POSSESSED OR CRAZY? YOU DECIDE — by Jade Lee / Kathy Lyons

I play with my heroes. I play with them, torture them, gab with them, and yes, I even do naughty things with them. Seriously.

Now I’ll bet you’re picturing me at a cafe, drinking coffee, and IMAGINING doing all that stuff with my heroes. I mean, that’s what normal people do, right? At least the ones who aren’t taken off the street by cops and medicated in psych wards. Yeah, I wish I could say that’s exactly what I do.

Nope. I’m actually one of those people who ought to be locked up in a psych ward and medicated. (Gee, I hope no cops are reading this blog) I talk to my heroes. Out loud. I’ve held out my hand and felt them grip it, gently by some, rather roughly by others. And yes, it’s real enough to me that I feel it. I’ve even slugged my husband in bed when I thought I was fighting vampires with one hero. No joke.

I won’t talk about the other stuff I do in the privacy of my bedroom. But yes, it’s pretty damn real to me there too.

And lest you think I’ve got a REALLY VIVID imagination…well, I do. But see, my heroes surprise me. Even when I tell them, now you need to do this, they often don’t. They go off and do something that is uniquely them and something I would never ever think of.

I’ll bet you’ve heard other writers say that. Well, I have too, and I used to think it was total BS. But then I started writing and meditating. That’s when everything changed. Now my heroes aren’t just character sheets that THINK up. No, I’ll get into a meditative place and they SHOW up. Seriously. Like ghosts or schizophrenic demons. And I…well, you already know the things I do with them.

Why am I not locked up? Because I’m a clever nutcase and have used my madness to write books. But make no mistake, my heroes are real live entities. Most people just picture something in their head. Their imaginations do not typically engage all five senses. Nor do their creations go off and do its own thing. Yes, I’m terribly sick. But thank God I can write, because otherwise I’d be babbling to myself in a psych ward. So who showed up in my life the other day? His name is Kit Frazier and he was horribly disdainful of a bad pirate I was reading. You know the kind, the yo-ho-ho kind that was a bad cartoon of Jack Sparrow? Kit just sighed and invited me to talk to him. But he didn’t want to talk about what it was like to be a pirate. He wanted to tell me what happened when he tried to go home. Everyone expected him to be Mr. Fun like he used to be, but he wasn’t that guy anymore. And he wasn’t Mr. Vicious Pirate nor Mr. Normal Sea Captain because he couldn’t find NORMAL anymore.

OMG, I was in love. I hung out with Kit Frazier at the bank, in the car, and when I was cooking dinner. He made a trip to the dentist fun. As a regency era man, he didn’t have access to PTSD therapy. He had to find his own solutions, and I was his miracle. I walked him back into the ballroom, I helped him confront his nemesis, and laughed with him when the painful turned ridiculous. And I soothed his aches at night. You think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. I’m actually jealous of Maddy (his heroine) because he’s all MINE! Seriously, he’s that real to me. (Wicked Seduction by Jade Lee. Here’s a link to the excerpt, trailer, and buy links.)

In fact, he’s so real that my wicked former pirate actually came to blows with my hero of In Good Hands by Kathy Lyons. Yes, they squared off over me. Roger’s an executive with high blood pressure. He’s more likely to market chart me out of my clothing than fight hand to hand with a pirate, but he’s definitely a contemporary warrior in the consumer jungle. When I realized how desperate he was to solve his blood pressure woes, I had to fix him. Through medicine, weird energy healing, and some really hot sex. And when I’m with him in the robotics lab, everything else fades away. (Roger finds his cure through Harlequin Blaze, In Good Hands by Kathy Lyons. Here’s the link to excerpt and buy links.)

So here’s my question to you. Do you think this is a clinical madness? Really, does anyone else know someone who really physically experiences their imagination? I’ve talked with other authors, and yes they do to a point, but not as far as I take it. I feel like I’m channeling my heroes. So maybe I’m not crazy, I’m just possessed.

About Jade Lee

Jade Lee has broken new ground in multi-cultural romance. Her China-set historical romances are a first in genre history. Her six-book Tigress series stirred reader passions for foreign settings, and her fantasy romances continue to be ground-breaking. Where did she get such innovative ideas? From a mixed cultural heritage that brings unique vision to her fiction.

As the daughter of a Shanghai native and a staunch Indiana Hoosier, Jade Lee struggled to find her own identity somewhere between America and China. Her search has taken her throughout Asian and the United States. In the end, the answer was found not only at home, but in her own head. Her imagination allows her to explore China in her Tigress series, dragon power in her fantasy romance Dragonborn, and of course, the amazing power of love in all of them.

A USA Today bestseller, Jade “Lee has made her mark with sizzling romances whose unique settings, intriguing backdrops and exotic characters lure you into worlds where heaven is reached through the highest meeting of mind and body. It’s a world at once mysterious and erotic, secret and mind-expanding.” (Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Cornered Tigress)

Jade’s also a popular speaker appearing all over the country throughout the year. Her other joys include playing racquetball, rollerblading with a very large golden retriever, and watching her two daughters play volleyball. She loves getting mail from readers, so please e-mail her at jade@jadeleeauthor.com. Or visit her on the web at www.jadeleeauthor.com.