Featured Post

 

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Interview - The Ghost of Her Ex by Aletta Thorne


Are you currently binge watching anything on Netflix, Hulu (or elsewhere)? What keeps you glued to the screen? 

I loved The Crown, although it’s a million miles away from the sort of thing I write.  The clothing!!  The gorgeous, gorgeous camera work!  I don’t watch a whole lot of the Netflix-y kind of stuff, though; I’m a news junkie and (as it’ll become apparent when you read my newest book) I’m also all about the home reno stuff, too.  I like the shows where they painstakingly restore cool old houses the best.  Nicole Curtis is my girl.  I’m not super-proud of the fact that I can always be had for an episode of Drunk History.  It makes me scream laughing...and yeah, I gather ghost stories on the various ghost buster shows.  I think the guys on Tennessee Wraith Chasers are hilarious.

Do you prefer movies or TV series?  

Depends.  I actually like to read better than watch.

When it comes to reading do you prefer standalones or series? 

No preference.  I follow authors.  Since I write young adult under another name, and also poetry, I read all sorts of strange things.

Do you prefer to start new book series when the first book is released or do you want for a several books in the series to be released so you can binge read?

I happen into binge reading when I do it.  Something grabs me and then I tear through books.  I taught English most of my life, so I read way too fast.

What are some of your hobbies, interests or guilty pleasures ? 

I’m a passable choral singer, a soprano.  My husband is an organist/choir director and he gave me voice lessons when we were a new couple.  I’ve sung in his choirs ever since.  I also really love to cook. While I was away in New England and Canada last summer, I perfected some kick-ass strawberry pie—and Whoopie Pies!  Whoopie Pies are the guiltiest pleasure in the whole world: little chocolate cakes sandwiched together with fluffy marshmallow 
frosting. They make young children think you are God.  (Not so much their parents, alas.)

What's your guilty “nerd” pleasure?  

I’d secretly love to be one of those people who dresses up in period costumes and shows folks through historic houses. 

Have you ever peeked at the ending of a book? 

I probably have years ago, but I don’t remember doing it lately.  Like I said, I read scary-fast, so I usually have the patience to wait.

When it comes to your own writing are you a plotter or a panster? 


Pantser ALL THE WAY!  I write by getting into the zone and letting my characters have at it.  Can’t imagine doing it any other way.  When things are really working well, it’s like watching a movie!

The Ghost of Her Ex
Aletta Thorne

Genre: Paranormal Romance, Romance, Ghost Stories

Publisher: Evernight Publishing



Date of Publication: October 23, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-77339-829-7
ASIN: B07JLRLR45

Number of pages: 193
Word Count: 56,000

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Tagline:  What happens when the ghost of your ex just can’t leave you alone?

Book Description:

Just because she’s sixty-three, cynical, and a church musician, Emily Rauch is hardly done with life—or love. 

Now that she’s traded in her old barn of a place for a tiny house in the hills, Emily’s ready for a new start. 

Throw in one enormous pipe organ, two ghosts, a pot dealer named Santa Claus, the reappearance of Emily’s bad-boy college squeeze, and a blizzard...what could possibly go wrong?

Excerpt:  

“…You are a woman of … appetites, Em. You like to eat and drink and…”
“…and fuck.” Emily shocked herself by saying that. Dropping an f-bomb when you were just randomly turning the air blue was one thing. But this was no fuckity-fuck-fuck. This meant actually doing the deed…
But she hadn’t shocked Al. “Indeed. And fuck.” He nodded, his lips tight. “I left you in the lurch.”
Emily sighed. “Yup. Yup. Guess you did. But we talked that stuff to death two decades ago. Shit, Al! It’s just … just … I don’t know what it is. Alexa, play Widor organ music.”
“I don’t know any songs by Widor,” said Alexa.
“Alexa, argh!” Emily made neck-choking gestures toward the black cylinder on her counter.
“Bee-boop,” said Alexa. Her illuminated blue ring danced and turned itself off.
“I know our lovely and talented daughter meant well with that thing,” said Al. “But The Echo sucks at classical music unless you get lucky. Works better just to ask for radio stations.”
“You’re too good at that. Do you haunt many Echo owners?”
“Just Gordon.” Al laughed ruefully. “That young fella of his bought an Alexa for him. Alexa, play WQXR.”
“Playing WQXR.” Alexa provided them with the middle of Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances.”
“Not bad,” said Emily. “No static. It barely comes in up here on the FM. And they’re a public station now, so no more pre-need funeral ads, I guess. God, funerals!”
“Yeah. That. I gather you had a spectacularly bad day…”
“Do you get special ghost email about that or something? Ghost Facebook?”
Al’s laugh, again, was rueful. “Hard to explain. It doesn’t work like that. I never really thought of you as a femme fatale, Em.”
“I wasn’t the one who fatale-ed him! I honestly didn’t intend to have anything else to do with him! Or not much else, anyway. Look, I was being a sex-positive, independent woman caring for her own needs. He went home to his girlfriend, tried for a little more of the old slap and tickle … and crumped.”
“And now you’re playing his funeral. And he came to the organ loft today to bother you.”
Emily began to laugh, too—a bit too hard. There was nothing else left to do. “Oh, fuckity fuck!”
“What?”
Then there were tears in her eyes again. She laughed until she ran out of air. “I never even unblocked him on my phone. I never even friended him on … Facebook! It was supposed to be a nothing. A one-off. A…”
“I sort of remember Brad. He was at the reception when you played in Brooklyn, right? Was he a good organist?”
Emily wiped her eyes. “He was terrific. But loud and flashy—at least when we were kids. A show-off. I don’t think I’ve actually listened to him play since before I met you. He loved boat races as much as he loved music. Not to mention chasing women. I used to regard that as a challenge when I was in school: break the womanizing horn-dog’s heart and win the Battle of the Sexes. Ah, Al, we’re so nuts when we’re young.”
Al took Emily’s hands. “‘Nuts’ is harsh. I think we’re young when we’re young. You know?”
“I do know.”
“Em, I’ll tell you this… Brad’s going to be … around. Womanizer or no, he probably liked you a lot more than you thought. I get that. Plus, he doesn’t know he’s dead, right?”
“He seems a bit unclear about that. He’s got to know I’m practicing for his funeral. You never seemed unsure about being…”
“Being dead. I had lots of warning. I was sick for a long time.”
Emily nodded. “That sucked. You sure didn’t deserve it.”
Al pecked her cheek with his usual hurried and dry kiss. “No one deserves it. Your friend clearly has unfinished business,” he said. And then he disappeared.




About the Author:

Aletta Thorne believes in ghosts.  When she’s not making up ghost stories for grownups, she is a choral singer, a poet, and a DJ.  But she’s happiest in front of a glowing screen, giving voice to whatever it was that got her two cats all riled up at three AM.  Her house is quite seriously haunted—even scared the ghost investigator who came to check it out!   After all, she lives just across the Hudson River from Sleepy Hollow. Aletta Thorne is also the author of The Chef and the Ghost of Bartholomew Addison Jenkins.




a Rafflecopter giveaway


1 comments:

James Robert said...

Always fun to hear about another new book. Thanks for sharing!