Welcome Guest Author, A.J. Locke!

Today we welcome this week's Guest Author, the lovely and talented A.J. Locke!  Thank you for joining us today A.J.  We are anxious to hear all about your novel, Affairs of the Dead and your very interesting main character, Selene.

I’d like to thank you, Marie, for having me on your blog today. 

I thought it would be fun to do a short character interview with Selene, the main character of my novel, Affairs of the Dead, so you could get to know her a little bit. Here goes!

   1.      A.J.:  What do you do on your days off?

Selene:  This would be assuming I have days off! Lately even my weekends are swallowed up by work, but I’ll tell you what I’d love to do on my next day off, hit up that strip club Bump and Moan with a few girlfriends. This time it will be for non-working reasons.

   2.      A.J.:  If you weren’t a necromancer what would you be doing for a living?

Selene:  Becoming a working necromancer is actually what gave my life some direction after my grandmother died, so I think if I hadn’t gone down this path I’d probably be working in the Underground doing illegal things. Or I’d be a circus clown in a traveling show.

   3.      A.J.:  Favorite time of day?

Selene:  Any time I don’t have a whiny ghost harassing me to track down his stolen body. So I guess I don’t have a favorite time of day at the moment.

   4.     A.J.:  If you were stranded on a desert island what three things would you bring?

Selene:  I’d bring one thing: a boat. Then I’d row home.

   5.     A.J.:  Boxers or briefs on men?

Selene:  Neither ;)

   6.      A.J.:  Best date you’ve ever been on?

Selene:  I’ll have to get back to you on that one. You know, when I actually have a good date to talk about.

  

    7.      A.J.:  What do you love most about your job?

Selene:  There’s never a dull moment with working with ghost clients, the things I end up doing to settle their affairs are always different, even a little bizarre sometimes. I love working at a job that’s challenging, even if those challenges can be a real bitch sometimes.

Hope you enjoyed that little insight to Selene!

Yes, very much so!  Now let's take a look at Affairs of the Dead!

 

Cover

Blurb

Help ghosts, stop a thief, and try not to die…

Necromancer Selene Vanream helps ghosts settle their affairs so they can move on. But when breaking the rules gets her in trouble, she’s bumped down to tracking ghosts trying to avoid the afterlife. Ghosts like Ethan Lance, who claims he was kicked out of his body when someone else jumped in. Which might be plausible—if such a thing were possible. And if Micah, Selene’s partner, didn’t pull her into an investigation of brutal murders that lead directly back to Ethan.

But when the whole mess puts Selene’s life in danger, she suddenly has very personal reasons to get Ethan’s body back. Between her uncomfortable relationship with Micah, and problems with her boss, Selene learns just how much trouble it can be when you don’t follow the rules…

Excerpt

I was in a strip club trying to help a ghost get laid, which was challenging, but not impossible. It was just extremely taxing on the necromancer extraordinaire (me) who had to channel energy into the ghost to make her corporeal enough to entice one of the stripper boys. Technically what I was doing was illegal, but it was my job to help ghosts settle their affairs so they could move on to eternally ever after, and Julia’s unfinished business was that she’d died a virgin. I’d made it as easy as I could for her by starting at a strip club; if she couldn’t get some here, I wasn’t sure how much lower I could scrape the barrel.

Julia’s prolonged virginity was an enigma to me, even though she told me that she’d been waiting for her soul mate. I just didn’t understand why that meant she couldn’t hit up a bar, get drunk, and have a fun, regret-filled weekend that included the walk of shame. At least she’d have been in better shape once soul mate came around.

 “What do you think about him?” I asked, pointing to one of the three oiled up men who were gyrating for the benefit of all the screaming women. He had blond hair and green eyes, and wasn’t overly muscular. Julia looked at him then quickly looked away. I took that as a sign of approval.

“I think this was a bad idea,” she stammered.

“This was a fantastic idea,” I said. “And it will work, don’t worry.”

“No, I mean, I don’t think I can do this. I waited my whole life for my soul mate and now you want me to just—” she stole another quick look at the stripper, “I don’t think I can do this with some random…stripper man. It’s so indecent.”

I rolled my eyes. “Julia, you’re a ghost; you no longer have the option of being discerning. And if you don’t wrap up what’s keeping you around, you run the risk of turning into a monster. Then it’s an even bigger pain in the ass to get rid of you. So let’s call our efforts here at Bump and Moan choice A, and murderous monster choice B. Which choice would you like to make?”

“A,” Julia said, but she didn’t sound happy about it. I smiled, and grabbed a couple drinks off the tray of a passing waitress. I set them down in front of Julia.

“Drink,” I said. “This will help.”

“I’m a ghost,” she said. “I thought I was unable to eat or drink.”

 “You can feel the effects of the alcohol since you’ll be working off my energy, so drink up. I’ve pegged you as a light weight so I think two drinks will be enough.”

“But how is this supposed to help?” she asked, frowning.

“Because its job is to help,” I said.

Thank you again for joining us A.J. and the very best of luck to you (and Selene) with Affairs of the Dead.  Please come back and visit again anytime and in the meantime, we will keep up with you on your blog and other links.  

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Author Links

Blog: Blog
Twitter:  @maqueripe
Goodreads: Goodreads