Ghostly Inspiration - Kathryn Knight

I’ve always wanted to see a ghost.  If there’s a Haunted Walking Tour, I’m there.  But still no luck.  I love all those paranormal reality shows on TV.  I’ve even considered paying to spend the night in a haunted colonial jail a few towns over.  If they had indoor plumbing, I would do it!

But the other night, I thought I heard someone climbing the stairs over and over, up and down, accompanied by the sound of change jingling from a pocket.  Now, my husband runs a few mornings a week, and sometimes he does the stairs a few times to warm up, but I lay there in the dark thinking, why does he have a pocketful of change when he’s going running?  Then I rolled over and saw that he was still in bed next to me, and both our sons were at sleepovers.

My stairs don't actually look anything like that!

 

The noise stopped, but I still had to get up and investigate.  I didn’t find anything, but in the darkness of 1:30 a.m., I decided maybe it wouldn’t be so cool to see a ghost.  At least not in my own home!

But I admit I had a lot of fun writing the scenes in Silver Lake when our heroine Rain Anderson actually sees the ghost.  As much as she wants to help her old friend’s spirit find peace, encountering her ghost is terrifying.  Luckily Jason is at the lake house too—but even he, a Fourth degree black belt in Karate, can’t do much about a ghost determined to get her message through!

I had to tap into a more sinister place to bring the ghost in Gull Harbor “to life”.  While I would never define my novels as horror stories, the paranormal parts are designed to elicit a few chills.  And the ghost in Gull Harbor is very angry and aggressive—for a good reason.  Can psychic medium Claire Linden figure out what happened before tragedy strikes again?  And can Max Baron, her former boyfriend, get past Claire’s resentment in enough time to try to help keep her safe?

How about you?  Has anyone seen a ghost?  I’d love to hear your haunting stories - and it just might help kick my imagination into gear for my next ghost story :)

My TV interview - Kathryn Knight

In April, I blogged about my TV debut on a local cable channel.  I was interviewed by the host of Books and The World during the same whirlwind week Gull Harbor was hitting #1 in the free Kindle rankings.  After the interview, I was a bit shaky (truthfully I was shaky before and during, as well!) and I could barely remember if I'd strung two words together correctly.  But I had to wait to find out, since a) the interview had to go through editing before it was ready to air and b) I don't have access at home to this channel.

After an agonizing 5 weeks, I found the DVD copy in my mailbox at 11:00 at night when I went out to grab something from my car.  I was leaving for a long-anticipated girls' weekend vacation in the morning, so I said to myself, "I shouldn't watch it now.  What if I did terribly?"  I decided to go upstairs to bed and get some sleep, then instead I promptly inserted the DVD into my computer and poured a glass of wine.

I thought I did pretty well, for a first-timer!  However, that knowledge did not let me finally trudge upstairs to finish packing and get a restful sleep.  I had to watch it once more.  And then question whether I really did okay, or whether I was fooling myself.  Should I wake my husband and make him watch?  Since it was now midnight, I decided he would not be a willing critic.  Adrenaline poured through my veins, and even that glass of pinot grigio did nothing to calm me down after that.  I lay in bed staring at the ceiling most of the night, finally drifting off for a solid half hour before my alarm went off at the crack of dawn for me to catch my train to girls' weekend.

Much more relaxed after a mini-vacation with the high school friends who helped inspire Silver Lake, I settled down to figure out youtube.  I was worried, but since my first book came out, I've mastered blogging, twitter, a Facebook page, Pinterest, and Goodreads, so I told myself I could handle this.  And it really was not hard to upload the DVD, although it broke it up at the end--I believe the interview ran slightly over the 30 minutes allotted free on youtube.

So, if anyone wants to take a peek, or is looking for a reason to put an unpleasant task aside for 30 minutes, here it is:  Books and The World interview

and here's Part 2 (last few minutes), you know, if you've got to see how it ends ;)

Gull Harbor *giveaway* on #Kindle! Kathryn Knight

The authors of The Author Roast and Toast are hosting me this weekend with a fun virtual trip to Cape Cod, the setting of Gull Harbor, my new ghost story/romance.  To celebrate the new release, one free e copy will be given to a lucky commenter - here's the link for a chance to win!

http://authorroastandtoast.blogspot.com/2013/07/kathryn-knight-gull-harbor-5th-july.html

I'm at the Author Roast & Toast! Kathryn Knight

Today I'm being hosted at the Author Roast and Toast - come on by if you have a second, we're celebrating Gull Harbor's release! 

http://authorroastandtoast.blogspot.com/2013/07/kathryn-knight-gull-harbor-5th-july.html

Author Roast & Toast is a fun blog created by four authors with my publisher, The Wild Rose Press.  This blog celebrates author milestones and promotes books with fun "themed" scenarios tied to the featured book.  And handsome Oliver is always on hand to serve food and drinks!  Hope you can visit and celebrate with us in Gull Harbor, Cape Cod, as we embark on a wild boat ride and hunt for ghosts!