Thank you for having me here today, Sharon, and may I say what a lovely name that is? Knowing you are into the benefits of death (hehe), I thought you and your readers might enjoy a chat about NDEs today.
When I first started writing Obsession, I wanted to accurately describe my heroine's near death experience (NDE) during childbirth. In college, I was fascinated (some say obsessed) with NDEs. I read Raymond A. Moody, Jr's books on the topic, as well as Kenneth Ring's research and the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
As I reached out to others in the romance community about this topic, I made the acquaintance of a wonderful woman, Julia Barrett. We corresponded and became friends. Over time, I realized my fascination with NDEs was because I had had an NDE, too. However, I had never labeled it an NDE because I didn't see a light or an angel. In communicating with Julia, I realized that NDEs have some core characteristics in common. However, each one is different. Julia met an angel, or as she called him, a companion. I never met anyone—except the police officer who brought me back to life.
I was fifteen. I was in our basement and reached behind the clothes dryer to pull something up—and completed a short circuit. Numb, unable to speak, seizing violently, the world became a black tunnel, then a sucking vortex that swept me away. No one leading me to the light. No companions. No angelic chorus. Just blackness. And a great sense of peace. Pain-free, I was
okay with wherever I was. That didn't last long.
I came to with a police officer, for whom I was supposed to babysit that evening, pounding on my chest, giving me CPR, dragging me back to this world, my entire body shaking, a stinging burn on my arm from the electricity (I still have the scar). Worst of all, my mother was going to be really, really pissed at me. I remember telling the police officer I was ready
to babysit for him. I was that anxious to get away from my mother's wrath. He kept shaking his head, in disbelief, saying, "No, you're not. You're going to the hospital."
In Obsession, the heroine, Angie, struggles with believing she had a near death experience, as I did. Her intellect tells her there is no such thing as dying and coming back, no dark tunnels, no angels, and that the hormones of pregnancy and childbirth
created a neurochemical stew that scrambled her brain. No plot spoilers here, however, I do have a question for readers? Do you believe in NDEs? If yes, have you had one? What occurred to convince you that it was real?
Obsession will be available as a FREE DOWNLOAD June 4-8, 2013! Tell your friends!
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OBSESSION
Blurb
A year after a barbaric childbirth, complete with a near-death experience and an encounter with her guardian angel, Angie Edmonds is just happy she and her son, Jake, are alive. She's finally in a good place: clean, sober, and employed as a defense attorney. But at the end of a long work day, she finds herself in a parent's worst nightmare: Jake has been kidnapped and taken across the Mexican border by a cult leader who believes the child is the "Chosen One."
Stymied by the US and Mexican legal systems, Angie is forced to ask the head of a Mexican crime syndicate for help. Much to her chagrin, she must work with Alejandro Torres, a dangerously attractive criminal and the drug lord's right-hand man. Little does she know Alejandro is an undercover federal agent, equally terrified of blowing his cover—and falling in love with her.
Excerpt:
“Who are you? Who is that giant? What did you say to him?”
The pony-tailed man flashed a grin, the smile reaching his sky-blue colored eyes, giving him an appealing boyish look. “The big guy’s name is Tio. I told Tio to truss Raul up like the pig he is and to bring him to Isabel Ramirez. She’ll know exactly what to do with him.”
“Who are you?”
The movie-star-handsome man stopped, bent down until he was eye-to-eye with Angie.
“I found your passport tossed onto Raul’s desk, Angela Edmonds from the U.S. of A. I like that name. You look like an angel.”
She shook her head and the street twirled. “I’m no angel.” She steadied herself on his well muscled, naked arm. Rather than creeping her out, the skin on skin contact with her rescuer reassured her that he was a real human and not an angel conjured up in fevered religious delusion and desperation. “You sound like an American. You haven’t answered my question. What’s your name?”
“Torres.” Still holding her ID, he strode to the driver’s side of the car, hopped in and flashed a dazzling grin. “You could call me your hero because I’m taking you to see the woman who can help you find your son. My name is Alejandro Espinosa Santoyo Torres. But most people just call me Alejandro.
After working in health care delivery for years, Sharon Buchbinder became an association executive, a health care researcher, and an academic in higher education. She had it all--a
terrific, supportive husband, an amazing son and a wonderful job. But that itch to write (some call it an obsession) kept beckoning her to "come on back" to writing fiction. Thanks to the kindness of family, friends, critique partners, Romance Writers of America, and Maryland Romance Writers, she is now an award-winning author published in contemporary,
erotic, paranormal and romantic suspense. When not attempting to make students, colleagues, and babies laugh, she can be found herding cats, waiting on a large gray dog, fishing, dining with good friends, or writing. You can find her at www.sharonbuchbinder.com
Where Obsession and Sharon Buchbinder can be found on the Internet
Download link for Obsession http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CGOGT12
Book Trailer for Obsession http://youtu.be/f1kujUWoGbk
Obsession Blog Tour http://sharonbuchbinder.com/blog/the-blog-tour-for-obsession/
Facebook page for Obsession https://www.facebook.com/pages/Obsession/174546772700131
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sharon.buchbinder.romanceauthor
Website/Blog http://sharonbuchbinder.com/blog/
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4417344.Sharon_Buchbinder
Twitter @sbuchbinder https://twitter.com/sbuchbinder
Thank you so much for being here today, Sharon! Obsession gives the reader a little bit of everything in this well
written, suspenseful page turner; cults, cartels, human trafficking, and sensuality sprinkled with just the right dose of paranormal mysticism. Get comfortable when you open this book because you won't be able to put it down until you finish!