Personal, real-life paranormal experiences from the Paranormal Community. Because sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. [OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS]

After spending a year teaching in Thailand, I longed to travel with only my quirky self to keep me company. My journey started in Myanmar where temple cycles and village treks exposed me to the past and present of this intriguing nation. I returned to Northern Thailand for a volunteer experience and some of the most ingenious and adrenaline-pumping New Year's celebrations. Indonesia's smiling faces warmed my heart and even coaxed me out on a date or two. Join in if you've ever wanted to experience the beauty of a volcanic sunrise, the joy of Javanese hospitality or the thrill of a five-day water festival where joining a water war is as easy as saying 'Sawatdee!' or 'Hello' for my English readers.

Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road is a hilarious and heartfelt ride around the world, wherein the author eats dog, obsesses about chewing gum, gets stranded on an island, does dirty things, reveres rock n roll and muses about everything from death to Star Trek to the President Obama to jail time. Now available on Wattpad, Wayward has been a surprise hit at both iTunes and Amazon, reaching #1 on both retailers' travel charts. It chronicles a year in the life of the author, who lived in 12 countries over 12 months, one month at a time. It's kind of funny, kind of sad and kind of weird. Forbes describes the book: "Wayward isn’t strictly a travelogue or a guide by any means. The book reads like a diary, with chapters dedicated to everything from watching Obama’s inauguration in an Argentinian bar, to viewing a dubbed version of the newest Star Trek film in France and trying to understand the plot despite not speaking French, to remembering the ecstasy and pain of his first love just before breaking up with his then-boyfriend in Berlin, to eating dog in Vietnam, to his experience working with Patti Smith in New York. Gates’ lively, conversational writing style bring all the disparate pieces together for an engaging, enjoyable read."

“Like the howl of an accordion—half sorrow and half joy, wondrous and exquisite—these stories squeezed my heart.” —Sandra Cisneros, author of "The House on Mango Street" * In "Once More to the River," Erasmo Guerra writes a moving account of his boyhood on the Texas-Mexico border. An award-winning novelist and journalist, Guerra explores present-day political and cultural realities, and recounts the shattering loss his family suffered when his teenage sister was murdered. Told with lyrical prose and a reporter’s ear for the “Tex-Mex” language of the region, these stories capture the voices of South Texas. By turns humorous and haunting, powerful and tender, this collection is an intensely personal chronicle of tragedy and the triumph of survival.