Welcome to The Brave Bookshelf Dispatch
Books, brave conversations, author news, and one internet thing I’m probably overthinking.
Hi friends,
I recently went to Sedona, Arizona, and yes…
I went on a ghost tour.
Because apparently I cannot go on vacation like a normal person.
Some people go hiking.
Some people book spa days.
Some people look at red rocks and say, “Wow, nature is beautiful.”
I look at red rocks and say, “Okay, but where are the ghosts?”
So grab your coffee, tea, or emotional support bookmark.
It’s time for another Brave Bookshelf Dispatch.
📁 THE BRAVE BOOKSHELF CASE FILE
Case: When the ghost tour gives you fewer ghosts but more alien babies.
I’ll be honest.
The ghost tour was… okay.
Not terrible.
Not “I demand a refund and a séance” bad.
But I did wish they had actually taken us to more haunted locations instead of doing the whole:
“Five miles away, in the canyon to the east, something terrifying happened.”
Which is fine.
But also, I did not put on comfortable shoes to hear about ghosts who apparently could not be bothered to show up.
Still, the stories were wild.
We heard about Sedona vortexes/vortices, strange energy, spiritual experiences, and then somehow ended up hearing about a group of women called The Hybrid Children Community.
According to the ghost tour guide and the article I found, these women claim they have given birth to alien-human hybrid children who live on alien spaceships or another planet.
And all I could think was:
Excuse me.
That is not a side note.
That is a whole sci-fi thriller-horror novel, waving both arms in the desert.
💻 KIM VS. THE INTERNET
This week’s internet rabbit hole:
Alien hybrid children.
According to an article from DailyMail.com, (yes, I did some research :) this group of women believes they have had children with aliens, and that those children live somewhere beyond Earth.
Now listen.
I am not here to make fun of anyone’s beliefs.
But as a thriller writer?
My brain immediately opened a fresh notebook.
Because this has everything:
🌵 A desert setting
🌌 Alien claims
🌀 Sedona vortexes/vortices
👀 A group no one fully understands
👶 Children who may or may not exist
🚐 Tourists looking for ghosts and finding something much weirder
🔪 One woman who starts asking too many questions
And suddenly, my “fun vacation ghost tour” turned into:
What if the women are telling the truth?
Or worse…
What if they are not?
Because both versions are creepy.
If they are telling the truth, then we have aliens, hidden children, strange pregnancies, secret visits, and maybe a government agency quietly pretending not to know anything.
If they are not telling the truth, then we have a cult, manipulation, grief, delusion, missing people, and a community built around a shared story that may be covering something much darker.
Either way?
I’m listening.
With snacks.
From a safe distance.
📚 BOOKS THAT START THE CONVERSATION
This is why I love ghost tours.
Even when they are not perfect.
Even when the ghosts are allegedly five miles away and apparently unavailable for comment.
Ghost tours are story machines.
They take history, rumor, fear, grief, weird local legends, and that one guide with excellent dramatic pauses, and they hand writers a whole basket of “what if?”
What if the haunted hotel room is not haunted by a dead person, but by something that was never human?
What if the vortex is not spiritual energy, but a doorway?
What if a tourist joins a ghost tour and realizes the guide is leaving out the most important part of the story?
What if a group of women claiming to have alien children are not lying?
What if one of those children comes back?
See?
This is why I can’t be trusted with a vacation.
Some people bring home souvenirs.
I bring home possible murder plots.
🔪 THRILLER THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
Here’s the book idea my brain immediately started building:
A YA thriller set in Sedona.
A teen girl goes on vacation with her mom after a messy year. Maybe grief. Maybe divorce. Maybe she just needs a break from school, friends, and her phone.
They take a ghost tour because her mom thinks it will be “fun.”
It is not fun.
It is weird.
The guide keeps mentioning vortices.
A woman on the tour disappears.
The teen finds a strange symbol carved near one of the red rock trails.
Then she hears about a secret community of women who believe aliens took their children.
At first, she thinks it is ridiculous.
