Here is the teaser image for my new book that had been in the works for some years. The  woman’s face is the photo I made myself during one of the walks in Wellington, New Zealand – a creepy mannequin face that totally freaked me out. I then thought it would look good on the book cover.

Look out for the book title and synopsis coming soon!

There is a place in Dunedin like no other. The beautiful sand, the crystal clear water and deep deep sky. This is Aramoana beach, where the characters of my book try to reflect on the horrors of their life and come to terms with their losses.

It seems like a perfect place to be to reflect on the past and looking towards the brighter future.

In fact, Aramoana was the place for the deadliest shooting in New Zealand history. It happened on November 13th (and it was Tuesday, not Friday) 1990, when a man called David Grey (fifty shades anyone?) killed 13 people for no apparent reason, most of them being women and children.

In our day and age we are so used to mass murder it barely makes headlines, but inserting this fact into the fiction of my novel, I wanted to remind myself that the darkness and the light, the horror and the beauty have to co-exist in real life even step of the way. They hopefully also make a good read!

Tonight’s post is about fire. We all know what fire is, but what is its nature? In my book WITCHES’ LADDER the serial killer uses it as a part of his modus operandi. He must know it well. Or does he?

The scientific descriptionof fire is REALLY boring, so I am not going to mention it here. If fire was a living thing it would need a body. That body we would call a flame. The fire cannot survive without two things: the fuel (something that it would actually be burning) and the oxygen (just like any human being fire needs to breathe!). If the fuel or oxygen runs out, the fire cease to exist. As simple as that! Just like a human body, when it is deprived of air or food!

What personally fascinates me about fire is its contradictory nature. Fire means destruction, but without fire the survival of humans ishard to achieve. In WITCHES’ LADDER the fire is used as a part of a dark ritual. Check out the book to find out how!

The characters of WITCHES’ LADDER had to survive many ordeals, one of them was the Russian Winter. Specifically – the winter in St. Petersburg.

Now winters get very cold in Russia in general, however the visitors from far away Siberia are appalled by the cold in St. Petersburg. Why? Well, St. Petersburg was built on a swamp and has a huge humidity. The strong wind feels like the skin is being peeled off your face. And the air you breathe freezes in your throat!

People who travel by car face a challenge in the morning – the car is completely covered by snow. When you clean it up you realise the engine wouldn’t start. Some bring boiling water to with them – Russians have a few tricks up their sleeves to deal with the vehicle problems. But if everything fails there’s always metro!

Russian winter can be stunningly beautiful, in particular on sunny days, where the city shines like milliard diamonds and the sky is deep andblue. The fresh snow in the morning smells like oranges…

Take a walk through the snowed under St. Petersburg with Spencer and Will in WITCHES’ LADDER.

In my novel WITCHES’ LADDER science and superstition go head to head!

Human Brain Project is real and plays major part in the WITCHES’ LADDER mystery.

Human Brain Project is a study that focuses on creating a model of a human brain. Originated from Switzerland, it spans across all the european countries, focusing on neuroscience, computing and brain-relate medicine.

Some may ask – what do we need a model of a human brain for? Well, it can be used to investigate signatures of disease and the impact of certain drugs, enabling the development and better diagnosis and treatment methods. It also can make our computers real smart. In fact, the world will change overnight if the human brain model was actually developed.

One of the main obstacles of Human Brain Project is the unsystematic collection of the information of previous brain research.This part of the research, called neuroinformatics, is the main focus of the story of WITCHES LADDER!

PS: No one really knows how the human brain works. It is the biggest mystery of our time. Talking about superstition….