"Sometimes the ghosts from your past…are real." Voices Blog Tour @ClarissaJohal @Saphs_Books

"Sometimes the ghosts from your
past…are real."

Welcome to the Release Day Extravaganza

for VOICES by Clarissa Johal

Book Details:


Title: VOICES

Genre: Paranormal Psychological Suspense

Author: Clarissa Johal

Editor: Bobbie Metevier

Published by Permuted Press May 2015

ISBN: 9781618685698

ASIN: B00WAH55JW

Pages: 264

About VOICES:

Sometimes the ghosts
from your past…are real.    

    

Moira Flynn is arrested for attacking a door-to-door
solicitor with a knife. She claims a voice told her the man was intent on
assaulting her. The trouble is, she was the only one that heard that voice.
Moira strikes a plea bargain and is sent to a psychiatric hospital for
voluntary treatment. Dr. Richard Cassano is hesitant to treat her as
schizophrenic, as she does not show the standard symptoms. As their sessions
progress, Moira confesses there are two voices—and they aren’t voices in her
head, but the voices of ghosts. Are they imaginary? Or are they actual spirits,
attached to her for reasons of their own? As Moira’s doctor uncovers more of
her past, he begins to realize that her ghosts are real. And one of them is
determined to drag Moira into the afterlife with him.

Excerpt from VOICES:

     Moira choked down a congealed glob of oatmeal. Bland, like all the food here. She picked up her plastic knife and smeared margarine onto a piece of dry toast. Patients were only given plastic utensils. She washed the toast down with a gulp of tepid decaf coffee and sat back, miserable. “I hate this place, I want out.”

“At least your session was cancelled for tomorrow,” Jack said. “One less thing I’ll have to sit through.” 

Dr. Cassano didn’t say why, either, Moira worried. He seemed nervous about cancelling too.

“We’ll get out.”

“Not we, Jack, me. I want out.” She stared mournfully at the food on her tray. “I don’t care what happens to you.”

“That’s not nice,” Isabella said. 

“I don’t care what happens to you, either.”

“You’re mean!” She retreated to the corner of the room to pout.

“Don’t be mean, Moira,” Jack reprimanded. “Isabella’s just a child.”

She let out a sound of frustration. They both knew Jack didn’t care the slightest about Isabella. “I wonder why Dr. Cassano cancelled it.”

“Why do you care?” 

Moira turned away pointedly and undid her braid, hoping to dissuade the headache coming on.

“Don’t ignore me,” Jack said, his voice hardening. “I didn’t like the way he looked at you this morning.” He grabbed her arm.” I don’t like the way you look at him either. I see the way you look at him.”

She shook him off. “You’re paranoid, Jack.”

“You know what I’m talking about, don’t play dumb.” He sat back, his eyes watchful. “Don’t trust him, Moira. Who knows what he’s planning?”

“If you do anything, Jack, I mean anything. They’ll lock the door and throw away the key.” She moved away from his presence. “And don’t think they wouldn’t medicate me with a dozen different pills, all guaranteed to make you go away forever.”

“You know pills won’t make me go away, Moira,” Jack bit out. “They might make you sleep, but they won’t make me go away.”

Silence filled the room. Moira picked up her brush and started brushing out her hair.

“It would be his word against yours, if he ever tried anything.”

“Just drop it, Jack,” Moira said.

Jack narrowed his eyes. “He’d medicate you so you’d never remember it, either.”

She shook her head in disgust.

“Maybe you could bust out of here!” Isabella jumped up. “I’ll bet you could open the window with that knife.” She ran over to the window and pushed against it.

“It’s completely sealed, Isabella.” Moira watched her, feeling helpless to the noise from her efforts. “Stop banging on it! You’re going to get me into trouble.”

“You could cut through the walls!”

“Hello? Plastic knife, it can’t cut anything.”  

“It can’t?” Jack asked. “Have you tried?”

She caught his look and quickly turned her attention to Isabella, who was still thumping on the window. “I’m not breaking out of here, Isabella. Do you want me to go to jail?”

“But what if they keep you in here forever?” Isabella asked.

“They’re not going to.” 

“But what if they do?” Isabella jumped up and down. “What if they keep you here until you’re old and grey and all your teeth fall out?”

“It would be awful to be stuck here forever,” Jack said quietly. “Wouldn’t it, Moira? Just awful.”

“They’re not going to keep me here forever!” Moira said. “Isabella, stop it!”

The door opened. “Problem?” the nurse asked.

