Guest Post & Giveaway: This Book is Haunted! Part 2 by Abigail Roux

Welcome to The Gravedigger’s Brawl virtual book tour! Thank you for helping me celebrate the release of the most haunted book I’ve ever worked on. Over the course of the next few days I’ll be giving away prizes to help you get through the reading experiences, namely bundles of sage to cleanse your electronics after you download a cursed book! In addition, every stop along this tour is a chance to win $10 in store credit to Riptide Publishing as part of their first anniversary celebration! To enter to win one of the prizes, just leave a comment here and make sure you include your e-mail address! Many thanks to Pants Off Reviews for helping me keep this spooky Riptide Publishing virtual book tour going!

Warning: This Book is Haunted! Part 2 by Abigail Roux

On the first stop in this tour, I spoke a little about the beginnings of The Gravedigger’s Brawl and what inspired me to write it. If I had known what sort of curse would follow this novel, I’m not sure I would ever have finished it, let alone submit it to be published.

I know that must be odd to hear from an author. This is what I do, it’s how I make my living and buy my daughter stuff she doesn’t really need. Why wouldn’t I try to have a novel done and published and inflict misery on my readers with the curse that follows it?

Frankly put, this book scares me. And I’m not talking about the plot.

The story sat for a few years while I got myself off the ground. It’s different, and it’s not what my usual readers expect from me. I love this book, I really do. I love the characters, I love the mood, I love the fact that while writing it I scared myself and had to sleep with the lights on, I love the songs on the playlist that accompany it. I love everything about it, and so when I had some time to work on it, I jumped on the chance to rewrite it for public consumption.

It took me a while to realize that the book was cursed. And even then, I sort of assumed it was just me. Looking back, I should never have pulled the old files out of cryogenic suspension, and I should have stopped after the first computer died.

The first time I pulled up the file to work on it, it was simply to read the story and become familiar with it again. Halfway through, my laptop began to malfunction. It was an old laptop, and I’d had issues with it before this. But the screen would waver, and then it began to beep at me. A warning beep. A beep of doom.

Two days later, the screen went dark and the laptop took everything with it when it died. I mourned it as you should any loyal companion, and then skipped my way to the store to buy a shiny new one. Along the way I also had the old one fixed, just in case I ever needed a backup. For the new one I got top of the line, the best laptop I could find, and when I got home the first thing I did was load my saved files onto it.

The files were gone. Nothing was left from the old laptop, which was still off at the Geek Squad having its hard drive erased. All the changes I’d made to the ghost story were lost forever. I had a minor meltdown that involved lots of Doritos and watching the movie Clue fifteen times in a row. I’m sure anyone who’s ever lost everything knows what I’m talking about.

When I finally recovered what I could, I put the ghost story back into cold storage and worked on something else. Life was good. A year passed. And then October came around again and that same feeling came over me. I needed to work on that ghost story because I love October, I love Halloween, and I love this story.

I pulled it up. I read over it. And the next day my laptop was nothing more than a very large, very expensive paperweight.

It gave me no warning, no sign that it was about to die. It just took its hard drive and went home.

I’m hard on laptops. I go through about one a year. So while I was upset by its untimely demise, I moved on. I bought a new one and began trying to rebuild the very small amount of information I’d lost in the crash and I spent the evening working on the ghost story on the new computer.

A day later, my brand new laptop was so infested with viruses that I had to return it to the store and get a new one.

All this laptop cruelty, it could all be a coincidence, right? I mean, three laptops in the course of twelve months isn’t so strange for a writer who spends all day every day abusing them. That’s what I told myself.

In an act of desperation I pulled out the old laptop, the backup one I’d had fixed for emergencies such as this. When I booted it up for the first time in over a year, it took its sweet time coming around. And when I went to transfer the ghost story form Dropbox, I discovered that there was one file still on the laptop. A single file left even after the memory had been erased and the hard drive redone.

It was titled ‘Gravedigger’s Brawl’, and that was when I started to freak out just a little.

You can haunt me at several places on the web, including Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and my website. I hope to see you around.

The Gravedigger’s Brawl

Dr. Wyatt Case is never happier than when he’s walking the halls of his history museum. Playing wingman for his best friend at Gravedigger’s Tavern throws him way out of his comfort zone, but not as much as the eccentric man behind the bar, Ash Lucroix.
Ash is everything Wyatt doesn’t understand: exuberant, quirky, and elbow deep in a Gaslight lifestyle that weaves history into everyday life. He coordinates his suspenders with his tongue rings. Within hours, Wyatt and Ash are hooked.
But strange things are afoot at Gravedigger’s, and after a knock to the head, Ash starts seeing things that can’t be explained by old appliances or faulty wiring. Soon everyone at Gravedigger’s is wondering if they’re seeing ghosts, or just going crazy. The answer to that question could end more than just Wyatt and Ash’s fragile relationship—it might also end their lives.


You can read the first two chapters and order The Gravedigger’s Brawl HERE.

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• Contest runs until October 21st 11:59pm EST