Ken McGorry has been writing since third grade. (He learned
in first grade, but waited two years.) He started a school newspaper with
friends in seventh grade, but he’s better known for his 23 years as an editor
of Post Magazine, a monthly covering television and film production. This
century, he took up novel-writing and Ghost Hampton and Smashed are examples. More are in the
works, like the promised Ghost Hampton
sequel, but he’s kinda slow.
Ken lives on Long Island with his wife and they have two
strapping sons. There are dogs. Ken is also a chef (grilled cheese, and only
for his sons) and he enjoys boating (if it’s someone else’s boat). He has a
band, The Achievements, that plays his songs (try https://soundcloud.com/ken-mcgorry).
Back at Manhattan College (English major!), he was a founding member of the
venerable Meade Bros. Band. Ken really was an employee of Dan’s Papers in the
Hamptons one college summer, and really did mow Dan’s lawn.
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Title:
GHOST HAMPTON
Author: Ken McGorry
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 450
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Author: Ken McGorry
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 450
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Lyle Hall is a new man since his car accident and spinal
injury. The notoriously insensitive Bridgehampton lawyer is now afflicted with
an odd sensitivity to other people's pain. Especially that of a mysterious young
girl he encounters outside a long-abandoned Victorian house late one October
night. “Jewel” looks about 12. But Lyle knows she’s been dead a hundred years.
Jewel wants his help, but it’s unclear how. As if in return, she shows him an
appalling vision—his own daughter's tombstone. If it’s to be believed,
Georgie’s last day is four days away. Despite Lyle’s strained relations with
his police detective daughter, he’s shocked out of complacent convalescence and
back into action in the real world.
But the world now seems surreal to the formerly Scrooge-like
real estate lawyer. Lyle’s motion in court enjoining the Town of Southampton
from demolishing the old house goes viral because he leaked that it might be
haunted. This unleashes a horde of ghost-loving demonstrators and triggers a
national media frenzy. Through it all strides Lyle’s new nemesis in high heels:
a beautiful, scheming TV reporter known as Silk.
Georgie Hall’s own troubles mount as a campaign of
stationhouse pranks takes a disturbing sexual turn. Her very first case is
underway and her main suspect is a wannabe drug lord. Meanwhile, Lyle must
choose: Repair his relationship with Georgie or succumb to the devious Silk and
her exclusive media contract. He tells himself seeing Georgie’s epitaph was
just a hallucination. But a few miles away the would-be drug lord is loading
his assault rifle. Berto needs to prove himself.
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We welcome
today Ken McGorry, author of the new paranormal thriller, Ghost Hampton.
Just in time for Halloween, too! Ken, I’d like to start out by asking you
how did you get started writing paranormal thrillers?
Well I'm not
your "paranormal type"! However, my wife and I were driving down a
shady residential lane in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, one summer day a few
years ago when she gestured at a nicely restored old colonial house. As we
passed, she said, “I know the man who bought that house. He says it’s haunted.”
Oh, really? “Yes. And they told him it was once a brothel.”
This was a
few years ago. I was shopping my first novel, Smashed, and also looking
for a new project. By the time we got out of the car, I had my title: Ghost
Hampton. And I was hooked. And I decided I'd better move the fictionalized
action out to Bridgehampton. I also needed to contact my grown niece who's in
fact had a lot of experience with the paranormal world.
What’s your
favorite paranormal thriller movie of all time?
The Exorcist
Your
book, Ghost Hampton, is the perfect book for Halloween. I’d like
to discuss the characters first. Can you tell us a little about Lyle
Hall?
Lyle Hall is Ghost
Hampton's central character and, you might say, based on his level of
difficulty (he's got a bad history with women, drink, his greedy law practice,
and weak parenting skills), he's also the reason this book was published
independently. Traditional publishing professionals often used Lyle as the
excuse to recuse themselves from getting behind Ghost Hampton. But in
our world of pop anti-heroes (Tony Soprano, Walter White, anybody in The
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) I felt strongly that the days of Father
Knows Best and White Hat = Good Guy are well behind us. My concept for Lyle
was that of a modern day Scrooge. But our Lyle has already had his comeuppance
prior to meeting any denizens of the underworld. His "inciting
incident" was a violent car crash that took the life of Bridgehampton's
kindliest old lady and left Lyle Hall paralyzed, despised and beset by
incorporeal voices. It's this "new" Lyle who decides he must remake
himself as a better, more giving person. But none of the locals who've known
him for decades can see him any other way. And it's Lyle Hall, reviled both by
real-life publishing executives and by his own fictional friends and neighbors,
who's turned out to be a favorite new character with the many, many new readers
and book clubs who have contacted me (and most of them are women)!
Can you tell
my readers who Jewel is?
Jewel is a
mysterious young girl in Victorian dress who speaks only to Lyle Hall and only
in a language he cannot understand: Italian. She appears in front of an
abandoned mansion, "Old Vic," and captivates Lyle, who memorizes her
haunted face and (phonetically) her soulful plea. Of course, Lyle is the last
person to be able to decipher her message and truly understand his paranormal
experience so he implores others, including a researcher who's an old frenemy,
to help him. Soon hordes of paranormal enthusiasts descend on Lyle's home,
camping out, hoping in vain that Lyle will introduce them to Jewel. Most
interested in Jewel is a scheming TV reporter who sees Lyle as susceptible to
suggestion, and as a stepping stone in her career. But Jewel's true identity
remains a riddle until Ghost Hampton's climax.
Tell us about
this Victorian old house that Lyle finds?
Everybody in
town knows "Old Vic" -- a big, old rambling mansion. It's an eyesore
and a threat, both to property values and to those who might venture inside.
It's rumored to have been a brothel back in the 1800's -- and it's widely
believed to be haunted by someone, or some thing. As we see in Ghost Hampton,
sometimes rumors are true. The structure itself is three stories high with a
badly damaged cupola atop a Mansard roof. Its upper floors are a warren of
small rooms. Its windows are all broken, including the cupola's oculus. The
only furnishings inside are a few plastic milk crates. Everything else,
including the moldings, have been burned over the decades by trespassing
teenagers in the parlor's huge "walk in" fireplace.
And who is
Silk?
Miranda
Silkwood has made a name for herself as "Silk" -- the gorgeous and
tempting purveyor of paranormal news on the Fearcom website. She wants her
career to grow beyond the unwanted attentions of a legion of nerdy fanboys, and
Lyle Hall and his paranormal extravaganza, smack in the middle of the Hamptons,
presents her with a perfect opportunity. Her scheme is to play off Lyle's obvious
fixation on her to get the most out of him in live TV interviews, despite his
obviously unstable temperament, and ride his sudden fame to new heights as a
network news host.
What would
you say is one of the scariest parts of your novel?
Well, there's
something that "possesses" a few unwary characters when they enter,
or get too close to, Old Vic. This unknown entity can transform a healthy,
likable person into something hateful and dangerous. This happens a few times
as the story progresses and we don't know if some favorite characters will
survive the ordeal.
Do you plan
on turning this book into a series or do you plan on writing other paranormal
thrillers?
Yeah! I got
hooked on Ghost Hampton early on and built the foundation for two(!)
sequels into this first book. I miss my characters and can't wait to get them
out on the page again.
Now’s your
chance. Do you have anything you’d like to say to my readers about your
book?
You don't
have to know about Ghost Hampton's buried plot line to get a
kick out of the characters and their antics. But let's think about our old
friend Scrooge again for a minute. What if Scrooge, after his Christmas Eve
ghostly visits, ventured out in the real world only to find that no one
believed he'd changed his ways? What if his well earned reputation informed how
everyone perceived him, no matter what?
Hey! Thanks for having me aboard "I'm Shelf-ish"! It's really been a pleasure!
ReplyDeleteHey! Thanks for having me aboard "I'm Shelf-ish"! It's really been a pleasure!
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