Maria Savva's Blog - Posts Tagged "ghost"

My excitement for my book launch today has been doubled because I am launching on the same day as my good friend and fellow author, Darcia Helle.

For those of you who might be new to my blog, I'll explain a bit about how I connected with Darcia.
Last summer I was invited by Darcia to join BestsellerBound.com as a resident author. Up until that time I didn't really know Darcia, except that I was a friend through Goodreads and maybe some other networking sites. I was very impressed by her website and blog so I agreed to join her and Stacy Juba in launching BestsellerBound. That message board is now very popular with independent/small press authors and readers. If you haven't already been there to have a look, please do join us. We love meeting new authors and readers.

A few months ago I found out that Darcia was busy writing her new novel, 'Into The Light'. As I was planning to release my new novel, 'The Dream', it made sense to launch the books together, especially as they are both books that feature ghosts!

More about the books:

The Dream:



Blurb: Lynne cannot shake her feelings of dread; her dreams tell her she is making a terrible mistake, she must not marry Adam. But, how can she believe the dream? Lynne and Adam have shared their lives for three years now. She is certain she loves him. It is not that love, which her dream warns against. It doesn't matter that she loves this man she will soon marry. If she marries him, the voice in her dream says her soul mate will die. Her true love will perish. Soon, Lynne's world is transformed and becomes almost unrecognisable, except for the déjà vu. Time doesn't seem to mean much anymore, and things are not quite as they seem. As her world spins out of control, Lynne must sort out what's real and what isn't to fulfill her destiny.

Link to the book trailer: The Dream - Book Trailer

Where you can read a sample: Goodreads

Where you can buy it! Lulu.com for the paperback version. Save 30%!

The paperback version will also soon be available on Amazon and B&N and other such sites. You can also order it from any bookstore or library quoting the ISBN: 978-0-9564101-5-3

Ebook!
Amazon Kindle
Journal-Store
Smashwords.com Where you can download in any format to suit your ereader.

Into The Light:



The blurb:
Max Paddington refuses to go into the light until he finds his killer. This presents a dilemma, since Max is even less competent as a spirit than he was as a live person. No one sees or hears him and he can't manage to get anywhere or do anything on his own.

Joe Cavelli is a private investigator, living an ordinary life. Then one day he walks across a parking lot, gets yelled at by a ghost, and his life only gets stranger from there.

Max and Joe team up to find Max's killer. In the process, they form an unlikely friendship and change each other's lives in ways they never expected.

Link to the book trailer: Into The Light - book Trailer

Where you can read a sample: Darcia's Blog

Where you can buy it! On Darcia's website (print copy pay via paypal): The Book will also soon be available on Amazon and other good book stores. You can order it from any bookstore or library quoting ISBN: 978-1463640200

Ebook version on
Amazon Kindle
Smashwords

Contest!

Darcia Helle is currently hosting a giveaway where you can enter to win a print copy of both our books! It runs until Wednesday 20th July, so be quick, this is a 48hr giveaway! Here's the link to the contest: Giveaway!

Enjoy the books!

I am pleased to welcome back to my blog my good friend and fellow author Darcia Helle.

Earlier this week, Darcia and I launched our new novels, her book, Into The Light, is all about a ghost, Max, who refuses to rest until his killer is brought to justice. I was very lucky to be able to read an advance copy of the novel. I thoroughly enjoyed Max's adventure. At the moment, Darcia is holding a giveaway here on Goodreads. If you go to the book's page you'll find details as to how you can enter to win a print copy (limited to US and Canada).

She has also very generously offered to give away two ebook copies to readers of my blog. All you have to do to enter is 'like' or comment on this blog post. A winner will be picked at random on 31st July 2011.

The interview:

I think I read on one of your blog posts that when you started writing Into The Light, your intention was to kill of Max, who ended up being the main character, in the first chapter of the book, is that right? Tell us a bit about how you decided to keep him in as the main character.

I always intended for Max to die right away and for his character be a ghost. But Joe Cavelli, the private investigator, was supposed to be the main character. Max was to be a sort of comic sidekick, who interfered as Joe tried to solve his murder.

I don't write outlines first or do any real planning. The idea marinates in my mind for a bit and the characters come to life. Then I start writing. The characters typically have a lot more control of the story than I do. With Max, that control was magnified to the extreme. By the time I finished writing the first chapter, I knew that his character needed to be center stage. He'd have it no other way. He also wasn't leading me down my normal suspense road. At first, I tried steering the story in one direction and he'd immediately dig his heels in the ground and say, "No, this way." Max's story wasn't all about the mystery and suspense. His story was something altogether different and I'm happy that I followed his lead.

