Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Emily-Jane
Hills Orford and her new book, “Mrs. Murray’s Ghost”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Emily-Jane
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
Mrs.
Murray's Ghost
by
Emily-Jane Hills Orford
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GENRE: Middle Grade Fantasy
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BLURB:
Mary’s
family has moved into a huge Victorian mansion. She loves her gigantic new
house, especially her room. But then she begins to meet the house’s other
residents. Mrs. Murray was murdered in Mary’s new house. At first she tries to
scare the new residents away, but there seems to be a force connecting the
ghost to Mary. Even the stranded Brownies, the little people who live between
the walls, feel that connection. When Mary becomes deathly ill, the Brownies
and the ghost team up to try to rescue her, only to encounter a witch and her
evil minions. Time is running out. They must rescue Mary from a fever-induced
dream world before she is trapped there forever. As well as being a fun read
for young readers, the story gives an historical perspective to childhood, as
it dates to the 1960s. It also deals with some very current issues,
specifically bullying.
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EXCERPT TWO:
“Did
you leave any lights on downstairs?” he asked as he seated himself at the table
once again.
“No,”
Mom answered. “I turned everything off.”
“She
did,” Mary added. “I made sure.”
“The
lights were all on in the kitchen,” Dad said. “Some of the cupboard doors were
wide open. I closed them.” At that, the banging doors started up again.
“I
guess it’s official,” David announced. “We have a ghost.” He made his move and
passed ‘Go’. Holding out his hand to the banker (who was always Dad to ensure
some modicum of fairness in the game), he demanded, “Two hundred dollars,
please.”
“Sounds
to me like the ghost is checking us out,” Dad said, handing over the Monopoly
money. “It’s not hurting anyone, so let it be.”
“Spoooooky!”
David howled, laughing.
Mary
didn’t laugh. She wasn’t sure why they thought it was funny, but if no one else
was afraid, maybe ghosts weren’t scary.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST POST:
Who Inspired Your Love for Books?
My
grandmother, Gran. She was my inspiration in so many ways. She loved to read
and she loved to share her stories. She never wrote down her stories, but she
could keep a captive audience as she regaled one story after another. I often
asked her why she didn’t write down her stories. Her answer, surprisingly, was
“Who would want to read them.” Well, me for one. After Gran passed away, I
wrote her story, “Personal Notes”, using all those stories she had shared over
the years and the journals she kept.
Gran
always said I had a vivid imagination. She didn’t really believe me when I
mentioned the ghost. It was real. Very real. But she played along, coming up
with stories of all the old houses she had lived in over the years, telling
stories about her life in Scotland before the family moved to Canada, about her
ancestors. She kept me spellbound as she shared these stories. And she shared
the books she enjoyed reading about the people, the ancestors, who had played
an important (if unrecognized) role in history. Mary Queen of Scots was one
passion that she shared with me. And we both read everything and anything we could
get our hands on about this queen. Why? Because, or so Gran claimed, our
ancestor tethered the horse that Queen Mary used when escaping Loch Leven
Castle.
The
Scottish connection was part of our combined interest in reading, storytelling
and, when I was a little older, traveling. Hence, the Scottish connection with
the Brownies, the little people in “Mrs. Murray’s Ghost” and the entire
“Piccadilly Street” series.
Storytelling
and reading, two passions I shared with Gran. I wish she were here today to
read the stories she inspired me to write. I had to do what she avoided doing:
write those wonderful, passionate stories that she shared and that she inspired
my imagination to conjure up.
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AUTHOR BIO:
An
avid gardener, artist, musician and writer, Emily-Jane Hills Orford has fond memories and lots of
stories that evolved from a childhood growing up in a haunted Victorian
mansion. Told she had a ‘vivid imagination’, the author used this talent to
create stories in her head to pass tedious hours while sick, waiting in a
doctor’s office, listening to a teacher drone on about something she already
knew, or enduring the long, stuffy family car rides. The author lived her
stories in her head, allowing her imagination to lead her into a different
world, one of her own making. As the author grew up, these stories, imaginings
and fantasies took to the written form and, over the years, she developed a
reputation for telling a good story. Emily-Jane can now boast that she is an
award-winning author of several books, including Mrs. Murray’s Ghost (Telltale
Publishing 2018), Queen Mary’s Daughter (Clean Reads 2018), Gerlinda (CFA 2016)
which received an Honorable Mention in the 2016 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards,
To Be a Duke (CFA 2014) which was named Finalist and Silver Medalist in the
2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and received an Honorable Mention in the
2015 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards and several other books. A retired teacher
of music and creative writing, she writes about the extra-ordinary in life and
the fantasies of dreams combined with memories. For more information on the
author, check out her website at: http://emilyjanebooks.ca.
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CONNECT WITH EMILY-JANE:
Website:
Blog:
Email:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Pinterest:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble:
The Book Depository:
BAM! Books-A-Million:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Emily-Jane will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N
GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**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.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me and my book, "Mrs. Murray's Ghost".
ReplyDeleteDid you do anything fun for Thanksgiving? Congrats on the release. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDelete