American Ghoul by Walt Morton Blog Tour, Excerpt and Giveaway

Welcome to my tour stop for American Ghoul by Walt Morton! This is a mature young adult paranormal dark fantasy novel. The tour runs October 19-30th with reviews, interviews, guest posts and excerpts. Check out the tour page for the full schedule.

About the Book:

Seventeen-year-old Howard Pickman has some unusual problems: He comes from a family of ghouls with a long history of digging up corpses, and he’s just moved to a new school filled with kids that are scarier than he is. American Ghoul is the story of an exceptionally odd teenager trying to survive the most terrible time anybody has to go through -- senior year at high school. 


"A gloriously macabre young-adult tale about the difficulties of being a teenage ghoul in the 1970s. Once readers dig up this clever supernatural story, they likely won't want to put it down." - KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Anyone wanting a refreshing story with a young voice full of humor and teenage angst, yet with all the Gothic trappings that have kept the genre popular for over two centuries, give American Ghoul a try! - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

  "I admire Morton's story-telling ability, his macabre descriptions and his dark treatment of the high school experience from a teenager with a terrible secret. There were moments that chilled me to the bone, but kept me turning the pages to follow Howard's journey from outsider to anti-hero." - JACKSONVILLE NAVIGATOR

Goodreads | Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

EXCERPT

I went to the garage and gathered tools from a workbench. Many of the tools were so rusty that I knew they must be Grandpa’s. I found a pruning saw, nowhere near as good as the bone saw my dad used, but it would do to open a human skull. When I got back to the basement I found Granny put out a selection of kitchen knives on the table.

“Take what you want,” she said. “I barely use any of these.”

There were two boning knives with blades that were stained with black rust. That stain often meant the metal could be sharpened to a good edge. Perfect.

I looked up at the two forty-watt bulbs overhead. They glowed with a dim yellow light barely bright enough for the spiders to read by.

“We need brighter bulbs so we can see what we’re doing,” I said.

“I have hundred-watt bulbs upstairs in the kitchen cupboard,” Granny said. She pointed at worktable, “I think this will work nicely, don’t you?”

“It’s pretty good, Granny.”

The cellar would make a very private place to prep bodies. There were no windows at all and plenty of room. In one corner sat a fuel oil furnace and oil storage tank. Next to the tank was a standing lamp and lumpy-looking upholstered chair.

Along the far wall was a floor-model freezer. The freezer was four feet long and two feet deep and sat on the floor like a little white coffin. Granny waddled over and opened it, and a puff of frosty white vapor rose.

“Plenty of room in the freezer,” Granny said.

“It’s not a good idea to use that,” I said.

“What? Why not?”

“We never froze anything in Georgia. Mom and Dad said it’s bad for the meat.”

“What utter nonsense,” Granny said. “Your parents were victims of that whole health food fad.”

I didn’t want to get into a big argument with Granny. But Mom and Dad told me freezing was unnatural and unhealthy. Freezing causes animal cells to rupture and when you defrost later, it’s all mushy in texture and unpleasant. Since ghouls eat brains and glands to get special hormones we need, you want the best fresh stuff you can get. “Well, it’s not safe to have a frozen head down here where a visitor could find it,” I said.

“You worry too much for a boy your age. No one visits my basement but me.”

“Granny, I really don’t like the idea.”

“Howard, you just wait to see how tasty I can cook up frozen leftovers and you’ll sing a different tune.”

Bleech. Granny was less particular about the freshness issue than I was. Sometimes senior citizens will eat anything they have on hand like stale bread or bad cheese or milk past the expiration date.

I liked my food so fresh it was raw.

That evening Granny made dinner. Her world famous tuna-fish salad with extra crunchy celery and Kraft macaroni and cheese on the side to appease me. She drank a Budweiser and I had root beer. After dinner we sat in the family room fidgeting.

“Do you want to wait until midnight to visit the cemetery?” Granny said.

Free for Kindle Halloween weekend! 10/30-11/1 

About the Author:

Walt Morton is a writer, photographer, and artist. AMERICAN GHOUL, his debut novel, has been called “The Tom Sawyer of horror fiction.” With this book he is continuing a decade-long exploration into weird tales via photography, film, painting and writing. Walt has lectured at the British Film Institute and studied intensively in five martial arts.

A complete biography of his exploits and interests would be so shocking, improbable and incredible that modesty demands "the less said the better." He would like to thank Jane Austen, who coined that "less said the better" idea. AMERICAN GHOUL is his first of several books that reinvent the supernatural horror genre. Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, he now lives in California.

 His upcoming novels in 2015 and 2016 will include works in horror, science-fiction, and detective genres.

Website | Twitter @WaltMort

 

GIVEAWAY:

Collectible, art-skull hand painted, signed and numbered by Walt Morton, the author

Ends Nov. 4th

Prizing provided by the author, hosts are not responsible.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.