Touch Me Expert Source, Inspiring Woman by @lcrandallwriter

You’ve probably heard of Dog the Bounty Hunter, a high-profile recovery agent and reality television show star. He looks and sounds as you might expect a bounty hunter reality TV star would. He’s big and gruff.

But the world’s best bounty hunter, Michelle Gomez, is neither. She is unexpected.

Michelle is a diminutive 4-foot-11-inch. But don’t think for one minute that her size is a handicap. She is a ball of fire with a huge heart and love for people. And I am her number one fan.

I happened upon Michelle when I first began research for Touch Me, my newest release. I wanted to make my heroine—an Atlantean descendant— a bounty hunter with special paranormal abilities. Through the character, I wanted to show the connections between individuals, and between objects and the individuals they belong to. I gave my heroine, Payson Silver, psychometric ability so that she could sense the connections and use them to reconnect loved ones with family and important objects to owners. Michelle turned out to be not only a great source of information but an inspiring woman.

A private investigator, bounty hunter, and skip tracer, Michelle wrote in an email that her most valuable skills are insider her.

“My recipe is intuition and my intellect of gathering information,” she said.

When I interviewed her, I learned she is professional and all business when it comes to her work. But she also came across as caring and insightful. I wondered how she managed working in tough circumstances with criminals and troubled people. Again, she said she relies on her inner strengths.

“I cope by not getting involved more than I need to,” she said. “It's very hard not to but I've learned to bring that wall up quick.”

Michelle is genius at making her work not only serve justice but also make the world a better place by helping others, and her positive attitude shines.

“Most rewarding (in my work) is closure and answers and bringing peace to my clients’ needs and or concerns,” she said. “As for my successful story...my journey getting where I'm at today has been adventurous, and the hard work and late nights not sleeping has paid off. But my journey has just begun.”

Like Michelle, Payson wants to serve people. Here’s an excerpt from Touch Me:

A tear slipped down Adele’s cheek. “Thank you so much for coming today. I’m never going to give up hope of finding Shana. When I saw the article about you in the newspaper, I was thrilled to read of your success in finding the stolen car for that family. I just had to try to contact you and ask you for help.” The woman perched on the edge of the couch.

     Payson smiled. The mention of her recent recovery warmed her heart. “You mean the Willys.” In every recovery, those moments of happy endings were what kept her going.

     “Yes, yes. That’s the one.” She slanted her head, her eyes tearing up. “If only you could find Shana.”

     Payson’s stomach clenched. “Happy endings are not a guarantee, sadly.” She leaned forward, earnest intention pumping through her body. “But, Mrs. Freeport, I’ll do everything I can to find your daughter. My success rate is very high. I can’t make promises, because that would be unethical. But there’s a reason I’m one of the top recovery agents in the United States and that I have clients from around the world. I’m not telling you that to brag. It’s to assure you my chances are good for finding out what happened to your daughter.”

     Adele’s eyes pleaded. “But you will take the case?”

     “Yes. I’ll start right away.”

     Adele jumped up and wrapped her arms around Payson’s shoulders. “I can’t thank you enough.”

     Bursts of impressions played across Payson’s mind. Images of Shana and Adele arguing flitted past, followed by those of mother and daughter walking in a park. The bursts were so real, Payson could feel a spring breeze in the park, hear the angst in the mother-daughter argument. Payson centered herself. Her ability was growing, but now was not the time to go into information it could give her. She had her process and it didn’t begin with loading her brain with Adele’s memories.

     “You don’t have to thank me. I’m very interested in finding Shana.”

     Adele sat back down. “We should discuss the cost.”

     “I don’t charge for missing person cases when it concerns a lost family member.”

     “What? How can that be?” Adele’s eyes widened. “This is your work, finding people. You’re a bounty hunter. You charge a fee. I’ve checked your website.”

     “Yes, I’m a recovery agent, bounty hunter as you say. I get paid well for locating fugitives, and it funds my true passion, bringing a conclusion to families who have no idea what has happened to their loved ones. That is a kind of pain I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”

     “You sound as if you know that pain too.” Adele’s lips tightened. “But I don’t mean to pry.”

