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                                     Sullivan’s Way~ Wilhelmina Stolen

Genre: Fiction/Romance/Historical

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-93-6   ISBN 10: 1-939217-93-8

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-94-3     ISBN 10: 1-939217-94-6

A single day shattered her life and set in motion, events that would change the Sullivan family for generations.

Marnie Joe Sullivan had the perfect life as the daughter of a wealthy Virginia businessman, but perfection wouldn't last. As the War Between the States ends, she is struggling to keep her family together. After a botched robbery, fleeing rebels leave her mother dead and Marnie at the mercy of a killer. The year is 1867 and Virginia is still home to Confederate conspirators and a killer that must be stopped. Loyalty and love run deep in the Sullivan family and Marnie is no exception. As the eldest Sullivan, she feels obligated to rescue her father from the hangman’s noose. But a jailbreak at midnight lands her in the arms of Marshal Mason Kane.

Death is never fair. Mason Kane is proof of that. The horror of war and the death of his brother made him a drunk. Consumed by guilt and grief, he finds himself occupying Richmond saloons and starting fights. But a forgotten promise to his brother forces him to put down the bottle and accept a friend’s plea for help. Mason has no idea that the scrawny, mud covered boy he just hit is Sullivan’s daughter and he has no idea just how tempting she is until he tries to mend her wounds. Bound by honor and promise, Mason sets out to find a killer. What he finds is the outlaw Marnie Sullivan. A woman he can’t live without and secrets that lie in the way.

Soul Awakening~ Doug Simpson

Genre: Fiction/General/Christian/Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal/Ghost/Visionary & Metaphysical

Digital ISBN 13:978-1-939217-06-6 ISBN 10:1939217067

Print ISBN 13: 978-1939217-07-3 ISBN 10: 1939217075

Soul Awakening is a spiritual mystery/romance story involving the discovery of reincarnation and the past lifetimes of a group of individuals. It is a work of fiction, but was inspired by a series of actual events that were experienced by the author or other individuals known to the author. It involves the apparently accidental, though actually orchestrated by Divine Intervention, meeting of three total strangers, and their ultimate discovery that they shared previous lifetimes together. It includes episodes of spirit communication, messages from God, past-life regression sessions, Guardian Angels, past-life recall in the awake state, and Soul Attraction, which is the reincarnation of groups of souls together, in more than one lifetime, in order to deal with uncompleted Karmic connections from previous lifetimes together.

Soul Rescue~ Doug Simpson

Genre: Fiction/General/Christian/Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal/Ghost/Visionary & Metaphysical

Digital ISBN ISBN 13: 978-1939217-12-7 ISBN 10: 193917121

Print ISBN ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-13-4  ISBN 10: 193921713X

Dacque LaRose, the protagonist in the Dacque Chronicles, is a very unusual Good Samaritan who has been selected by the Heavenly Powers to assist Them in rescuing deserving souls in need of rescuing, no matter whether these souls still reside in human bodies or have departed from their human residences when their body passed away. Dacque’s soul has earned this exalted position as God’s helper through his exemplary actions and clean living throughout his numerous previous incarnations, as well as his current lifetime. To assist Dacque in carrying out these noble duties he has been bestowed with unique powers in this lifetime, powers which allow him to see and converse with spirits as well as receive direct messages from the Heavenly Powers.

Soul Rescue is the recounting of Dacque’s latest adventure where he is directed to the local children’s hospital to locate and assist the earth-bound spirits of five children stranded for many decades. Dacque is rewarded with three touching personal relationships throughout this adventure and a totally unanticipated surprise at the conclusion of his Heavenly assignment.

Soul Rescue, Book II of the Dacque Chronicles, is a fictional novel inspired by a series of actual events.

Soul Mind~ Doug Simpson

Genre: Fiction/General/Christian/Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal/Ghost/Visionary & Metaphysical

Digital ISBN ISBN 13:978-1-939217-26-4 10:1939217261

Print ISBN ISBN 13: 978-1-9-939217-27-1  10:193921727x

Dacque LaRose, a genuine good-guy and Good Samaritan, was accustomed to being visited by and communicating with disembodied spirits as he carried out his occasional assignments received from the Heavenly Powers. His latest spirit visit went miles beyond anything he would have ever imagined. The spirit of a former acquaintance and recent murder victim joined Dacque one morning on his favorite park bench and asked him to assist in solving his murder as the local authorities were getting nowhere, through no fault of their own but due to a lack of any substantial evidence in the case.