She glanced over at Jack. A slice of a smile crept across his lips. “No. No problem. Just…thinking aloud.”

“Finish up your breakfast, then,” she said briskly. She shut the door again.

Moira picked up her carton of juice and took a sip.

Jack pushed her hand upwards, sloshing juice into Moira’s face and down her T-shirt.

Whoops!” Isabella giggled.

“Asshole,” she muttered. She went into the bathroom with Jack trailing her. Their eyes connected in the mirror.

“Looks like you’ll need another shower,” he murmured.

She pressed her mouth in a straight line and turned her back to him.

VOICES Pre-Order Links:

Amazon: Voices
Barnes and Noble: Voices

KOBO: Voices
Smashwords: Voices

About the Author:

Clarissa Johal has worked as a veterinary assistant, zoo-keeper aide and vegetarian chef. Writing has always been her passion. When she’s not listening to the ghosts in her head, she’s dancing or taking photographs of gargoyles. She shares her life with her husband, two daughters and every stray animal that darkens the doorstep. One day, she expects that a wayward troll will wander into her yard, but that hasn’t happened yet.

*Member of the Author's Guild

VOICES

(May 2015) Permuted Press

STRUCK

(January
2014) 1^st Edition Musa Publishing, LLC

(March 2015) 2^nd Edition Clarissa Johal

*Second
place in the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll 2014

*Winner of the Indie Book of the Day Award

BETWEEN

(December 2012) 1^st Edition Musa Publishing, LLC

(March 2015) 2^nd Edition Clarissa Johal

*Second place in the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll 2012

*Paranormal Reads gives BETWEEN 4 out of 5 Bats

PRADEE

(2010) Clarissa Johal

*Second round finalist in Amazon's Breakthrough
Novel Award Contest 2012 

Short stories: 

PIGEONS

Susurrus
Literary Journal

THE ROPE
Susurrus Literary Journal

Non-Fiction: 
A WAY OF LIFE
The Sacramento Bee newspaper 

Find Clarissa Online:

Author Website: http://clarissajohal.com/

Blog: http://clarissajohal.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clarissa.johal.9

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarissaJohal

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4502113.Clarissa_Johal

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Clarissa-Johal/e/B003KVTMPK/

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/clarissajohal/

Tour Hosted by Sapphyria's Book Promotions:




http://saphsbookpromos.blogspot.com/

Click this Link to See All of the Blogs Celebrating Clarissa Johal's Newest Book Release:

http://saphsbookblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/release-day-extravaganza-schedule.html

Friday Friends - Samantha Combs

For those you are anti-Valentine's Day. I thought I'd offer something from the other end of the spectrum from Samantha Combs. Take it away, Samantha...

No, really. I didn't misspell it. HELLOWEEN is my new book. My eighth publication and my third adult horror collection. I am pleased to announce it is available on Amazon.

To give you a little taste of it, I'm including the first few lines of each of the six stories. Hope it whets your appetite and makes your skin crawl, even the tiniest little bit.

Samantha Combs delves into the darkness of the Halloween season, the decadence of October, and the evil of All Hallows Eve. And as usual, she asks you along for the ride.

Come meet all her new friends; an inventive chef, an abused wife with an unusual solution, the invisible friend so different in adulthood than when you were a kid, the self-made woman who learns everything comes with a price, the woman of circumstance who learns neighbors can be more than just nosy,and finally, a quiet, unassuming wife who has paid far too much attention to her husband's, um, hobby.

So, go ahead, mix, mingle, enjoy meeting them all, but remember...the scariest monsters are the ones safely tucked away, hidden in the normal, the regular, the mundane. And in the end, Good does conquer Evil....just not EVER the way you'll expect.


Eat at JOE’s
Reynaldo “Rey” Claude leaned over the wooden crate of tomatoes and inhaled deeply. The farmers market was always the best place to find the freshest ingredients for his culinary creations and Rey enjoyed his visits to gather the tasty produce. He strolled along the bustling wholesale market, making his choices and filling his basket. He was known there, and most vendors stopped to say hello and offer Rey a free sample of this, that, and the other. Which he took willingly. His food creations were like art pieces to him; each had to have its own special sauce. Pasta was pasta, but it was all about the sauce. He only wished his patrons felt the same.

