Monday, September 15, 2014

Ghost Head Hunter of The Rifters

I'm so happy to have M. Pax as my guest today. Mary has two new books coming from a new series, but today she's talking about The Rifters - and ghosties! And you know how I love my ghosties! SQUEEEE! *clamps hand over mouth* Oops, sorry. That just slipped out. But you're going to love this.

And hereeeeee's Mary!

George “Haw Shot” Hawley


Strange creatures, the stranger the better, fascinate me. I loved Relic for that reason and I loved the interesting creatures Cheri Reich dreamed up for Reborn. Beasts can make a world come alive for me, i.e., Dragon Riders of Pern.

Gwen writes about great ghosts with pasts getting them stuck in the present... well, in haunting the present.

George “Haw Shot” Hawley is a ghost with a twist. I based him slightly on fact and slightly on fiction. One of the main characters in The Rifters was a real outlaw. So I did a lot of research and ran across this guy: C.B. Hawley (18??-1882) - An outlaw, Hawley confessed to stage robbery in 1882 near Globe, Arizona and was lynched. Index of American Outlaws

Hanging was a common sentence in the old days, whether by proper sentence or mob. It also wasn’t uncommon for the head to come off during hanging. “Black Jack” Tom Ketchum was the last man to hang in America in 1901, because hangings often went wrong. Tom ended up in three pieces. more info

Sounds like a reason to be a ghost with a thirst for vengeance to me. The C in CB stood for Charles. I already had a Charles old west outlaw, so I renamed him George and moved him to Nevada.

George uses my other outlaw to murder townspeople and steal their heads. The heads give him more powers, because he’s not a normal ghost. He’s possessed by another creature from the rift using him for its nefarious purposes.

 

 
Rifters blurb:

The Gold Rush trickles to a fool’s quest and a string of stagecoach heists. In 1888, Earl Blacke decides to make a new start and become a better man. He escapes into the mountains, heading north. In the wilds of Oregon, a rift inside an ancient volcano opens and sends him into the future, into the present day. It also shaves forty years off his age, forty years to live over again and atone for what he’s done.

Starting over is hard to do. In current day New York, Daelin Long’s dream job at a publishing house goes the way of the dinosaurs her sister chases. With no money and nowhere else to go, Daelin accepts the librarian position in her sister’s dinky town in the middle of Oregon. Nestled inside ancient volcanic peaks, the town of Settler holds onto many secrets. Residents roam the streets with weirdly fashioned devices, and odd lights pulse in the night skies. People whisper of a phantom outlaw and start dying, murdered and missing their heads. On top of it all, Daelin’s sister is missing, and Daelin doesn’t know who to trust.

Earl knows more than he’s saying. He shares a notorious history with the phantom, one he’ll see remains buried. Keeping Daelin’s sister’s secrets is his only chance at redemption, and the only way to keep this world safe.
 

Try Rifters for free!

Download from: Amazon / AmazonUK / B&N / Smashwords /Googleplay / iTunes / Other

 

Take advantage of the preorder special on book 2, The Initiate. Only 99 cents via preorder from Amazon, iTunes, B&N, and Googleplay. Preorder
 
 

 
 
Author Bio:
 


Fantasy, science fiction, and the weird beckons to her, and she blames Oregon, a source of endless inspiration. She docents at Pine Mountain Observatory in the summers, and one of her cats has a crush on Mr. Spock. You can find out more by visiting her website: mpaxauthor.com

 

20 comments:

  1. Awesome that George is based on a real life outlaw. And it's fun when you put a twist of your own. Congrats on your book, Mary!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's fun to use real facts to create fiction. Maybe it's because I enjoy history and research.

      Delete
  2. What a great, creepy story. I didn't know heads sometimes came off during hangings. How gruesome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was actually quite common. Apparently, it takes skill to get the rope exactly right.

      Delete
  3. Sounds awesome. Have my copy can't wait to dig in....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be a horrible thing to witness, wouldn't it?

      Delete
  4. Thanks for letting me hang out today, Gwen :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I had no idea they would lose their head..I guess the noose is really, really tight. I can't figure how people would pack picnic lunches to watch a hanging

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It had to do with the weight of the 'hangee' and the length of the rope, how it was looped, etc... Yeah, not a picnic moment.

      Delete
  6. I didn't realize they could lose their heads while hanging. Great to learn more how you came up with Haw Shot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I was surprised at how common it was. Hollywood never shows that. lol

      Delete
  7. I love ghost stories. This sounds interesting--and so does your book, Gwen! (I clicked over from the sidebar to read about it.)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ghost stories are so much fun, and Haw Shot was definitely memorable!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh my goodness Mary! This book is just sounding better and better!

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a great guest post and book premise! I was a big fan of Relic too. So much so that when I had time this summer, I read all 14 books in the Agent Pendergast series and LOVED them! Wishing you and Rifters much success! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. "Haw" is definitely a strange and disturbing character in Rifters. I think you did a great job describing him and giving him motivation to do and be what he is . . .

    ReplyDelete

Yay! You left a comment! I love comments.