Elizabeth Price visits!
We’re really excited to have Elizabeth Price here with us. Tea is ready and we’ve got some goodies to munch that are hot out of the oven just as Ms. Price seated herself on a comfy chair in our interview room.
Hello, Ms. Price! We always have tea ready for our guests. I like my guests to feel comfortable. That way they let their guard down and reveal their secrets…
Tea would be fine, with a spoon of honey, please. I’ve been trying to cut back on my coffee consumption lately. Since March of last year, I’ve destroyed three Keurig machines with the amount of my coffee consumption. Upside, I’ve painted my kitchen six times. Acoustics in my kitchen are wonderful now.
One of my favorite ways to begin conversations with authors is to ask what odd item is on their desk. If we were spying on you, as mystery readers do, what strange item would we find?
At the moment, I have a working miniature of a Zoltar fortune-teller that I bought at San Diego Comic-Con a few years ago. I’m disappointed in him though. He keeps telling me the same fortune over and over, and yet I’m still not rich! Lying little piece of— There’s an EMF tester, you know, just in case my late grandfather stops by for a visit. There’s also a bobblehead of Khan from Star Trek, only because I enjoy an “intellectually superior” male (HA!) agreeing with everything I say. Who am I kidding? I like plastic eye candy.
You brought me a gift! I’m so surprised when authors bring me special gifts! It’s perfect. Where did you get it?
Oh, this little doll is Constance Hatchaway, the gold-digging bride from the Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. She’s the perfect antagonist; sweet, beautiful, innocent, and knows how to sharpen a perfect ax blade.
What a treasure! I love it! We discovered your tweets first and then we discovered your books. Your Twitter responses and comments are just a hoot. You have quite the sense of humor. Do those funny quips come naturally?
I’ve always had a rather unusual sense of humor. Some may say I see the world a little sideways. Not to say I don’t have my bad days, but it’s better to find humor in an unfavorable situation than feel depressed about it.
How did your writing career begin? Do you spin your stories full time?
I would say my writing career officially began my last semester in college. My first time as a published writer was accidental. I wrote a forty-five-page research paper for extra credit for a class I took in college. A week after the class finished, my professor called and request that he and another professor wanted to co-write/publish my research paper. Of course, my name came last.
After college, I continued to write business copy, movie scripts, stories, whatever anyone was willing to pay for. Part-time, I started writing novels, like the Haunted Ends series. I currently work full time as a ghost-writer for all sorts of genres.
Paranormal mysteries such as the ones you write are popular right now? Why do you think people are drawn to the thought that the spirits may still be with us?
Many of us have lost friends and family over the past few years. The emptiness left behind can be hard to deal with. It’s better to believe that people who have died may still be with us. It makes us feel better knowing that ghostly Uncle Bob is still in the garage, forever trying to fix his old Pontiac. Keeping that thought in the back of our minds helps even if we can’t see them.
Do you have to believe in the paranormal to write these mysteries?
It certainly doesn’t hurt. I have an open mind about the paranormal. I’ve seen too many unusual events not to believe in something. And yes… I may have seen a ghost or two in the past.
Oh you have to spill the tea on that one…
One recent event happened in Palm Springs, California, a few years ago. An uncle had fallen ill, and my husband and I stopped by for a visit. We were walking out in the parking lot to our car, and a young man in his twenties came over to me and ask me for the time. I looked down at my phone, but by the time I looked back, he had vanished. The next day, I saw the man’s picture in the paper. His car was totaled in an accident with a big rig on the freeway nearby, he and two of his friends died at the scene. I suppose he has all the time in the world now. Thinking about what happened still gives me goose bumps.
Yes, that would linger for quite a while. Tell us a little about the haunted buildings you’ve lived in?
The first house I ever lived in, my mother claimed was haunted. I was too young to know. Maybe that’s what started my fascination with ghosts. The only haunted situation I’ve had to deal with was at a job I once worked. The office was haunted by a real jerk of a spirit who loved to play pranks on people. He would scare the bejeebers out of people who worked there.
I’ve had many unusual events happen around my house, typically around the time of a family member’s death. When my husband’s maternal grandmother passed, we started receiving mail for his grandfather… who had been dead for twenty years. We had a clock from another grandmother, and the exact minute she died, the clock fell off the wall and stopped. The moment an aunt died, we had a music box start to play on a tall shelf. I had forgotten it was even there. And for weeks after an uncle passed, my house smelled like an Italian kitchen even though I hadn’t cooked Italian food. Uncle Vito was a larger-than-life Sopranos-type Italian man known for his delicious meatballs.
I actively seek out haunted locations and learn the “real” mysteries behind each of the hauntings. And, I would like to join a séance circle someday — especially if it’s to contact Houdini or Sarah Winchester.
What delightfully scary things do you have planned for your readers?
I have two series of novels, Haunted Ends and the Last Narkoy. Haunted Ends is, by far, my most popular series. The antics of Rocky and Sam make being dead uh… fun? I suppose that works. Haunted Ends is a humorous series, and I enjoy writing it. Well, not so much writing it as going along for the ride. I’m hoping to have the series optioned because it would make for a great television show.
Between The Lines – Liminal Books will be releasing Haunted Ends 4 – Dead in the Water in late October just in time for Halloween. I’ve also been working on another novel for Haunted Ends centered around the Grand Re-Opening of the Juniper Hotel. So far, it has been a disaster (for Rocky that is), but that’s nothing new for Rocky.As for the Last Narkoy, the series is finished. Sadly, there isn’t a lot of interest. If interests change, I have plenty of additional novels already written that I can release. The last novel I released for that series was Balance of Power, based on the grown-up children of my original main character, Sedom Sortec. I’ve been asked several times what happened to Sedom, if she ever married, and so on. Balance of Power offers a few answers to those questions.
I have written a few other mysteries, but I’m not sure what I want to do with them yet. I haven’t written anything new for myself in a while. I would love to find some time soon to write my own stories again, maybe soon?
Hopefully we didn’t use up too much of that writing time. It’s such a spooky delight to have you visit. Come back anytime with your next book!
Visit Elizabeth on social media and send her a comment!
Twitter: @Chaosonpaper
Website: ESPWriter.com
Facebook: @authorElizabethPrice
Instagram: @Chaosonpaper1
Haunted Ends by Elizabeth Price
Review by Julie S., staff reviewer
Haunted Ends is a fun and interesting paranormal mystery. It’s the first book in the series. One of the reasons I chose this book and author was because I liked what I saw when I snuck around Twitter and read her Tweets. They caught my attention, and I knew it had to carry over to her writing.
The mystery takes place within an investigative television show. Readers can imagine themselves following these paranormal investigators as the plot unfolds. The characters have interesting names and personalities to match, the plot is easy to follow, and I enjoyed the idea that perhaps those who have went before us are still around lurking in the shadows for whatever reason.
The author’s sense of humor makes for an enjoyable read. While there are a few hiccups with the editing, it is still a good mystery that opens your senses to the fact perhaps we are not alone.
The famous paranormal investigative television show, Dead Inns, is tasked with investigating the Juniper Hotel near downtown San Francisco. Rocky Rapaport, the psychic medium on the show, makes a startling discovery while investigating the hotel. During their investigation, Rocky encounters the recently departed, Sam Thompson. Their meeting may forever change the very nature of paranormal investigations… and test Rocky’s frazzled nerves at the same time. Rocky not only discovers that the hotel’s haunted history is true but now Sam simply won’t leave him in peace until he helps him solve his murder and locate his stolen merchandise, a bag filled with uncut diamonds.
Elizabeth Price is best known for her Paranormal Mystery series Haunted Ends, which makes light of the dark side of death. She is also known for her Science Fiction series The Last Narkoy, featuring a young Narkoy girl who finds that she is now the last of her kind and who must fight to survive. She also has a fantasy novel, The Claiming of Carrna and a Paranormal nautical novel, Bella Strega.
Born in Southern California, Elizabeth has always been drawn to Science Fiction and fantasy stories. Having also lived and worked in haunted buildings for many years, she has a deep interest in the paranormal and anything that goes “BOO!” in the night – with the exception of critics that is.