One of the joys of blogging is finding new to me authors and I’m delighted to welcome J.T. Bishop, author of Curse Breaker to Linda’s Book Bag today. I’m always fascinated by how writers come to be writers and luckily, J.T. Bishop has agreed to tell me a little about the extraordinary abilities she believes we all have in a fascinating guest post.

Curse Breaker is the fourth in J.T. Bishop’s Red Line series and is available for purchase here.

Curse Breaker

She’ll risk her life to break his curse, but revealing the truth could be far more dangerous.

In high school, a friend’s mother blames Grayson Steele for the tragic death of her daughter. Now, years later, Grayson is wealthy and successful, but on the brink of suicide. Because the women he loves are dying. And he can’t stop it.

Knowing about Grayson’s circumstances, Gillian Fletcher derives a plan. Catch the killer who’s making Grayson Steele’s life a living hell. But there’s only one way to do it. She has to be the bait.

As Grayson and Gillian’s plan takes shape, they must not only expose a killer, but also their feelings for each other. The further they go, the more secrets they will reveal. Secrets that will illuminate not just a murderer, but shocking truths that neither may be prepared to face.

Truths that will change their future forever.

Extraordinary Abilities

A Guest Post by J.T. Bishop

What’s it like to have extraordinary abilities? It’s a theme I follow in my books and I find fascinating to explore. I’m not necessarily talking about the superhero variety of mega abilities where you shoot webs from your hands or laser beams from your eyes, but more of the common extrasensory variety. Those things we sense or feel outside of the five senses. Those are of interest to me because I believe they exist and make for a good twist in a story. They allow me a little more license with my characters. Someone in a tight spot? You don’t need a weapon or a black belt. Just have them swing a door shut with their thoughts. Or communicate telepathically to keep up their cover story. Or have them direct an animal to jump on the bad guy to make their escape. The possibilities are endless.

I think one of the reasons I find this theme interesting is because I think we all have a sixth sense. Maybe not to the degree of moving objects with your mind, but more on the intuitive level. It’s not just about what we do, but what we feel, and believing in it. Once you do and you start to tune in, it’s amazing how reliable it is. The hard part for most, I think, is listening and trusting. This little voice is pretty quiet at best and you really have to lean in and pay attention to the whisper. It can be as soft as a feather against your skin. The tricky part is to act on the whisper, especially if the whisper takes you in a direction you did not expect.

I had whispers for years about my writing. And I didn’t listen. Yes. I dabbled here and there, wrote a few things, but nothing serious. After a while, the whisper got louder, which can happen if you ignore it. When I got the idea to write about a group of extraterrestrials that live on earth and whose origins are unknown among humans, the whisper became a shout. I started the story just for fun and couldn’t put down the pen. Two years later, I had a trilogy on my hands, with three more books in the works.

It’s amazing what a little whisper can do.

And so now I find myself writing about characters who have that whisper too. They must make the choice whether or not to follow their destiny and listen, despite the fear. So my question for you is, what is that whisper telling you? It told me to write. Is that an extraordinary ability? You could look at it that way. Some people are extraordinary cooks, teachers, singers, animal trainers, salespeople, and on and on. What is your extraordinary gift? Is that whisper guiding you, too?

Comment below and tell me what your extraordinary gift is and what your whisper is telling you. Is it time to listen?

(Oh, yes, do tell us what your gift is and whether you have a whisper telling you to do something creative.)

About J. T. Bishop

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, J. T. Bishop began writing in 2012. Inspired by a video that theorized the meaning of the end of the Mayan calendar, J. T. began the Red-Line trilogy. The video surmised that the earth was the central hub of activity for extraterrestrials thousands of years ago. J.T. didn’t know whether that was true or not, but it did spawn an idea. What if those extraterrestrials were still here? Two years and a lot of work later, the first three Red-Line books were complete, but she’s not done. The Red-Line saga develops as she continues to write new books.

You can find out more about J.T. Bishop on Facebook, via her website and by following her on Twitter.