Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper Book Blitz {Guest Post & Giveaway}

I'm so thrilled to be participating in the Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper Book Blitz to celebrate J.L. Bryan's new, adult horror/paranormal book! Below you can learn all about this new book, read a fun guest post, and enter to win an ebook copy...

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #1

 by J.L. Bryan 

September 19th 2014

Genres: Adult, Horror, Paranormal

Ellie Jordan’s job is to catch and remove unwanted ghosts. Part detective, part paranormal exterminator, Ellie operates out of Savannah, Georgia, one of the oldest and most haunted cities in North America.

When a family contacts her to deal with a disturbance presence in the old mansion they’ve recently purchased, Ellie first believes it to be a typical, by-the-book specter, a residual haunting by a restless spirit. Instead, she finds herself confronted an evil older and more powerful than she’d ever expected, rooted in the house’s long and sordid history of luxury, sin, and murder. The dangerous entity seems particularly interested in her clients’ ten-year-old daughter.

Soon her own life is in danger, and Ellie must find a way to exorcise the darkness of the house before it can kill her, her clients, or their frightened young child.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Five Signs Your House May Be Haunted

by J.L. Bryan

Things go bump in the night.  You feel like someone is always watching you.  You think you have a ghost, but maybe it’s a just a creepy squirrel scrambling around your attic at night and staring at you through the windows.  How can you tell for sure?

The editors of Ladies’ Haunted Home Journal are back with an easy guide to determining whether a paranormal presence infests your house!  Before calling the ghost trappers, consider whether you have any of the following signs:

Cold Spots: One or more areas in your house might seem much colder the space around it.  This may be a corner, closet, or other out-of-the-way spot.  You may be excited to learn that when you feel the cold spot, you’re not just in the presence of a restless dead spirit, you’re also touching it!  You’re almost inside the ghost, and it’s kind of inside you.  Pretty neat.  Important note: A cold spot inside your refrigerator or freezer may be caused by the appliance itself.

Strange Sounds: You may hear moaning, groaning, thumping or crashing late at night.  Make sure it isn’t an elderly neighbor or relative bumbling around your house.  If you hear voices threatening you with death or dismemberment, you might consider the benefits of spending the night at a Motel 6.

Mysterious Motion: Plates slide off the counter.  Doors open or close by themselves.  The chandelier leaped down from the ceiling, flew across the room, and tried to kill you last week.  You’re beginning to think something may be amiss.  First, make sure there aren’t any logical causes for these problems, such as keeping your counter too greasy, or a broken hinge in the door, or that idiot who installed your chandelier.  If you can’t find an explanation, odds are you’ve got a ghost (or a poltergeist, but let’s not split hairs).

Absurd Disappearances: Your keys disappear from your end table, only to be found in the fish tank.  Your good silver vanishes, piece by piece, and you discover all of down in a mysterious back corner of the basement.  It’s either a family member with bizarre hoarding tendencies or a mischievous ghost.  Either way, you’ve got an annoying problem on your hands.

Full Apparitions: If you have seen a ghost appear and disappear, you probably have a ghost.  We don’t really have an alternate explanation for this one.  Call your local paranormal exterminator today!

We hope these tips will help you sort out whether your house is haunted or your family is just weird!  If you have further questions, please read our pamphlet: My House is Haunted – What Now?  Good luck with that ghost!

From someone who has lived with ghosts for years, I think these are all really good signs of a haunting to look for...for reals ;)

 

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Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper is the first book in a new series by J. L. Bryan, the author of the Jenny Pox series and other novels.  He lives in the very hot state of Georgia with his family and no ghosts, as far as he knows.

Sign up for J.L. Bryan’s newsletter to receive a free ebook of short stories and hear about future releases in the Ellie Jordan series and other new books.

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Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper!

J.L. Bryan has generously offered one e-copy of his new book for one of you cupcakes.

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The Unseen Blitz {Giveaway, Excerpt, Guest Post}

I'm thrilled to be participating in The Unseen Book Blitz! I adore J.L. Bryan's writing (and he's a pretty awesome dude as well!) and am so excited that he's written another spooky, spine-tingling read. Below you can find out more about this book, read an informative and entertaining guest post, check out an excerpt from The Unseen, and win some wicked prizes...

The Unseen

by J.L. Bryan

10/26/13

Find the book: Goodreads / Amazon / B&N / Author's Site

Cassidy is a young tattoo artist living in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. She’s always suffered terrible nightmares, and sometimes the hideous creatures seem to follow her out of her dreams and into her waking life, though she’s the only one who can see them. Drugs and alcohol can blot them out, but never entirely chase them away.

When a demonic cult begins to take control of the people in her life, including her younger brother, Cassidy discovers that the unseen world of monsters is very real. She can no longer avoid it. To protect those she loves, she must accept her own hidden supernatural talents and face the forces of evil before the sinister cult achieves its twisted goals and casts the world into darkness.

The Unseen will have a special release price of 99 cents through Halloween!

Demon-Summoning Do’s and Don’ts

So you’ve cast a circle and you’re ready to bring an infernal spirit into your home for a visit.  Or are you?  Summoning demons takes care and consideration—it’s nothing to jam in between doing the dishes and catching the new episode of Walking Dead.

These simple tips will help you put together an exciting evocation, without all the messy embarrassment of getting your soul ripped from your flesh and devoured.

DO offer a blood sacrifice.  Your guest has traveled across endless darkness from the lower pits of Hell and will be expecting a snack.  Chicken or lizard blood will do nicely for a lesser spirit.  For an archdemon, you’ll want to sacrifice a human being instead—anything less is considered rude.  Virgins are still preferred, but no longer expected by more modern demons.  Finally, an activity you can do with that annoying neighbor you’ve always wanted to eliminate from the earth!

DON’T call up the wrong kind of demon.  Incubi and succubi will arrive with certain expectations, because these unholy hornballs only have one thing on their evil minds at all times.  If you’re not ready for a swingers’ sabbat, avoid them.  If you do summon them, you’re going to need a little more protection that the typical enchanted circle provides—the beasties get around.  Also avoid gluttony demons, because these corpulent creatures not only look like disgusting mountains of flab with enormous mouths, they’ll also destroy your snack bar and leave an unpleasant flatulent odor that takes weeks to remove from your carpet.

DO be polite.  Powerful demons resent being summoned by mere mortals, but minding your manners can go a long way towards creating a more pleasant evening.  When you say, “I bind thee and summon thee, foul Mephistopheles!” and the enraged horned demon appears in a flash of fire and brimstone, don’t forget to add, “Thank you!”

DON’T expect them to bring wine or a hot dish.  Again, they’ve come a long way and can’t be expected to carry host gifts up from the abyss.  Also, demon food tends to be rotten and vermin-infested, so how badly did you really want that casserole, anyway?

DO remember to take pictures!  Remember, the only reason to do anything extraordinary in life is so you can brag to your friends on Facebook.  A picture of you and Beelzebub with his host of flesh-eating flies will totally shut up that one friend who’s always bragging about the time she met Colin Farrell on an airplane.

DON’T forget to banish!  If you don’t send that demon right back to Hell when you’re done, it may move onto your couch and stay there for months.  Demons don’t pay rent, they don’t do chores, and they never, ever give up control of the remote.  They will, however, watch home shopping channels twenty-four hours a day and max out your credit card to ordering useless knickknacks.  They won’t take subtle hints to go home, either, no matter how many you drop—you have to order them out.  Exercise your right to excorsize!

Following this list is sure to make your demonic encounter a more successful one!  When you summon horrific spirits from the fiery underworld into your living room, you don’t want it to ruin the rest of your weekend.

3 excerpts from Chapter 1 of The Unseen

from the beginning of chapter one...

Years later, Cassidy would remember the night of the party as her first encounter with the unseen world.  It began with broken glass, blood, and a homemade Ouija board.

The day after Cassidy’s seventeenth birthday, her mother was away at work for the night, inadvertently giving Cassidy the best possible present: a Saturday night alone at the apartment.  Her younger brother Kieran was staying at a friend’s house for the weekend.  Cassidy’s mother had forbidden her to have any guests except for her best friend, Barb.  Boys, as always, were doubly forbidden while Cassidy’s mother was working the night shift at the hotel.  Her mother called her on the land line to make sure she was home—never Cassidy’s cell, always the land line.

The night started out calmly, with no sign of the horror to come.

from the middle of chapter one...

“Sh!  It’s moving,” Cassidy told them.

The wine glass shuddered again, and this time it began to slide over the poster board, the lip scraping and smearing a few of the still-wet letters, gathering glowing paint around its rim.

The glass moved across the alphabet to the word YES in the upper left corner of the poster, scraping up glue and glitter from a sparkly red pentagram along the way.  

“Who’s doing that?  Are you doing that?” Reese asked Tamila, who shook her head, her wide eyes fixed on the board.

“Hello?  Are you a spirit?” Barb asked.

The glass slid half an inch, then right back into place.  YES again.

“Who are you?” Barb asked. “I mean, to whom do we have the pleasure of speaking?”

The wineglass lay still for a moment, then vibrated and hummed as if someone had plinked it with a fingernail.  The glass slid over the alphabet.

