Where do ideas come from?

Back in March 2017, I was sitting on a plane feeling my ankles swell up like itchy inner tubes and watching a repeat of The Leftovers on the tiny wee personal screen. Although I loved the opening credits and music to series one of the Leftovers, this was series two with the starred outlines of people who have disappeared shown in poses with the people left behind.

While waiting impatiently for Justin Theroux to push Patty into a well, I started thinking about an outline for a short story I'd committed to writing for an anthology.

Wouldn't it be great, I thought, if when people died the shadows of who they were stayed on earth, the same way the outlines of people showed in the opening credits. It wouldn't take long before you were bumping into ghost people everywhere!

Yes, I did think that sounded like a cool idea. My ankles were VERY swollen.

I kept tossing it over in my mind, wondering if when you walked through these shadows would you get a sense of the person that they once were, or would it just be like a cold patch in the corner of the room that everybody avoided?

By the time I landed, I'd decided that the remnants wouldn't be visible, it would just be a packet of memories that would suddenly flood through a person's mind. Although most people would be distressed and avoid these "imprints" like the plague, others could make a living by channeling the memories. They could sort through them for details of wills or expose a killer for the police. Perhaps they could even be used to show a woman married to a man for four decades what he really thought of her.

THE DARK IMPRINT series made it's debut in the CLOSE TO THE BONES anthology. For an earlier peek at Bretta Ariel (the imprint channeler) you can also read my short story entry in the anthology SUMMER OF MAGIC (and find out just what that woman's husband thought!).

Best of all, the upcoming MURDER AND MAYHEM boxed set--along with 19 other mystery or thriller novels--features Bretta Ariel's first full-length novel debut in the chilling read SHATTERED IMPRINTS.

For the time being this boxset can be yours for the special preorder price of only 99c. It releases on the 7th November, so can be packing your favorite ereader full of thrilling murdery goodness for the upcoming holiday season ahead.