Hey y'all, I'm so happy to be spotlighting today the first book in one of my favorite ghost hunting series ever, Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper by J.L Bryan. Check out the excerpt then grab it for FREE at all retailers but B&N's which is only .99cents.
Also, in the interview see if J.L Bryan would ever stay in a haunted house and read about his ghost experience! Plus, you can enter to win a signed copy of Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper!
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Excerpt
Gripping my flashlight in one hand
and the Mel Meter in the other, I began to ascend the stairs. It grew colder with each step...sixty-one
degrees on the first flight, fifty-three by the time I reached the midway landing. I started up the second flight.
“You’re right behind her,” Stacey
whispered. “This is so freaky.”
Forty-eight degrees. My own footsteps sounded as loud as gunshots
in my ears as I climbed the stairs.
Forty-five degrees. By the time I
reached the top step, it was at forty degrees, and I could see a frosty plume
each time I exhaled.
I stood in front of Lexa’s
door. The upstairs hallway was cold and
silent around me, the moonlight thin from the windows, barely penetrating the
darkness. The gloom felt oppressive, the
air unnaturally heavy.
I was just about to drop the
thermal goggles down over my eyes when I heard the tiny click from
Lexa’s door. Lexa’s name was painted on
a wooden square mounted in the middle of the door, surrounded by little flowers
and butterflies in bright pigments.
The round doorknob gave the
smallest squeak as it turned. The door
to Lexa’s room crept inward, again moving slowly, as if nudged by the lightest
possible draft of air.
Lexa sat up in her bed, outlined by
a feeble pink-flower nightlight plugged into the far wall near the
fireplace. The room grew even darker
around her, as if the nightlight were burning out.
“She’s here,” Lexa whispered to
me. She raised a shaking arm and pointed
at me. “She’s right beside you.”
The temperature was down to
thirty-six degrees—my fingers would begin to freeze if it grew much worse.
I turned toward the freezing center
of the cold spot and reached for my goggles again.
I didn’t need them.
She took shape gradually, like a
scrim of frost collecting in midair. At
first, she was just a shape—female, petite, a little shorter than me, pale as
ice. Then more details appeared. She wore a clingy, low-cut black dress, and
some kind of teardrop-shaped pendant hung against her transparent white
flesh. Her hair was colorless and stringy,
hanging in thick clumps.
Then I could see rope burns on her
neck, and I recognized her face from the picture. Mercy.
She stared at me with hollow eye
sockets. Even at her most detailed, she
was transparent, barely even there. I
could plainly see the hallway behind her.
I felt like, if I blinked, she might vanish again.
“Ellie, what’s up?” Stacey asked.
“Are you seeing something? These temp
readings are down low, like deep-winter low...that whole upstairs hallways is
like creepy-crawly with cold—”
“Sh,” I whispered. Her chatting wasn’t helping me. Every nerve in my body was tense, screaming
at me to run away, to run straight out of the house and slam the door behind
me. It was hard to ignore my instincts,
but I had a job to do.
Resisting the desire to flee, I
forced myself to speak instead.
“Mercy,” I said. “Mercy Cutledge.”
The ghost’s hollow eyes widened a
little, giving me a better view of the empty hallway behind her. Her mouth
opened, and I thought I heard a cold buzzing in the air. For some reason, it made me think of the ice
machines at cheap motels.
“Mercy,” I said. “Leave this family
alone. Your time here is done. You need to move on.”
Her lips drew into a sneer. She had no visible teeth or tongue—as with
her eyes, it was just empty hallway behind her when her mouth opened.
She blasted one word at me. I felt it strike me in the forehead like a
gust of arctic air, and I heard the word inside my brain more than with my
ears: Leave.
“You don’t understand, Mercy,” I
said. “You’re dead, you died--”
A howling shriek hit me right in
the brain. The ghost charged at me, her
misty face distorted and distending as she put on speed, her empty eye sockets
and mouth hole stretching to inhuman shapes.
About The Author
J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.
He is the author of The Paranormals series of horror novels (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, and Alexander Death) the Songs of Magic series for younger readers (Fairy Metal Thunder, Fairy Blues, and Fairystruck...so far) and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, their son, and some dogs and cats.
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads
Interview
1. What
inspired you to write Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper?
I was interested in writing about ghosts because,
unlike pretty much any other kind of paranormal critter (vampires, werewolves,
etc.) it's not clear whether ghosts are real or not. I thought it would be fun
to write a detective series about a character who deals with them all the time.
2. Have you
ever had a ghost experience before?
One time my wife and I were staying with some
friends who lived in an old house in Athens, Georgia. We slept downstairs and
were the only people on the floor. We were both awoken at the same time by a
deep male voice saying “shoo, shoo” just a few inches above our heads, like
someone was leaning over us and talking. Nobody else was in the room. We didn't
tell our friends about it until they'd moved out of that house.
3. What made
you choose to write in the paranormal genre?
I've always been interested in the supernatural and
sort of looking into mysterious and unexplainable events. I also think that we
can learn about ourselves through imagining human beings in extreme
circumstances, whether that's dealing with paranormal monsters or a dystopian
future society.
4. What was
your favorite scene to write in Ellie Jordan?
Probably the ghost ones, like early on when she's
first encountering the ghost in the house, or later when they have to visit the
abandoned old insane asylum to look for clues.
5. Which
character was your favorite to write?
I really enjoy writing both Ellie and Stacey and how
they interact with each other. Their psychic friend Jacob is becoming more and
more fun to write with each book.
6. Do you have
a dream cast for any of the characters?
I don't because I don't keep up with newer actors
very well. This would be a really interesting blog post if someone else wanted
to do it, though (hint, hint!).
7. What is
your writing process like?
I have a toddler, so I pretty much just write
whenever I can. A lot of times that's late night! I try to hit specific
wordcounts, but it always goes slowest earliest in the first draft and
gradually picks up steam. Then I go through a number of drafts before sending
it for editing.
8. What kind
of research did you have to do for this book?
I've actually done kind of a silly amount of
research for this series, and I still do. First, I've read or listened to as
many true (or supposedly true) ghost stories as I can find. I wanted to learn
all about what real ghostly experiences were like, instead of following other
fiction. I also researched the real technology and procedures used by ghost
hunters and applied those to Ellie's investigative process. My goal has been to
make it is as realistic as possible as far as reflecting “ghost culture” in the
real world.
9. How many books are you planning for the
series?
Eight or ten right now.
10.
When you were a
kid, what was your favorite ghost story you heard?
There was an old house in an overgrown field near
where I grew up. People would say it was haunted. I think that was the scariest
one because it was so close and I could have walked inside the place if I
wanted to (but I didn't want to). I don't even remember a specific story about
it, people said different things. I did watch a lot of Scooby-Doo as a kid,
too. And I was obsessed with the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, which are
about a certain kind of ghost.
11.
When did you
write your first book and how old were you?
I was thirteen and wrote a book about a delusional
kid who dressed up in a dog costume and tried to fight crime, despite his lack
of any superpowers or anything. It was called Dogboy.
12.
What was one of
the most surprising things you learned in creating Ellie Jordan?
How many real or supposedly real ghost stories are
out there. I've read several books about ghosts just in the Savannah area
alone. There are lots of books and websites that collect people's ghost stories,
and lots of people have personal stories if you start asking around. There are
at least a dozen “ghost reality” shows on TV, where haunted buildings are
investigated with technology or by psychics, or people recount experiences they
claim to have had. The abundance of ghostly experiences by real people has made
researching and writing the series much more interesting to me.
13.
Do you have any
advice for other writers?
Read widely, not just in your own genre, read lots
of books on craft, and write every day. Commercially, you want to write in a
popular genre and make sure you have quality book covers that reflect the
correct genre.
14.
What is your
favorite genre to read or watch?
I like to read historical nonfiction, biographies,
things like that. Nonfiction is great fuel for your imagination.
15.
If someone
dared you, would you spend the night in the house in the story?
No! Not unless Ellie had cleared the place first.
16.
Is there a
genre you’d like to write but haven’t yet?
I actually write some science fiction on the side,
but it hasn't done as well as the supernatural stories so I don't focus on it.
17.
Why did you
choose to have the book take place in Savannah, Georgia?
It
was an easy choice for me because I live in Georgia and have visited Savannah
several times (and I'm always willing to go back for more research!). Some of
my ancestors were present at the founding of that city. So I wanted to write
about a city with which I was familiar, and Savannah is a great setting, with
lots of old mansions built in every style and centuries-old graveyards, plus
the city is built on top of multiple native burial grounds. It's believed to be
one of the most haunted cities in the country among paranormal researchers and
among people who live there. Most of the buildings in the Historic District
have at least one ghost story attached to them. It seemed like a place where
professional ghost hunters would really have their hands full!
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By D’Ann Burrow 