Cassidy felt her heart racing.  She hadn’t expected it to work at all, and it was starting to freak her out.  She wished they hadn’t turned off the lights.

from the end of chapter one...

The glass flew back to the top row of letters.

D...I...E...

It moved faster, back and forth, never leaving the top row.

DIE

DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE

Cassidy watched in horror, spellbound as the glass raced back and forth, smearing the top row of letters into an illegible green streak, but still sliding back and forth, back and forth, touching the spots where the three letters D, I, and E had been.

She wanted to let go and pull away, but her fingertips felt glued to the wine glass.  The glass became icy, burning cold under her fingertips, a crust of smoking frost forming inside the bowl and along the stem.

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.He is the author of The Paranormals series (starting with Jenny Pox), The Songs of Magic series, Nomad, and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, his son John, and some dogs and cats.
Website: www.jlbryanbooks.com
Twitter: @jlbryanbooks

There are two ways to win some awesome prizes during this blitz:

GIVEAWAY ONE- open INT

Win an ebook copy of The Unseen!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post letting me know you want to win an ebook copy and leave your name and a way to contact you (email address or Twitter handle). Giveaway ends on Nov. 3 at 12:00 pm EST

GIVEAWAY ONE NOW CLOSED

GIVEAWAY TWO- open US/CAN

This is a tour wide giveaway for a signed copy of The Unseen and the following-

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Radiant Book Blitz {Excerpt and Giveaway}

I'm thrilled to have the Radiant Book Blitz stopping by today! I just adore author Christina Daley and I really enjoyed this book...

Radiant

by Christina Daley

2/13/13

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

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Purchase: Amazon

Mary is part Vietnamese. Carter is a complete jerk. Normally, they don't talk much.

But when Mary's in an accident on the way to school one morning, Carter nearly dies saving her life. The doctors say his chances of living are slim, and Mary's feeling the full weight of survivor's guilt.

However, Carter's back at school in a matter of days, as if nothing had happened. Although, he is a little "glitchy," and he's developed a sudden and intense interest in Mary. She thinks he's suffering from major brain trauma from the accident. Or that he's been possessed.

As it so happens, Carter really is possessed. And the thing controlling him is having the time of its life learning to be human.

Featuring a diverse cast of characters, RADIANT is a funny "paranormal-lite" story about being human, being in love, and being healed.

Excerpt 1 from Radiant

A voice called to her. It seemed close, and it was getting louder as the pain got sharper. "Hey? Hey! Are you all right?" it asked.

Mary blinked several times before she could finally see again. She was in the middle of the street. The cars had stopped and people on the sidewalk were staring.

"Are you all right?" the voice asked again. It was coming from a man wearing some type of uniform.

"What…?" Mary tried to say more, but her voice suddenly stopped working.

"Careful," he said as he helped her up. "Looks like you can move all right. Here, let's get you out of the street."

He helped her over to the sidewalk. "Stay here. Someone's calling the paramedics." And then he was gone.

Mary sat there, still in a daze. She started noticing familiar stuff all over the ground—an open book bag, books, folders, unused tampons, a shoe, and an apple with one bite mark. Her eyes followed the trail of debris to a brilliant red sports car, half of which was smashed in by a city bus.

What had happened? Mary studied the whole scene, trying to puzzle together the pieces. Then it dawned on her. The car had hit her. Not intentionally. She had run in front of the bus without knowing it. It was about to hit her, but the car had gotten in the way first. It had saved her life.

Mary thought about looking in the car. Then her feet sorta moved without her meaning them to, and she made her way to the passenger door. She recognized the person inside. Carter. She knew his last name, but she couldn't think of what it was. He was slumped over the seat with blood oozing all over his face. His eyes were shut.

Mary knocked on the window. The tears in her hand stung.

No response.

She beat the window with her fist.

Still nothing.

Mary stared. She couldn't believe it. On any other day, she wouldn't exchange two words with this guy. Just yesterday, he nearly mowed down an elderly couple while driving out of the school lot. Mary had secretly wished he'd be taught a lesson. But she didn't mean this.

She tried the door handle, but it was still locked. Suddenly, Carter's eyes flickered opened. He looked straight at her.

Mary gasped and pressed her face against the window.

Carter's eyes closed.

She stared at him, waiting for him to open them again. Waiting for any sign of life. But he was still like he was before.

Hands suddenly took hold of Mary, pulling her away from the car. Her feet moved on their own again. Someone was yelling "Miss" a lot. Parts of her brain found other noises too, like sirens, voices, beeping, and other things. The hands directed her to sit on something hard and cold.

"Miss? Can you hear me? Can you tell me your name?"

Mary didn't answer. She still hadn't found her voice, and her mind was fuzzy, too.

