Blog Tour stop with J.L Bryan & Giveaway

Thanks for stopping by Strange Candy reviews on your blog tour, Jeff. Can you tell us about the blog tour and your book?

Thanks for having me, Jo-Anne! For the tour, I’m writing about 20 posts about ghosts for different book blogs around the web. I’m also giving away The Haunted Library, an ebook collection of works by dozens of authors, as well as a Kindle 3 with WiFi and possibly a Kindle DX (more on that later in the tour…).

The Haunted E-book is the story of a librarian who discovers a haunted book, with a ghost that awakens when you read it.

What inspired The Haunted E-book?

I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about the evolution of books over time, from scrolls to codexes, and then mechanical printing technology, and now ebooks in the 21^st century. I’m interested in how that changes what books are and how we relate to them, and how people share stories across space and time, even huge gulfs of space and time.

Also, I’ve been wanting to write a ghost story, but I wanted to do something original with ghosts that was at least a little different from what people have read before.

Have you visited any haunted houses etc. for research or fun?

I like the fake haunted houses that lots of people put up around Halloween. I haven’t gone out of my way to visit haunted houses, but my wife and I once heard a disembodied voice say “Shoo, shoo, shoo” right in our ears when we were staying at a friend’s house. We didn’t mention it to them until they’d moved out of the house!

Do you have a favourite ghost story?

That would be hard to pick! I read “The Red Room” by H.G. Wells when I was a kid, and I still think it’s one of the best and scariest.

Could you tell us a little about your main characters?

Dee is a librarian who’s had a pretty unhappy life and ended up sort of stuck in this little town for years. Madison is a college student who has some scars of her own. They’re people trying to escape their lives through reading lots of fiction. Then the fiction turns around on them because of Jonah, the ghost who wrote The Haunted E-book. He essentially comes out of the book and starts haunting them.

Is there a specific genre you'd like to try and write?

I’d like to write some historical fiction, but I’m a stickler about trying to get details right, and there’s a tremendous amount of research that goes into good historical fiction.

Was there a defining moment when you knew you wanted to be a writer?

Basically as soon as I knew people could do that for a job. I think I was in first grade when I made that decision.

What was the last book you read?

Right now I’m reading When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.

Do you feel that ebooks can reach a wider range of people than paperback?

Definitely. E-readers like the Kindle and Nook are still new. Eventually they’ll be as cheap as cell phones and iPods. Ebooks are also extremely cheap to distribute, so authors can charge a low price for their books. Low price and global digital distribution make a book accessible to many more readers.

(Some blog tour details)

Commenting on this interview within seven days enters you for The Haunted E-book Tour Grand Prizes, including The Haunted Library and a Kindle (or two!).

Your comment also enters you to win a pair of ebooks from Jo-Anne (The Haunted E-book and Dark Tomorrows) according to her usual giveaway rules.

Thanks for following the tour! And thanks to Jo-Anne for hosting today.

Let's make it interesting. Answer this question: What is your favourite ghost story?

(Don't forget to leave your email in you comment)

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He is the author of five novels and one short-story collection. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories. His new novel is The Haunted E-book. The sequel to his novel Jenny Pox will be available by summer 2011.