Hereโs the thingโฆitโs my job to freak you out. Truly. And barring that, itโs
my job to make you cry. Barring
that, I should at least be able to make
you laugh.
And if I canโt make you do
any of thatโฆwell then clearly you are dead inside.
The truth is, I loooove writing scary stories that are balanced with either a
whole lotta funny, or, something emotionally powerful that makes the reader well
up a little. Sometimes Iโm lucky, and my stories are both scary and riddled
with punch lines. Other times, the focus is a bit more serious, and funny may
not always be appropriate. Each book is a little different with its own unique
combo of, โEeek!โ + โHaha!โ + โSniffle!โ
Mostly, though, I want your heart to pound, your funny bone to itch, and your
eyes to leak. And it delights me if all of that would happen to you someplace
public โ the subway, the lunch counter, the library. Can you tell that Iโm a
bit of a sadist?
Still, I will give fair warning for my M. J. Holliday fans that my latest
release,
NO
GHOULS ALLOWED, is super-
duper scary. As inโฆeven
I had
trouble writing once it got dark out. And to balance that โbetter keep the
lights onโ feeling, I had a choice to either bring on the funny, or reach for
something a little more emotional. I went for emotional. โEEEEKโ + โSNIFFLE!โ
+ perhaps only a soupรงon of โha!โ
Mostly I thought that after nine books it was high time for my fans to get a
better sense of M. J.โs character. For those of you whoโve read the series, you
know that my plucky little protagonist has been a bit of an enigma, which hasnโt
always been on purpose. I was excited to write this particular installment to
finally fully explore what makes M. J.,โฆwell,โฆM. J. In the end I can honestly
say that it was such a satisfying endeavor. I finally feel like Iโve presented
her fully to you, my fans. I feel like you now know why she is the way she is,
tough, cool, but also a person capable of caring deeply for those she loves, and
Iโm not sure that in previous books that always came through.
It also, I think, finally makes it clear why M. J. would put up with her BFF
Gilleyโs antics all these years, because, as you all well know, he can be just a
bit of a handful.
To be honest, I donโt think Iโve ever been closer to M. J.โs character than I
was while writing this book. Sheโs the most like me in this ninth installment โ
except of course that if someone asked me to go explore a haunted old mansion
Iโd be all, โUhโฆI
would, but I think I have to be somewhere
else
right now. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And for the rest of my life.โ
So, yeah, Iโm totally willing to scare the pants off
you, because, like I
said, thatโs just fun for me. And if you could also throw in a chuckle and a
sniffle, thatโd be super swell, too.
About NO GHOULS ALLOWED
On a trip to Georgia to see her father, M. J. Holliday finds herself trapped in
a haunted mansion and discovers...
The South will rise again--from the dead.
M.J. has had a distant relationship with her father since her mother died more
than two decades ago. But when M.J., her boyfriend, Heath, and BFF, Gilley, take
a break from their show, Ghoul Getters, and visit her family home in Valdosta,
Georgia, they find Montgomery Holliday a changed man. The source of his
happiness seems to be his new fiancรฉe, the charming Christine Bigelow.
But despite the blush of new love, Montgomery and Christine are dealing with a
big problem in the form of the antebellum mansion she is having renovated. After
a series of strange accidents, the work crew is convinced the place is cursed,
and the contractor has walked off the job. At Christineโs request, M.J. and her
pals agree to find out if theyโre really dealing with some spirited saboteurs
and a possessed plantation home.
Read Fresh Fiction's
review of NO GHOULS ALLOWED here!
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