"Is that her bag there? Does she have a driver's license?"

A different person spoke. "No license, but I found a student ID. Her name's Mary Phan. She's seventeen and a junior here at Lewis Prep."

Mary heard a third voice. "I just talked with some of the kids on the sidewalk. One of them said her mom's a nurse at the memorial hospital."

"Find out how to contact the mom. Anyone see what happened?"

"Cops are questioning witnesses right now. Looks like she ran in front of the bus. It would've nailed her if that sportster hadn't gotten in the way."

"Anything on the bus or the driver of the car?"

"Everyone on the bus looks fine. The car belongs to a kid named Carter Maxwell. Also a junior." A sigh. "I wouldn't hold my breath. He looks really bad in there."

Mary tuned out everything else. All sights. All sounds. The only thing she could see in her mind was Carter staring at her.

***************************************************************************

Christina Daley

Site / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

Christina Daley made her first book with neighborhood friends when she was four years old. They "wrote" out some semblance of lettering with crayons, cut up a cardboard box for the cover, and bound it all together with clear adhesive tape. It was brilliant.
Quite a few years later, Christina is trying her hand at writing "real" books. She lives in Dallas, Texas, with a pet plant named Herb.

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Debt Collector Blitz: Excerpt and Giveaway

Today I'm participating in the Debt Collector Blitz and sharing an excerpt and giveaway...

Debt Collector 

by Susan Kaye Quinn  

Series: Debt Collector, Serial 1-3

Publication date: 2013 

Genre: NA Future-Noir

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Synopsis:

EPISODES 1-3 (Delirium, Agony, Ecstasy) of the Debt Collector serial. Contains mature content and themes. For young-adult-appropriate thrills, see Susan's bestselling Mindjack series.

What's your life worth on the open market? 

A debt collector can tell you precisely.

Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn't what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone--a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again.

The first three episodes of the Debt Collector serial are collectively the length of a short novel, or 152 pages. These are the first three of nine episodes in the first season of The Debt Collector serial. This dark and gritty future-noir is about a world where your life-worth is tabulated on the open market and going into debt risks a lot more than your credit rating. Episode 4, Broken, releases 4/17/13. For more about the Debt Collector serial, see DebtCollectorSeries.com

BOOK EXCERPT

Excerpt from Delirium (Debt Collector 1) by Susan Kaye Quinn:

     My jackboots are new, the latest ultra-light material out of Hong Kong’s synthetics district, and they make a strange squeaking sound against the hospital floor. It’s the kind of sound that might gather snickers or a raised eyebrow, but no one looks at me, at least not on purpose. I stroll past the ICU desk, taking my time, breathing in the antiseptic smell that masks the odor of death held back by machines and drugs and round-the-clock care. The nurses duck their heads and study their charts, ignoring me. As if catching my eye might mean I’m coming to collect their debt, rather than Mr. Henry’s in Room 301.

The floor is so highly polished that I see the reflection of my trenchcoat running ahead of me, black as a midnight grave, a spook that lives on the surface of the oft-scrubbed tiles. It reaches the door to 301 before me and disappears in the dim, flickering light coming from the room. The spook has gone back where he belongs, into the dark recesses of my soul, assuming I still have one. If I was a betting man, I would say the odds of having a soul keep getting longer with every transfer I do. The older debt collectors, the ones who are still alive, don’t have anything shining out of their dull-glass eyes, even when they’re hyped up on a transfer. There’s no telling what my eyes look like.

I stopped looking in the mirror a long time ago.

Mr. Henry’s hooked up in all the usual places—tubes in his arms and monitor patches hovering over his temples and the blue-veined skin of his chest. His knobbed knees and shriveled legs stick out the end of the blanket. I don’t know if he’s tossed the blanket aside or the nurses just forgot to cover him up again after his sponge bath or whatever they do to prepare patients for a debt transfer. Goosebumps raise the hair on what’s left of his legs into a small forest of gray fur. I tug the thin, white-weave blanket over his exposed legs, and Mr. Henry opens his eyes.

They’re pale green and watery—washed out and used up like the rest of him.

“You’ve come for me,” he says.

Susan Kaye Quinn
Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter
Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.
Susan left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees, but she was drawn back to writing by an irresistible urge to share her stories with her niece, her kids, and all the wonderful friends she’s met along the way.
She doesn’t have to sneak her notes anymore, which is too bad.
Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.

You can enter and win two different giveaways during this blitz:

1. Win a Kindle + Debt Collector 1-3 ebook: enter HERE

2. Win an ebook copy of the first Debt Collector Serial, Delirium:

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-must be 13+, one main entry per person, winner will be emailed and must claim prize within 48 hours

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