What You Don't Know by Elka Ray - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hello lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Elka Ray and her new book, “What You Don’t Know”!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card.  Also, come back daily to interact with Elka and to increase your chances of winning! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this exciting giveaway!

What You Don't Know

by Elka Ray

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GENRE:  Suspense/Crime/Short Stories

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BLURB:

An American lawyer dreams of killing his trophy wife in Thailand. A Vietnamese soldier goes mad in a haunted forest. A bereaved mother's trip to Cambodia ends in tragedy - or does it?

Take a spine-tingling journey from the jungles of Sumatra through Bangkok's seedy bars to the seemingly sedate streets of Singapore. Your traveling companions are a slew of dark emotions - fear, grief, jealousy, greed, lust and revenge. And your destination?

With flashes of black humor and hard-to-forget characters, these ten stories shine light into the dark corners of Southeast Asia.

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EXCERPT ONE:

“Kyle?” I yell. I’m sure my son is gone, sucked down to the bottom.

         

Blinking against the blood, I see him lying face down on the deck. He’s got himself wedged against the boat’s sides like a rock climber. I call again and he twists his head. I must look pretty bad, because he gasps. “D—dad?”

         

The boat is still rocking, but not enough to tip. Water sloshes back and forth. Kyle pushes himself onto his hands and knees. We both look around. Beneath the streaks of rain, the sea is dead calm. No swell. No big whitecaps. Nothing.

         

“Shit. What happened?” says my son. His face appears bleached. “What was that?”

         

I’ve been boating in these waters for going on two decades but can’t explain what hit us. If it was the wake from a big cargo ship there’d have been more waves. That wave came from nowhere. Was it a whale? I shake my head. “I…I don’t know,” I say.

         

The engine has stalled. My hands are shaking so hard I have trouble restarting it. It roars to life once, twice, only to cut out.

"Daaaad! You're flooding it," says Kyle, his voice a hysterical whine. "It won't start! It won't start! You've flooded it!"

I grit my teeth. "Fine, you try."

If he hears, he doesn't respond but just hugs his knees. "My god. My god. She's here. She's here." He says it over and over again.

"Shut up!" I yell, and my son stops. He presses his palms to his cheeks. I force myself to count to ten before trying the motor again, terrified that Kyle's right: If the motor is flooded, we're stuck out here.

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GUEST POST:

Why Do People Like Scary Stories?

While many readers want a happy ending, very few would keep reading a story devoid of conflict or dread. It’s uncertainty - Will she end up with the right guy or not? What will happen to that old dog? - that keeps us turning the pages.

Fiction expands our understanding of what it means to be human, transporting us to new places, times and realities. A good book takes us out of ourself and allows us to feel another’s hopes and fears. Reading’s a safe way to experience extreme emotions - love, danger, anger, loss. I think we hope dark stories will somehow inoculate us against real darkness. Maybe by reading about scary scenarios we can learn to avoid them - or at least cope with them.

But there’s more to it. Why do we visit haunted houses? People actually want to be scared.

Pop out at a little kid and yell, “Boo!” He or she will probably scream, then laugh. Even tiny children enjoy a little fright. It’s weird. Do we crave the subsequent relief?  That moment when a jolt of terror - a bomb! - turns into a private embarrassed shrug: Oh, it was only a car backfiring.

Ghost stories. Murder mysteries. Romantic suspense. True crime. All of these genres are huge. I don’t know why we enjoy being spooked but it seems to be a uniquely human trait that’s tied to our need to imagine.

I’m fascinated by people’s motivations, especially when they seem irrational. Dark stories allow me to explore what drives people. I think we read and write stories - scary and otherwise - to try to make sense of our inexplicable world.

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AUTHOR BIO:

At the age of eleven, Elka Ray co-founded the Double Trouble Detective Agency. She’s been on the lookout for mysteries ever since. Elka’s latest book, “What You Don’t Know: Tales of Obsession, Mystery & Murder in Southeast Asia”, takes readers on a darkly suspenseful tour of the Far East. Her first novel, a fast-paced romantic adventure titled “Hanoi Jane”, was published by Marshall Cavendish in English and DT Books in Vietnamese. Elka’s next novel, the thriller “Saigon Dark”, will come out with Crimewave Press in November 2016. Elka is also the author and illustrator of a popular series of bilingual kids’ picture books about Vietnam.

Elka divides her time between Hoi An in Central Vietnam and Canada’s scenic Vancouver Island. When she’s not writing, drawing or reading she’s in - or near -the ocean.

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CONNECT WITH ELKA:

Email:

elka.k.ray@gmail.com

Website:

http://elkaray.com/

Facebook Author Page:

https://www.facebook.com/elkaraybooks/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/elkaray

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5027427.Elka_Ray

Agent: Elka is represented by Amy Tipton at Signature Literary Agency:

http://elkaray.com/542-2/

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AMAZON BUY LINK:

http://amzn.to/2ezhxKC

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Elka Ray will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.