Introduction

I’ve been graced with a fascinating life. Born in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment I’ve had astonishing experiences, mystical encounters, known extraordinary people and traveled to remarkable and mysterious places. All these experiences and encounters are threads woven with imagination into stories and essays. In my teen years writing was a way to cope with a rough family life and there are actual lines from my journal in my first “novel,” Don’t Judge a Heart by its Brokenness. As an adult, my career was focused on writing about science and technology. Now, fiction writing is my passion.

One Bold Thing

One bold thing leads to another…

It’s about time someone took Elizabeth Bell seriously.

Her genius IQ may have earned her respect as a nuclear physicist, but Elizabeth’s teenage daughter hates her, her alcoholic husband married her for her money — and now the FBI is investigating her for espionage.

With nuclear weapons secrets on the line, Elizabeth installed unauthorized code to catch hackers she knew breached a classified computer. But after a bizarre car crash and her mysterious four-day disappearance, she’s lost all credibility.

So, when Elizabeth is released from the hospital, she takes the only thing she loves—her cat Muon—flees, changes her name, and buys a van.

But with her freedom reliant on the lie she’s living, Elizabeth soon finds herself grappling with the biggest truth-teller of all: love.

Espionage tangles with courageous personal growth, set in the Arizona desert wildlands.

Finding Raven Sky

Three runaway foster kids on a wild journey to rescue their little brother and reclaim their future.

An adventure story of tenacity, resilience, heartbreak, compassionate strangers…and family we make.

As their mother spiraled into addiction, Wolf, his sister Silver and toddler twins, Rowan and Raven lived on the streets and in shelters. After Rowan’s tragic death the siblings are split up in different foster homes and Wolf ends up in juvenile detention, the child welfare system failing them at every turn. When four-year-old Raven is abducted by their mom and her drug dealer boyfriend after her release from prison, they risk everything to do what the system couldn’t or wouldn’t do: find him before it’s too late.

Wolf’s anger and frustration became a force-field of determination as he plotted an escape from juvenile detention to save his brother. He teams up with Justin, a Native kid with car theft skills and a heartbreaking backstory. The original plan had Justin living on the streets after he boosted an RV for Wolf and Silver’s journey from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Yuma, Arizona. But, as their harried escape plan is in motion, Justin risks getting captured by the guards to ensure Wolf escapes, and their brotherhood is sealed. Wolf asks Justin to come along. When Silver runs from her foster home and meets up with Wolf, she makes it clear she doesn’t want Justin coming with them because she thinks he’s a tweeker. After Wolf’s heartfelt defense of Justin, including telling Silver Justin’s strange mannerisms are caused by Tourette’s syndrome, a new family is formed. Later, Silver and Justin bond over struggles with their ethnic identity. Silver: “Based on my hair and complexion, my dad must have been Black…but my mom would never tell me.” While Justin’s issue was even more confusing. “Always thought I was probably Mexican cuz all mom’s boyfriends was from Mexico… Then, CPS is telling me I’m Native and I’m off to live in a foster home on the rez.”

The emotional magnetism of Wolf’s determination attracted other allies along the way: A woman willing to take big risks; a mysterious, loner nomad who prevented a bizarre accident from turning deadly; and strangers willing to help kids who never had a childhood.

Don't Judge a Heart by its Brokenness

A story of brave love that demanded courage and created it.

When their lives intersected Brian was a ridiculed outcast because of the crazy, stupid lies he told to try to fit in, and Sara was the mascot of a catty clique of socialites.

Brian and Sara both wanted the impossible.

Brian survived —against all odds — experimental surgeries for a congenital heart defect. For what? He couldn’t do anything remotely active. He wanted to be a normal sixteen-year-old, but all he could do was shut himself in his room and draw and watch other kids from the window… especially the beautiful, athletic Sara.

Sara wanted to be in the elite, wanted status. With a blue-collar background, a homelife in turmoil from an alcoholic mother and an abusive father, she did a lot of pretending.

Against the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s, Brian and Sara’s unlikely relationship careens along a jagged emotional path as they negotiate the unknown territory of trust, loyalty, friendship and, eventually, love. Until. Everything changed.

Soul Transcendence, Journeys to Other Dimensions: A DMT Research Volunteer Tells Her Story

“After the injection, you might think that we overdosed you and you have died.”

That ominous warning was part of the research volunteer interview for arguably the boldest, most revolutionary brain/mind/consciousness research ever performed: Dr. Rick Strassman’s University of New Mexico School of Medicine study investigating the effects of N,N-dimethyltriptamine (DMT) on humans.

I was Research Volunteer #34.

Strassman explained that he believed DMT was involved in the death (or near death) experience, and the pineal gland released a large burst of it.

“Sort of the booster rocket for the soul?” I asked, half in jest.

“Yes. Sort of the booster rocket for the soul,” he replied.

In his book, DMT the Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences, Strassman described his research from a medical perspective, including the bizarre and other-worldly experiences of the volunteers. I describe what it was like to actually be a volunteer. I relate my experiences reconstructed from extensive journal entries and tape-recording transcripts of the sessions. Besides descriptions of my experiences in The Study I also share the ongoing beneficial impact being a study participant has had on my life decades later as well as the bizarre and horrifying experiences at an infamous ayahuasca retreat.

Forward comments by Dennis McKenna and Rak Razaam.

Animal Encounters: Mysterious, Mystical,Hilarious and Heartbreaking

A teleporting snake? What other explanation could there be for a large snake to suddenly appear in a bedroom…when doors were never left open. Never.

A cat acting like a beaver gathering sticks all night with malicious intent.

A beloved dog flat-lining and then miraculously coming back to life for one last goodbye.

The mystical appearance of a bird messenger for a grieving family.

A goose exploding out of a gunny sack, terrorizing toddlers in a car hurtling down the freeway.

A rabbit’s apparent virgin birth
These are some of the extraordinary encounters and interactions recounted by a woman deeply in touch with the natural world.

Santa Fe Ghosts

Find out what pounded up a flight of stairs in a cloud of stench, freezing house plants along its path, and terrifying the resident caretaker of a landmark house on Grant Avenue. Learn why a lost soul at La Residencia spent years communicating its distress until one man understood what it wanted. Encounter strange events at the The Loretto Chapel and its enigma staircase. Dine at the Pink Adobe with a ghost who occasionally serves lemon wedges and levitates tables. Hear police dogs howling as one specific hearse passes with a body that was removed after the bloody Santa Fe prison riot of 1971. Eyewitness accounts intertwine history, spanning from the earliest settlements through contemporary times, with mystery and ghostly events taking place in one of the oldest and most haunted cities in America.

Susan Blumenthal