Jodie Pierce's Ink Slinger's Blog: The Haunting Season and Michelle Muto

Hi all!

Please help me welcome Author Michelle Muto to my blog today! She is having an excellent blog tour through Fae Books. Please see the schedule below!

Long bio:

Michelle has always loved storytelling. When she was a child, her favorite stories were of monsters and things that lurked in the dark. Telling stories often frightened her classmates and got her into a lot of trouble with her teachers. They had no sense of humor.

As an adult, Michelle traded her love of writing for the corporate life where she was an IT professional. Today, she's doing what she loves best - writing and storytelling.

Michelle grew up in Chicago, but currently lives in NE Georgia with her husband and their two dogs. She loves scary books, funny movies, sports cars, chocolate, dogs, and changes of season.

Short Bio:

Michelle Muto lives in northeast Georgia with her husband and two dogs. She loves changes of season, dogs, and all things geeky. Currently, she’s hard at work on her next book.

Interview with the Author:

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

During a trip to Savannah, I visited the Sorrel-Weed house, which is reported to be Savannah’s most haunted house.

What is different about this book compared to others you’ve written?

For starters, The Haunting Season is New Adult. Secondly, the main characters are not supernatural beings.

Most unique or unusual research you’ve ever done for The Haunting Season?

Besides visiting the Sorrel-Weed house? Asking a former mortician about embalming methods in the early to mid 1900’s and how embalming and burial procedures have changed and why. It’s both fascinating and a bit gruesome.

What is the hardest part about writing?

Keeping my butt in the chair for as many hours as I need to per day. Resisting the urge to jump on the internet when I’m having difficulty with a scene.

If you could meet any author who is no longer living, who would it be?

Tough call. Edgar Allan Poe, probably. But I’d also like to meet Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock.

Can you tell us a little about your next project?

It’s a adult dark fantasy novel with action, castles, and gargoyles. It’ll be out early this summer.

If you could do one thing over again in regards to writing, what would it be?

Write faster.

Vanilla or chocolate?

Chocolate.

Food you like the most? The least?

I tend to like Italian food the most. I can’t stand brussel sprouts or peas.

Favorite television show?

Supernatural

What weapon would you choose in the zombie apocalypse?

Harry Potter’s wand or maybe Dean Winchester. He’d be a formidable weapon against zombies, right? <grin>

What scares you?

Humanity. The way people treat others, animals, or the environment.

The Haunting Season - Michelle Muto:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NeCl4FtKTZo/UbeNNjl_QFI/AAAAAAAAClY/t3ZpzoKb3Yc/s400/The+Haunting+Season.jpg

Blurb:

Be careful what you let in…
Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead. The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.

EXCERPT:

“Allison?” she called out. She checked the bathroom. No Allison there, either. She must have already gone downstairs without her. Jess turned and walked back into their room.

“You shouldn’t be here,” said the little girl standing in front of the dresser.

Startled, Jess took an involuntary step back. She thought she’d be used to the way ghosts appeared and disappeared by now, but she wasn’t. Probably would never get used to it. The girl wore a pretty white dress and black shoes. The dress was tied around the middle with a red bow that matched the one in her curly, dark hair.

She’s a ghost. She’s the ghost of either Gracie or Emma Siler, Jess thought, aware of her quickening heartbeat. Finally! Her first ghost sighting in months! The girl looked young and sweet, so why did she feel so jumpy? Probably because her roommate would have her believe the small girl sporting dimples and curls was Satan in disguise.

Damn you, Allison!

Her face didn’t look anything like Jess would have expected of a child who had been murdered. The girl’s complexion was healthy, with a glow like that of a living ten-year-old. Not one who had been dead for well over a hundred years. But, ghosts were like that—appearing how they wanted you to see them, or so she believed. Or, maybe it was how they saw themselves. Jess had never thought to ask.

She could still see ghosts, which meant there was hope—hope of seeing Grams again and her father, too! Jess’s unease began to fade.

The girl waited patiently for her to do or say something.

“Hello,” Jess said softly.

“Hi,” the girl replied.

“I’m Jess. Are you Emma or Gracie?”

The girl smiled. “I know who you are. I’m Gracie.”

Jess tried to keep the remaining nervousness from her voice. “Thanks for letting me see you, Gracie. I like ghosts.”

Gracie’s smile faltered. “You’re still a little scared. I can tell. Are you here to hurt us? To make us go away?”

Ghost or not, Gracie’s words melted Jess. Hurt her? Never. Jess knelt down in front of Gracie. She reached out for Gracie’s arm, realizing she couldn’t actually touch the child—the gesture was simply automatic. Gracie stepped back, her arms still at her sides.

She thinks I’m going to hurt her, Jess thought. “No, Gracie. I’d never hurt you. In fact, I’m here to help you.”

“You’re very kind,” Gracie said, looking down at her shoes.

“I try to be,” Jess replied.

Gracie’s head jerked toward the mirror, then back to Jess, her eyes wide. “I have to go now. You should go, too.”

“Is someone there, Gracie?”

She nodded.

“Who’s there? Is it Emma?” Somehow, she didn’t think it was Emma at all.

Gracie frowned. “It’s Riley. He says I can’t talk anymore right now.”

Jess stood and looked in the mirror. Once again, she saw nothing but her reflection and oddly, Gracie’s, in the old mirror. Unease seeped back into Jess’s skin.

“I’ll help you Gracie. You and Emma. I promise,” Jess said, although she had no idea how to do that yet. She turned back to the child, but Gracie was gone.

Slowly, as if a child were writing it from the other side of the mirror, the word hurry appeared. And underneath, we need you.

Here is her playlist as she wrote the book: