Kimberly Baer’s own life holds a kiss of the paranormal

Welcome to Lyndi’s Adventurous Friend, Kimberly Baer!

Kimberly, tell us about your story:

I got the idea for the story after my car keys disappeared from my purse and turned up an hour later—in my purse! Meanwhile, a bunch of people had been walking around looking for them, so it was pretty humiliating to admit that I’d found the keys in my purse. I didn’t want to believe I’d been stupid enough to overlook them during my multiple searches, so I decided that some supernatural entity had pranked me by hiding my keys. (Have you ever had something disappear and later turn up in a place where you’d already looked? Don’t rule out gremlins, demons, or ghosts. Just sayin’.) Later it occurred to me that a supernatural purse might be an interesting premise for a novel.

I guess you could say I’m no stranger to paranormal happenings. For starters, my mother is psychic. You simply cannot surprise that woman. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I visited her and said, “Guess what? I’m pregnant, and the baby is due in June.” Without a word, she led me into the kitchen, reached behind her refrigerator, and pulled out a note she had magneted back there. The note said, “Kim pregnant, due in June.” There’s no logical way she could have known that. My husband and I hadn’t told a soul we were trying for a baby.

Another time, I said to her, “Guess what we just got?” It could have been anything—a new car, a pet aardvark, a foreign exchange student. She said, “A piano?” And she was exactly right! In both cases, she said she just knew somehow.

Supernatural purses and psychic moms notwithstanding, the strangest thing that ever happened to me concerns a calendar—one that predicted my husband’s death. Sounds creepy, right? And yet for me it’s been nothing but comforting. In fact, that calendar is my most prized possession. You can read about it on my blog: https://www.kimberlybaer.com/post/the-calendar-that-predicted-my-husband-s-death. I’m really curious to find out what others think—creepy or comforting?

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BLURB:

That old denim purse Libby Dawson bought at the thrift store isn’t your run-of-the-mill teenage tote. It’s a bag of secrets, imbued with supernatural powers. Strange items keep turning up inside, clues to a decades-old mystery only Libby can solve.

Filled with apprehension and yet intrigued by the mounting pile of evidence, Libby digs for the truth. And eventually finds it. But the story of the purse is darker than she imagined—and its next horrific chapter is going to be all about her.

Book trailer for The Haunted Purse

Excerpt from The Haunted Purse:

Toni asked, “Do you think we should tell my mom about the purse?”

“No,” I said. I wasn’t ready to trust an adult. Not even Toni’s mom, nice as she was. “Your mom is like you,” I added. “Practical. It would take a long time to convince her there’s something supernatural going on.”

We went back to watching the purse. There was a moment when I thought I saw it twitch, but that might have been my imagination.

“You could always get rid of it,” Toni said. “You know, donate it back to the thrift store.”

I considered that. “I could. But I don’t want to. Not yet, anyway. This purse is the coolest thing I’ve ever owned. I want to find out more about it. I want to see what it does next.”

She took her eyes from the purse long enough to glance at me. “Aren’t you afraid it’ll crawl into your bed some night and strangle you with its straps?”

“No. I think it’s trying to get my attention. It’s trying to tell me something.”

“Like what?”

I didn’t have a clue.

 

 

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