Archive for category: Blog

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Book 8 of the Souls On Board series will be coming out in February. Originally, the working title was Mask of Lies, but that’s been changed. It will now be titled “Capitol Gold.” Soon I will post two options for cover art for that book and would be interested in your vote. In preparation for that, let me explain the Japanese art of Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is both a philosophy and tradecraft. The latter involves repairing dishes using glue mixed with gold. Therefore, the fact that the dish was broken is very obvious in the finished work and cherished all the more.

Likewise, in real life, the Japanese believe the many harsh events in life that can break a person, can also refine a person. Those hardships are cherished as the hurdles that strengthened character and determination.

So, do I leave the Kintsugi streaks of gold in the cover art? You decide. Watch for my next post.

Keep up with the Souls on Board series – follow my blog and please share it with your friends. If you haven’t started the Souls On Board series, please visit one of the websites below to get started reading. Reviews are appreciated.

EgnerInk, Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords

Newspaper reporter: I understand you are strongly opposed to hypnosis.

Kit: Not for everyone. Just for myself and anyone else who is highly suggestible.

Newspaper reporter: What do you mean?

Kit: It’s my belief that you should always have yourself under control. The same would apply to the use of alcohol, or, heaven forbid, drugs.

Newspaper reporter: You sound as if you’re speaking from personal experience.

Kit: I once was in a large audience of people attending a performance of a magician/hynotist. You know the kind, where they ask for volunteers from the audience and under a trance, have them barking like dogs or quacking like ducks.

Newspaper reporter: And did you volunteer?

Kit: Absolutely not.

Newspaper reporter: I don’t understand. What happened, if you didn’t volunteer?

Kit: That’s just it, the same commands he gave to the participants on stage, affected me in the same way, and who knows how many others in the audience.

Newspaper reporter: So were you quacking like a duck?

Kit: Something like that. It lasted for days.

Newspaper reporter: Excuse me for laughing, but was that so bad?

Kit: It might not have been, but the hypnotist actually planted two levels of commands. One was a simple one that had me scratching my head whenever I heard certain words. That sounds laughable, I agree.

Newspaper reporter: But it wasn’t funny?

Kit: Far from it. The hypnotist also planted a second, deeper command that made me want to go somewhere, but I didn’t know where. It turns out, the answer would have come from a phone call, his phone call, telling me to go somewhere. I would have been completely out of my own control.

Newspaper reporter: Did you ever receive that phone call?

Kit: No, but others did, and if you’ve read the paper recently, it led to fatal results.

Keep up with the Souls on Board series – follow my blog and please share it with your friends. If you haven’t started the Souls On Board series, please visit one of the websites below to get started reading. Reviews are appreciated.

EgnerInk, Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords

In aviation, an IROP is similar to being groundstopped, meaning flights are cancelled or delayed due to weather, mechanical failure or crew logistics. Casey Click learns an IROP can be caused by local anomalies like moose obstructing runways or a cat escaping from its carrier on board the aircraft and dashing beneath the pilot’s pedals in the flight deck, causing a two-hour delay.

Or it can also be caused by something dark.

Keep up with the Souls on Board series – follow my blog and please share it with your friends. If you haven’t started the Souls On Board series, please visit one of the websites below to get started reading. Reviews are appreciated.

EgnerINK, Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords

I saw this image on the Internet and thought it perfectly captured the horror of human trafficking through air transportation. I’d love to give credit to the artist who created it.

Following is a letter I received from the founder of She Is Safe (SIS)

A colleague of mine met Susan Egner in her role as an airline flight attendant. Intrigued upon learning that she is also a published author (as she shared an overview of her latest mystery novel), he became convinced that we should become acquainted.

She Is Safe (SIS) is a Christian non-profit organization that I founded in 2002. We work to prevent, rescue, and restore women and girls from suffering abuse and exploitation in high-risk and least-reached places around the globe. This is accomplished by collaborating with local initiatives of education, economic empowerment, anti-trafficking, and advocacy.

Flight into Oblivion immediately impressed me because of its clear focus on the trafficking of women and girls. Sadly, 80% of all transnational victims are females. This book focuses on their plight as they encounter all forms of exploitation and slavery at the hands of those who profit from the trade. This is not simply another mystery novel: As Egner makes clear on her website, her characters face challenges and often undergo personal transformation as they confront issues in contemporary society. Her stories are about ordinary women and girls who are forced to face some of life’s most adverse circumstances. Egner takes readers on a dark journey where we lean forward to see if the paths of these women and girls will lead to individual freedom and personal empowerment.

Flight into Oblivion represents to me a nascent awareness in popular fiction of the scourge of human trafficking we face in the United States and around the world. I join with Susan in the belief that raising the level of awareness among people in all segments of society is important if we are to achieve our common goal of defeating those who would rob others of their dignity and freedom.

And it is brilliant that the title, Flight into Oblivion, tells the story in a nutshell: Girls and women are often transported on commercial airlines through major transportation hubs. We pass them in the terminals; we sit with them—and their captors—on the planes; we see nothing. The book cover depicts a passenger plane vanishing—into oblivion—just as the young girls and women who disappear right before the eyes of those of us who are unaware. This is a compelling mystery that unveils the wretched underbelly of human trafficking, that helps us to see as we’ve never seen before, and that makes us aware of events taking place right before our eyes. We are not likely to see things in the same way again!

Michele M. Rickett

President/Founder 

She Is Safe

If you haven’t started the Souls on Board series, please visit our website at www.EgnerINK.com or any of the following sites for these and more books by Susan Egner.

Amazon, BN.com, Smashwords