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Whispers - Character
Interview with Dana Kaster
Virtual location: an abandoned lighthouse tour!! Bring
flashlights!
Thank you for joining us! We hope all of you have planned a
spooky week for Halloween! I hope you’ve brought your flashlights with you. We’re
about to tour the old lighthouse but before we do that, let’s head inside the
keeper’s house and gather around to chat with my main character, Dana Kaster. For
those brave enough, you can roam upstairs for a ghost hunt of your own!
Deanna: Lara, thank you for having me this week on
your blog. I love talking with readers so I hope they leave a question or
comment for us. I’m also doing a giveaway at the end! I’ve brought with me my
main character, Dana Kaster, from Whispers
at Ghost Point. Since I have a love for lighthouses, I had to write about
one and added a ghost to make it a bit spooky! Dana loves remodeling and
decorating - who else love doing that? Tell us at the end if you love
lighthouses and decorating!

Dana: I’m excited to be here with both of you! I
can’t wait for readers to jump into the book with all of us. I’ve always had a
soft spot for decorating which is why I got my contractor’s license - it also
allowed me to do more in the area of remodeling. Meeting other contractors and
builders isn’t bad either! *wink* I moved to Wilmington NC a year ago after my
divorce and found the abandoned lighthouse on the coast while I worked at the
Cape Fear Historical Society. I was fortunate enough to get a job remodeling
their lighthouse projects we took on, but I recently opened my own shop and I’m
so excited.
Deanna: Taking on
the entire remodel of a lighthouse that’s stood empty for hundreds of years
won’t be easy. Have you run into any roadblocks?
Dana: The
lighthouse in question is owned by an individual who I found through my
research but he refuses to return my phone calls. That in itself is annoying. I
want inside the place to see what might need to be fixed and put some plans
together. I don’t understand why this man won’t call me back, but my guess is
that he’s too old to care about the place being fixed up or is a recluse not
wanting to be bothered. The lighthouse is begging me to fix it up though. Why
can’t he sense that? LOL
Deanna: Does the
lighthouse talk to you when you visit or is it the ghosts who talk to you? That
would be spooky!
Dana: I have an ability to sense the spirits in old
places but I still need to work on that. It is scary when they come around and they
usually visit when you least expect them to. If I were better at my psychic
abilities, I could learn who they are faster but it still scares me so I need
to get over that if I want to use my ability to the fullest. When I sit on my
deck at night, I can see the lighthouse across the inlet. The tower light
flashes and there’s no way the electricity still works there! It couldn’t for
as old as it is, so what makes the lights come on? I also sense a spirit or two
there and the pull they have on me is getting stronger but I just can’t learn
who they are.
Deanna: You’ve become good friends with a co-worker
at the Historical Society who has the ability to sense spirits. Tell us about
that. Everyone is always interested in people who talk to ghosts!
Dana: Sarah and I
have really gotten close since I moved to Wilmington. She doesn’t let very many people know that
she can speak to spirits…they think you’re crazy when they learn that! Even
with all the shows on television these days, but I love it. Personally, I just
need to learn how to distance myself and set up my circle of light for
protection. I visited the lighthouse a few times without telling Sarah…yet she
knows! She has a way of knowing what goes on without me even telling her!
Deanna: How does
she feel about the lighthouse?
Dana: Oh my gawd!
She isn’t keen on it at all! She said the spirits there aren’t at all friendly
and that I need to quit going over there alone before something happens to me.
She’s sat with me on my deck at night and we’ve both seen the lights come on. I
think she knows more than she’s telling me about the spirits over there.
Deanna: Well that
would make anyone jumpy to sense a spirit is evil. Maybe you need to listen to
her and quit going over there.
Dana: I’m too
nosey to stop going so the owner just needs to give me permission to go inside.
I did meet a man on one of my visits there once. He said he was just a friend
of the owner but wouldn’t tell me who the owner was. Too bad he wasn’t the owner - his eyes alone
distracted me! But anyway, if I were able to get that lighthouse restored, it
would help boost my business in Wilmington and the residents would be able to
see what I can do. The work I’ve done on our historical lighthouse remodels has
really helped too, but…I want inside the forbidden tower!
Deanna: You’ve
lived in Wilmington for almost a year now. Any men you’re interested in?
Dana: With all
the work I do remodeling and researching for the Historical Society and now
starting my own business, I haven’t had time for dating and I really haven’t
missed it. Taking time after my divorce to get my life back on track is what’s
important to me now. I have to make a name for my business here so I can get to
know the residents. Many of them have stopped by my new shop and have taken my
card, saying they’ll call me when they start their remodels. I hope they do, I
love to be busy!
Deanna: Lara,
thank you so much for allowing me to spend time with your readers! Dana, thanks
for stopping in to chat with our readers. I can’t wait to finish your story so
they can all read it.
The book will
release in mid-Nov, 2012. The characters in Whispers at Ghost Point are pulled into the present from my
historical novel set in England 1778, No
Turning Back. To know a bit more about the characters, you may want to read
that book - it’s still on sale for .99. I’m
giving away a $10 gift card so get your entry into Rafflecopter to be in the
drawing to be held on Monday, Nov 5th.
Be sure to enter my Grand Prize drawing by clicking
HERE and sending me your
entry. There are three prizes that will be picked for this contest! Good luck!
Please check my
blog, website and my newsletters for more info. By subscribing to my
newsletter, readers are automatically included in one of my monthly drawings
and by following my blog, you’ll be included in that drawing. Both drawings win
gift cards and the newsletter winner also gets a goodie bag and tee shirt!
Thank you all for
stopping in to meet Dana from Whispers at Ghost Point. I hope I’ve piqued your
interest just a bit and if so, you can read Chapter One and watch the book
trailer by clicking
HERE.
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Author Biography &Links
Deanna Jewel lives in
the Pacific Northwest and has been writing since 1991. She is married to a
retired captain of the fire department. He’s also owned his own businesses for
23 years. They have two Siamese cats: Zoie and Sinbad, who keep them
entertained. Deanna has enjoyed reading historical romance novels for over
thirty years, camping with her family, and traveling.
Her writing goal is to draw the reader into the story to
experience what the characters feel, to show both the hero's and heroine's
points of view, and to take the reader away from their every day stress to a
place not yet visited.
She has completed
one time travel and one historical novel and has several others in the works.
A trip to Dubois, Wyoming,
south of Yellowstone, inspired her time-travel novel. The landscape and town
locations described in NEVER SURRENDER
are real. Jon Daley, a professor at
Boise State University, translated the Shoshone language that you will find in
the book.
NEVER SURRENDER, her time
travel romance, was released in 2008 in print, e-book and iBook for
download to e-Readers and i-Pads. This novel won an Honorable Mention in the
2008 Quill Awards at Writing.com.
NO TURNING BACK, her second novel, an historical taking place in
England, 1778, was released in April 2010, and is also in print, eBook and
iBook for download to your electronic readers.
Hard at work on her next
novel, Whispers at Ghost Point, which she hopes to have available in late fall,
2012. Whispers takes place at an
abandoned lighthouse in Wilmington, NC and her main characters from No Turning Back are reincarnated into
the present. Join Dana as she learns
about her past while working toward her future. The dangers that lurk at an
abandoned lighthouse pull her into a past she was unaware of but also involves
a man she's never met...in this lifetime! Follow the book’s progress on her
website.
Her site
links:
*See her site for more places to find Deanna
Jewel!
Buy Links:
BookLocker-NTB: http://www.booklocker.com/books/4618.html