SUNY New Paltz

12 Oct 2014 … Walking the streets of Forks

I’m finally back home after my two-week road trip up North. Outside of visiting family and friends, I visited a lot of the places I wrote about in my books. I think it was on Facebook that I made the comment that as I was walking up and down the main drag in New Paltz, NY, I felt like Stephanie Meyer walking the streets of Forks. (Twilight author/town it takes place in)

It’s an odd feeling, one very difficult to describe. Halfway between fantasy and reality as you walk past places where events in your books take place. No, in reality they never really happened, but in my mind I’ve pictured those events dozens upon dozens of times so they’ve taken on a reality all their own … in my mind at least.

It wasn’t only in New Paltz that this happened, but up at the Mohonk Mountain House and most assuredly in Stonington, CT. I was completely overwhelmed with deja vu when I walked into the Lighthouse Museum. I hadn’t been back to Stonington since before I started to write book 3 (the one that mostly takes place there)

It also happened when I was in the Hopkinton Town Clerks office doing genealogy research and was looking through land transactions of Randall Wells and wife Lois Maxson, actual characters in my novels! Talk about the blurring of the line between reality and fantasy!

Anyway, I had a wonderful trip and did some good research for the fifth novel. I got some good details to really tighten it up to a place I’ll be happy with.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures from my vacation.

SUNY New Paltz … AKA New Paltz University

Lecture Hall at SUNY New Paltz

View of Mt Mohonk from the top of the Faculty Tower of SUNY New Paltz

Me in front of Capen Hall

New Paltz in the rain.

Stonington CT: The Old Lighthouse Museum

Stonington CT: The Old Lighthouse Museum … view from the Top

Stonington CT: Omega Street

Stonington CT: The Old Lighthouse Museum

1 Oct 2014 …. You can’t go home again … or back to your old dorm it seems as well

I was disillusioned yesterday when I went back to my old college dorm only to find that there are boys living in my old room! They switched the layout of the floor around and the boys are living where the girls were and vice versa. Imagine my surprise when I went to knock on my old door and found a man’s name on it. It was shocking. Here I am writing my books, figuring a girl was living in there. It’s true, you can’t go home again. Sigh.

Anyway, for you readers out there, here’s some pictures of the “new” Capen Hall of SUNY New Paltz.

Capen Hall

2nd Floor Capen Hall

Capen Hall Front Hall

31 May 2014: A Chevy what???

So as a reader of my books, did you ever wonder what a Chevy Aveo looks like? Oh sure you did, come on, admit it. How many of them do you see on the road anyway? Yes, Sara drives an Aveo … and so do I. In case you’re still curious, here’s a photo of what my little baby looks like. Also what the New Paltz Alumni sticker on the back and the Mystic Pizza take out box that’s under my front seat looks like. (Don’t freak out, it’s empty) Why do I have an empty take out box under the front seat of my car you ask? Well, you wouldn’t be the first to ask that question. What can I say, it’s been a year and a half since I’ve enjoyed their delicious pizza and I just can’t seem to take it out of my car. It’s sort of a reminder to go back next time I’m in CT.
So if you’re stopped at a light somewhere behind a little silver Aveo with a New Paltz Alumni sticker being driven by a red head, don’t’ freak out. It’s not Sara, it’s just me.

My / Sara’s Chevy Aveo

Proud Alumni of SUNY New Paltz (AKA NPU)

Mystic Pizza. A Slice of Heaven?? Believe me, this is not false advertising.

Mount Mohonk … a funny name but a pretty sight

So what exactly does Mount Mohonk look like anyway?? Well, here you go. Here’s a photo I took of it back when I went to school at New Paltz. For those of you who haven’t gotten around to reading my books yet (shame on you!) Mt. Mohonk is a familiar landmark of the New Paltz skyline and referenced several times in the books. It’s not easy to make out in this photo, but there is a large stone tower at it’s summit.

