Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist, with a Jungian bent, who practices in a very isolated area high in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains. Her avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography and, of course, writing.
A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she began writing speculative fiction three years ago. Since then her short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies and she has published two novels, Psyche's Prophecy and Psyche's Search. The latter, Psyche's Search, will be released during the summer of 2011.
A husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out her family.
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PSYCHE'S PROPHECY Transformation Series Book One by Ann Gimpel
What if your psychotherapist could really see into your soul? Picture all those secrets lying hidden, perhaps squirming a bit, just out of view. Would you invite your analyst to take a peek behind that gossamer curtain? Read your aura? Scry your future?Classically trained at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Doctor Lara McInnis has a special gift that helps her with her patients. Born with "the sight" she can read auras, while flirting with a somewhat elusive ability to foretell the future. Lara becomes alarmed when several of her patients - and a student or two - tell her about the same cataclysmic dream.
When she reaches out to the Institute for answers, Lara's paranormal ability sounds a sharp warning and she runs up hard against a dead end. Her search for assistance leads her to a Sidhe, and ancient Celtic rituals blaze their way into her life. Complicating the picture are: a deranged patient who's been hell-bent on destroying Lara ever since she tried to help his abused wife; a boyfriend with a long-buried secret and a society that's crumbling to dust, as shortages of everything from electricity to food escalate.
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Good morning Ann and congrats on the new book! PSYCHE'S PROPHECY sounds really interesting. Can you tell us more about it? Is there a romance at the heart of the story or is it strickly a fantasy/paranormal?
ReplyDeleteLove the cover of the book and I hear you took the picture for it - what a beautiful place!
Hope your first novel is a huge success and now I'm off to read the excerpt! Have fun today!
There is a long-term, successful relationship at the heart of this book. I consider this romance, though others may not. I write character-driven fiction, so this is a novel about self-discovery and growth. Lara McInnis is shocked when the bottom drops out of her comfortable world. How she copes with a series of disasters, and what she learns about herself and her resilience along the way, make up the core of Psyche's Prophecy.
ReplyDeleteBtw, "citronix" is Ann Gimpel. It's just another of my email addresses!
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes I did take the photo on the cover of the novel. In fact, I took it in Washington State not very far from where Garland Mineral Springs used to be. That's a key location in the novel.
ReplyDeleteMy website has a photography section with lots of pictures taken in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Feel free to browse!
Oh I checked out the photo section of your website - so beautiful, scenery I've ever only seen in pictures, so it must just take your breath away to see that for real.
ReplyDeleteYour book looks great and I'm adding it to my to-buy list. I love stories about characters with paranormal abilities.
My question to you is, do you believe people can have paranormal abilities?
Hi Ann,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on this new release. To everyone out there: I've read this book and it's wonderful. :) I recommend it.
Hmmm....a question for you:
Is the main character anything like you, or completely opposite?
my email is aubrie dionne at yahoo dot com
I'm excited to read Psyche's Prophecy. Did you come up with the concept for this book while working, doing outside activities, or another way?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your first release.
lenikaye@yahoo.com
For Katie, Aubrie and Leni:
ReplyDeleteKatie,
Thanks so much for your kind comments about my photos. And, yes, the Sierra Nevada Mountains are breathtaking. My office is full of large, framed photos that I took, photoshopped, and printed. My husband helps out by matting and framing the prints. In terms of your question regarding paranormal abilities: Yes, I think we all have them to some extent. Problem is they get drummed out of us when we're children unless we're fortunate enough to have very progressive and open-minded parents.
Aubrie,
Thanks so much for your ongoing support of Psyche's Prophecy! About the only thing Lara has in common with me is we're both psychologists with a bit of an antipathy for the psych meds. Otherwise she's very much her own person. For example, I would have been gone at the first whiff of the oil and food shortages.
Leni,
I come up with most of my ideas for my novels and short stories while hiking through the Sierras. There are long hours with little to do but look at gorgeous scenery, so things play out in my head that then end up on paper.
Ann
Hi, Ann.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your release. I hope you celebrated in grand style.
What does your family and friends think about your writing?
Thanks,
Tracey D
booklover0226 at gmail dot com
Congrats on your debut book!
ReplyDeleteHow many books are planned for this series?
kissinoak at frontier dot com
Hello Tracey and Estella!
ReplyDeleteFor Tracey: My family and friends are very supportive of my writing. In fact, my mother told me more years ago than I care to remember that I should be a writer. And, Psyche's Prophecy is dedicated to my husband for his support and patience.
For Estella: I plan three books in this series. Book Two, Psyche's Search is written and I'm in the process of editing it. Book Three will be titled, Psyche's Promise. I'll get going on it sometime over the summer.
For what it's worth, every series I've ever read that was longer than a trilogy seemed to lose something as book four, five, six, etc. rolled off the presses. There's only so much an author can do with an alternative world.
Ann
I've always been intrigued by the ability to see the future and read minds. It scares me to think that someone may actually be able to do this. I wonder what a therapist would do to assist her patients if she knew what mistakes they would make. Sounds interesting and conflicting. Would it be her ethical to use her skill to help change the outcome of patiants lives through her work? To what extent would she assist? Or would she just sit back and enjoy the joy.
ReplyDeletetracyishere@hotmail.com
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteSince I've been a practicing therapist for around thirty years, I can tell you that we don't "fix" anything. Nor do we tell people what to do. We help them brainstorm solutions, but we do not offer advice. That's for the newspaper columns.
Lara uses her paranormal ability to read auras. This tells her how her patients are doing and whether they're being truthful. She also gets occasional "hits" of future events, but since she's never had any mentoring to help her entrain her gifts, she never knows what will come to her.
Hope that helps to clarify things a bit.
Ann
Having gone through 2 years of therapy for anxiety in college, the thought of the analyst seeing into me is very uncomfortable. The book however sounds very intriguing. Congrats on your first book!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind thoughts, Jen. And, I can relate to your discomfort. I bet that after two years, though, you built up quite a bit of trust with your therapist. Good for you for sticking with it. Change is hard.
ReplyDeleteAnn
Just stopping by (late, but I made it, right?) to add my congrats to the others. Since I am your publisher and production manager, I have read the book cover-to-cover and thoroughly enjoyed it. I know Psyche's Prophecy will go far, and can hardly wait for the next installment in the series. Lara is a compelling heroine with a good head on her shoulders, but she is "human" enough we can identify with her. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Charlotte.
ReplyDeleteYour unflagging support is *always* appreciated!
Ann