Greetings Friends!
This month, I’m so absolutely thrilled to welcome my newest release, Once Upon Our Time, a stand-alone paranormal romance that centers on the deepest form of a love that transcends the boundaries of time and space. The story features a disenchanted woman psychic who, because of a traumatic past experience related to her “gifts,” has sworn to never again interact with “wandering spirits.” While on a house-sitting job in the small town of Spring Hill, Tennessee, Cordelia, our main character, makes contact with a persistent male ghost who has been haunting the grounds surrounding the town’s historical Civil War era mansion. Against her better judgement, our compassionate psychic embarks on a quest to “help” the young man “move on”
to the hereafter, an adventure that will forever change what she believes about love, death, and the Afterlife.
The story has all the mystical elements one would hope to find in a narrative featuring ghosts, Tarot card readings, crystals, strange apparitions, and past life regression set the mood and tone of Once Upon Our Time, and its first person POV allows the reader the opportunity to join Delia as she heads towards her emotional destiny.
Releasing April 26th, 2026, the book can be purchased from this website, as well as from multiple online sellers. It will be available in e-book and paperback form, as well as a truly spectacular hardcover version complete with eye-catching foiled cover and beautiful sprayed edges. This special edition will only be available here on this
website. Supply is limited, so be sure to order your copy soon!
In last month’s blog, I promised I would relate an “odd story” regarding the antique photograph of the Confederate Soldier (see photo) I located on the US Library of Congress website. Was this just a freaky coincidence? Or perhaps something more? You decide.
I had already outlined this story and had begun to actively work on the draft. For fun, I’d set the story in my historical hometown of Spring Hill, TN, and in fact, it is my own home, and not the “Kozinskis,” that literally backs up to the grounds of Rippavilla. The names of my characters had been determined as “Cordelia Mae Achley” and “Pvt. Jonathan Sweet,” and my original draft title (later changed to the current one) had been typed in as “My Sweet Johnny Reb,” as to play on the character’s name as well as the popular nickname given to Confederate soldiers by the Union troops. When I moved to the part of the story where Delia sees Johnny in his manifested form for the first time, I decided I needed a visual to help with describing his features and clothing. I decided to check out the Library of Congress online, as they are known to have an exhausting selection of Civil War era photographs. Scrolling through page after page of yellowed photograph, one young man eventually caught my eye. He was the right age and had the general physical features I had imagined my character to have. Picture my startled shock, when, clicking on the photograph, it stated that the young soldier’s name was Pvt. Jonathan Sweet, and that he had served with Company C of the 9th Tennessee Infantry Division. My mind was completely blown!
Did Jonathan Sweet ever fight in Spring Hill, Tennessee? Was he ever anywhere near Rippavilla? Did he die the night before the battle somewhere on the grounds near where my home stands?
Sadly, I don’t have the answers to those questions. Further information remains unavailable, but it did state that the soldier boy was from Meridian, Mississippi, so I was able to add that piece of information to my story. Even now, the whole experience has left me wondering about the possibilities, and if Jonathan Sweet wanted his story told, then I hope he’s happy with the one I provided. Unlike Delia, I’m not sure I’d enjoy meeting his ghost hanging around my lanai.
Until next month, dear friends, may your nighttime pillows always stay cool and your current reads stay captivating.
Happy Spring Holidays to You All!
Victoria Rocus
