First Chapter Review: Ghost Hampton by Ken McGorry

Ghost Hampton is a paranormal thriller by Ken McGorry. The author is touring with Pump Up Your Book this month.

BLURB:  Lyle Hall is a new man since his car accident and spinal injury. The notoriously insensitive Bridgehampton lawyer is now afflicted with an odd sensitivity to other people's pain. Especially that of a mysterious young girl he encounters outside a long-abandoned Victorian house late one October night. “Jewel” looks about 12. But Lyle knows she’s been dead a hundred years. Jewel wants his help, but it’s unclear how. As if in return, she shows him an appalling vision—his own daughter's tombstone. If it’s to be believed, Georgie’s last day is four days away. Despite Lyle’s strained relations with his police detective daughter, he’s shocked out of complacent convalescence and back into action in the real world.

But the world now seems surreal to the formerly Scrooge-like real estate lawyer. Lyle’s motion in court enjoining the Town of Southampton from demolishing the old house goes viral because he leaked that it might be haunted. This unleashes a horde of ghost-loving demonstrators and triggers a national media frenzy. Through it all strides Lyle’s new nemesis in high heels: a beautiful, scheming TV reporter known as Silk.

Georgie Hall’s own troubles mount as a campaign of stationhouse pranks takes a disturbing sexual turn. Her very first case is underway and her main suspect is a wannabe drug lord. Meanwhile, Lyle must choose: Repair his relationship with Georgie or succumb to the devious Silk and her exclusive media contract. He tells himself seeing Georgie’s epitaph was just a hallucination. But a few miles away the would-be drug lord is loading his assault rifle. Berto needs to prove himself.

COVER: This seems like such a calm and pretty cover for, what I expect to be, an action-packed novel. The first chapter certainly makes it sound more edgy than this peaceful beach scene. Don't get me wrong, I really like the cover; but I am thinking it would be better suited for a family drama or a romance novel. That said, it might be right for the setting. It just doesn't speak to the genre for me.

FIRST CHAPTER: The reader meets 55-year-old Lyle, whose life was forever changed by the car accident that left him paralyzed. The tense relationship between Lyle and his daughter, Georgie, is also explored.

KEEP READING: Definitely. McGorry knows all about the hook. That first sentence pulled me in hook, line, and sinker. As a character-driven reader, I like that the focus is on getting to know Lyle and his circumstances a bit. It also has a powerful ending that makes you want to continue. I want to know more!


Series: Ghost Hampton
Paperback: 466 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (March 26, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1530577233
ISBN-13: 978-1530577231

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I received a digital copy of this book from the author through Pump Up Your Book. This First Chapter Review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Ken McGorry has been writing since third grade. (He learned in first grade, but waited two years.) He started a school newspaper with friends in seventh grade, but he’s better known for his 23 years as an editor of Post Magazine, a monthly covering television and film production. This century, he took up novel-writing and Ghost Hampton and Smashed are examples. More are in the works, like the promised Ghost Hampton sequel, but he’s kinda slow.

Ken lives on Long Island with his wife and they have two strapping sons. There are dogs. Ken is also a chef (grilled cheese, and only for his sons) and he enjoys boating (if it’s someone else’s boat). He has a band, The Achievements, that plays his songs (try https://soundcloud.com/ken-mcgorry). Back at Manhattan College (English major!), he was a founding member of the venerable Meade Bros. Band. Ken really was an employee of Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons one college summer, and really did mow Dan’s lawn.

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Book Spotlight: The Unholy by Paul DeBlassie III

"A young curandera, a medicine woman, intent on uncovering the secrets of her past is forced into a life-and-death battle against an evil Archbishop. Set in the mystic land of Aztlan, the Unholy is a novel of destiny as healer and slayer. native lore of dreams and visions, shape changing, and natural magic work to spin a neo-gothic web in which sadness and mystery lure the unsuspecting into a twilight realm of discovery and decision."

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BOOK EXCERPT

“Hush now, child,” said a voice she recognized as that of her mother’s closest friend. “The man cannot harm you, mijita, as long as you are with us. We will make him think you are dead. But you must be very quiet. “Ya no llores,” the woman warned, raising a finger to her lips.

The woman then carried her into a dark cave illuminated by the light of a single candle. The cave was frightening, with shadows of what appeared to be goblins and demons dancing on the red sandstone walls. “I will return for you soon. You will be safe here,” the woman said. The girl watched the woman walk away, shivering as a breeze blew through the cave’s narrow passages.

Closing her eyes, she rocked back and forth—imagining herself safe in her mother’s arms—then opened her eyes to the light of the full moon shining through the mouth of the cave. The shadows on the walls were just shadows now, no longer goblins and demons. As she slipped into a trance, images flickered in her mind. She saw the woman who had brought her to this place scattering pieces of raw meat around the open mesa where her mother had struggled, helped by two other women the girl could not identify.

Suddenly, the scene shifted to a stone ledge jutting over the mesa, and she heard the pounding footsteps of a man running toward the women. The girl felt her heart race and her breathing quicken, afraid that the bad man would spot them and kill them. Then the image shifted again, and she now saw on the mesa three gray wolves circling the raw meat and the man walking away from the granite ledge. As he left, she heard his thought: The child is dead.

