Does Your Child See Ghosts?

Today we welcome Dr. Caron Goode to our writing blog. As part of her blog tour, she is discussing her book, Kids Who See Ghosts, Guide Them Through Their Fear.

Dr. Caron Goode is gifted with compassion in assisting others to effect lasting transformation through spiritual coaching, books, classes and seminars. Caron’s continuous education, experience in psychology and professional writing makes her a great resource for parents wishing to create and maintain a nurturing relationship their children. The common thread of these disciplines is energy of the mind-body-spirit connection and how to access it, bring it into focus and then put it into successful action.

YVONNE: Tell me something about your writing background.
CARON: A creative writing teacher in high school told me I had talent, and that was new to me. I always had an interest writing, which I think came from a veracious reading appetite. At her encouragement, I entered several small writing contests and my entry won. Later as a teacher and diagnostician, I wrote lessons, curriculum, reports—educational writing—and received many professional accolades. Yet I never saw myself as a writer. My writing was always related to my profession, but never became my profession until midlife. The creativity peaked in my forties when thoughts of writing a book crept in. In my fifties, the dam opened and writing books on quirky subjects, great stories, and inspirational topics have become a fun passion.

YVONNE: Your story sounds similar to mine. It was a high school creative writing teacher who believed in me and helped me realize I had a talent for writing. What is the title of your book? Give us the basic story line so we’ll know what it’s about.
CARON: Kids Who See Ghosts, Guide Them Through Their Fears is a response to hundreds of questions from parents about their children seeing apparitions, from ghosts to demons to angels. Seventeen interviews from professionals, parents, psychics, even a skeptic, presents an up front and personal look at the phenomenon. Mostly it is about helping kids move through fears and not be paralyzed by such events.

YVONNE: I can relate so well to your book. I’ve seen into the spirit realm many times and have a grandson who also did when he was younger. What inspired you to write this book?
CARON: These questions about kids who see ghosts poured in after I started a blog on intuitive intelligence and children. I posted my opinion about the A & E channel program called Psychic Kids Who See Ghosts. My marketing specialists, Diane Bourgeois, of Marketing Magic USA said I had a niche there, and I was perfectly qualified to write the book. Moreover I was inspired by my childhood experiences of growing up very “Irish Catholic” and seeing the saints when I was a child. I thought everyone saw them.

YVONNE: I’ve seen the show you are talking about and I was amazed at the way the show not only demonstrated the gift these kids have, but also their fears surrounding it. At the end of the show, the children were more accepting of their gift and felt less isolated once their parents understood that the kids were perfectly normal. I really appreciate your writing the book to help adults guide psychic kids. Is this the first book you have written?
CARON: No, this is not my first book. I have a dozen books in education, parenting, and health under my belt.

YVONNE: How long did it take to write this book?

CARON: I wrote this book in three months, which is very tight for me.

YVONNE: Any interesting tidbits about your writing method or how the book developed?

CARON: I am a slow writer. My first draft contains words that are carefully considered. If I can say it with one word and not three, I do write in stages–gather all material, include all material on the topic, and then I have a draft of the 200-page count. From there, I will hone it down, tighten, edit, and cut. I may go through the manuscript twice or five times. I also find I need an editor to clean up the details and polish the text.

Like most writers, I also go with my gut. If a section doesn’t feel right or flow right, I have to stop and fix it. If I do not, the editor always catches it.

YVONNE: We all need editors. Even though I earn a living as an editor, I still have my own books edited. It’s hard to catch our own mistakes no matter how many times we go over the text. And, I love the way you trust your intuition about a passage not “feeling” right. We would all do well to listen to our intuition more. Tell me about your publishing experience and what you learned from it.

CARON: My agent loved the book idea and sold it to the publisher quickly. So Red Wheel/Weiser supports authors well and thoroughly reviews the book through two or three sets of eyes. I have excitement because this year, for this book, I have an enthusiastic team who love the book and are going all out to make it sell well. This is in contrast to the previous year when Raising Intuitive Children received little support from the team.

YVONNE: Being picked up by a conventional publisher certainly does ensure good marketing. It’s still up to the author to do a lot of promotion like you are doing. Where is your book available? Do you have a Web site or blog where we can learn more about you or your book?
CARON: My Web site is www.kidswhoseeghosts.com and the book will be on Amazon.com

YVONNE: Tell me some ways you have promoted your book. Give examples and links to any sites you feel might help other authors.
CARON: We are promoting through a syndicated column, Kids Who See Ghosts . . .
Blog Tour. I think your site and www.spiritauthors.com are wonderful sites for all writers, whether new or seasoned. We are having a blog tour for the book, as well as an Amazon email campaign.

YVONNE: I’m looking forward to posting on your syndicated column and I’m thrilled to be part of your blog tour for this wonderful book. Any other comment you would like to share?
CARON: Thanks for the opportunity to be on your site, which is a phenomenal resource for writers. I subscribe to your e-zine and recommend your work to others.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to get to know you and learn about your book. I wish you well in your journey as an author.

YVONNE: I’m glad to be able to help writers and authors. I truly appreciate your support, Caron. It is a privilege to network with you. I wish you much success on this timely and well-written book.

Tomorrow Ellen Braun will host Caron on her blog www.raisingsmallsouls.com with an article about how parents help kids through fears.