Then she starts seeing the same children in her dreams.
Then one of them says her name.
And suddenly the question is not:
Are the aliens real?
It is:
Why do they want her?
Tell me that is not a book.
Actually, don’t tell me.
I’m sensitive.
👻 WHAT SEDONA REMINDED ME ABOUT STORY IDEAS
This trip reminded me that inspiration does not always show up the way you expect.
I went looking for ghosts.
I got vortexes/vortices, alien children, red rocks, desert weirdness, and a ghost tour that made me say, “Okay, but can we physically go to the haunted place next time?”
And honestly?
That is kind of perfect.
Because stories are like that too.
You start with one idea.
A haunted hotel.
A strange town.
A local legend.
A woman with an impossible story.
Then something else taps you on the shoulder and says:
“What if this is actually about aliens?”
Rude.
But effective.
📚 BOOKS THAT START THE CONVERSATION
I just finished reading The Secret to Belonging by Megan E. Freeman, a YA contemporary novel in verse, and wow.
This one broke my heart in the best possible way.
It also fits strangely well with my whole Sedona/Hybrid Children Community rabbit hole, because underneath the weird alien claims and sci-fi thriller thoughts, there’s a very human question:
Where do you belong when the people who are supposed to hold onto you let go?
In this book, the main character is trying to find her place while her family is caught in the pain and chaos of helping a sibling struggling with drug addiction.
And I felt that.
Deeply.
I have a sibling who has struggled with mental illness and drug addiction, so this story hit close to home. It captures that lonely, helpless feeling of watching parents pour everything into the child who is spiraling, while the child trying to do everything “right” quietly disappears in the background.
That is such a hard thing to admit.
But this book says it beautifully.
It’s written in second person, which makes the loneliness feel even more personal. You’re not just reading about this character’s hurt — you feel like you’re standing inside it with her.
This was a 5-star read for me.
I also think it would be perfect for reluctant readers because the verse format makes it approachable, but there is so much depth here. The symbolism, emotional details, and second-person point of view would make this a fantastic book for English class discussions, especially for talking about how verse can carry story, character, and emotion with so few words.
Basically, this is one of those books that looks quiet on the outside…
And then knocks the wind out of you.
Get the book and read my full review here:
🎤 NEW ON THE BRAVE BOOKSHELF
In case you missed it, here’s what’s new:
📚 Latest Book Spotlight:
🎧 Latest Podcast/Video Episode:
✍️ Coming Soon: More book reviews, brave conversations, spooky thoughts, and probably more proof that I should not be left unsupervised on ghost tours.
You can catch up here:
📅 AUTHOR EVENTS & BOOKISH NEWS
Here’s what’s coming up:
📍 Funky Ferndale Art Fair— September 26, 2026
I’ll be at this art fair from 10 am to 3:30 pm with my fellow SCBWI.org Michigan authors, selling and signing my book Ask the Girl. Please stop by and say “Hi!” as well as enjoy all the fine art and food in the lovely town of Ferndale, Michigan. Hope to see you there! Click on the link above for more details.
And behind the scenes, I’m currently working on:
🔪 The Kill App revisions
👻 More spooky bookish content
🌵 Possibly turning Sedona into a sci-fi horror thriller in my head
📚 A TBR pile that did not take a vacation, apparently
Very rude of it.
💬 YOUR TURN
Reply and tell me:
Should I write the Sedona alien-hybrid thriller?
You can reply with just one word:
Yes, No, or Obviously.
Bonus points if you tell me what you’d want in the story:
Ghosts?
Aliens?
A cult?
A missing tourist?
A creepy vortex?
A teen girl who absolutely should have stayed at the hotel pool?
I’m nosy, but in a bookish way.
Until next time,
Kim
Author | Book Reviewer | Host of The Brave Bookshelf
P.S. This is why I love ghost tours. Even the okay ones hand me story ideas like, “Here, take this unsettling desert legend and make it worse.” And honestly? I respect that.
YES! Include them all. A compelling book review and intimate look at why you liked the story. Well done, Kim.