The Weight Of Souls Blog Tour + Giveaway+ Excerpt

My blog has been very lucky to be able to host a stop for The Weight of Souls Blog Tour. I recently read The Weight of Souls and was impressed with the gripping story line and the addictive writing. So I’m really pleased to have Bryony Pearce with us today talking about ghosts and if she believes in them.

I read the book and I really enjoyed the story with it's Egyptian mythology to it's sweet love story.
Read my review here.

But before that have a look at the exciting new book by her.

Sixteen year old Taylor Oh is cursed: if she is touched by the ghost of a murder victim then they pass a mark beneath her skin. She has three weeks to find their murderer and pass the mark to them – letting justice take place and sending them into the Darkness. And if she doesn’t make it in time? The Darkness will come for her…
She spends her life trying to avoid ghosts, make it through school where she’s bullied by popular Justin and his cronies, keep her one remaining friend, and persuade her father that this is real and that she’s not going crazy.
But then Justin is murdered and everything gets a whole lot worse. Justin doesn’t know who killed him, so there’s no obvious person for Taylor to go after. The clues she has lead her to the V Club, a vicious secret society at her school where no one is allowed to leave… and where Justin was dared to do the stunt which led to his death.
Can she find out who was responsible for his murder before the Darkness comes for her? Can she put aside her hatred for her former bully to truly help him?
And what happens if she starts to fall for him?

I have to say the blurb itself had been scrambling to my hands on this book and I have to I was not disappointed. Click here to read a sample chapter to see how truly awesome this book is.

 Ok, I can keep rambling on about how much I liked the book. So read along to find out about Bryony’s experience with ghosts.

Do I believe in ghosts.  Don’t be silly …

Bryony Pearce, author of a ghost story, The Weight of Souls

First up, let’s get this out of the way, I’m Catholic.  I am also logical and fairly scientific in my approach (I did maths and biology at A-level as well as English literature, somehow my brain finds comfort in both).  I like to think that I am quite open minded.  I will listen to both sides of a debate.  I have even been known to change my opinion if presented with sufficiently compelling evidence.  A belief in ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night doesn’t fit well with the way that I think, it makes me uncomfortable to consider the possibility.

And yet …

As a teenager I was obsessed with ghost stories, I had books about real life hauntings, I loved to visit haunted places.  I wanted an encounter of my own.

I struggled a little with how that all fit in with my Catholicism then decided that God moves in mysterious ways and I didn’t know everything.  It was possible that there were some spirits that stuck around for a while after death before heading to their final destination.  And of course the Catholic church has no problem with Demonic presences. 

Then I grew up a bit.  Decided that perhaps these real life hauntings were not spirits, but more like footprints left in sand; the residue of a strong emotional experience replaying to sensitive minds.  Or perhaps, I thought after being exposed to certain scientific theories on space and time, they occur at thin places, where folds in space-time allow people to occasionally see through to something happening simultaneously but in a different time.

And yet …

I won’t touch a Ouija board.  I simply cannot bring myself to go near the things.  There was a short craze in sixth form.  For a while I observed the groups and entertained myself by working out who was doing the pushing.  Then I was banished from the room for bringing ‘negative energy’ so I hung out by myself until the sessions were over.

The Ouija board thing ended when one of the boys was ‘contacted’ by his dead father.  I still wonder, to this day, who, out of all our friends, would have been so cruel? 

Then I went to university. 

I read English literature at Corpus Christi College Cambridge, one of the older colleges in the university.  The oldest, Peterhouse, was founded in 1284, Corpus Christi was founded in 1352.

Corpus itself has an Old Court and a New Court.  This is new court.

My room in first year was in New Court at the top of I staircase above the library.  In third year it was opposite the chapel (this was basically the view from my room).

Go through a corridor to the left of the picture above and you come to Old Court.  During the day it was gorgeous (that’s me with my tongue out in the middle).

At night it was terrifying. 

In the nineties the staircases in Old Court had no bathrooms; if you wanted a shower, or to use the toilet, you had to put on your bunny slippers, cross the courtyard and go to the shower blocks.  At night the courtyard was pitch dark and always covered with a lowering mist.  Talk about atmosphere.

I never lived in Old Court, but my boyfriend did and so did some of my friends.

Several of them claimed to have seen and experienced things.  I never did. 

Then one night …

I had snuck my boyfriend into my room in New Court (it’s okay because we’re married now) and we were sleeping.  I woke up, a bit disoriented, and there was an old woman leaning over Andy. 

Initially I thought it was what I call a ‘leftover dream image’.  So I blinked a few times.  She was still there, resolutely refusing to fade, fingers stretching out to touch his sleeping face.   I was fully awake by this point, so I reached to touch her.  My hand went through her shoulder.

I screamed my head off.

When I opened my eyes again Andy was freaking out and she was gone.

I still don’t believe that what I saw was just a dream.  I know I was awake, very awake. 

Somehow I remained sceptical …

Andy’s third year room was in R staircase, in old court.  He rarely slept there and I rarely went in.  It was always cold and, frankly, creepy (and not in a ‘dirty socks’ sort of way).  My friend Jo, who claimed psychic tendencies, point blank refused to go near R staircase.  Despite the weight of good looking boys on R, she never went past the steps.

I didn’t think much of it, until Graduation.

It was our very last day in college and of course we were all taking photographs of everything we could; we didn’t know when we would be back to this place that held so many happy memories. 

It was only when I got my photographs developed that I saw it.  Andy’s room.  Glowing.  Here is the photograph.

The sun, in case you are thinking it, is above the building you see, not opposite.  There is nothing available to reflect across and none of the adjacent windows have caught the same reflection, if reflection it is.  Only Andy’s room.  It doesn’t matter which angle you take the picture from, that glow remains right there.

Does that mean that Andy’s creepy cold room had always housed a non-corporeal presence? 

Ask me if I believe in ghosts and I will dither.  It doesn’t sit comfortably with the way that I think to admit that actually yes, I do think that there is something out there.  Do the dead walk? Is it something else: a hole in space-time, a footprint in the sand?  I don’t know. 

Call it what you like, but I believe in ghosts.

Chilling. *shudders*. Okay to commensurate this blog tour Bryony is hosting an awesome tourwide giveaway. Click here to take part and win a ginormous amount of cool goodies.

To find out more about Bryony and her work, please visit her website www.bryonypearce.co.uk  follow her on Twitter @BryonyPearce or like her facebook page BryonyPearceAuthor

The Weight of Souls releases on the 6th of August by Strange Chemistry Books.