Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog to talk about my latest release from Astraea Press. Lights, Camera, Poltergeist! will be my 21st title release! So a kind of coming of age.
For those who haven’t met me before my name is Nell Dixon and I’m a UK author based in the Black Country, a small region which is more or less dab bang in the middle of the UK. I write for a number of publishers in the US and the UK and have been fortunate enough to twice win the UK’s prestigious romance prize for category length fiction. I’m the only person to have won twice.
Lights, Camera, Poltergeist! Is set in a fictional Scottish town called Fingelly. I had lots of fun researching for a name that would sound authentic and I uncovered lots of fun facts about Scottish place names. Here are a few!
Aberdeen - Granite City due to the number of buildings built from local granite or Silver City with the Golden Sands. In Ian Rankin's Rebus novel "Black and Blue" Aberdeen is referred to as "The Furry Boots Toon" Why? Because when you get there, all the Aberdonians ask you "Furry boots are you from?"
Galashiels - Truncated often to just Gala. Understandably, Gala residents aren’t keen on their nickname of 'pailmerks'. It is said they got this name from days gone by when there were no toilets in Gala as we know them today - so inhabitants sat on pails - and if they sat too long, their rear end would be 'marked' by the rim of the pail! This doesn’t explain what inhabitants of other towns did to avoid this!
Tranent, East Lothian, where the residents at one time are said to have truly believed that they would win any physical altercation with the surrounding villages, so they were self-proclaimed as the Belters - in other words they could "belt the living daylight out of their adversaries"!
To read more of these go to http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_nicknames.htm On that note Here’s the blurb for Lights, Camera, Poltergeist!
Things don’t just go bump in the night, sometimes they throw tea cups! As the presenter for Ghost Uk, the leading TV show investigating paranormal activity, Fae thought she’d seen it all. Until a Valentine’s Eve live show from Scotland’s Fingelly Manor upsets both her preconceptions and her love life.
And a wee taster! John watched as she headed out of the room. Lately, it seemed he couldn't say or do the right thing, where Fae was concerned. He wasn't looking forward to the evening ahead of them any more than she was. Until Tim had sprung his hare-brained scheme for a live Valentine's show on them, John had planned a very different kind of evening with Fae. Tonight he should have been enjoying an intimate dinner with her at their favourite restaurant, hoping he could put some romance back into their relationship. Instead they were to freeze to death in a cavernous and dingy dining room with the rest of the production team. Worse still, that lecherous creep, Giles, would be ogling Fae at every opportunity.
The room seemed to be growing colder by the minute. The elderly woman finished her ministrations by the fireplace, and a dull orange glow filled the hearth, accompanied by lots of smoke. The tech staff had gone from the corridor as John crossed the room to stand closer to the meagre fire. No doubt they had slipped off to the kitchen in an attempt to scrounge up more mugs of tea. He was tempted to go join them, but he really wanted to finish setting up the lighting and placing the motion sensors first.
A growing sense of unease forced its way into his senses, raising goosebumps on his skin. John lifted his head, certain he was no longer alone in the room. At first he couldn't see the cause of the sensation. A change in the shadows in the far corner of the room, next to a dusty case containing a long-dead fox, caught his gaze. A soft snicking sound followed, like a door being closed quietly. He blinked, unsure if he had imagined the momentary distortion in the oak panelling. © Nell Dixon 2013
Lights, Camera, Poltergeist is available from all good etailers, including: Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Lights-Camera-Poltergeist-ebook/dp/B00AW5JC9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357229745&sr=8-1&keywords=lights%2C+camera%2C+poltergeist
Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lights-Camera-Poltergeist-ebook/dp/B00AW5JC9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357229677&sr=8-1
And why not try Cue Me In? which also features Fae, John and the Ghost UK team? http://www.amazon.com/Cue-Me-In-ebook/dp/B005XSEQJU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357038762&sr=8-1&keywords=cue+me+in
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