Blog Tour & Giveaway: No Ghouls Allowed by Victoria Laurie

Guest Post for NO GHOULS ALLOWED
by Victoria Laurie

The Sandman

I spent a whole lot of my childhood and perhaps more than a bit of my adulthood being afraid of things that go bump in the night.

Like,…terrified to the point of keeping a light on at all times and sleeping on a platform bed lest some spooky entity be able to crawl under it and stab me in my sleep.  (Hello, Jason, a la Friday the 13th.)

Much of this was born of sensitivity to spooks from early childhood.  My first spook sighting in fact was when I was just three years old.

It started one afternoon after we checked into some old hotel in Pennsylvania.  The hotel was well over a hundred and fifty years old and, over breakfast on the way there, my sister had innocently asked why was it that, when she woke up in the mornings, there was sand in her eyes?

My father had replied that every night, to help her sleep, the Sandman came and dropped a little bit of sand there.

It’s funny to me to retell that part of the story, because, in today’s world, I think I’d hesitate telling my six-year-old daughter that every night some guy carrying a sack of sand visited her while she slept.

Anyhoo, my sister, being the logical type, took explanation in stride.  I have only the vaguest memory of that part of the story – mostly because some kind waitress had set down a plate of strawberry covered pancakes topped with a generous portion of whip cream in front of me.  The rest of the day was lost to a sugar coma, I’m sure.

So, that night my parents tucked my sister and me into the king bed in our suite, and headed off through the door to their suite.  Sandy, my sister, lay way across the bed to my left, and I had the spot closest all the way to the right, by the door.  Sands fell asleep immediately.  I was still wound up a little and drifted only into a light doze.

Shortly after my parents wished us goodnight, I heard the sound of a door closing.  It was soft, no more than a click really, but it made me open my eyes and sit up.  There, at the foot of the bed, was a dark silhouette in the shape of a tall man with a stove-piped hat atop his head.

In the dim light of the room, he had no discernable features; he merely stood there at my feet.  Watching me.

Feeling uneasy I rolled over to my sister’s side.  The man at the end of the bed moved along the foot of the bed with me.  I nudged my sister.

“Whaaaaaat?” she moaned.

“Sandy!  There’s a man in here!”

My sister didn’t lift her head from the pillow.  “It’s the Sandman.  Go back to sleep,” she told me.

I lay back down and rolled back to my side.  The Sandman moved with me.

He continued to stand there, watching me for what felt like an eternity.  So I rolled back to my sister’s side, (the Sandman following me), and nudged her again.  “He won’t go away!” whispered.

“Close your eyes and let him put the sand in,” she advised, still not lifting her head from the pillow.

I remember being very frustrated with her.  I didn’t want the creepy dude with the tall hat coming any closer to me.  I didn’t even want him in the room.  Still, if it would make him go away, I figured I’d give it a try.  So off to the other side I went, with the Sandman in tow, and plunked my head down on the pillow, curling myself into the fetal position.  Closing my eyes tightly, I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened.

Sneaking a peak, I looked over my shoulder and the Sandman stood there ominously.  It was like I could sense his mean little eyes boring holes into me.  This time I rolled back over to my sister’s side of the bed and kicked her in the leg.  She sat up angrily and was ready to yell at me when she caught sight of the dark silhouette at the end of the bed and began to scream her head off.

Finally!  A reaction I could get behind!  I began to scream too.

My parents rushed into the room, flipping on the lights as they came, and the Sandman vanished.  Poof!  Just like that.  Gone.

We checked out of the hotel early the next morning after my mother shared more than a few angry words with the hotel staff after one of them admitted they’d given us a room that was reportedly haunted.

Since then I’ve had at least a dozen other such encounters – one that shook me so terribly that I couldn’t drive at night for months afterward.

And I never really got over my fears of the dark until I started writing the Ghost Hunter Mysteries.

Writing has always been my therapy, and I can’t think of a better example than how much it’s helped me to write about the scary encounters that M. J., Gilley, and Heath routinely get themselves into.  There’s just something about creating a super scary scene, which is so vivid for you as a writer that you can feel and see and sense everything that your characters are experiencing, except that, in this case, you have absolute control over the outcome.  It establishes a feeling of confidence, and, after nine books in the series, I’d like to say that I’ve completely overcome my fear of the dark.

I realized just how much when I began writing this particular installment, No Ghouls Allowed and introduced a new spook to the scene.  The Sandman.

Did I still get a little creeped out while writing the book?  Definitely.  But it was a good creeped out.  One I had total control over.

Of course, the quart of ice cream I had on hand as comfort food whilst I wrote the book maaaaay have helped too.  🙂

About the Author:

Victoria Laurie is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty books.  With two series in full swing, Victoria divides her time between The Psychic Eye Mysteries and The Ghost Hunter Mysteries.  As a professional psychic herself, Victoria knows all too well the tricky world of the paranormal in which her protagonists psychic Abby Cooper, and spiritual medium M. J. Holliday tackle murder, mayhem, and the occasional demon with plenty of plucky humor and determination.

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 fiancée, 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 Christine’s request, M.J. and her pals agree to find out if they’re really dealing with some spirited saboteurs and a possessed plantation home.

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Jennifer’s Review of No Ghouls Allowed

Review (5 Stars): I absolutely love this series!!!!  I can never get enough of M.J., Heath and Gil and I impatiently count the days until there is a new book in the series.  In No Ghouls Allowed, M.J. returns home to Georgia to spend time with her estranged father and his new fiancée, Christine. While there, they discover that Christine’s home is being renovated and she is having a problem keeping the construction crews from walking off the job. They investigate to see what is happening at the house and what they encounter is a dark, destructive evil that they have never experienced before.

Ms. Laurie does an amazing job keeping this mystery series fresh and exciting and has made me a fan for life.  I loved going back to Georgia with the gang and learning more about M.J.’s life as a child. It helped me see how M.J. has grown as a character and how her past has shaped her to be the wonderful, stubborn and loyal person that she is. I have to say that I would like Christine to be my future step-mom because you can tell that she has a warm accepting personality and she was just the person to bring M.J. and her father closer together.  No Ghouls Allowed is a fun, exciting, ghost-hunting thrill ride that will keep you laughing until the wee hours and now I will have to wait not so patiently until I can meet up with these characters again.

Giveaway

I’m excited to give away a copy of No Ghouls Allowed. This giveaway is for US Residents only.  To be entered in the drawing by January 25th, please leave me a comment below: