and her family just moved into. 

The paranormal research group’s objective is to investigate supernatural events and record them so that they may prove or look for its causes scientifically. Sam needed this in order somehow answer the questions she has about her peculiar ability. 

When the group first started investigating and visited one of the rumored haunted rooms in the university, Sam instantly heard different voices that were inhuman. She noticed a pattern the voices were following as they mentioned the names of people who died from suicide. She listened carefully, partly because she knew it was important and partly because something inside her literally told her to do so. As she listened carefully she slowly realized that one of the mentioned names belonged to her father.

At first she thought the voices were only there to scare her. She thought the voices were just one of the new things she needed to be used to since she moved into the new country. She thought that they only remained unheard sounds that only she can perceive. If she only knew what the possessors of these voices are, she wouldn’t consider them harmless.  

Since she heard the voices in the haunted room, she encountered numerous realizations. Her eyes were opened to a whole new world of insights about good and evil. She knew that her father’s life is in danger, threatened by his own actions.

The story goes as she develops her ability and discovers things she never thought existed.  She began to learn more about the ongoing war that lies beneath the voices. 

Sam confronts the voices and strives to save her father’s life even if her downfall was possible. Unfortunately, the owners of the voices aimed for a gruesome response to her opposing gesture. They started digging her hidden memories as they revealed and aimed for her weaknesses. They tormented Sam with colossal blows of heart crushing anguish. They began to gain power, trying to take more lives and claim them as their own.

How could Sam survive?



Friday, April 5, 2013

Teen Ghost Hunters


The War Inside Our Minds
“Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”
—T. H. Thompson and John Watson

People often talk about fighting their inner demons, and in our work in the Student Paranormal Research Group (SPRG) we’ve come to find that they’re more accurate than they realize.

Remember those cartoons showing someone with a tiny angel on one shoulder, and a devil on the other? Believe it or not, this is actually what’s happening.
But in reality these spirits are not small or silly or cute.

For some time, one of our members had to battle with her thoughts, each and every day. Even though she knew her life was great, she regularly experienced overwhelming thoughts that “just came out of nowhere.”
They popped into her mind at her weakest moments: when she was physically tired, or stressed, or disappointed, or had just been criticized by a professor or reprimanded by her parents. 

These thoughts revolved around the same themes, very specific themes that hit her when it really hurt:
“No one cares about me. No one loves me. I’m unlovable. No one understands me.”
OR
“I’m worthless. I never do anything right. I’m such a failure.”

Our friend fights these thoughts valiantly, and often (especially nowadays) she succeeds. But there are times when she finds that they're just too much for her. And this is why she needs help.

Then again, don't we all experience moments like this?
We label them "self-doubt or self pity" and sure we can call them that. But sometimes—if you really look at it—the timing, targeting, and resulting of emotional chaos they create are just so impeccable, you really have to wonder : Do all these thoughts really come from us? OR are many of them just being whispered into our ears, disguised in our own voices, telling us, “You’re the screw-up here.”

Is it possible that these toxic thoughts are the most effective war strategy of all? To make us believe, that each and every day, that we are nothing… and that because we think it, then it must be true.

We were all born into an ongoing war, and the battles are real.
How are you going fight your battles today?
We’re here to help you. Talk to us.

The SPRG.

Taken from the book Voices in the Theater, written by A.S. Santos.