So again I have been failing to keep up with this. It’s been a weird semester and it’s now over. I’m taking a quick break from making finals to do this because it’s May the Fourth and Josh and Brendan are such geeks that I felt the need to share their geekiness for the day.

On the bookshelves, Brendan discovered the Starship Enterprise, Spike and Angel from Buffy, a small Millennium Falcon, a Doctor Strange figurine, and on the couch, Vince’s wand from his own series, which was a universal channel changer. Unable to imagine a more perfect space for Josh, he picked up Vince’s wand.

Wide-eyed, Josh snatched it from him and tucked it into his pocket, blushing. “Sorry for the mess.”

“Honestly, this is how I pictured your place. Okay, maybe not the blue farmhouse part, but the inside, definitely. It was a good idea to come here. I feel better now.” Brendan grimaced. Why had he said that? Because it was true, and what did it matter? Perfectly at home with his geekiness, Josh didn’t hide it, and Brendan did feel more relaxed in this space.

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

order Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets

This is the last site from my new book These Haunted Hills. I want to go back to Moonville and tackle the cemetery which I was unable to do the last few times I was there. They even have a festival in October which I wasn’t able to attend because it was like the week after my cancer diagnosis and I was not doing a thing to jeopardize my surgery, like say falling over a crumbling headstone.

Here’s a snippet of Josh with his good friend and fellow ghost hunter, Hunter.

Hunter brought his hand up sharply, aiming at a spot above the tunnel. The words Moonville stood out in brick relief over the opening, the M broken and more a suggestion of a letter at this point. Blue, red, yellow, and white graffiti sprawled in an ugly mishmash over the entire mouth of the tunnel.

“His ghost definitely is dickish.”

Still pointing, Hunter called out, “You throw something today, and you’ll regret it!” “What exactly do you plan to do if he does start his rock tossing fun?” Josh rolled his eyes.

If you want to learn more about Moonville, have Janette’s (whose books were mentioned in my author notes) trip out there.

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

order Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. There is a connection to that in These Haunted Hills. Brendan is Irish American and lives in Dublin, Ohio, home to one of the largest Irish festivals anywhere (which I sadly no longer go to much because it’s the first week of August so it’s boiling with very little shade and too many people). He and Josh do get into a sporting discussion about who makes better beer the Irish or the German. (Both is the answer).

One of the earliest places Josh takes Brendan to is to see the Weeping Angel in one of Athens’s cemeteries. Here she is. Her story is well known in the area (points to the linked up YouTube on it). This of course is the perfect opener for Josh to be the enormous geek that he is (with Brendan close behind) launching right into the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who.

I could take you up to the weeping angel statue, right up from the coffee shop we were in, but she’s not the cool Doctor Who kind of angel.”

“You are such a geek.” Brendan crowed.

“As advertised.” Josh thumped his chest.

“I’ll be happy she’s not a Whovian angel. I’m not up for quantum-locked villains on our first day.”

“I’m definitely not the only geek climbing this hill.”

Blurb:

Young wildlife conservation professor, Joshua Zimmerman, adores foxes, steampunk, and paranormal investigation. As a geek of the first order, Josh is a collector of nerdy memorabilia and tattoos, and he’s an avid steampunk cosplayer. When his favorite author hires him for some ghost hunting for his new project, Josh can hardly believe his luck.

As an author of the wildly successful urban fantasy series, The Green Tablet, Brendan Halloran should have it all. And he did until his young son, Connor, died of cancer. Heartbroken and drowning in grief, Brendan stops writing, stops living his life. His marriage has disintegrated, leaving Brendan trapped in the moment Connor died.

When Brendan rents a cabin in Ohio’s Hocking Hills, it’s ostensibly to research his next book, an adult paranormal tale. Brendan hires a local professor who is an expert on the paranormal, thinking if he does pull out of his tail spin and makes good on his plan to write a new book, he might as well do it right. And the perfect place to investigate could be the remains of an old hotel constructed to suit the serial killer who built it.

Brendan finds himself swept away, completely unprepared for the joy and enthusiasm Josh brings to everything he does. Step by step, Brendan reenters life. His head might not be convinced he’s ready to love again, but his heart disagrees. Unfortunately for him, the ghost is every bit as vicious as the killer was in life, and he and Joshua have a target on their backs.

order Link: https://ninestarpress.com/product/these-haunted-hills/

The Rainbow Snippet group can be found on Facebook. It’s a fun low-pressure snippet sharing group for LGBTQ+ fiction. Come join us. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets