Today, is the last stop for the #TherearenoeyedropsinHell blog
tour for my new urban fantasy release, How
the Vortex Changed My Life.
I want to talk about why I felt Richmond and nearby
Chesterfield County made a good area for this new fiction novel of mine. It’s a
very paranormal loaded spot. Just as all of Virginia is. After writing five nonfiction
ghost books, I learned a lot. Where else would a serial killer who dresses in a
white bunny costume and brandish a hatchet at a bridge in Fairfax? Forget that
man with the hook—Bunnyman is creepy, downright creepy. Ghosts seem to be just
wanting to haunt the Commonwealth. Especially in Virginia’s haunted Historic
Triangle and Petersburg and its Tri-Cities area.
Richmond has a vampire connected to the train buried under the
hill in Churchhill, and his tomb is located in Hollywood Cemetery. Does he wait
for his next victim, maybe the last to leave as dusk settles over the
tombstones? People talk about seeing a werewolf in Henrico. I wonder if like
the old classic Universal monsters, if the werewolf battles the Richmond
Vampire?
Most of all, Poe may not have been born here, but he was
raised here, went to college in Charlottesville and had his honeymoon in
Petersburg, so Virginia must have been dear to his heart (his beating, telltale
heart). He is considered Richmond’s native son.
So, where else would Larry and all those demonic beings, plus
that vortex, come to, but Richmond? At least, Larry can get eye drops from any
drugstore in town.
Leave a comment, telling me if you agree Richmond is very paranormal or not, leaving your name, to be entered in this short blog tour’s giveaway, where one winner
will win a gift certificate of $20.oo from Amazon, where you can buy the
paperback copy of , or the Kindle version, plus stuff on Amazon (you might
think about one of my books even). Check this blog, http://pamelakkinney.blogspot.com/ this coming, Monday, October 16, 2017, at Noon, Eastern time, to see if your name is picked. If it
is, you will need to leave me a comment with your name and email (don’t worry,
I must approve comments and I won’t post it on my blog, just email you, so we
can get you your prize).
Pamela K. Kinney
Buy the book:
You
can visit the past three blogs I stopped at:
Cat
Viggolone just can’t get a break. She'd gotten married, but that ended when the
husband left her for his younger secretary. She'd wanted children. That flew
out the window along with the cheating husband. There’s the career, but working
a window at the Virginia DMV can’t really be classified as a great career
choice. At thirty-three, her life had become positively dull. then
the vortex opened.
Sucked
up into a corridor just outside of Hell, she meets Connor, a werewolf, and
Larry, a demon that looks like a blue-eyed eyeball. They escape back to earth,
only to find that the vortex has opened up in downtown Richmond. The town is
going to hell, literally. Besides a grayness seeping out and turning all living
things into zombies, monsters and demons are invading Cat’s world.
Will
Cat and her new friends (including an angel named George) be able to stop the
vortex before it claims the entire planet? Cat’s life is definitely no
longer humdrum and ordinary.
Connor
and I arrived at some stone steps. We clattered up them and into the Richmond
Public Library. After we stepped into the foyer and passed the circulation desk
we looked around, unsure of where to go. I saw a room to the left of us,
pointed at it, and we slipped inside. Rows and rows of books in shelves lined
the area like soldiers marching behind each other. A portly man in khaki pants,
white shirt, and a blue, flowered tie sat behind a desk. He looked up and
smiled.
"Can
I be of assistance?" His smile faltered as he stared past me.
He's seen Larry. This won't be good.
He
stood, his forehead wrinkling. "That's pretty life like. What is it? A
balloon? I can't see any string attached to it."
Deciding
not to beat around the bush, I blurted, "He's not a balloon. He's an
eyeball—actually, he's a demon."
The
man said, "Are you trying to say that whatever it is, is alive?"
"Kinda.
I guess demons are sort of alive."
The
librarian walked over to us and poked at Larry. Larry didn't like it and
started that weird bleating noise he could make and bumped against the man. He
bumped him so hard, he almost knocked the librarian over. The man managed to
stay on his feet, and took a couple of steps back as he wiped the finger on his
pants as if Larry had given him cooties.
Connor
grabbed the librarian by the same finger and squeezed hard. The man cried out.
Connor
let go. "Larry doesn't like people poking at him." He glared.
"It's rude. Besides, how would you like it if I poked at you?" Connor
proceeded to do just that.
The
librarian stumbled back. "Okay, okay. But what is that thing? The lady
called it a demon, but demons aren't real. Right?"
Connor
snorted. "That thing is a demon like the lady said and if
it wasn't for him, I'd been dead within hours after I got trapped in
Hell." Larry bumped against Connor and made another noise I never heard
before, like a cat's purr. "I find Larry is a lot more 'human' than you
humans are."
"Well,
you look as human as the rest of us," said the librarian with a snotty
attitude, "and that eye beastie definitely doesn't." He narrowed his
eyes. "This library is for humans only. I mean, non-human things can't get
a library card issued to them." He saw Connor give him a glowering look
and inched away. "Well, I'm pretty sure that's the rules."
I
spoke up. "We're not here to borrow a book." I snuck a look at the
front entrance. "We needed a place to hide in. You see, a monster is after
us. A very big monster. And there are others outside like it and Larry here. A
vortex opened not far from here and downtown Richmond is turning gray and I don't
mean Confederate gray either. Richmond's new address is now a part of the Hell
dimension. The whole world is doomed. And I don't think it really matters
whether Larry can be issued a library card, or what species can use this
library."
The
librarian's mouth opened and shut in shock, his eyes bulging and looking like
tennis balls. He sputtered, "You're nuts." He cut a glance at Larry
who hovered closer to him. "I think you guys are pulling something on me.
That thing has got to be fake."
I
grabbed him by his ugly tie. "Look, Hell is taking over Richmond, and
soon, Virginia, not long after, the U.S., and from there, maybe the world. So,
get over it.Larry is not fake. He's a demon, plain and simple, but maybe you
can't comprehend it. I know I couldn't at first. That means no more people
checking out books, no more Christmas, cute fluffy kittens, no more anything
good and right for humankind. Just demons, Hell, and the end of life as we know
it."
The
librarian ripped his tie out of my hand and looked at me like I'd sprouted
horns and a pitchfork myself. I must have been tougher on him than I thought.
A
growl reached my ears, along with an awful miasma slamming up my nostrils. I
reeled around. With an African American lady librarian clasped in one clawed
paw and a patron speared by the claws of the other, the monster that had been
chasing us stood by the circulation desk. The patron kept screaming while the
librarian hung unconscious and limp like a wet noodle.
I
watched with horror as the monster snarled and slurped the patron's head into
its mouth, effectively cutting off the screaming. The librarian with us took
off, yelling something about monsters not being in his job description.
