Monday, April 1, 2013

VBT: Saving Casey



With us today is Liza O'Connor. Liza, tell us how an eighty-year-old woman ended up in the body of a seventeen-year-old teen?
Since Cass, the 80 year old woman in question, has no idea how that happened, the matter is never addressed in Saving Casey. But I am willing to share my theory, based upon my personal experiences and beliefs.
So here is how it happened according to Liza:
Old Cass is dying of cancer and short cuts her death by overdosing on painkillers. Like 20 percent of Americans, she believes in reincarnation and expects to come back as a baby with no memories of her prior life.
However, when she wakes up with her memories and thoughts of her prior self, she first thinks she botched her suicide. When she realizes she’s in a teenage body, she is completely baffled. She goes back and forth as to whether God is rewarding or punishing her.
Here’s how that happened according to Liza:
Both she and Casey died at the approximate same time.
Both their souls properly separated from their bodies in search of a new host. I suspect God sent Casey’s soul into a new baby of some nice middle-class family where she is slotted to have a loving and happy life.
For Cass, he has a tougher task in mind. He sends her soul into the body of Casey, which is being artificially kept alive by the hospital, because her father is not yet ready to give up on her reviving.
Why should I believe that is possible?
Well, lots of people have experienced out-of-body occurrences. I myself have left my body—once.
However, it’s one of those unbelievable realities that until you personally experience it, you probably aren’t going to believe it.
I was sixteen at the time and I’ve no idea why my soul decided to go on a walkabout. I wasn’t sick and I wasn’t dying. But suddenly I was out of my body, through the window, and outside. While I had no sense or need of the body I left behind, I was fully aware of my environment. I existed, but had no form. When the crows began to screech excitedly, I knew they were crows, which meant my memories and knowledge had come with me. However, I became very frightened of those crows, certain they could somehow capture my soul. A second later, I flew back into my body, and I never tried to leave it again.
So let’s say reincarnation occurs accordint to Liza and your soul retains all your memories when it finds a new host. Why don’t I remember all these past lives I’ve supposedly have had. And how does Cass retain all her memories?
I have a theory on that. Most of us return as a newborn baby. A baby or fetus has an underdeveloped brain, thus our memories are either ditched or put somewhere in that undeveloped grey matter where, for most of us, it’s irretrievable.
Now the body Cass entered would have been far mostly developed, so Cass could easily store and retrieve her memories in Casey’s brain. (The brain doesn’t fully develop until about the 25th year, but the memory section is pretty good at 17)
Why can’t Cass tap into Casey’s memories as well?
Because Casey took them with her when she left the body. From my experience, I am certain they accompany, or is part of the soul.
How many people believe that souls can leave a body and reincarnation occurs?
According to Wikipedia, 1 out of 10 people have experienced an out of body experience at least once in their life. A 2005 Gallop poll showed 20% of Americans believed in reincarnation. The percentage of Europeans believing in reincarnation is slightly larger.
For me, I have no doubts, thus I treat out of body occurrences and reincarnation as facts of life.
I would love to know what you think. Leave me a comment. Do you believe in out of body experiences and/or reincarnation? Have you ever had a personal experience you’d like to share?
BLURB:
Eighty-year-old Cass wakes up in the body of a troubled seventeen-year-old girl named Casey, which all believe has survived a suicide attempt. Cass intends to turn the girl’s life around, only it’s harder than she expects. All Casey’s troubles have now become Cass’s and someone wants her dead.
Excerpt:
Upon settling down on the toilet, Cass noticed the floor to ceiling mirror facing her and screamed at the sight of the creature within it. Short black hair spouted about its head, black circles surrounded both eyes and fell like triangular knives down the cheeks. Black lips, stretched in horror as if in a nightmare. Pulling up her pants, she moved closer to the mirror.
She was a ghoul, an honest to God ghoul!
The door crashed open and her father stared at her, fear and panic clear in his eyes.
She touched her face. “Please tell me these aren’t permanent.”
His panic remained a second longer as her words filtered into his brain and then he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, we will get them removed—if you want to…”
“If? Oh, I definitely want them removed,” she said.
How can I turn around my life if I look like the walking dead from a low-grade monster movie?
Adventure Bio:
I live in Denville, NJ with my dog, Jess. We hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, I learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. I’m an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through my entire life, my first love has and always will be writing novels. I love to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.
SAVING CASEY BUY LINKS

Amazon Link to Saving Casey:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7KRSOO



Liza will award a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Other random commenters at blog stops will receive: $5 Amazon GCs, tattoos like Casey’s, or offer to place tattoos like Casey’s on a jpg picture supplied by winner.

The tour dates can be found here:

Saving Casey will be reduced from $5.99 to $2.99 for the duration of the tour (March 5th-April 11th) at Amazon, B&N, DP/Bono, ARe, Coffee Time Romance, BookStrand and Smashwords.

12 comments:

Goddess Fish Promotions said...

Thank you for hosting

MomJane said...

This is an outstanding story. I really love the plot.

Liza O'Connor said...

Thanks for having me on your lovely site. I just want to remind your readers to leave an email address when commenting. That’s so I can find you if you win the gift.
If you don’t like spambots grabbing your email, just spell out AT and DOT.

For the duration of this blog tour, the price of SAVING CASEY has dropped to $2.99 at AMAZON. Once the tour is over (April 6th), it goes back to $5.99, so buy it now.
NOW TO THE PRIZES:
In addition to the GRAND TOUR PRIZE-$25 Amazon Gift Card, I am offering a special gift for this blog stop. For one lucky winner I will mar a digital photo of you with tats like Saving Casey’s. and send you a copy of my tat instructions so you can convince all your friends you actually applied temp tats and they just missed it. Just write TATTOO MY FACE in your comments.

Feel free to ask me questions. I love hearing from you. I’ll be popping in through the day and evening to catch any comments. Have a great day!

Andra Lyn said...

Every tour stop makes me want this book more and more...definitely going to take advantage of the $2.99 deal!

andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

Kary Rader said...

Yay! Liza! My heart wants you to write REAL Casey's story. I think it could be great. Thanks for the interview.

Liza O'Connor said...

I notice the link to Amazon doesn't work. Until Sandra can fix it, here's a working link

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7KRSOO

Shelley Munro said...

Wow, I'm jealous. This is such a great concept for a book. Enjoyed and chuckled through your post.

Sandra Cox said...

Link is fixed.

Thanks to all who stopped by to support Liza.

Jenna said...

I do believe in reincarnation--that we've lived other lives before. I'm not sure if what you describe in Saving Casey can happen, but it's a fantastic premise for a book. Great job, Liza!

1jennajaxon(at)gmail(dot)com

bn100 said...

Interesting premise

bn100candg at hotmail dot com

Mary Preston said...

I've never had a personal experience, but you do hear sometimes when a baby is born that people say they have an old soul, like they'd been here before.

marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

Unknown said...

lol loved the excerpt! thanks for sharing

lilypondreads at gmail dot com