Stories

Here’s some exciting news: M.J.’s upcoming new novel, THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES, just got Indie Next Pick for March! It also received a starred and boxed PW review – to celebrate, M.J. is offering something very intriguing to her readers. The details are below…

But first, The Story straight from M.J.:

Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, was fascinated with and some say obsessed by scent. Marc Anthony built her a fragrance factory and the famous queen was said to have kept a recipe book for her perfumes, entitled Cleopatra gynaeciarum libri. That book has been described in writings by historians Dioscorides, Homer and Pliny the Elder.

No known copy of the book exists today.

That missing book stirred my imagination and became the seed for THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES. While writing, to remain in the world of the novel, I burned incense and my favorite candles – those created by Frederick Boucharday. When the novel was finished I searched out Boucharday to give him a copy of the yet to be published novel.

Boucharday was intstantly intrugued by THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES. First, as a reader, he said he was taken with the mystery and romance of the story. In my tale scent plays a strong role when it comes to ones memory. Boucharday, who creates using oils and classic ingredients, said that it spoke to him as a perfumer.

The ancient fictional fragrance at the heart of my novel is called, Âmes Sœurs, which means “Soul Mates” in French. Inspired by the book, Boucharday has brought the scent to life with his version of Âmes Sœurs , the scent of soul mates. Âmes Sœurs hints of Frankincense, Myrrh, Orange Blossom and Jasmine. It’s smoky uncommon finish suggests the past and the future, and lost souls reunited.

In what I hope will be a perfect combination of fragrance, fact and fiction, Boucharday and I have brought both perfume and storytelling to a new place.

We’d like to give our readers a sample of Âmes Sœurs, the scent of soul mates, the exclusive, mystical fragrance, inspired by THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (coming in March). Publishers Weekly has called the book a “deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense…”

So…

For every one of you that pre-orders THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES using the instructions below, we will send a sample of Âmes Sœurs. This is a mesmerizing read, a provocative fragrance, a unique collaboration and something special for you.

How does it work?

1. Just click on the preferred website and pre-order THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES from the links below.

2. Email the receipt or a scan of it to [email protected] along with your name and your snail mail address for fragrance delivery.

Your sample of Âmes Sœurs will be shipped to you on or before March 13th. The book will arrive separately, from the store of your choice, at the same time so you can enjoy both together.

Barnes & Noble

Your favorite Independent Bookstore

Books A Million

*Offer ends March 1st, is limited numbers of supplies available and only to readers in the US and Canada.

Here are some of the excellent reviews we mentioned! -

“Rose’s deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance. Rose imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred and Boxed Review

“A simmering brew that mingles the erotic sensuality of Patrick Suskind’s Perfume with the dark and timeless obsessions of Rider Haggard’s classic, She.” —New York Times bestselling author Katherine Neville

“One of those rare novels that reminds us of the beauty and enormous complexity of the human soul. This novel is a marvelous discovery.” —Bestseller, Javier Sierra

“Resonates with spirit, blending myth with reality, tragedy with triumph, pain with joy. You’ll find yourself questioning everything you believe—and wanting more.” —New York Times bestselling author Steve Berry

“Clever, with beguiling characters; a wonderful mixture of suspense and pace and good old fashioned storytelling.”—New York Times Bestseller, Kate Mosse

Continuing our Crystal Skulls Series, I am pleased to offer a guest post from Lily L. Diamond, healer, intuitive, and the magnificent blogstress at .

(For our introduction to this series click here to go back a few weeks.)

11:11:11 and My Crystal Skull Journey

by Lily L. Diamond

Part I

For several years now, I’ve been seeing 11:11 many places. I glance at the clock, 11:11. I receive an email and notice it was sent at 11:11. I send an email at 11:11. At the checkout stand at the grocery store the cashier says, $11.11. And to be honest, I get other married number sequences too — 4:44, 5:55, 2:22, 3:33, 1:01, 2:02, 6:06, and so on. But, as you know, it’s the Eleven Eleven Eleven date that’s received all the attention. being part of the Mayan calendar prediction of the world shift coming in 2012. Yes, the universe conspired to place me at the 11:11:11 Crystal Skull Conference and Mayan Elder Gathering in Los Angeles.

A few months ago, I made a visit to one of the world’s most beloved metaphysical bookstores, the Bodhi Tree Bookstore, which opened in 1970, and will be closing within the next year or so. The new tarot card section was calling to me. Out of all the decks, wrapped in their shiny plastic, a single box, with a tiny “used” label caught my eye, the Crystal Skull Message Cards. One of the first cards I chose was: 11:11 Transformation – “Many lightworkers believe that the 11:11 is a pre-preprogramed wakeup call from ancient times, such as Atlantis, in order to help us activate our energy awareness, inner knowledge and healing abilities….Watch out for 11:11, it can appear on clocks, microwaves, receipts and just about anywhere you might see numbers. An amazing spiritual shift is about to happen!” Okay! I took those cards home and began using them on a daily basis, integrating them into my morning oracle sessions, to become acquainted with them. Many times when I asked about my Green Mother Medicine essence, the cards, Earth and Nature came up. The Earth card has a comment that shamans were often buried alive in the earth, which is one of my past life memories, so I definitely got a cosmic wink along with the obvious match of Earth being part of Green Mother Medicine. The Nature card says, “Show appreciation for the plant kingdom.” That made me smile, as in addition to being an herbalist and an avid gardener, I’ve been blessing seeds and seed balls, water and earth as part of my Green Mother Medicine gatherings. And when I asked about an upcoming trip to Hawaii, the message card was Abundance Island. I was so blown away by the cards, He completely agreed with me that The Crystal Skull Cards have such useful commentaries for our current cosmic climate shift.

I asked the cards for a message for the readers of this blog. The messenger card is The Blue Skull. “I come to you with messages of unity, peace and harmony, of building a collective consciousness of oneness for your Blue Planet. For each one of you that becomes awakened and enlightened an extra piece of The Blue Skull can be put into place. Pull together to be together. Open your eyes to to all that’s around you. Blue is the color of vast oceans, of the sky and of healing and communication. If you continue to spread your light and speak your truth, walk your path and communicate with healing, then all the oceans stand a chance of being blue again. Look after your world dear ones, keep following the way of light and love and one day soon you will understand what it means to truly live on, in and with this, your amazing ‘Blue Planet.’ The skull in this card speaks of what many call Ascension or spiritual and planetary evolution. If he comes to you today, know that you are ‘part’ of the oneness.”

The cards originate from White Elk Woman who tells her own story about them at her website.

In searching for a way to purchase more cards, I signed up for a newsletter where I read about the Crystal Skull and Mayan Elder Event for 11:11:11 in Los Angeles. I contacted Kendall Morgan who coordinated Crystal Skull events for 9:9:9, 10:10:10 and is working now on 12:12:12. I offered to volunteer for the conference, it felt like the perfect thing to do. And, indeed, it was a perfect thing to do and a perfect place to be.

To be continued…

Meanwhile, you can learn many, many, many things about the crystal skulls at the Oracle Stone Productions website .

The Bodhi Tree Bookstore website is here.

About Lily:

Lily L. Diamond is a healer, dreamer, intuitive, singer, musician/composer, writer, ritualist and teacher. Lily offers individual and group sessions for self-empowerment. For information on Lily’s highly recommended intuitive readings please email her at greenmothermedicine (at) gmail (dot) com with the subject line “Green Mother Medicine Readings/Healings” – I’ve experienced one of Lily’s remote/telephone sessions and it was profoundly insightful and relaxing.

Green Mother Medicine Facebook page:

Subscribe by RSS feed to the blog, here.

I was one of the lucky few who received a preview copy of M.J.’s new novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES due out in March of the new year – I drank in every word and luxuriated in the sensual storytelling that M.J. has by now completely perfected. In keeping with her themes of reincarnation and past lives, M.J. continues to explore the concept of “memory tools” for recalling former lifetimes. (It makes for incredibly fun reading across multiple centuries.) Remembering is something we all tend to do at the end of the year, around this time, as we simultaneously strive to envision a prosperous and happy year ahead. And remembering, or rather memory itself, may be something that is more universal and mysteriously meaningful than we ever thought possible. Consider the possibility that water may actually have memory. Could water be the ultimate memory tool?

Scientists investigate water memory

New research from the Aerospace Institute of the University of Stuttgart in Germany supports the theory that water has a memory—a claim that could change our whole way of looking at the world.

More about The Book of Lost Fragrances:

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years. Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

Welcome 2012! Happy New Year Everyone! May we have peace on earth and goodwill towards all.

Happy Holidays Readers!

Here is a gem from M.J.’s most recent newsletter (you can sign up for the newsletter on the blog, see the sidebar, or click here.)

What’s your favorite book you’ve received as a gift, and why?

Here’s M.J.’s -

The Best Book I Ever Got:

I’m Jewish but we celebrated Christmas growing up. My dad was in the toy business, and to a man in the toy business, December 25th is a holy day no matter who you pray to the rest of the year.

Imagine: it’s Christmas and your dad is the EVP at one of the top three toy companies in New York City. Imagine the sight under the tree. Nah . . . double that. Practically all of FAO Schwarz was under our tree (the tree, by the way, was five feet tall, plastic, pink and decorated with pink and silver ornaments.)

We had a rule in our house: no matter what time my sister and I woke up on December 25th, we couldn’t wake up our parents until 6 a.m. And then, painfully, excruciatingly, agonizingly, we had to wait until my mother made coffee and my sister and I each drank down a full glass of orange juice before we could start opening presents.

And then it was a wild free for all.

When the dust and the ribbons and the wrappings settled, no matter how many Barbies and Barbie clothes and doll houses and stuffed animals and games there were under that fashion tree, my favorite presents were the books.

To this day I still have almost all those books and none of the toys, and my favorite is ELOISE AT CHRISTMASTIME. Every year on December 25, at some point during the day, I pull it out and read it again.

Of all the characters, in all the books I had, I related to Eloise the most. She lived in the Plaza Hotel on 59th and Fifth — only twelve blocks away from where we lived. I got into same kinds of trouble she got into. She had a turtle. I had a turtle. My school uniform was a carbon copy of what she wore. My hair was just like hers: stringy and messy. And she was always with her nanny, never her parents, because they were always away. While my mom was there, my father wasn’t around as much as I wished he was.

Part of that toy business job required him to travel constantly, and I missed him so very much so very often. Somehow, because of that, there was a special bond between us, and every year at Christmas he gave me something special — something just from him to me. This is one of the reasons ELOISE AT CHRISTMASTIME is such a special book to me.

On the first page, the illustrious Hilary Knight drew Eloise holding up a giant-sized wrapped gift with an overly large gift card tied to it. On the card are spaces for the giver of the book to fill in the appropriate inscriptions.

My copy says: To Melisse With Love From Daddy.

We don’t have the pink tree anymore, but every year I give my father a copy of my latest book hoping it means as much to him as my copy of ELOISE AT CHRISTMASTIME still means to me.

And I always write To Daddy With Love from Melisse.

(By M.J. Rose)

Note from the editor: My five-year-old is a big fan of this book too, we read it every Christmastime.

Even with concrete evidence still out of reach, listening to astronaut Edgar Mitchell speak about his certainty that extraterrestrials have indeed visited our planet, is utterly intriguing…

Ah, we simply cannot get enough of this “Forbidden Archeology” material! Enjoy…

It’s Indiana Jones meets The X-Files in this intriguing program that tackles the age-old question “Where did we come from?” Fascinating viewing! Highly recommended! – Michael Rogers, “Library Journal”

Narrated by Charlton Heston:

Thank you to author Diana Formisano Willett for her guest post about the existence of spirits as related in her new book YOU CAN’T CONTROL THE SOUL.

Enjoy!

Diana Formisano Willett was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Bernard Baruch College of the City University of New York and received a degree in Business Administration. She received her degree in 1974. Diana moved to Connecticut in the year 1978 when she married to Brad Willett who was a business owner in West Haven, CT. Diana now resides in East Haven, CT and has been working at Yale-New Haven Hospital for the past 29 years in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology. Diana has one son. Diana has written a book entitled “” and she is currently working on her second book entitled “Paranormal Fright”.

Guest Post:

“My book “” finally proves the existence of spirits and the fact that the soul does continue after death. The soul never dies! After the death of my husband Brad there have been strange occurrences in my home. These apparitions, orbs and spirits have continued to come and go pressing me to write this book and continue informing everyone by writing a second book. I have witnessed a spinning vortex in my living room. In this vortex was a face of my husband along with another entity.

I have mailed this DVD to the North Shore Paranormal Society and they feel this DVD depicts a spinning portal to the other dimension. This proves the fact that spirits enter this dimension through a portal.

We have all lived before. This earth is our mortal existence. The soul never dies and continues after physical death. My second book will also talk about the Bermuda Triangle and how these portals from the other world my have something to do with unexplained disappearances of people, planes and ships in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle.

As a little girl, I was saved from drowning my a hand pulling me up from the water. You can read about this in my first book. I feel I have some type of connection with the after-life based on this experience.”

My friend Lily over at the fantastic blog has shared a remarkable story with her readers, and I’d like to pass it along to you…

“We are all angels in each other’s eyes.”

From the blog -

“Every month I go to The Blue Flag Dare’ where we gather on behalf of all living beings for healing and harmony. We have a council circle, held with the idea that solutions to what we are facing personally, in our local communities and globally require the participation and perspective of all. So, a “question” is posed, which in not meant to have an “answer” but rather is a touchstone for discussion. People are asked to speak from the heart and to tell a story from their lives that relates.

Sunday’s question was to address the ways in which Beggars Appearing as Angels which is part of so many spiritual traditions has appeared in your life…”

Read the complete story .

About :

Living “in the story” of the transformation of our world from a place where we have a choice to be in denial that all things have consciousness and worthiness into living in a world where there is reverence, gratitude and awe for THE WEB OF LIFE and an understanding that we are part of it.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a treasure trove of mysterious things. Here’s an example of one of their many free teleseminars:

“Can mediums talk to the dead? Can you? Why should we care?” with Julie Beischel

Visionary: Julie Beischel, PhD

Dean Radin hosts this discussion with Dr. Julie Beischel, who performs rigorously controlled research investigating the accuracy of the information mediums report and systematic studies of their experiences during ostensible communication with the deceased. But are they really talking to the dead? Dr. Beischel discusses what she has found during her research with mediums and the importance of those findings for each of us.

You may listen to the talk here, as well as download the mp3.

This post was written by Emily, co-editor of the blog.

Here is a very interesting presentation by author Annie Jacobsen who visited Google’s Santa Monica office on July 19, 2011 to discuss her book “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base.” This talk took place as part of the Authors@Google series.

Thanks goes to LiveWriters for this link.