Dacque had absolutely no idea how he could be of assistance in solving a murder, but he was accustomed to receiving his Heavenly assignments one installment at a time so he knew the steps he would be expected to follow would appear in due course.

Dacque’s new assignment proved exciting and educational as the spirit of the murdered acquaintance gladly explained to Dacque and his detective friend the inner workings of the Soul Mind or subconscious mind.

Soul Connections~ Doug Simpson

Genre: Fiction/General/Christian/Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal/Ghost/Visionary & Metaphysical

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-47-9 ISBN 10: 1-939217-47-4

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-48-6 ISBN 10: 1-939217-48-2

Soul Connections describes the educational journey, guided by the spirit of a sudden murder victim, of a group of individuals through the process of investigating their inter-connected past lifetimes.  As well as the surprising discoveries uncovered through their past-life research, the spirit and soul of the murder victim educates its past relatives, from its previous lifetimes, in the knowledge retained by our souls after death, and in the ‘life’ of souls temporarily residing on the other side as they await their next incarnation.

Indiscretion~ Tonya Lampley

Genre: Fiction/ African American/ Contemporary Woman

Digital ISBN 13:978-1-939217-80-6  ISBN 10: 1-939217-80-6

Print ISBN 13:978-1-939217-79-0  ISBN 10: 1-939217-79-2

One careless night and a man’s life is changed forever.

Damon Harris wants a better life than the one he’s currently living. He has a penchant for trouble and a trail of mistakes behind him, but inside he can feel a greater call urging him on to the man he knows he can become. He marries the ideal woman in hopes it might settle him down. But change is hard. Stuck in a self-created prison where the only warden is himself, he’ll do just about anything to break free.

A few drinks, a beautiful girl…was it worth it?

Release day for 5 Prince Publishing author Doug Simpson

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Non-fiction/ Christian/ Historical

Release Date: February 6, 2014

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-89-9   ISBN 10: 1-939217-89-X

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-90-5     ISBN 10: 1-939217-90-3

http://www.5princebooks.com/buy-links.html

The Soul of Jesus

As part of His preparations for the long-prophesied birth of our Savior, God selected a devout group of primarily Jewish Essenes to oversee this monumental undertaking. The Soul of Jesus delves into numerous details surrounding these readily-available but little-known preparations which preceded the birth of Jesus, and then carries on to share delightful snippets concerning the birth and life of Jesus before the commencing of His Ministry, Jesus’ Healings and other Miracles, His Apostles, relatives, friends and the group of seventy disciples, the Crucifixion and Resurrection, His activities after the Resurrection, and Jesus’ Ascension, that are not recorded in the Scriptures.

The surprises do not stop there. The Soul of Jesus saves the block-buster news until the very end – the soul of Jesus had a number of historical incarnations before its final incarnation, commencing many centuries back in time as the soul of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

About Doug Simpson

Doug Simpson is a retired high school teacher who has turned his talents to writing. His first novel, a spiritual mystery titled Soul Awakening, was published in the United States in October of 2011, by Booklocker. It was reissued in October of 2012 by 5 Prince Publishing as Soul Awakening, Book I of the Dacque Chronicles. It is available in print and eBook format through most bookstores around the world. Soul Rescue, Book II of the Dacque Chronicles was published in November of 2012, and Soul Mind, Book III of the Dacque Chronicles was published in January of 2013. His magazine and website articles have been published in 2010 to 2013 in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Author Contact Info:

Website:  http://dousimp.mnsi.net

 Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/1DougSimpson   Or @1DougSimpson

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/doug.simpson.902

Email:  jesuscayce@yahoo.com

Blog:  http://doug-simpson-author.blogspot.com/

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6962771-doug-simpson

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/100241296410266842552/posts

Excerpt of The Soul of Jesus

Part 1 Where It Began

Chapter 1

Who was Edgar Cayce?

Edgar Cayce is regarded by many authorities in his field as America's legendary mystic. If you happen to be unfamiliar with the name, Edgar Cayce, the most probable reason is that you hail from a younger generation. Edger Cayce passed on in 1945 but he left behind an enormous legacy of unimaginably accurate psychic readings on an unusually diverse assortment of topics. In 1931, Edgar Cayce and a small group of friends and financial supporters incorporated the Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E.), in Virginia Beach, Virginia, to preserve, organize and catalogue the rapidly multiplying copies of Edgar Cayce's psychic readings. It is estimated that Edgar Cayce gave more than 15,000 psychic readings in his lifetime, but in the early years the copies of the readings, primarily medical readings, were not retained, and the original record of these readings were given or sent to the individuals requesting the readings.

