Yet MORE Friday Fun: The Ghost of Laurie Floyd

ASKING FOR YOUR HELP

Okay, I try not to use my blog to tout my personal writing, but…in some cases exceptions beg to be made. Today I found out some information that makes this one of them.

I’m looking for a little help and support. I’ll forever be indebted to you for any assistance you can lend. And if you ever need me, you better believe I’ll be first in line to help!

THE 2010 AMAZON BREAKTHROUGH NOVEL CONTEST

I entered my manuscript, The Ghost of Laurie Floyd, in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest earlier this year. 10,000 other writers also entered. 5,000 were entered in General Fiction, 5,000 in Young Adult Fiction. I entered the General Fiction category.

The Ghost of Laurie Floyd advanced to the second round and became one of the 1,000 remaining entries. (500 in General Fiction, 500 in Young Adult.)

It has now advanced to the quarterfinals. There are 500 manuscripts left. (250 in General Fiction, 250 in Young Adult.)

This is where you come in…

READ AND REVIEW AN EXCERPT

I need your feedback. You can read the Amazon excerpt HERE. (To get an idea of what the book is about, I posted the blurb under the next section below, “The Ghost of Laurie Floyd.”)

I have to warn you that reading the excerpt is a little tricky. They have it set up to read excerpts using Kindle. But they have instructions for reading excerpts without Kindle too. (I wish they hadn’t created extra steps. Just let people read the excerpts already!)

Anyway, it’s not too hard. You just have to download a free Kindle app and then you can read it.

But feedback is very important. It provides information to Penguin editors about submissions.

While I’d love all the reviews to be as glowing as the ones that landed The Ghost of Laurie Floyd in the quarterfinals, DON’T leave glowing remarks just because. Tell it as you really feel. (Trust me, I can handle it. I’m used to getting all kinds of comments on a daily basis, the good and the bad.)

And if you happen to like it, it would REALLY help me out if you could spread it around and encourage everyone you know to read it, too.

THE GHOST OF LAURIE FLOYD

When Megan Daniels begins her first day at the law firm of Mayhugh and Horne, she sees a body fall past the window. But when the police come to investigate, they don’t find anything. So begins Megan’s association with the ghost of Laurie Floyd, a secretary who committed suicide off the building’s roof the year before. Or did she?

As Laurie leaves Megan more and more clues, it becomes evident she didn’t take her own life. Someone killed her. But who? And why?

Megan believes Andrew Kirkpatrick and Matthew Horne, both attorneys, may know. She’s drawn to Andrew and repulsed by Matthew, but can she trust her instincts?

She joined the firm to work, not to solve a murder or fall in love. Both seem to be happening anyway. If she’s not careful, her job and her heart won’t be the only things she stands to lose.

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP YOU CAN LEND!

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.