Guest Post: Jacqueline Paige

I feel like I was just handed a blank piece of paper and told to fill it. Well, lets see ... I could talk about the hundred + aspects of magic, but that one seems to be over done if you ask me. Do a Google on magic and see what I mean.

I’ve given my brain free reign to fill this blank page and the topic it randomly tossed me is curses. This theme is tied into my Salvation book, as well as many of my other books.

While writing them I didn’t see the connection, until someone pointed it out. In Behind the Mask my main character was cursed by her sister to be forgotten. In Twice Cursed (coming out in February) my main witch has been cursed, well, twice (coming up with that title was easy). I’m presently working on a trilogy and a spell/curse is the main plot. So I guess my cursed pirate ghost in Salvation isn’t an oddity for me.

While my unknown of theme of curses is a surprise to me, in truth curses have been around for all of human existence in all areas of the globe and all belief systems. To illustrate this I’m going to tell you about some ‘famous’ curses.

The first one is the curse of James Dean’s car: In 1955 James Dean was killed while driving his Porsche 550 Spyder. In the next year the very same car was involved in two more fatal accidents. The car was purchased by hot-rod designer.

During a tune up the car fell on the mechanic's legs and crushed them. Later the owners of the sold engine and transmission, two doctors who raced cars, while racing against each other, one driver was killed, the other seriously injured. Someone else had purchased the tires, which blew simultaneously, sending the driver to the hospital.

The car was set to appear in a car show, but a fire broke out in the building the night before the show, destroying every car except James Deans, which survived without so much as a smudge. The car was then loaded onto a truck to go back to California. The driver lost control en route, was thrown from the cab, and was crushed by the car when it fell off the trailer. In 1960, after being exhibited by the California Highway Patrol, the car disappeared and hasn't been seen since.

The next time someone says an object is cursed... I might listen.

There is also the famous Egyptian mummy curse Tutankhamen’s tomb – where the inscription read “Death comes on wings to he who enters the tomb of a pharaoh" and the person that found the tomb, apparently died from pneumonia and blood poisoning following complications from a mosquito bite.

I for one feel uncomfortable just looking at the artefacts on display in the museum from Egyptian tombs – never would I be brave enough to dig up one of their tombs.

Here is one I found entertaining... In 1945, William Sianis brought his pet goat to Wrigley Field to see the fourth game of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers. Sianis and his goat were later escorted from the game, and Sianis reportedly put a curse on the team that day. Ever since, the Cubs have had legendarily bad luck.

Over the years, Cubs fans have experienced agony in repeated late-season collapses when victory seemed imminent. In 1969, 1984, 1989, and 2003, the Cubs were painfully close to advancing to the World Series but couldn't hold the lead. Even those who don't consider themselves Cubs fans blame the hex for the weird and almost comical losses year after year. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 -- no other team in the history of the game has gone as long without a championship.

I don’t follow sports that much – is this one true?

So there are a few famous, if not odd curses in history. I make mine much more interesting in my books and completely unpredictable.

Maybe the next time someone utters the words ‘I’m cursed’ I will definitely believe them.

Thanks for having me here!!

Salvation by Jacqueline Paige

Genre: paranormal romance

About Salvation:

Two centuries of not existing is about to change...

Lost in a place between living and dying, confined to roam endlessly over the same grounds for all eternity and cursed to never be seen again, Jareth wanders through time alone and longing for the sea once more. When he realizes there is one thing he yearns for more than he ever did the sea, he is tossed into a world he is unfamiliar with.

Stuck with a life that never goes her way, Miranda is determined to get at least one thing she wants. When that one thing turns out to be a sexy pirate that lived over two hundred years ago, she finds herself faced with more than one challenge to have him.
Can they break the curse and be together?

Source: Info in the About Salvation was taken from the press release received for this book from Goddess Fish on 02/11/10.