Today, the A.R.E. is still a thriving, charitable foundation, where members can view copies of over 14,000 complete Edgar Cayce psychic readings. Approximately 10,000 of these readings are medical readings, some 2500 are classified as life or reincarnation readings, and the remainder of the readings cover topics as diverse as domestic relations, the stock market and real estate investment, creation, the life and times of Jesus and those close to Him, as well as numerous other subjects.

You can, if you have not already done so, view Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. website at www.edgarcayce.org. The non-members section contains a short biography of Edgar Cayce and information on other topics presented in Edgar Cayce's recorded readings. Now, if you still have concerns about the unique psychic abilities of Edgar Cayce, I would ask you to take a minute or two and perform an experiment. Please go to your favorite computer search engine and do a search on “Edgar Cayce”, and you will be amazed by the information that you will uncover. I recently performed another search as I was writing this paragraph and came up with 2,750,000 hits. Not too shabby for someone you might not have ever heard of before you started reading this chapter.

What about books, you may be thinking at this juncture? Over 300 books have been written by Edgar Cayce or by others who have used Edgar’s readings as the basis for their writing. To date, well over 30 biographies of Edgar Cayce are included in that number. Pause for a moment and try to count the people who have had over 30 biographies written about them. Did you run out of fingers and have to take your socks off? I doubt it!

If I rounded them all up, I probably have between forty and fifty of the over 300 books about Edgar Cayce that I just mentioned. Wonderful reading! I will take a minute or two and mention a few of my favorites.

There Is a River, by Thomas Sugrue, is the original Edgar Cayce biography, first published in 1943. It has now sold over a million copies.

The Lost Memoirs of Edgar Cayce, by A. Robert Smith, was pretty much written by Edgar himself, but Edgar’s soul was called home before the manuscript was completed and Robert Smith was asked to finish the manuscript. Robert had previously published a biography of Edgar’s eldest son, Hugh Lynn Cayce, titled Hugh Lynn Cayce: About My Father’s Business, and was Hugh Lynn’s obvious choice to complete his father’s memoirs.

Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation, by Noel Langley. I have established a second career writing reincarnation articles, and more recently novels, using the Edgar Cayce readings or my knowledge absorbed through studying Edgar’s 2500 life or reincarnation readings.

Edgar Cayce on Atlantis, by Edgar Evans Cayce, Edgar’s son. Interesting revelations! Atlantis is not a myth.

The Outer Limits of Edgar Cayce’s Power, written by Edgar Evans Cayce and Hugh Lynn Cayce, Edgar’s sons.

Launch Day for 5 Prince Publsihing Author- Doug Simpson

Do you know what your soul planned for you for this lifetime, before you were born?

Soul Connections

Book 4 of the Dacque Chronicles

Doug Simpson

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction/General/Christian/Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal/Ghost/Visionary & Metaphysical

Release Date: April 25, 2013

Digital ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-47-9 ISBN 10: 1-939217-47-4

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-48-6 ISBN 10: 1-939217-48-2

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

Soul Connections

Soul Connections describes the educational journey, guided by the spirit of a sudden murder victim, of a group of individuals through the process of investigating their inter-connected past lifetimes.  As well as the surprising discoveries uncovered through their past-life research, the spirit and soul of the murder victim educates its past relatives, from its previous lifetimes, in the knowledge retained by our souls after death, and in the ‘life’ of souls temporarily residing on the other side as they await their next incarnation.

 

Bio for Doug Simpson:

Doug Simpson is a retired high school teacher who has turned his talents to writing. His first novel, a spiritual mystery titled Soul Awakening, was published in the United States in October of 2011, by Booklocker. It was reissued in October of 2012 by 5 Prince Publishing as Soul Awakening, Book I of the Dacque Chronicles. For further details visit them at http://5princebooks.com/. It is available in print and eBook format through most bookstores around the world. Soul Rescue, Book II of the Dacque Chronicles was published in November of 2012, and Soul Mind, Book III of the Dacque Chronicles was published in January of 2013. His magazine and website articles have been published in 2010 to 2013 in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His articles can be accessed through his website at http://dousimp.mnsi.net.

Author Contact Info:

Website:  http://dousimp.mnsi.net

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/1DougSimpson   Or @1DougSimpson

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/doug.simpson.902

Email:  jesuscayce@yahoo.com

Blog:  http://doug-simpson-author.blogspot.com/

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6962771-doug-simpson

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/100241296410266842552/posts

Excerpt from Soul Connections:

Dacque inched his vehicle into the driveway at 77 Mayflower Crescent but did not disembark for a few long seconds. He had postponed this meeting for about as long as he could without creating the perception that he was deliberately avoiding it. Dacque felt sad, not so much at the thought of meeting Rosalie Westgate again per se, but due to the memory of the unanticipated and unfortunate events that had occurred in their lives over the previous four months. Out of our hands, he reminded himself.

In response to the chime of the doorbell, Rosalie Westgate opened the front door. “Good morning, Detective LaRose,” she cooed. “It is wonderful to see you again.”

“Thank you, Rosalie. It is nice to see you again as well. We do need to dispense with the detective reference, though. Now that the Rolland Jones murder case, currently classified as unsolved and considered as likely unsolvable, has been relegated to the backburner, my few weeks of playing volunteer detective will probably soon become no more than a fading memory. Please call me Dacque.”

“Come in, Dacque,” Rosalie said, smiling broadly at his description of his recent Good Samaritan adventure, and closed the door behind him. “Would you prefer to settle into the living room, or migrate to the kitchen table? The coffee pot is still warming.”

“The kitchen table is fine with me.”

Rosalie led Dacque down the hallway and into the kitchen. She was immaculately dressed and coiffured, and certainly did not look anywhere near her age, which Dacque assumed had to be middle forties based on the information gleaned from their earlier meetings and the story supplied by the spirit of the late Rolland Jones. At the kitchen table, Rosalie went to, and stood behind, the same chair that she had occupied on his last visit. Dacque noticed immediately that the chair opposite Rosalie’s apparently favorite spot was pulled out, as it had also been on that memorable visit when the assembled group awaited the imminent arrival of the spirit of Rolland Jones, formerly known as Johnny Abruzzi. “Is Rolland’s spirit joining us this morning?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Rosalie responded, “but I habitually pull out his chair in the morning when my husband and daughter have departed for the day, so Johnny can join me at the table whenever he decides to pop in for a visit. I consider it a sentimental gesture to him that his spirit is always welcome to pay me a visit.”

“Rosalie, I know he will always be Johnny to you, but I’m sure you realize that, except when you are alone or with someone like me who knows the entire story, you refer to him as Rolland. Rolland tried so very hard to preserve his new identity. As far as I know you and me, and Detective Jensen of course, are the only ones in the vicinity of the city of Anywhere who are aware of the entire story. I suspect that the details revealed by Rolland’s spirit, on our last get-together, never made it into the official police report. Can you imagine a police report starting out with, ‘The spirit of the late Rolland Jones told us that ...?’ ”

Rosalie laughed. “I had never really thought of it that way. I assure you that I will try very hard to refer to him as Rolland in our conversations, but as you are aware, Rolland is not the reason for our little get together this morning.”

“I know.”

“Please sit down, Dacque. Can I bring you a coffee before we get around to business?”

Dacque sat in the chair with his back to the hallway, as he had on his previous visit to Rosalie’s home with Detective Jensen. “No, thank you. I think I’m all coffeed-out for now.”

Rosalie settled into her chair. “Dacque, as you know, Rolland’s spirit mentioned to you on your last visit that I was interested in discovering some of my past lifetimes, like you and your friends have done. But, I have had lots of time to do a great deal more thinking on the subject since your last visit, and I am also interested in discovering or learning more about reincarnation, and what Rolland’s spirit referred to as soul justice, which I assume is similar to Karma. He did tell me on one of his other visits that we had shared four previous lifetimes together before this one, so of course I would like to discover those in particular. I would also like to learn how this soul-justice notion works. If Rolland’s murder was an example of the price he was required to pay for his misdeeds back nine hundred years ago as a soldier for Godefroi de Bouillon, then I, and the rest of the world, need to know how that works. Does that make sense?”

“Your understanding is very good, Rosalie. Soul justice is more commonly referred to as Karma, and it is certainly wise for the entire population to understand the ramifications. First, though, let’s talk about the reincarnation aspect. Rolland may have told you that there is a group here in the Anywhere area called the Reincarnation Enlightenment Group. We aren’t a large group by any means, but we obviously have the mutual desire to discover information from some of our past lifetimes.

