Melissa Bowersock Invites Us to a Friendly Ghost Party and Blog Tour.

Welcome to the Friendly Ghost Party blog tour! I’d like to thank Yvonne for agreeing to co-host the party, a celebration of the launch of my new book, Stone’s Ghost, a modern ghost story. Here’s the story in a nutshell:

Matthew Stone doesn’t believe in ghosts … until he meets one. He owns a successful business in Lake Havasu, Arizona, home to the famed London Bridge that was brought over stone by stone and rebuilt over the Colorado River. He has a gorgeous girlfriend, a doting mother, and more money than he needs, but no time for stories about the ghosts who were transplanted from England with the famed bridge. When a chance encounter with a female ghost leads to unexpected friendship, Matt and the ghost are forced to rely on each other as they confront the pasts that haunt them.

I got the inspiration for this one evening when watching Arizona Highways on TV. They had a short piece on the ghosts that haunt the London Bridge in Lake Havasu, and I thought it would be a fun to do a “fish-out-of-water” story about an English ghost having trouble adjusting to the modern Arizona desert. I envisioned it as a light, fluffy comedy, but the book and my characters had other ideas. I hadn’t written more than five or ten pages before I knew it was going to have a decidedly dark side to it and actually very little comedy. The more I wrote, the more profound the story became, and only toward the end did I realize the true core themes of the story: love and loss and friendship, mistakes and consequences and redemption. The really great news is that, even if I didn’t write the story I thought I was going to, I love this book, and I’m hoping others will, too. I’ve already gotten some very nice advance reviews; here’s one:

This  is  that  rare  ghost  story  that  avoids  all the pratfalls  and  clichés  of  the  usual  spectral  and paranormal tale. Melissa Bowersock has intertwined two stories seamlessly – one a modern tale of a man taking responsibility for himself amid the shades of his own past, and the  other  the  story  of  a  young woman from a bygone era looking for release and redemption. You will keep turning the pages on this finely-crafted tale! —Rich Meyer, author

Now, as I said, there’s a party going on. I’d love to invite everyone to come join the fun (no purchase necessary!). There are a couple of contests you can enter. One is on the Facebook event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/142948992566792/) where you can post pictures of anything ghost-related. Encourage your friends to “like” your post, because the one with the most likes at the end of the day wins a prize package. The second contest is on my blog: http://mjb-wordlovers.blogspot.com. Here you can post a ghost story in the comments section, and again, at the end of the day, I will pick a random winner of a prize package. (If you don’t have any of the profiles in the dropdown box when you comment, just choose Anonymous, but please put your name in your comment so I’ll know who you are!) I’ll be tweeting the winners and other announcements throughout the day using hashtag #FriendlyGhostParty.

Here’s the Stone’s Ghost Prize Package: a mouse pad, autographed book, bookmark and magnet. How fun is that?

Don’t have a ghost picture or a ghost story? Hop on over to Goodreads and enter the giveaway. One lucky winner will win an autographed paperback of Stone’s Ghost.

There’s also a virtual ghost-buffet going on. Check below to see which blogs are hosting which aspect of the buffet, hop on over for a visit, check out the ghost-food and ghost-drinks (with recipes included). Please share the love by visiting the co-host blogs and leaving a comment, sending out a tweet and telling your friends. (If you right-click on a link below, then choose “open in new window/tab,” you won’t lose your place here.)

Finally, to celebrate the new book, I have put the Kindle version of Stone’s Ghost on sale for just 99 cents for today only. And, just for fun, I’ve discounted the Kindle versions of all my previous books as well, 99 cents today only. You can find them all from my author page at Amazon.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the party!

Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning writer who turns her hand to any kind of story that moves her: contemporary, western, fantasy, romance, action/adventure, spiritual, satire or biography. She has written ten novels and one non-fiction and has been both traditionally published and self-published. She also writes under the name of Amber Flame, and she is a certified hypnotherapist. She thrives in the Sonoran desert of Southern Arizona with her husband and an Airedale terrier. Visit her website: http://www.newmoonrising.net.