Blog Tour: Guest Post: Fiona Glass

Riptide Publishing is now a year old! The company has great LGBTQ titles that you can find through their website! As part of their celebration, they have asked several blogs to participate in several blog tours. We previously had a visit from author, GB Gordon, today we are happy to have Fiona Glass join us and Riptide is sponsoring a giveaway here for $10 towards Riptide titles.

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: October 22, 2012

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Paranormal journalists Chris Mullins and Jo Perry are sent to Ireland's remote west coast to investigate tales of hauntings at a ruined church. Chris, who has an inbuilt sensor for ghosts, is drawn to the old priest’s house next door, where he faces an otherworldly encounter so strong it leaves him reeling. Their research leads to a tangled web of forbidden love, family rows, and even, possibly, murder.

Chris jumps at the chance not only to solve the mystery, but also to aim for the coveted Moondust Award, a prize for the first journalist who proves that ghosts exist. Jo, though, is less enthusiastic, both about the award and her on-off relationship with Chris. Things become even more confused when Chris finds himself falling for Paulie, one half of a gay couple on holiday in the same village.

Only the wild, haunted landscape of Ireland can give Chris the answers he so craves, but to find them, he may have to choose between the Moondust Award and the matters of his heart.

VISIT THE AUTHOR:

Goodreads.Website

FIND THE BOOK:

Goodreads.Amazon

GUEST POST:

Hi There! Thanks for joining us on the virtual book tour for my newest release, Gleams of a Remoter World. All week long, I’ll be visiting some of our reader’s favourite blogs to talk about the book and how it came to be. Now for the good part—as a part of Riptide Publishing’s first anniversary celebration, one lucky reader who comments on this post will win $10 in store credit to Riptide! Simply leave a comment below, with your email address included, by Sunday Oct 28^th at 11:59pm to enter. What are you waiting for? Check out all the tour stops here to earn more entries!

Enjoy! And in the meantime, if you'd like to find out more about me or my writing, please just drop into my website or my blog.

Setting The Scene

I mentioned during my previous blog tour (for my novella 'Necessity's Door') that settings are very important to me, and the same is true of 'Gleams of a Remoter World'.

The novel first suggested itself to me during a holiday on a remote island just off the coast of County Galway, in a Gaelic-speaking area of Connemara.  The scenery out there is just stunning - a strange mix of mountain, sea, and rock, with vast fields of boulders strewn across the landscape and beaches of pure white sand.  The weather plays its part, with rapid shifts between rain and shine, storm clouds and glinting sun.  In addition, ruined buildings scatter across the land, reminders of the famous potato famine, or leftovers of a more recent rush to leave the countryside.  Most of these are cottages, but there's also the occasional larger building, and in one particular case, a church. 

By the time we'd spent a week out there the sheer magic of landscape, ruins and atmosphere had grabbed me and wasn't letting go.  I was so inspired I bought a notebook and started scribbling at the kitchen table of the cottage we'd rented on the coast.

As usual with my settings, many of the features are based on real places, although I usually change the details a little.  In this case, the ruined church at Kilveenan still exists, and right next door is the ruined priest's house, roofless and forlorn and quite possibly haunted by the odd ghost or two.  The village of Kilveenan itself is an amalgamation of two different villages - Gorumna where we stayed, and the larger settlement of Roundstone further round the coast.  The harbour is based on the quay at Gorumna, and the coral beach was on the other side of the local bay.  The mountains I describe are the Twelve Bens, or Twelve Pins, which form a looming backdrop to virtually ever view.

Although many of the locations exist in one form or another, the plot and characters are entirely my invention.  The atmosphere might be magical, but we never saw anything that wasn't actually there.  It's a wonderful spot for a holiday, though, and the perfect setting for a ghost story.

Thank you to Fiona Glass for joining us today! What a helpful post for authors struggling with their setting development! Leave a comment below to win a $10 credit for Riptide titles!