Vanessa Schierman PhD WITCH: A Bloodsong Novella (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781937927066)

I used to be a princess. My parents were born in the hungry days of the Great Depression. They overcame the poverty of their youth by becoming extremely successful. I spent my time showing horses and water-skiing behind my dad's obscenely overpowered boat. That life vanished when a drunk driver hit my father head-on in 1964, killing him. Not instantly, though. My dad's death was the stuff of horror movies and plunged my family into years of darkness. My old life disappeared. I lived at close to poverty level for a while. What happened in the following decades opened my eyes. I've seen and lived the over-privileged existence I describe in the Bloodsong Series. I've seen how it can warp those who are lost in it. I've seen how the power of money can mask mental illness and allow evil to ruin lives. I know the mental and emotional landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, as it has come to be known. I know the physical geography just as well; I lived on the San Francisco Peninsula for fifty years. I made my home in the iconic cities and towns of Atherton, Woodside, Cupertino, and Palo Alto during that time. How did such a hothouse flower end up writing the rough and visceral fiction I do? It's because of what happened in those dark years. My writing has a bite. My life has had a bite. Recovering from what happened to me has taken many years. And I have recovered. What was legitimately mine came back to me, along with the fruit of my own labor. My writing isn't always gentle and nice. A reviewer described one of my books as "equal parts horror, spiritual, romance, and action." If that's for you, you're my reader. I consider what I write as falling primarily into the visionary fiction genre, which is about psychological maturation and making the world a better place. I have had huge spiritual experiences all my life, as well as gentler, ongoing inner guidance. Whatever is behind these experiences and this earthly life wants me to tell you my visions through my tales: my darkness and light. Now for my "regular bio": I've been in school a very long time and have two advanced degrees. I've had prestigious careers. My writing has won thirty national awards. I'm very happily married; my husband and I have been together forty-two years. I have three grown children and two grandchildren. My husband and I live on our California horse ranch and love it. We still ride the trails together, metaphorically and on our horses.