“One of the founding members of the group is a licensed hypnotherapist, and she became interested in researching reincarnation many years ago when she realized that some of her hypnotised patients were apparently regressing back into previous lifetimes. To further her research, she will give Group members free past-life regression sessions, in her spare time. Membership is free, and members are requested to use an alias, so their identity is protected, as well as a unique email account which is used only for group communications, which keeps possible unscrupulous members away from our regular email accounts. I should add, in case you are concerned, that we have never experienced any unscrupulous activity, so it is just a little extra insurance.

“I had three past-life regression sessions with this lady, over three years ago now, and have discovered about a dozen past lifetimes. In a normal regression session individuals usually discover previous lifetimes which are significant to their current lifetime. I guess we can say that probably would have been the case with Rolland, if his deduction is correct and he paid the price for actions he carried out nine hundred years ago, but unfortunately he never got around to having his first regression session before he was murdered, so he never knew of his past deeds prior to his demise.

“Please do not get the idea that the past lives that we discover always reveal bad Karma, as that is definitely not the case. I am no expert, but I think more past lives are uncovered in order to continue relationships with significant people in our present lifetime, than to advise or warn us of bad Karma. It is quite possible that none of your four previous lives spent with the soul of Rolland, or Johnny, involved bad Karma, so do not commence this investigative journey with any preconceived ideas that your earlier associations with Johnny will necessarily involve negative Karma.

“I have never heard that our hypnotherapist friend has regressed individuals to specifically discover associations with other, pre-identified souls, but I do not see why it would be impossible. Because this lady is interested in research, the idea might be very appealing to her. I can assist you in joining the group and requesting your reincarnation regression session, and if you like I can ask the hypnotherapist if she is able to gear the sessions to discover past associations with specific souls?”

“That sounds wonderful. I would appreciate that very much. Where do we begin?”

“First, you need to select an alias. I use Streetwalker because I love to walk around the city most days. It is my principal exercise. Some of the other aliases that I am aware of include Clippers, Freethrow, Tackle, and Beanpole. The hypnotherapist goes by Eyeonthepast, but we often shorten it to Eye. I have known her now for almost seven years, but do not know her real name.”

“How does Newyorkgal sound?”

“Wonderful. I don’t think anyone has that one. Now you need a new email account.”

“I actually have an old email account that I never use anymore. Will that work?”

“That’s fine, as long as it is active?”

“It is.”

“If you trust me and write it down for me, I can send an email, with your information, off to Eyeonthepast when I get home, and recommend that you be accepted for membership in the Group. If you are recommended by a Group member in good standing, then you are allowed to book a regression session before first going to a Group meeting, which only convene bi-monthly.”

Rosalie stood up and removed a pad from a kitchen drawer near the sink, then wrote something on it. “There you are,” she said, as she handed the paper to Dacque and sat back down.

“Thank you. You should receive a reply in a day or two, so keep checking the email account. Now, scheduling your regression sessions could present a problem we should discuss today. Eye normally holds her free sessions on Saturday mornings and afternoons, and Sunday afternoons, but has held some in the evenings when necessary. She also does not normally allow witnesses, as she regards our past-life information as confidential. She does make a CD recording of each of our revealed past lives, but she gives these to us at the conclusion of the session and does not retain a copy. To conceal her identity, she does not hold the sessions in her office, so you will need to figure out an appropriate location, in those time slots, with no witnesses.”

“That is not going to be an easy one, I’m afraid.”

“I live in an apartment complex, and some of my friends have used my place for their sessions when they wished to protect their identity. If it is any help to you, you are welcome to hold your sessions at my place, and I will disappear on one of my daily walks?”

“You would do that for me? You hardly know me!”

“True, but the spirit of Rolland Jones seems to trust you, now, and that is plenty good enough for me.”

“Thank you. That is nice to hear. Let me think about this unanticipated wrinkle for a while.”

Dacque removed a card from his wallet and handed it to Rosalie, as he stood up. “If you need to talk to me, you can find me.”

“Thank you,” Rosalie said, and walked Dacque to the front door.

Launch Day for Doug Simpson

Launch Day!