View of Mount Mohonk from New Paltz, NY

Professor Walker’s House

About the only building in the books that I made up completely from scratch is Professor Walker’s house on the edge of the cliff. These photos were what sort of gave me the inspiration for the location of that house. Of course the more modern design of the home was pulled completely from my imagination. Honestly, I took these photos while out hiking around New Paltz but can’t remember if I ever knew what this building was. Anyone out there recognize it??? If so, let me know.

Inspiration House on the Cliff near New Paltz

Good ole’ Capen Hall

In this series, my main character Sara attends NPU or New Paltz University and lives in Capen Hall. Capen is based on the ‘real’ Capen Hall that I lived in while attending SUNY New Paltz (or The State University of New York at New Paltz for those of you who live outside the state of NY) Unfortunately SUNY New Paltz doesn’t exactly drip off the tongue so I changed the name of the school to NPU for short. Sara lives in my old room on the second floor girls’ hallway with windows looking in on the quad. My room would be about dead center in the photo below. Of course, Sara attends NPU about two decades after I did, but I have to assume dorm life doesn’t change a whole heck of a lot. I mean we didn’t have vampires roaming the quads in my day, but who knows what goes on there today, right? So to give you a visual of what Capen Hall looks like in my mind, I though I’d share these photos from my days at New Paltz.

Capen Hall at SUNY New Paltz

So you’re ready for book two already??

So you finished my first book and you’re ready for the next one??? Well, fear not. Here’s what you can expect in Book two.

The Purity of Blood: Volume II
Purity Lost
Christmas vacation now over, it’s time for Sara Donnelly to head back to New Paltz University. What promises to be a happy semester and future with the man of her dreams turns out to be just the opposite when Daniel mysteriously disappears only a few weeks into term.
Torn by feelings of betrayal not only for the man she loves for abandoning her, but also for the grandfather who isn’t telling her everything he knows, Sara finds her way into the arms of another. Desperately searching for stability in a life that feels as if it’s coming apart at the seams, Sara turns to her best friend Ben. Finally giving in to the feelings she’s always had for him, she finds a quiet spot in the eye of the storm. But can she be happy with a love that seems only a shadow of the tumultuous emotions she still feels for Daniel? After she discovers that Ben isn’t exactly who he’s claimed to be, Sara decides to take a chance on him, but mysterious forces in her life may already be taking that decision out of her hands.
This exciting second novel in Jenifer Geoghan’s popular The Purity of Blood series is not to be missed.

Psst … Looking for a good book to read?

Well, I’ve got a suggestion for you. The most fabulous book published in the whole wide world. Yes, it’s that good. Of course I’m a little biased as I wrote it. 🙂 This book is the first in a series of five novels. The first two are currently for sale on Amazon and the final three will be out before the end of the year.

The Purity of Blood, Volume I

Sara Donnelly was completely unprepared for what she found when she arrived at New Paltz University. Leaving her parents behind to start a new chapter of her life in New Paltz, a small college town nestled in the Catskills of New York State; she hoped to escape the horrors of her past in the unfamiliar surroundings of her new life as a college student. Little does she know that shortly after her arrival she’ll not only be forced to confront the horrors of her childhood, but everything she’s ever believed about the world she lives in as well.

Through her relationships with her mysterious professor Jonathan Walker and his teaching assistant Daniel Simmons, she discovers that her family’s ancient past is the future that’s awaited her in New Paltz all along, causing both men to unexpectedly find their way into her heart, but for very different reasons.

With a fiery temperament and spirit to match her red hair, Sara discovers her family history colliding with her present day in ways that even a genealogist such as herself could never have imagined. After all, who could possibly imagine vampires walking out of the pages of fantasy and into your present day?

The first in Jennifer Geoghan’s wildly popular The Purity of Blood series, the story of Sara Donnelly continues in Purity Lost and three other full length continuing novels soon to be published in 2014.