TFFOS: Rosemary Clement-Moore -- Guest Post & Giveaway

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ROSEMARY CLEMENT-MOORE is here today to talk about her novel TEXAS GOTHIC that debuts TODAY. So, how did she get hooked on ghost stories?...

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I’d say I love a good ghost story, but that’s a lie. I’m a big chicken, and always have been.

It’s my imagination, you see. Say we’re out in the woods around a campfire, or even in a tent pitched in your own back yard (which we often were on a weekend at my house growing up). And someone, like, for instance, your Dad, who just loves to tell a story, plants the idea in your head of...

...a lady dressed in white, waiting forever for the fiance who left her.

...a Mexican soldier from the Texas Revolution, wandering the South Texas hills looking for his comrades.

...a cowboy cursed to ride the devil’s herd of red-eyed, steel-hoofed cattle until the end of time.

...a woman who walks the hills in a long dark veil, restless with remorse letting her lover hang to save her reputation.

...a weeping woman who drowns her own children in the river in vengeance on the Spanish officer who fathered them and deserted her.

...ghostly bugles sounding over the fallen walls of The Alamo, calling the dead soldiers to rise again.

Okay, maybe that last one was peculiar to where I grew up. But my dad was full of spooky stories. It seemed wherever we went camping, he knew a story about a ghost nearby. And even when we were kids, he didn’t much hold back.

No wonder I spent so many nights lying stiff and watchful in my sleeping bag, jumping at every crack of a twig or rustle of leaves. And heaven help me if the wind luffed the sides of the tent like it was trying to get in to our canvas sanctuary.

So Texas Gothic is all my dad’s fault. Not only did he teach me the joy of being scared silly. (Because why else would we tell ghost stories or ride roller coasters?)  He also showed me that there’s a story--a spooky one--under every rock, if you just turn it over.

The novel concerns Amy Goodnight who, while ranch-sitting for her Aunt, encounters a feud with a (handsome) neighbor, a skeleton in a pasture, mysteries both ancient and modern... and of course a ghost who wants to collect a debt.  I tried to capture the feel of my dad’s tales. The creepy parts, but also the emotional bits, the sense of history, the idiosyncrasies of the state I love... along with a modern mystery and some not-so-tragic romance that doesn’t involve drowning children or anyone getting hanged.

Or does it?

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Summary:   

Amy Goodnight knows that the world isn't as simple as it seems—she grew up surrounded by household spells and benevolent ghosts. But she also understands that "normal" doesn't mix with magic, and she's worked hard to build a wall between the two worlds. Not only to protect any hope of ever having a normal life.

Ranch-sitting for her aunt in Texas should be exactly that. Good old ordinary, uneventful hard work. Only, Amy and her sister, Phin, aren't alone. There's someone in the house with them—and it's not the living, breathing, amazingly hot cowboy from the ranch next door.

It's a ghost, and it's more powerful than the Goodnights and all their protective spells combined. It wants something from Amy, and none of her carefully built defenses can hold it back.

This is the summer when the wall between Amy's worlds is going to come crashing down.

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GIVEAWAY


Courtesy of Rosemary, I have one finished copy of TEXAS GOTHIC to giveaway! For an extra entry, comment with your favorite ghost story OR why you don't like them.

To enter, fill out the form below. Open internationally.