Q & A: THE GHOST MAN

It's October and Hallowe'en is approaching, so our attention is inevitably turning to the supernatural. We thought it might be fun to do a short question-and-answer session with our mascot here at the Plaid Raccoon Press regarding The Ghost Man.

The Raccoon: The Ghost Man was your first novel. Where did you get the idea for it?

A: After leaving the public service to write full time, I spent almost a year researching my family history. The McCanns emigrated from Ireland in the early 1840s and settled in North Crosby Township, near Westport, Ontario. After a year I'd accumulated quite a bit of information not only about my family but the township in general, and I wanted to do something with it. I considered writing a local history, but my son, who was into the paranormal at the time, suggested I write a ghost story. So I did.

The Raccoon: Where was it published?

A: The novel was originally published by a small press in Alberta in May, 2009. I though my dreams of being a published author had come true, and didn't realize that the responsibility for marketing the book lay entirely on my own shoulders. Thankfully it was a short-term contract, and when it expired I re-acquired the rights and published it through our Plaid Raccoon imprint on February 13, 2013 -- 2/13/13. The significance of the date didn't strike me until later. Serendipity!

The Raccoon: Tell us about the main characters, Simon Guthrie and Dr. Doris Fowler.

A: Neither character is based on anyone in particular, which I suppose is a bit of an accomplishment for a first novel. I was an avid foodie at the time, and the idea of working with a protagonist who is a former celebrity chef really appealed. Simon's sudden descent from fame, his long recovery from injury, the near-death experience, and his subsequent encounters with earthbound ghosts of the dead all struck me as a fascinating combination.

As for Doris, I wanted a character opposite Simon who is equally accomplished in her own field--Canadian history--but lacks Simon's natural affability and self-confidence. As an academic she's naturally predisposed to look for rational, material answers to the phenomena Simon claims to be experiencing, and when she begins to experience them as well the shift from rationalization to fear and profound sadness brings out a side of her character previously hidden, particularly from herself.

The Raccoon: Why the cover change?

A: The cover of the original 2009 edition used a photograph taken by my son. Unfortunately he hated it, so after repatriating the novel I designed a new one. It's now five years old, and I've never been completely satisfied with it, so I thought it was time for a fresh look.

The Raccoon: How do you feel about the novel now, nine years later?

A: I'm a writer, so of course there's stuff I'd like to go back and change. But I won't, because on the whole I really like the story and the characters. The best part is that people still come up to me and talk about how much they enjoyed reading it. If they liked it that much, then that's good enough for me.

The Ghost Man is available from Amazon here. It's also available from Kobo, Barnes and Noble for Nook, and iTunes. 

IT'S OCTOBER -- TIME FOR A GHOST MAN MAKEOVER!

It's October, which means that Hallowe'en is right around the corner. Time for tricks, treats and scary stories.

With that in mind, we've given The Ghost Man, my first novel, a little face lift in the spirit of the season.

As you can see, we've changed the cover to a new image, courtesy of LoweStock/Thinkstock. The revamped design brings the look and feel of the novel somewhat more in line with my other publications.

The story itself remains entirely unchanged, with only front and back matter adjusted to reflect the new image credit and an updated list of my other novels. (The paperback edition will migrate to the new cover in the near future.)

It's still scary, still thrilling, and still a real good Hallowe'en read!

The Ghost Man is available for Amazon Kindle HERE.
Also available from Kobo, Barnes and Noble for Nook, and iTunes.

Guest Post by Sandra Nikolai

The Overnight Bestseller is very pleased to welcome crime fiction author Sandra Nikolai. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Sandra has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University. She's published a number of short stories and is the author of False Impressions, the first Megan Scott/Michael Elliott Mystery.

Welcome, Sandra! The floor is yours.

***

Mike, it’s a privilege to be a guest on your blog. Thanks for inviting me here.

Several years ago, I was perusing books in the mystery aisle of a bookstore when another customer stopped to chat with me. He told me he was following his dream and had just published his first book. At the time, all I had on paper was the title and a rough draft of a mystery novel. We exchanged words of encouragement, but I still remember the one piece of advice he shared with me before we parted: mystery fans love to read books in a series.

That bit of information played in my mind while I was writing False Impressions, my first mystery novel featuring ghostwriter Megan Scott and investigative reporter Michael Elliott. I knew that whatever happened in the story, I had to give these two main characters continuity so that their sleuthing adventures could extend into future books. In other words, I had to keep them alive, regardless of the perilous situations they’d encounter while following leads through the streets of Montreal, the setting for False Impressions.

