Blog Tour: Duck Duck Ghost by Rhys Ford

SQUEE!  Look who's joined us in the clubhouse today!  It's everyone's (or at least Jenni Lea's) favorite author Rhys Ford!  She comes bearing gifts and a look into the lives of our newest favorite couple, Wolf and Tristan.  Welcome Rhys!

Hey! I am Rhys Ford… speaking to you in my own… okay that doesn’t work. Does anyone else remember Don Carnage!? He’s speaking at you in his own voice! Ah, the esoteric memories. You’ll probably want to skip this part during the next few…*coffs*…okay, over a dozen blogs as I parcel out a short tale featuring Wolf and Tristan!

Welcome to a Hellsinger Investigation!

There will be prizes and giveaways. Be sure to hit up each blog for an update on the investigation. I have brought in for this tale of ghosts and shenanigans two special prizes (well many of them…but two!). You might have seen them already; a pair of cuddly alpaca and a braided leather Wolf sigil bracelet. You’ll be able to win one or both at each stop with a Grand Prize to be given away at the end of the tour.

The giveaway for this spot is: A Pair of Alpaca and a Wolf Sigil bracelet

 Leave a comment to enter to win!

Hellsinger Investigations

File #241

Residence: Hazel Maplethorn-Bocker
Paranormal Activity: Objects Relocating
Location: Eureka, CA

The residence is occupied by Ms. M-B and ten cats. Client is retired school-teacher and has no history of psychic or paranormal activity either personal or in residence. Residence is 1940s bungalow with no recorded deaths. Land cleared of any prior paranormal activity; formerly undeveloped acreage. No structures or causalities reported at location. Cannot discount native population or transitory inhabitants prior to establishment of city boundaries.

Team: Gidget and Matt

Consultant: Tristan Pryce

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PART

The screaming jerked Hazel up out of her sleep, yanking the breath from her lungs as the piercing broke through her dreams. The house was dark, so very dark and despite the soft sounds of chatter coming from down the hall, she felt so very alone. Her bed was empty, cold and clammy despite the cozy warmth of her home and not for the first time since she’d called Hellsinger Investigations, Hazel wished her lover, Andrea, hadn’t taken her damned business trip to Toronto.

Scrambling to find her robe, Hazel slid halfway off the bed and felt around at the floor with her feet, looking for the pair of fuzzy slippers Andrea’d  given her last Christmas. If anything, the floor was colder than her bed and Hazel shivered, feeling as if ice chips were crinkling through her blood.

Something fuzzy brushed her toes and Hazel let loose a small grunt of triumph. Working her foot into her slipper, Hazel bent over to grab its twin when the ground gave way under her. The hardwood floor she and Deidre stripped, stained and varnished slipped out from under her and Hazel went down, sliding into the ooze bubbling up around her bed’s frame.

Every part of her mind screamed the slick liquid swallowing her up wasn’t real but Hazel choked, trying to clear the viscous fluid from her open mouth. It clung to her skin and tongue, a foul sourness working its way down her throat and filling her lungs and belly. The bed tilted away from her as she sank further into the growing damp lake. Kicking her feet only bound her nightgown and wrap around her legs, restricting her movement and the heavy weight of the sodden material seemed to be pulling her down further, sucking her down into the murky depths. Afraid to stretch her toes out in case it drove her deeper into thick liquid, Hazel steeled herself and tried to find steady footing beneath her.

There was nothing there and she felt herself being dragged down deeper into the muck, her frantic struggles splashing up waves of the foul oily water into her face. Panic set in, chilling and prickling her skin and Hazel let go of her pride, screaming for someone…anyone… for help.

Breathing deep, she scolded herself, “Come on, old girl. Do something. Be smarter than this.”

The bed seemed immune to the spreading sinkhole and Hazel slowly churned her legs, trying to bring herself closer to the frame. The room’s walls were wavering, slowly folding down into the rippling fluid. Kicking hard only dragged her down further but swaying helped her drift closer.

Nearly to the bed, she made a grab for her knitted coverlet, hoping to hook her fingers into the tucked in throw’s open weave. The yarn slithered around in her hand, curving to tighten painfully around her wrist. Her cry must have shaken the house because the pendant light set into the recessed ceiling began to sway and chunks of plaster broke off above her, crashing down into the water below.

Fighting the coverlet, Hazel spat out a mouthful of rank liquid, alarmed at how warm it was getting. The ripples grew stronger, cresting up into tiny waves and splashing her face. There was shouting going on somewhere, faint and indistinct and Hazel opened her mouth to respond, hoping to draw someone to her room to help her.

Her screams turned to horror then silence as something grab at her ankle and yanked her down into the burbling, hot depths and she disappeared beneath the churning surface.

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Duck Duck Ghost by Rhys Ford

Paranormal investigator Wolf Kincaid knows what his foot tastes like.

Mostly because he stuck it firmly in his mouth when his lover, Tristan Pryce, accidentally drugged him with a batch of psychotropic baklava. Needing to patch things up between them, Wolf drags Tristan to San Luis Obispo, hoping Tristan’s medium ability can help evict a troublesome spirit haunting an old farmhouse.

With Wolf’s sister handling Hoxne Grange’s spectral visitors, Tristan finds himself in the unique position of being able to leave home for the first time in forever, but Wolf’s roughshod treatment is the least of his worries. Tristan’s ad-hoc portal for passing spirits seems to be getting fewer and fewer guests, and despite his concern he’s broken his home, Tristan agrees to help Wolf’s cousin, Sey, kick her poltergeist to the proverbial curb.

San Luis Obispo brings its own bushel of troubles. Tristan’s ghost whispering skill is challenged not only by a terrorizing haunting but also by Wolf’s skeptical older cousin, Cin. Bookended by a pair of aggressive Kincaids, Tristan soon finds himself in a spectral battle that threatens not only his sanity but also his relationship with Wolf, the first man he’s ever loved.

Available from Dreamspinner on Sept 8.

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Duck Duck Ghost Promo Tour

Sept 2 Love Bytes

Sept 3 Prism Alliance

Sept 4 Smoocher’s Voice

Sept 5 OnTop Down Under Book Reviews 

Sept 6 Fiction Vixen

Sept 7 Boy meets Boy

Sept 8 Three Chicks after Dark

Sept 9 NdulgentBloggers

           MM Good BookReviews 

Sept 10 RainbowGold Reviews

Sept 11 Joyfully Jay

Sept 12 The Blogger Girls

Sept 13 The Novel Approach

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About Rhys Ford

 Rhys  admits to sharing the house with three cats of varying degrees of black fur and a ginger cairn terrorist. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and an overworked red coffee maker.

My Blog: www.rhysford.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rhys_Ford

And at the Starbucks down the street. No really, they’re 24/7. And a drive-thru. It’s like heaven.

My books can be purchased, folded and first chapters read at Dreamspinner Press. http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com