WHISPER "Fact or Fiction" Blog Tour

Welcome to The Bookish Babe's stop on the "WHISPER: Fact or Fiction Blog Tour".  You may or may not know that I have major love for author Heather Hildenbrand and her books. So I am very happy to take part in this tour. Today I have a "Fact or Fiction" guest post from Heather, followed by a giveaway of WHISPER. I hope to read it for myself very soon. But first, take a look at the book.

The Cherokee believe when a person dies, their soul is reborn. Life is repeated. An endless cycle of lessons to be learned, love to be found, destiny to be fulfilled. For the past six months, in every flower, every bird, I’ve imagined my parents, relieved of their human forms. Now, after five months at the Skye View Wellness Center, it was summer. A time for parties and friends, but that’s the last thing I want to do. So when my best friend Erin convinces me to attend a bonfire at Eagle Point, I can’t handle the crowd full of sympathetic stares or drunken class clowns who would use my tragedy as a way into my heart – or my pants. The solitude of the woods offers an escape, until I stumble upon a boy, unconscious and bleeding, his pockets stuffed not with identification but with poetry illustrating the beauty of dying. I’ve seen enough death. I will not leave this boy’s side. Even after he wakes, when the only thing he can remember are visions of events that haven’t happened yet…

Now, "Fact or Fiction"!

Smudge Sticks? – Fact. Cherokee, and other Indian tribes, have used smudge sticks for many years in cleansing rituals. The end of the stick was lit with the central or cooking fire and waved about. Also known as a “smoke bath” because the person conducting the ritual would bathe the area in smoke. Different herbs were used, depending on the intended purpose. Most smudge sticks were made out of dried herbs tied together.                                                                                                 

“Smudging is the burning of certain herbs to create a cleansing smoke bath, which is used to purify people, ceremonial and ritual space, and ceremonial tools and objects.” 

So obviously the whole smudge stick thing isn’t a fact for me, per se. But it exists in many Native American cultures. And it doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to get from “smudge stick rituals” to “magic.” #AnythingIsPossible

The Giveaway! 

Heather is giving one lucky reader an ebook of WHISPER. Just enter the easy peasy form below.


The winner of the WHISPER ebook giveaway is Danielle!