The Fireman: An Upcoming May Release

Fans of Joe Hill will be pleased to know that his latest novel, The Fireman, is due for release on May 17, 2016.

Here's an excerpt from the book description:

No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. . . .

 . . . The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.

In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman's secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke. 

 To view some preliminary reviews of The Fireman and to enter a Goodreads giveaway for the book,  please click here.

The Stanley Hotel: Is It Really Haunted?

Photo courtesy of Stanley Hotel Website

Fans of Stephen King's The Shining will probably know the story behind the Stanley Hotel, which is said to have been the inspiration for the novel. (In the novel, the hotel was known as The Overlook.)

Located in Estes Park, Colorado, the Stanley Hotel has a history of being haunted. Recently a guest staying there claims to have photographed a ghost on its grand stairway.

You can check out his photograph to see if you agree with him.

To visit the website of the Stanley Hotel, please click here.

It's accepting reservations and you can even order your own REDRUM coffee mug...

LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Giveaway for The Accusers

If you're a member of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program--or would like to sign up for free to become a member--you'll see that 25 copies of The Accusers in e-book format are available as giveaways in the April batch of recently published books.

This program allows publishers and authors to connect with readers in all genres. Like the GoodReads giveaway program, it encourages readers to publish reviews for the books they receive.

For more information, please click here.

Goodreads Book Giveaway for The Accusers

The Goodreads giveaway is up and running for my new book, The Accusers, and it is now available on Kobo as well as Kindle (and in paperback through Amazon).

Here's a brief excerpt from the book:

. . . Rebecca Anderson, affectionately known as Becca by family and friends, was a pleasant-faced woman, short and a bit plump, with curly grey hair. She was usually quick to smile, but today her expression was one of sadness. She turned on a reading lamp as she sat in her living room. It was February: the shortest, yet longest month of the year. The last rays of the winter sun had already died, and it was only 5 pm. According to the local news channel, there was heavy snow in the forecast.

Becca didn’t understand the depression she’d been experiencing lately. She’d lived in this house on Berwick Street for forty years and had raised three children here with the help of her beloved husband Jack, dead of cancer for five years now. She’d always tried to see the best in people and circumstances. . . .

She headed for the kitchen to begin preparing her supper. Her constant shadow, Mooch the cat, was nowhere to be seen.

He must be sleeping somewhere.
 
Becca pulled the cutting board from the cupboard and started assembling ingredients for a salad. She searched for the knife she always used to cut vegetables, but it wasn’t in the butcher’s block or the dishwasher.

Strange. I’m only sixty-five. I hope I’m not starting to get forgetful and misplacing things.

She selected another knife and began to slice the lettuce and tomatoes, trying to pinpoint when exactly this depressed feeling had started. . . .

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud thump outside on the porch. Becca wiped her hands on a dish towel and hurried to the door. When she opened it, she found a note pinned there with her missing knife.Her hands shaking, she removed the knife and read the note.

You have been marked.

She spotted Mooch under the living room couch. The cat was hissing violently in fright, but there was no one to be seen on the street nor were there footprints in the crusted snow. . . .