Soul Mind

By

Doug Simpson

            

Available from 5 Prince Publishing www.5princebooks.com  books@5princebooks.com

Genre: Fiction/General/Christian/Fantasy/Romance/Paranormal/Ghost/Visionary & Metaphysical

Release Date: January 10, 2013

Digital ISBN ISBN 13:978-1-939217-26-4 10:1939217261

Print ISBN ISBN 13: 978-1-9-939217-27-1  10:193921727x

Purchase link : www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

Soul Mind

Dacque LaRose, a genuine good-guy and Good Samaritan, was accustomed to being visited by and communicating with disembodied spirits as he carried out his occasional assignments received from the Heavenly Powers. His latest spirit visit went miles beyond anything he would have ever imagined. The spirit of a former acquaintance and recent murder victim joined Dacque one morning on his favorite park bench and asked him to assist in solving his murder as the local authorities were getting nowhere, through no fault of their own but due to a lack of any substantial evidence in the case.

Dacque had absolutely no idea how he could be of assistance in solving a murder, but he was accustomed to receiving his Heavenly assignments one installment at a time so he knew the steps he would be expected to follow would appear in due course.

Dacque’s new assignment proved exciting and educational as the spirit of the murdered acquaintance gladly explained to Dacque and his detective friend the inner workings of the Soul Mind or subconscious mind.

Bio for Doug Simpson:

Doug Simpson is a retired high school teacher who has turned his talents to writing. His first novel, a spiritual mystery titled Soul Awakening, was published in the United States in October of 2011, by Book Locker. His magazine and website articles have been published in 2010 to 2012 in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His articles can be accessed through his website at http://dousimp.mnsi.net.

 

Author Contact Info:

Website - http://dousimp.mnsi.net.

Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/1DougSimpson

https://www.facebook.com/doug.simpson.902

jesuscayce@yahoo.com

Excerpt from Soul Mind:

Dacque LaRose exited from the 7^th Street Apartment Complex, on the chilly Monday morning in January, and walked north on 7^th Street. He preferred to take morning walks, as often as he could, unless there was a specific reason to alter this routine, such as accommodating the schedule of a walking companion. On the days that he walked alone, and had no urgent errands to attend to, in order to spice-up his morning journeys he developed a routine where he alternated his starting direction between north and south. Walking east and west were not options, at least when he left his apartment complex. Sunday morning had been a south day, making Monday a north day.

      Part two of Dacque’s walking regimen incorporated his desire to walk continuously, as in without stopping, on his outward journey. To achieve this in the small, southern city of Anywhere, he allowed the street lights and stop signs to direct his destinations. If he faced a red light, he went left or right. A stop sign gave him the third option of continuing ahead, if traffic permitted. There were days when he stubbornly circled the same block a time or two, before he was able to eventually escape through a green light, but he achieved his goal of not stopping.

      On this chilly Monday morning Dacque encountered his first red light at Olive Avenue, so he crossed 7^th on the green and continued west along Olive until he was faced with a another red light at 10^th Street. He chose to cross Olive on the green light and go north again, but before he was half way across the light turned yellow. Dacque hot-footed it to the curb, and then crossed 10^th Street on the green light. He loved it when the traffic signals led him into this section of the city. By choice, Dacque turned north and walked along the west side of 10^th street, catching a green light at Lime Avenue. One of the most beautiful spots in the city of Anywhere, in his opinion anyway, was MacDunnah Park, located at the corner of 10^th Street and Lime Avenue. Dacque entered the park at the south-east corner and took the East Path north to the Central Path, where he caught the Central Circle Path.

      The Central Circle Path, as its name implied, circled the center of the Park where many park benches and the most-beautiful flower gardens were located, at least in the seasons when they were in bloom. Dacque stopped, not because he was tired, but because he came upon what he and Dani Christian, a good friend and sometimes walking partner, referred to as ‘our bench,’ as it was on this bench that they had first met almost a year earlier when he was directed by the little voice he sometimes heard in his ear from the other side, or one of God’s messengers as he liked to believe. Now, whenever Dacque or Dani, together or alone, passed by ‘our bench,’ they always stopped and sat for a few minutes in silent meditation. There is a story that goes with this routine, obviously, but it will keep for another day.

      After a five to ten minute period of silent meditation on ‘our bench,’ Dacque opened his eyes and his heart skipped more than a beat when he saw Rolland Jones sitting on the other end of the bench. What made this event so startling was the fact that Rolland Jones had died two months previously as the result of a swift blow to the head from an old tire iron wielded by a yet unidentified servant of the Devil. Dacque caught his breath and regained his composure, in rather short order. This was not the first time that he had encountered a departed spirit, which made the initial shock easier to neutralize. “Hello, Rolland,” Dacque said, “I am truly pleased to see you again.”

      “Hello, Dacque,” Rolland’s spirit responded. “It looks like you won the ‘survival of the soul’ debate we were involved in a few months ago.”