     Payson’s heart rolled over. It was true. So very true, that she shoved away the memory of crystal blue eyes and glossy dark hair. Pushed away especially the bright warm smile. Braden’s smile that had felt like sunshine on her face. After five days without him, of Braden being “lost” to her, a keen understanding beat inside her of the devastation and heartache of those who live with loss.

Find Touch Me on Amazon and other popular retailers. Find Michelle Gomez on Facebook and Twitter  @MsSkiptracer

Graphic credit: Michelle Gomez @MsSkiptracer

Monday Morsels: Touch Me

Touch Me
Dark Sides Book One

by Lynn Crandall

Payson looked down over the city from her favorite vantage point at the top of the Sheppard Media Tower, and worried her bottom lip. In the light of dawn, she perched at the edge of the large deck and scanned the downtown streets.

From fifteen stories up, any city could look like a happy place. What she saw told her it was not so for the city of Auralia.

A summer breeze tossed her long hair across her face. She shivered. Changes in the quality of energy thrumming in the air prickled her skin. She could see dark energies thriving in the fistfight in a parking lot, hear it in a woman’s screams for help, sense it in its chaotic pulse that throbbed in her bones. Urgency thudded in her chest.

Her eyes closed, she opened her mind to other Aeons in the city and sensed her energy connection with theirs, like lines of light spreading from her in a web across the city. The gentle pulsing of their high energy hummed in her body, assuring her each one was out there living from light. Awareness bloomed in her chest of how each one brought something different to their mission of balancing dark and light. Hers was working as a bounty hunter.

But Dark Sides energies intensifying these days called her and her fellow Aeons to step up their game right now. Hurry, hurry screamed through her to take stronger actions against the darkness before it was too late.

Payson checked the time on her phone, expecting Braden at any minute.

She ran her gaze across the scene below her—tall buildings that didn’t quite reach the tower, cars filling the streets. But in her mind, she saw a seaport bustling with activity, large sailing ships, and buildings reaching upward sitting next to shiny dome buildings. Suddenly, the scene shifted and devastation rushed through her. She rocked on her perch and blinked hard at the reminder of the past.

She had lived her whole life knowing the popular legend of the lost continent of Atlantis, but also knowing most believed it was a cute story, or just a myth, even a parable to warn people away from the evils of challenging laws and traditions.

Her gut clenched and she turned to find Diane Butler strutting toward her. “Great view, huh?”

Payson jumped down to the deck and braced herself for an assault on her senses. Diane carried darkness around as some people wore a smell. “What are you doing here?”

Want to read more?

Amazon        Website

Bounty hunter Payson Silver stands on the top of the tallest building in her city and sees proof below in the cries for help, the theft underway, and fighting in progress that darkness is growing. Locating skips,lost people, and objects is only one of her jobs. Born an Aeon, a direct descendant of evolved people of Atlantis, Payson came into the world knowing her purpose in life-to balance dark energies with light and prevent the world from going deeply into darkness, starting with the City of Auralia.

Alongside the love of her life, Braden Powers, and other fellow Aeons, she uses her psychometric ability and special skills to defeat the mission of Dark Aspects, or DAs as she calls them, from turning the city into darkness. Her greatest weapon against the darkness is her ability to send the energy of light and love into the world. Her greatest obstacle to saving the world is fellow Aeon turned DA, Diane Butler, and her own resistance to her mission.

Braden too battles a lack of commitment to the Aeons' mission,and the reminder that he lost control of his mind-control ability once with dire consequences. While he understands the importance of his work, it is only head-deep, not within his heart. As bounty hunter and police officer, Payson and Braden counter darkness by enforcing justice and protecting residents from those who harm others and commit crimes. But when Diane's dark jealousy drives her to block Braden's mind to his real life and create a new one for him,Payson can't stop her. To lose her love is devastating and she knows she has only ten days to bring him back to the light.

Dark forces are powerful, and Payson and Braden battle tosave each other and their precious relationship, while the fate of the worldlies in balance. The battle for good goes on under the radar of humanity, butthe outcome will mean the difference of a thriving planet or the slow death ofall that is. They face difficult choices to save their love, save their souls,and save the world from succumbing to the Dark Side.

📚  Find Lynn Crandall here:

Website       Twitter        Facebook       Google+        Pinterest