PAUL DeBLASSIE III, PhD, is a psychologist and writer living in his native New Mexico. A member of the Depth Psychology Alliance, the Transpersonal Psychology Association, and the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, he has for over thirty years treated survivors of the dark side of religion.

Visit the author online at http://www.pauldeblassieiii.com/

Interview with Kevin Flanders, Author of Escape from Fear Village

It's not often I get a chance to feature a local author at my blog. Since I work in the online world, many of my contacts are from outside of Western Mass. I was introduced to Kevin's work through my son. I've been blessed with the opportunity to see some of Kevin's writing in pre-published stage. It's outstanding. I highly recommend his novels to lovers of the horror and paranormal thriller genres.


A resident of Monson, MA, Kevin Flanders has written several short stories and is currently focusing on novels. He graduated from Franklin Pierce University in 2010 with a degree in communications, and he has spent the last three years working for various newspapers in western and central Massachusetts. He also serves as an instructor at many ice hockey goaltending clinics and still plays hockey on winter men’s league teams.

For more information about his short stories and novels, visit www.kmflanders.wordpress.com.

When did you begin writing?

I began writing fiction in college. I’d always loved reading and vocabulary, but it wasn’t until my first fiction workshop course in 2006 that I actually sat down and wrote a fictional story for an assignment. I wasn’t overly excited about it at the time (it just seemed like another homework assignment to complete), but I found myself fascinated by the characters and the plot I was creating. I started writing that night around seven o’clock, and by the time I looked up from my laptop, it was well after nine. And there was still so much writing to do, so many characters to introduce – I didn’t want to stop. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Do you write during the day, at night or whenever you can sneak a few moments?

I usually edit and do a little writing early in the afternoon, but my best writing always comes very late at night and in the early hours of the next morning (between ten p.m. and two a.m.). My scariest ideas come even later, around three or four while I’m trying to sleep. I’m not sure why that is – maybe it has something to do with the fact that most of my books are horror/paranormal thrillers and that everything seems so much scarier after dark. I never write in the morning after I get up – it seems to take my fiction mind a fairly long time to get revved into motion.

What is this book about?

Escape from Fear Village brings readers to Black Harbor, Maine, a community known for its annual Halloween festival in the center of town. Brothers A.J. and Mackenzie Gray attend the festival every year, and they’re starting to find it a little boring. But a new attraction awaits them this year, a camper trailer that none of the other guests seem to notice. Once they step foot inside that trailer, things will never be the same again.

Escape from Fear Village is the story of family and friendship, adversity and persistence, faith and freedom, and most importantly, good and evil. A.J. and Mackenzie have never known evil before this fateful Halloween weekend, but they are soon challenged by malevolence of the purest form – a fiend who turns I’ve Been Working on the Railroad into a song of horror and madness.

An extremely fast-paced novel, Escape from Fear Village has already received excellent reviews from early readers.

What inspired you to write it?

I was inspired to write Escape from Fear Village after my sister Kimmy asked a single question: What would happen if someone became trapped on a model railroad layout? The plot seemed to magically unfold from there, reminding me of the Nabokov quote about invisible words already written and clamoring to become visible. It took me only four months to write the entire novel.

Who is your favorite character from the book?

My favorite character in the book is Clara Reed, a thirteen-year-old girl who finds herself entangled in A.J.’s haunting adventure through Fear Village. There’s an element of mystery about her character that captivates readers right to the end, and she’s a very spiritual, uplifting character with instant likeability. She’s polite yet sometimes stingingly blunt, remarkably courageous yet not incapable of tears, and so humorous and charming that she brought a smile to my face during all five revision phases.

Where can readers purchase a copy of your book?

The book can be ordered in print version and electronically on all major bookselling websites, including Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, and Smashwords.com. For links to these sites and more information, visit www.kmflanders.wordpress.com. My marketing team is in the process of improving the site, which will soon include information about giveaways, author events, and monthly trivia questions. To contact me directly, send an email to flandersk33@gmail.com. My days as a reporter made me very diligent about answering every correspondence I receive, so it may take a little while but I’ll definitely get back to you.

What is one piece of advice you would like to share with aspiring authors everywhere?

I would encourage all writers to just keep writing. No matter how much rejection you get or how many agents decline your manuscript, keep writing. I actually wrote Escape from Fear Village very soon after my previous manuscript, a book called Don’t Wave Back, received hundreds of rejection letters from agents and publishing companies. On the heels of such tremendous rejection, I became determined to write an even better, stronger, more inspiring and thought-provoking book than ever before (hockey has made me very competitive, and I love to succeed). Luckily, one of the very first publishers to read the proposal for Escape from Fear Village was interested. Now I’m in the process of revising Don’t Wave Back (which has a different name now) and other previously written manuscripts. Soon all of my characters will be in print, their trials and tribulations visible to readers around the world. If you work hard enough and keep writing, your characters will be out there as well. Who cares about the hundreds of rejections – all it takes is that one person who says yes.