      Dacque could not refrain from laughing no matter how hard he tried. “I am sorry about that, but it was impossible to stifle it. I am sure you know that I truly wish I could have won the debate in some way other than this way, believe me.”

      “Don’t feel too bad,” Rolland’s spirit replied. “I know, now, that it was simply my time to go. Karma can be a bugger, sometimes. Please tell Daphne that you saw me, and that I want her to get on with her life as best she can. Our time together is over, at least in her current lifetime, but I suspect that our souls will decide to incarnate together again in the future as we apparently have some unresolved issues to deal with. She was the determined believer in reincarnation, as you know perfectly well, so I suspect that she will be delighted to hear that I am still around, so to speak.”

      “I will do that,” Dacque assured him.

      “I dropped in to visit you today, to ask for your assistance in finding my murderer. The police are getting nowhere with the case, at least at this point in time. It’s not really their fault. The culprit who clobbered me with the tire iron did not leave them a lot of useful clues. The police may be barking up all of the wrong trees. That’s where you come in.”

      “What would you like me to do?”

      “Time will answer that for us. For starters though, will you see if you can come up with a connection or contact to the police investigation? We both understand that you cannot just walk into the cop-shop and tell them that the departed spirit of the victim told you who the probable murderer was, so we will need to work on this one step at a time.”

      “Your logic is good. I’m not acquainted with any of the local police officers, but I do know a couple of people who might have some connections. Let me work on it and see if I can locate your contact for you,” Dacque replied. “I suspect that you realize that many people are unable to see spirits. For some reason, God has seen fit to bless me with the ability to see and communicate with spirits, but I would guess that I am part of a rather small minority there. Do you have any knowledge, now that you are in spirit form again, whether our police contact will be able to see and communicate with you, or will you expect me to be your go-between with this contact person throughout the investigative process?”

      “As you obviously know, Dacque, I am rather new to the spirit world on this go-around, but I do have the priceless benefit of my soul memory from all of my past experiences in your world as well as here in the spirit world. Apparently the level of soul development of each human’s soul determines their abilities to communicate with us on this side. I am probably not telling you anything that you are not already aware of as I knew from our conversations, while in body, that your soul was developed sufficiently to be able to see and talk to us. So, to answer your question, the soul development of our contact will be the primary determinant as to whether this individual will be able to communicate with me directly, or whether we will require you to be our translator or go-between.”

      “I understand completely,” Dacque assured Rolland’s spirit. “Is there anything else that I should be aware of at this time?”

      “I don’t think so, but I am still slowly getting used to existing in spirit form again, and I am not certain if I have reacquired my entire spiritual abilities earned through previous experiences. I know my soul memory seems to be complete, but my soul reasoning may be a little out of practice. I’ll keep in touch,” the spirit of Rolland Jones, replied, and then disappeared.

12 days of Christmas Guests: Day 3 Doug Simpson

I'm pleased to have 5 Prince Publishing author Doug Simpson with me today sharing his holiday story with us.  Remember to leave  a comment below for your chance to win an eBook  version of Doug's book Soul Awakening as well as some Shelf Swag from Bernadette Marie!

Reinventing Christmas

This is a Christmas story because our family cerebrates Christmas, but the deeper message being conveyed here has nothing to do with Christmas and applies to all of you who enjoy family get-togethers of any kind.

What is the most exasperating part of important family get-togethers, other than the necessity of inviting relatives you would rather not invite? Fortunately, very very fortunately, we do not have that latter problem.

My wife and I love to host big family dinners such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, but as the number of generations increased it seemed we could never find an appropriate time or day when we could get everyone together. That was when my delightfully-inventive wife decided to reinvent Christmas.

I know many of you, even in small families, have close relatives all over the country, or world for that matter. That certainly makes it more difficult to gather them all together around one table, but once again, that is not our problem. All of our children and grandchildren live within easy driving distance of our home. Our problem for many years was conflicting dinners. It was difficult enough getting everyone together when our children began acquiring spouses, but an exponential nightmare when the grandchildren acquired significant others. That is when ever-inventive wife took charge.

She carefully analyzed the situation, which she is very good at I must add, and concluded that around ten o’clock in the morning there were a minimum of conflicts with other competing gatherings. That is when Christmas Breakfast was born.