Into the Light, in my opinion is a bit like a romantic comedy, but there is also a much deeper side to the tale. I think behind the fun, and the excellent mystery, there is a lot in the book to make the reader think about the way they are living their life, and how it can effect other people's lives and ultimately their own fate. When you set out to write the book did you mean to examine how our behaviour effects others or was that something that developed while you wrote the book?

I'm not completely sure what I meant to write but I know it's not at all what I wound up with. When Max emerged as the main character, I found myself exploring issues outside of the mystery of his murder. In coming to terms with his death, Max had to confront his regrets and admit his own culpability in allowing circumstances to shape his life. Max, like many people, held a lot of resentment about the way his life turned out. Blame is an easy thing to place but, when looked at with honesty, not as easy to maintain.

In the book, I hope I'm not giving too much away by saying that Max meets quite a few people from the past who have touched his life in some way. There was an underlying theme, I feel, revolving around the regrets we can sometimes carry with us. If you could meet someone from your past for a day, who would that be and why?

Wow, this is a question that I could ponder for weeks! I've tried to come up with a lighthearted answer but I'm striving for honesty here. I would go back to meet the eye doctor my mother took me to when I was about eight years old. An odd choice, right? I'll briefly explain. I had begun having vision problems - letters moved around the page, words were slightly out of focus. And I was getting intense headaches. Making the obvious assumption that this was a vision issue, my mother took me to an eye doctor. He examined me and declared my vision perfect. Then, in front of me, he told my mother that he believed I was manifesting the symptoms. He suggested that I had a friend who wore glasses and maybe I wanted to be like her. Or, perhaps, I was looking for attention.
I was an extremely quiet, impressionable child. This man, with his few callous words, had left me feeling responsible for creating symptoms that supposedly didn't exist. He'd made me question myself in ways that no child should ever have to do. And that continued on for many years.

Naturally, my mother believed this doctor. This was 40 years ago, after all. No one questioned doctors back then. And what reason would my mother have to disbelieve him? I stopped talking about my symptoms, even as they got worse. I learned to chase the words around the page. I still do. Many years later, too late to change the course of the illness, I found out that the headaches and vision issues were early signs of Lyme disease. Now it's late-stage and chronic.
I don't blame that one doctor. There were many after him, well into my adult years, who made similarly callous remarks. But I would like that first doctor to know that his offhand comment, about a young girl he didn't know anything about, altered my life in profound ways.

Max is a ghost. You and I have discussed our own ghostly experiences in the past. Indeed, we're putting together a group here soon on Goodreads 'Supernatural Book Talk'. Max has a very interesting journey after he dies, did you do any research into theories about death and ghosts before you wrote the book, and if so how did you go about that?

I didn't do research specifically for this book. This is a topic that has long intrigued me and I've read countless related nonfiction and fiction books. I also think growing up in a haunted house has given me a slightly different perspective than the average person has! Part of Max's journey is a mixture of various things I've read and experienced. But most of it is the result of my imagination and Max's character merging into what I hope is a perfect fit.

Are you a reader of ghost stories? If so, do you have a favourite?

I do love ghost stories! I'm not so much into the 'horror' genre, where ghosts are all evil poltergeists or out to possess living people. I like the human factor, when you're able to picture that ghost as a person, understand what his/her life had been like and why he/she is lingering in the world. I also like love stories related to various psychic abilities. One of my favorite ghost stories will always be Caraliza by Joel Blaine Kirkpatrick. Awesome book! I'm a big fan of Kay Hooper, who writes a series based on a special F.B.I. unit of psychics. Another of my favorites is While the Savage Sleeps by Andrew Kaufmann, which is a fast-paced suspense but also deals with a bit of psychic abilities.

Since our last interview on my blog, a lot has happened. You've been busy collecting stories for the BestsellerBound Short Story Anthologies. Tell us a bit more about what gave you the idea to publish these volumes and what are your plans for the collections?

We have some of the most amazing authors as part of our BestsellerBound group. The amount of talent in these relatively unknown authors is astounding. I wanted to give readers a sample of our talented group and hopefully introduce us all to a wider readership.

These authors are not only talented, they are truly nice people. We're all happily compiling our stories and giving them away free for readers to enjoy. Writing the words means nothing if we have no one to share them with.

Volume Two is in the works. Each volume will have ten stories. I'm awaiting the final story for the second volume. Jaleta Clegg has already designed the cover for us. I hope to have it formatted and sent out to the world by mid August. And we've started collecting stories for volume three!






As well as having many novels to your name, you have now published a few of short stories. We discussed The First Kill in your last interview. I was definitely drawn in by your latest short story, 'You can call me Ari', which appears in the BestsellerBound Anthology - Volume 1. It's an engaging read. Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind writing that fabulously imaginative but very scary story...

I have voices in my head that I can take no credit for. If I didn't write, I'd be heavily medicated in a padded cell. :)

The idea for this story came to me while I was lying on my chiropractor's table. If you've read the story, you'll know that I did not want to be having those particular thoughts at that particular time! I kept trying to brush it aside but the idea would not leave me alone. The chiropractor's table is truly a great setting for torture! By the time my adjustment was over, the idea was formed and the characters were speaking to me. I got home and immediately had to sit down and write the story.

Name one thing you like more about short stories as compared to novels.

In reading them, I like that short stories require a shorter commitment. If I've just read an in-depth novel or a detailed nonfiction book, I sometimes like to break away and read something that asks less of me as a reader. I also like the fact that short stories often leave more to the reader's imagination. In a way, they are only a glimpse into someone's window. You don't get to see what happens when the blinds are closed.

In writing them, again, I like that they require less commitment. Novels take months, if not years, to produce. I can write a short story in one afternoon. I'm a fan of instant gratification. :)

Now, name one thing that you like more about writing novels as compared to short stories.

With reading and with writing, I will always lean more heavily toward novels for the same reason: Better character development. For me, characters drive the story. I want to know what drives this person. Why did he make one choice rather than another? Character depth is difficult to achieve in a short story.

Having read a few of your books now, I have to say that I love your style. I would not usually choose crime fiction to read mainly because I have found that much of it includes gratuitous violence. You seem to have found the perfect balance between writing very violent scenes but in a way that is not likely to put off a discerning reader. Is that just an inherent skill you have or do you purposefully try to construct the violent scenes in a more digestible fashion?

I think that comes from my own reading preference. I am drawn to mystery and suspense but not for the blood and gore. As I've mentioned before, human nature fascinates me. I love placing (fictional) people in challenging situations, then stepping aside to see how they respond. Twisted minds are, for me, more intriguing than the happily married P.T.A. mom who bakes cookies every Wednesday. (Not that P.T.A. moms who bake are a bad thing!)

When I read, I don't want to be shocked by what the killer is doing with his knife. I want to be shocked by what he's thinking while he does it and what he feels afterward. I want to be even more shocked because I understand his motive. I also want to be in that moment with the victim. I don't necessarily want to read about the pain the knife inflicts. I want to experience the remorse of knowing she will never see be able to apologize to her husband or the guilt because he's done horrible things to others and now knows how his own victims felt. When I write, those are the goals I'm reaching for.

Now that you have ventured into the paranormal with 'Into The Light' do you have plans to write more supernatural stories?

I would love to, if my muse cooperates! I had a lot of fun writing Max's story. I've considered using Joe Cavelli, the private investigator in Into The Light, as an ongoing character and writing a type of series about a P.I. who hears ghosts and solves their cases. But the different ghosts would be the main characters in each book and Joe Cavelli would remain the minor character. For now, that's just a thought and might or might not ever play out.

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm currently working on digging myself out from under the pile of assorted projects and tasks I've let build up! I want to get volume two of the BestsellerBound Short Story Anthology completed. I've got some work to do on my website and assorted mundane tasks to catch up on. Once I get regrouped and clear the debris that is covering my desk, I plan to work on the third book in my Michael Sykora series.

Thank you, Darcia, as always for being a wonderful guest.

Remember, if you'd like to win an ebook version of 'Into The Light', leave a comment below, or simply click the button to 'like' the blog post!



P.S. It's a great cover, isn't it? It was designed by the multi-talented Jason McIntyre, author of Road Markers and Thalo Blue (and a whole lot more) I'd also recommend you try his books.

As most of you know by now, my latest book, The Dream, a fantasy/paranormal/timeslip novel, is now out in the world.

There are two giveaways you might like to know about:

1. On LibraryThing you can enter until 14th August 2011 to win a copy in the Member Giveaways: LibraryThing

2. On The Secret Writer Blog, I have a written a guest post all about the trials and tribulations of an indie writer's life, and until 13th August 2011 you can enter to win a copy of The Dream.
The Secret Writer

Good luck!

My latest novel The Dream is available at Amazon on Kindle for just $0.99/£0.86 for the next day or so. This sale is really aimed at those of you who follow my blog, or my Facebook and Twitter page. Just a token of my appreciation for your continued support. So, if you've been wanting to buy it but were hoping for a lower price, here it is! Grab it at this exclusive price while you can!


Here are the links:

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/The-Dream-ebook...

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dream-ebo...





Enjoy!

As regular followers of my blog will know, I am running a series this year where each month I will recommend one of my all time favourite indie books (self-published or small press). These are books that I think are amazing and deserve to be bestsellers.

Here's the list of my picks so far:

January: The Day the Flowers Died

February: Caviar Dreams

March: Horse Latitudes





This month, I would like to recommend Into The Light by Darcia Helle






To be honest, I could have chosen any one of Darcia Helle's books as my favourite. I've read, Hit List, The Cutting Edge, Quiet Fury: An Anthology of Suspense, The First Kill and Enemies and Playmates. I thoroughly enjoyed all of those books. She is a very talented author with a talent for suspenseful writing. She also has a fabulous sense of humour that comes across in her writing.

Here's my review of 'Into The Light':

This is a wonderful story on so many levels. It contains humour, romance, and an element of mystery. It's a supernatural tale about a ghost, Max, who refuses to go `into the light' until his killer can be brought to justice.
Max, in life, was a very ordinary man, in fact he died feeling like a failure and as if his life had been in vain.
What Helle's book teaches us is that there are many things we do on a daily basis that have an effect on other people's lives, for good or bad. Max is forced to confront issues from his past when he dies, and this multi-layered story perfectly highlights the fact that we are often unaware of other people's thoughts and feelings and that makes all the difference when looking at the effects of things we do. Many readers will be able to relate to Max, and also the private investigator, Joe, who is roped in to help Max find his killer. Their relationship is an odd one, but they each learn something from the other as they both try to come to terms with their problems.
The book deals with the subjects of divorce, regret, relationships, insecurity, and miscommunication, among other things. It's a fun and often comical read, but also contains very deep thinking on human behaviour and relationships.
The underlying message appears to be that when we die we leave behind an imprint based on everything we have done, thought, and said... it's definitely food for thought.

Look out for my next selection in May!

The December issue of the online literary magazine The Write Launch has just been published. It features lots of great poetry, short stories, novel and novella excepts, and essays from up-and-coming writers.

My latest short story, "Where Do We Go?" is featured in the magazine this month. It's a story about unrequited love and it has a paranormal theme.

You can read the story by following this link: https://thewritelaunch.com/2017/11/wh...





"Where Do We Go?" will be featured in my upcoming collection of short stories, "Out Of Time", to be published next year.

I started work on the sequel to my last novel "The Spider" a few years ago. I'd never written a sequel before, and when I wrote "The Spider" I'd never intended that to be part of a series, but as all authors know, books have a mind of their own sometimes... at least it seems that way.

When I finished "The Spider", I knew that Rex's story wasn't over. He became such a quirky character that I was intrigued by him and I suppose writing the sequel was a way to get to know him better, as well as the reasons behind his thirst for revenge on mankind. I'm sure other writers will understand that when we write characters, sometimes they take on a life of their own and it's almost as if they are telling the story, or dictating the way it progresses. Maybe not, maybe that's just me. Anyway, Rex's story had to be continued.

As many of you may know, I've been working on the sequel, on and off, around my day job for the past few years. I enjoyed writing it, even if the editing stage was a bit of a pain.

Sequels are very hard to write because you have to remember what you wrote in the original novel. Writing a sequel involves a lot of re-reading the original novel and cross-checking facts and content.

I'm pleased to have finished "Evil Never Dies". It took a bit longer than I expected, but I didn't want to release it before I made sure it was everything I wanted it to be.

The book is available for pre-order at the special discounted price of 99p. It is scheduled to be released on Kindle on 11th November 2020.



Book description:

In this sequel to “The Spider”, George finds himself back inside The Spider’s web, fighting to reclaim control of his life.

This dark, tangled mystery explores the known and the unknown, the real and the illusory.

Touching on a wealth of relatable subjects including divorce, death, the afterlife, homelessness, crime, and addiction, “Evil Never Dies” takes the reader on an intense and emotional journey.

Catch up with the other characters from book 1, “The Spider”, including Roisin, Glen, Hugh, and Abigail, as they face more life-changing challenges.

You can pre-order "Evil Never Dies" here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L71D9MC/*

*available on Amazon worldwide

I do also intend to make the book available as a paperback and hope to have more news about that soon.

The cover was designed by Kat of Evening Sky Publishing Services. She also designed the cover for "The Spider", as well as the covers for some of my other books, including "A Time To Tell (second edition)" and "Lost and Found": https://www.eveningskypublishingservi...

Ebook formatting for Kindle was done by Deena at E-bookbuilders: https://bookbuilders.design/index.html

My latest novel, "Evil Never Dies" is out on Kindle today! You can still get a copy at the special discount price of 99p/99c for a limited period.




Purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L71D9MC/

Add to your Goodreads shelf: Evil Never Dies

I hope you enjoy the story!

Book 1 - The Spider is also available at the 99p/99c price at the moment: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...

I'm currently working on a collection of short stories, titled "Out of Time", which I hope to release soon. I will post an update when I have more news.

I hope you're all coping well in these weird and uncertain times that we're living in. Stay safe.