DEMON IN THE GPS
Nadine Keller was running late. She still had a million things to do and had most of them on her mind, so when the GPS started talking to her, she didn’t immediately notice it. She had jumped into the Range Rover and flung the dry cleaning into the back seat. She dumped her overstuffed purse on the passenger seat and backed out of the mall parking lot. When she heard the calm, modulated voice telling her to turn left, she just obediently flicked on her signal and made the turn. Later, she would realize she didn’t remember programming an address into the GPS. She should have been wary then. GPS units didn’t just start talking to you out of the blue, demanding things.
Not like husbands did.

SKIN DEEP
Darla Demples punched the elevator button to the tenth floor. She shifted back and forth on her fashionable high heels and transferred her briefcase from her right shoulder to the left. Impatient, she poked the button again and began to tap her slender foot. Damn! You’d think the head of one of the largest cosmetics company could get a damn elevator when she wanted it. Her gaze fell on her company logo, proudly emblazoned on literally every surface in the lobby: Dollyface Cosmetics. She read the catch phrase underneath, pride welling within her: Look like a living doll, forever. Dolly smiled wistfully, remembering how she came up with the slogan, after a sleepless night with a very cranky baby daughter. Denise was almost an adult now, in college hundreds of miles away. She knew she didn’t see her near as often as she should, but she always found a way to validate that. I’m working for her future. She knows that. My success will set her up for the rest of her life, her and her future children.

IMAGINARY FRIEND
Just because I’m telling you this story, doesn’t mean I’ll be alive at the end of it. I just want to clear that up. So there aren’t any surprises at the end. It’s how I kind of like to do things. I’ve never been one for surprises. Even when I was younger, when my birthday would come around, I made sure I knew all the plans ahead of time. I never wanted the surprise party all the other kids were begging for. Neither did Lenny. He hated them even more than me. Only, he couldn’t tell anyone. You see, Lenny was my imaginary friend.

Or maybe I should say is. I’m fully grown now, with an education, a great job and even my own office. In fact, that’s where I am right now. Lenny is here, too, somewhere. He doesn’t always come out, only when he thinks I need him. I guess I needed him earlier.

I suppose I should get the whole story out now, before they arrive. Just looking down at the bodies makes me a little scared of what they will think. What they might do to me. Lenny keeps saying I didn’t have a choice. He told me I had to do it. If not, I’d never be my own person. I’d never be free.

New Neighbors
Mindy Jasper hollered down the hall of her new house to her children.

“Jackson! Danielle! Hurry or we’ll be late for your first day of school.” She peered down the hall, then had to flatten herself against it to avoid being crushed by both of her children as they came hurtling toward her. Her daughter came first and spun around Mindy’s jeans-clad legs, hiding from her brother, who was only seconds behind her. He stopped when he reached his mom and sister, but only because he’d tired of the game. His sister didn’t look terrified anymore, not now that she was next to Mom, and to him, it was only fun if she was.

THE SERIAL KILLER’S WIFE
She heard the back door creak open and shut. Even though he always tried to be quiet, she never missed that unmistakable sound. Elaine Gardner had heard that sound a million times. Most of the time, it meant that her husband Roland was coming in from work, or from tending the garden, or from taking out the trash. She knew when it didn’t mean that. When he came in way past midnight, she knew it had an entirely different meaning: it meant her husband, Roland Gardner, was returning from a kill.

So, if any of these sound interesting or compel you to read them in some way, buy the book for a buck at Amazon and don't forget to tell me what you think.

Please click the titles to check out any or all of my SEVEN books!
SPELLBOUND
EVERSPELL
GHOSTLY
THE DETENTION DEMON
TEETH AND TALONS
WAY PAST MIDNIGHT
WATERDANCER

I am a Southern California author with seven published books, including the Global Ebook Award-winning debut title SPELLBOUND. I enjoy writing YA paranormal romance and supernatural fantasy, but I also dabble in the horror and sci-fi genres as well, and writing for the Middle Grade audience. I have plans for many more books in the future!

When I'm not writing, I work full time and enjoy spending time with my husband and two children. My guilty pleasures include reality television, the Food Network channel and shoes. I truly believe I can accomplish anything if I have the right pair of shoes. And I adore totally inappropriate earrings.

I love writing and publishing my work and I am in awe of the technological advances of our lives. E-readers and similar gadgets are bringing the written word to a generation that might never have discovered books otherwise and every time I see a kid pick one up to read something it fills me with joy to be a small part of that process. If a child can connect with literature because he or she did so electronically, a connection still was made. I am excited to see what our world has in store for literature and thrilled to be along for that ride.

CONNECT WITH ME!
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Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

~Samantha Combs