What is up next for you?

I expect my next novel, a ghost story called The Inhabitants, to be published by the end of the year. This novel features my favorite character of all my books, Montreal native Jocelyne Leclaire, and I’m really looking forward to its release. Then, at the beginning of 2014, my third novel, a chillingly timely work called Inside the Orange Glow, will be available, followed by The Inhabitants II, Anathema, Laser Tag, and others. Thankfully, I never suffer from writer’s block – the ideas are endless, each book seeming more frightening than the previous one.

This post first appeared at The Book Connection.

First Chapter Review: The Book of Paul by Richard Long

The first chapter of this paranormal thriller came to me from the author through his publicist.

BLURB: "Everything you've ever believed about yourself...about the description of reality you've clung to so stubbornly all your life...all of it...every bit of it...is an illusion."

In the rubble-strewn wasteland of Alphabet City, a squalid tenement conceals a treasure "beyond all imagining"-- an immaculately preserved, fifth century codex. The sole repository of ancient Hermetic lore, it contains the alchemical rituals for transforming thought into substance, transmuting matter at will...and attaining eternal life.

When Rose, a sex and pain addicted East Village tattoo artist has a torrid encounter with Martin, a battle-hardened loner, they discover they are unwitting pawns on opposing sides of a battle that has shaped the course of human history. At the center of the conflict is Paul, the villainous overlord of an underground feudal society, who guards the book's occult secrets in preparation for the fulfillment of an apocalyptic prophecy.

The action is relentless as Rose and Martin fight to escape Paul's clutches and Martin's destiny as the chosen recipient of Paul's sinister legacy. Science and magic, mythology and technology converge in a monumental battle where the stakes couldn't be higher: control of the ultimate power in the universe--the Maelstrom.

The Book of Paul is the first of seven volumes in a sweeping mythological narrative tracing the mystical connections between Hermes Trismegistus in ancient Egypt, Sophia, the female counterpart of Christ, and the Celtic druids of Clan Kelly.

COVER: Love it. I'm partial to ancient-looking covers, considering I'm a history lover. There are some used book stores down south I love to meander through when we visit. This cover definitely captures an ancient Egypt type of feel.

FIRST AND SECOND CHAPTERS: The first chapter introduces the reader to Martin, who is practicing smiling in front of a mirror. He gives up for a bit and changes to push-ups, before returning to his attempt at smiling.

Chapter two brings Rose into the picture. A former competitive gymnast, she is currently a tattoo artist. Living in less than ideal surroundings, she wonders why she's up so early. After working late, she gets up and does a yoga routine before retreating to the bathroom for a long, hot shower.

KEEP READING: I'm on the fence about this one. I don't connect with or like either of the main characters, yet, which may be part of the problem. The synopsis tells me there is so much more to happen that I don't think it's wise to stop reading. I had to read two chapters because the first one was so short that it did not much more than introduce Martin and give us a tiny bit of insight into his personality. Who has to practice smiling? Obviously it's tough for Martin. What does that mean? So the reader is left with an intriguing question that makes her want to know more.

Long paints some great description with the details he chooses. Martin doesn't like the whiny voice of the main character in the television show, The Nanny. He's physically fit enough to do two hundred push ups. Rose lives in an area that includes a park filled with junkies and crackheads. She's inked and pierced. All of these details are important to drawing the reader in.

I would definitely give this book a few more chapters before making a final decision.

Prices/Formats: $19.95 paperback, $2.99-$3.99 ebook
Publisher: Open Eyes
ISBN: 9780615648644
Pages: 492
Release: June 2012

Amazon paperback buy link ($19.95):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0615648649?tag=tributebooks-20

Barnes and Noble paperback buy link ($19.95):
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-of-paul-richard-long/1111400572?ean=9780615648644

Kindle buy link ($2.99):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0088QYXGA?tag=tributebooks-20

Nook buy link ($3.99):
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-book-of-paul-richard-long/1111400572?ean=9780615648644

iTunes buy link ($3.99):

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-book-of-paul/id541134918?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Richard Long writes to exorcize the demons of his past and manifest the dreams of his future. His debut novel, The Book of Paul, is a dark, thrilling, and psychologically rich supernatural horror/thriller that blends mythology, science and mystery into a page-turning addiction. Richard is also writing a YA novel, The Dream Palace, primarily so that his children can read his books. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, two amazing children and their wicked black cat, Merlin.

Richard Long's Web Site:
http://www.thebookofpaul.com/

Richard Long's Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/RichardLongAuthor#

Richard Long's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/RichardLongNYC

Richard Long's Blog:
http://www.thebookofpaul.com/the-blo/

Richard Long's YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTjgdNUIpb9yhDraZ6dImiA?feature=guide

Richard Long's Google Plus:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/105947820741052716703/posts

Richard Long's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6426921.Richard_Long

The Book of Paul's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15714590-the-book-of-paul

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

The Book of Paul blog tour site:
http://the-book-of-paul.blogspot.com/


This post first appeared at The Book Connection.