Early Christmas morning the younger grandchildren are busy investigating their new gifts and the older grandchildren have no desire to vacate their warm beds. Some families have Christmas dinners at noon, others at mid-afternoon, and others still around five or six in the evening. Nobody competes for our ten-in-the-morning time slot. Whoopee!

Okay, so what does a Simpson-clan Christmas breakfast resemble? Try and picture New York City rush hour without vehicles and you have a pretty close idea. We live in a townhouse, a long narrow town house. Fortunately the only thing that divides the dining room and living room is a sofa, which gets moved over along one wall. Our dining-room table, with insert, seats six comfortably. We needed some make-shift tables so we sawed a four by eight sheet of plywood, long ways, added folding legs, and threw some Christmas table cloths on them. The three tables, end to end, give us a twenty-two foot, mess-hall Christmas table that can seat twenty-two hungry celebrants. The most we have served to-date is eighteen.

How do we feed eighteen hungry people with an entirely home-cooked Christmas breakfast? It took us a year or two to get the process efficiently fine-tuned, but we got there. Our youngest son is in charge of the four-burner stove top and cooks eggs, pancakes and French toast to order. My wife precooks bacon, sausage and home fries ahead and warms them up in the oven. She also prepares fresh-fruit trays ahead and has them waiting in the refrigerator. Someone mans the toaster. Coffee is perked. I transport drinks on demand. No one trusts my cooking!

The youngest grandchildren are served first. Get them on a chair and collisions are minimized. After that, individual orders are accepted for eggs, pancakes, and French toast. With four burners on-the-go, it does not take that long to get everyone seated and eating together. As they take their plates to the table from the kitchen, they give me their drink requests and I deliver. Minimizes traffic jams.

When no one can put-away another bite, we dismantle the two temporary tables, return them and some of the rented folding chairs to the garage, and get ready for the opening of Christmas presents, which has evolved as we grew in numbers to primarily by the grandchildren. For them, this is their second Christmas, and when they move on to another location later for Christmas dinner they will likely enjoy a third Christmas.

Everyone eagerly awaits the conclusion of the children’s Christmas because it is followed by what we coined as the dirty-bingo gift unwrapping. My wife got the idea from a ladies party she attended years earlier, and fine-tuned it to suit our multi-age celebration. My wife and I buy twenty to twenty-five dollar-store gifts for all ages and both sexes, and wrap them up. Numbers are placed in a container and one of the grandchildren circulates through the congregation so everyone gets a number.

The wrapped gifts are spread out on the dining-room table, and starting with number one and progressing to eighteen or however many are present, each person selects a wrapped gift. Gifts are only opened after everyone has theirs in hand. Many individuals have no use for their gifts, and families can work as units. We then have a second round of number selections. The extra gifts on the table are also unwrapped. Starting with number one, each person has the opportunity to exchange their gift for one possessed by another, or an extra one remaining on the table. This round continues up to number eighteen or the last number. This individual has won the lottery. No one is left to come along and scoop his or her choice. The most desired gifts often are exchanged five or six times, and gifts can be traded by agreement.

With the conclusion of round two, some holders of the lower numbers are stuck with unwanted items so they have the opportunity to exchange their unwanted item for an unclaimed one on the table, so in the end after exchanges and trades within and outside families, most everyone is reasonably satisfied. The extra gifts remaining on the table can be picked up by anyone who would like them. Lots of fun and laughter over twenty-five items worth not much more than fifty dollars in total.

By this time the hour is approaching for the individuals who have a scheduled noon-hour Christmas dinner to attend, to be packing up and on their way. Others may linger and enjoy the company of their relatives for many more hours, helping with the clean-up process. The dishwasher gets run twice on these occasions. If there is anyone who has no Christmas dinner to attend later, my wife covers that base by cooking a small turkey.

Eventually, the house is quiet and back to normal after a wonderful family get-together. She has coined a priceless expression for these special occasions when we can get the entire family together under one roof.

“We are creating memories!”

© Doug Simpson 2012.

Doug Simpson is a retired high school teacher who has turned his talents to writing. His first novel, a spiritual mystery titled Soul Awakening, was published in the United States in October of 2011, by Booklocker. It was reissued in October of 2012 by 5 Prince Publishing as Soul Awakening, Book I of the Dacque Chronicles. For further details visit them at http://5princebooks.com/. It is available in print and eBook format through most bookstores around the world. Soul Rescue, Book II of the Dacque Chronicles was published in November of 2012. His magazine and website articles have been published in 2010 to 2012 in Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His articles can be accessed through his website at http://dousimp.mnsi.net.