Character development is a story element close to my heart because I love creating different personality types. Although their ethics are similar, Megan and Michael have distinctive traits so that any conflict between them creates dialogue and action that propels the plot forward. In comparison with Megan’s organized lifestyle and behind-the-scenes work as a ghostwriter, Michael’s investigative work involves an impromptu itinerary and meetings with shady informants at all hours of the night. Without revealing too much of the story, their worlds overlap when Megan’s husband is murdered and Michael offers his support. When startling evidence suggests they’re the prime suspects, they set out to clear their names and find the real killer. You can imagine the chaos it creates in Megan’s world—not to mention the intrusion into Michael’s!

I’m now writing Fatal Whispers, the second book in the series. I’m building on the original character profiles I created for Megan and Michael, adding layers of backstory so that readers can get to know them better. The story takes place in Portland, Maine, where my characters’ physical worlds expand as they investigate the mysterious deaths of a millionaire’s beautiful wife, a homeless woman, and a priest.

I decided on a new setting for each book in the series because different backdrops help to reveal and develop my characters’ personalities. It’s interesting how a new place—or even a change in the weather—can affect one’s moods, words, or actions. Finding the perfect choice in location or ambiance can present a challenge and might entail rewrites of a particular scene before I’m satisfied with the result, but eventually it all falls into place. (Excuse the pun!)

To throw internal conflict into the mix, Megan and Michael will be lugging unresolved personal issues with them from the first book. Will Megan overcome guilty feelings about her husband’s murder? Will Michael succeed in winning Megan’s complete trust? As in real life, some problems will haunt them for a while before they’re able to resolve them. But that’s okay. Giving my characters personal problems makes the interactions between them realistic so that readers can identify with the issues and connect with the story. Problems also create conflict, and conflict is what keeps readers turning the pages to see what happens next.

I already have a premise for the third book in the series and can’t wait to get to it. I love to write and hope to keep entertaining readers with thrilling mysteries they’ll want to solve over the life of the series.

Blog: http://sandranikolaiauthor.blogspot.ca/

Buy False Impressions:

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Impressions-Michael-Elliott-mystery-ebook/dp/B0086WMMZ0/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338295012&sr=1-6

Amazon CA: http://www.amazon.ca/Impressions-Michael-Elliott-mystery-ebook/dp/B0086WMMZ0/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1349290183&sr=1-1

Also available at Kobo, iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Sony Reader stores.

The Fregoli Delusion, the third Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel

In our last two posts we've featured a refresh of the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series, including Blood Passage and Marcie's Murder. Let's take a look now at the most recent novel in the series: The Fregoli Delusion.

Premise
What if the only eyewitness to a high-profile murder suffers from a rare psychotic disorder causing him to misidentify people? What if the person he insists he saw running away from the crime scene is the person who is the object of his delusional paranoia? And what if you're Detective Karen Stainer and you're the only one who believes him?

The Story
Billionaire H.J. Jarrett has been shot to death on a bike path in the prestigious Granger Park neighborhood in Glendale, and the chief of police has personally assigned Lieutenant Hank Donaghue to the case. Is it because Hank's mother, retired state's attorney and political backroom power broker, has pulled some strings? Or because Hank, thanks to his family background, knows many of Jarrett's associates and friends, and the chief wants these important people to be handled with kid gloves?

As he and Detective Karen Stainer investigate the Jarrett homicide, they find themselves coming into conflict. While Hank believes you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, Karen is pure vinegar by nature and doesn't know any other way to handle potential suspects than the direct and in-your-face approach!

In a world where money and power buy privilege and influence, can Donaghue and Stainer run a proper murder investigation without interference to find their killer?

The Inspiration for the Story
Fregoli syndrome is a rare but documented condition in which a person believes that different people are in fact a specific individual stalking them while in disguise. Named after Leopoldo Fregoli, an Italian stage actor famous as a quick-change artist, this condition most often appears in conjunction with paranoid schizophrenia or similar pre-existing psychoses.

In the novel, the eyewitness Brett Parris suffers from the ongoing delusion that a man named Richard Holland is persecuting him by appearing to him disguised as strangers in a crowd or even family members or friends. When Parris tells police it was Holland he saw running away from the scene of Jarrett's murder, no one believes him, assuming it was a re-occurrence of his delusional psychosis. No one, of course, except Karen Stainer.

What to Look For
While Marcie's Murder gives readers a chance to get to know Karen Stainer better, The Fregoli Delusion unwraps the personal life and motivations of Hank Donaghue, focusing on his family ties, his social connections, and some of his lifestyle choices as a member of the so-called One Percent, the wealthy ruling class. It also updates his relationship with Meredith Collier, whom he met in Blood Passage.

Despite all this, does Karen Stainer once again manage to steal the show? You'll have to read it to find out!

Where to Buy It
The Fregoli Delusion is available in paperback from any bookstore that has online access to the Ingram Catalog. They can order it for you right away. It's also available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sources throughout the world.

The Fregoli Delusion is available in eBook format from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, iTunes for any Apple device with an e-reader app, and Kobo.

Blood Passage, the first Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel

As 2013 swings into gear, we're pleased to see that readership of The Overnight Bestseller is steadily growing. We recognize, though, that everyone's time is severely divided these days and that new blog readers don't often have an opportunity to explore the archives to play catch-up on past posts.

In the spirit of bringing back to light relevant information that may lie buried beneath the silt, we thought it might be fun to do a refresh of the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series, beginning with Blood Passage.

Premise
Would you believe a small boy who claims he was murdered in his previous life?

The Story
A university graduate student researching past life memories experienced by small children arrives in Glendale, Maryland to investigate reports that little Taylor Chan has begun to talk about his previous life as Martin Liu, his mother's cousin, who was shot and left to die in an alley four years ago. Taylor recalls details about unfamiliar people that Martin knew. He asks questions about the strange bird tattoos on the chest of Martin's cousin, "Uncle" Peter Mah, which the boy has never seen because they relate to Peter's affiliation with the local Triad brotherhood. He also remembers the names of the men who shot him and left him to bleed to death "when he was Martin."

When the graduate student is beaten up for asking questions in the wrong places, Homicide Lieutenant Hank Donaghue and Detective Karen Stainer find that the Martin Liu cold case has suddenly become hot. However, while they go back through the murder book and begin the investigation from scratch, Peter Mah follows clues supplied by little Taylor to track down the men responsible for Martin's shooting, and he exacts his own revenge, throwing the local Asian community and his Triad brothers into turmoil at the same time.

The Inspiration for the Story
Taylor Chan and his memories of his past life as Martin Liu were inspired by Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives, by Dr. Jim B. Tucker (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005). Dr. Tucker, medical director of the Child & Family Psychiatry Clinic at the University of Virginia, is a child psychiatrist who directs research into the past life recollections of small children, an ongoing project founded by Ottawa native Dr. Ian Stevenson in the 1960s. To the best of my knowledge, their research has never led them into an open murder investigation, but the subject immediately appealed to me as a great premise for a crime fiction novel.

What You Need To Know
Blood Passage is a police procedural, meaning that its primary focus is on the homicide investigations of Hank Donaghue and Karen Stainer. Every attempt is made in the novel, and the series as a whole, to depict police activities as accurately as possible, with a little artistic license built in to allow for the fact that the Glendale Police Department doesn't actually exist! The policies and procedures followed by the GPD are influenced by several U.S. municipal police departments (whose SOPs are actually available online), FBI guidelines, and general law enforcement policies and procedures with which I'm familiar from various sources, including my own experiences during 15 years with the Canada Border Services Agency.

It's not necessary to believe in reincarnation to read and enjoy Blood Passage. While Taylor Chan and his past-life memories echo real-life cases reported by Dr. Tucker, and while these cases present some very compelling evidence suggesting reincarnation as a possible explanation for these memories, you are not expected to accept that Taylor was, in fact, the reincarnated spirit of Martin Liu. The central characters, with the exception of Peter Mah, do not necessarily believe in reincarnation at the end of the story. The theme is presented to entertain, and also to make you think, but not to convince. What you believe is up to you.

Blood Passage, as is the case with every novel in the series, has been very carefully written, edited, and produced. Attention to detail is a way of life for us. The manuscript is reviewed by multiple sets of eyes in each stage of preparation, and while human error can never be completed overcome, the book you buy is as clean and error-free as we can make it. Blood Passage contains two typographical errors of which I'm aware: a missing space, and a word that should have been deleted in the "About the Author" blurb at the end but wasn't. If you can find another one, I'd love to hear about it. I might even send you a free t-shirt.

Where to Buy It
Blood Passage is available in paperback from any bookstore that has online access to the Ingram Catalog. They can order it for you right away. It's also available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other sources throughout the world.

Blood Passage is available in ebook format from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes & Noble for the Nook, iTunes for any Apple device with an e-reader app, Kobo, and Sony.