A warm welcome to author Ki Brightly joining us today to talk about their release “The Paranaturalist”
Welcome Ki 🙂

Hello! My name is Ki Brightly, and my book, The Paranaturalist, will release on June 27^th. It’s a paranormal action adventure type romance, and a lot of fun.

I thought I would talk a little bit here about one of my main characters Joseph Appleyard. Parts of his creation are a little bit of an homage to several great people in my life and my quasi-adopted family. My dear friend Chris’s family is German and Italian, one of my favorite ex-boyfriends turned fantastic now friend has Italian heritage, and Erie, Pennsylvania—were the story is based— has a rich community history including a Little Italy.

So, in short, I decided to make Joe an Italian boy because I wanted to explore Italian American culture and it fit with the area I’m writing in, but I didn’t want him to be a caricature. I wanted to show some of those actual pressures I’ve heard about from people I know that seem to be unique to Italian families—namely, family is the center of the universe and everything else gets to revolve around the edges of that nebulous commitment. But, I also wanted to show some of my real experiences with the families I’ve known, namely that once they take you in, you’re in. You’re theirs, maybe for life because they’ve decided they love you, and that’s it. Even if you’re not perfect, even if you sometimes do shitty things, you’ve been checked off in the family column, and you might get bitched out for your shenanigans, but you’re rarely cast out. And maybe that’s not because they’re Italian, per se, but the subculture I’ve encountered allows that sort of friendship and commitment to blossom. It’s strange to note the differences between my own upbringing (Methodist and Germanesque) and theirs when we all are ostensibly the same, but my Italian friends are much more forgiving in some ways than other people seem to be. During a time in my life when I had, literally, no one else, I knew I always had a place at their table, room in their home, and I could be invited along to family dinners and celebrations as if I were one of them, no questions asked.

Joe comes from a modernized version of a classic Italian family. His parents are divorced…maybe because of him, maybe not. The pressures of Joe’s teen years certainly didn’t help. His mother is very focused on traditional values, but she’s willing to bend them for her son because she loves him more than she loves the church or looking good for the community. I will say some stories from a friend of mine with a mother who is actually from Italy found their way into this book, so Joe’s mom cooks and cooks and cooks because I love that, but she still has a career and she has her own life.

You can see some of these traditional Italian heritage facets in Joe’s Catholic upbringing and his commitment to going to church. He’s also very willing to give his good friends the “family” label and treat them accordingly, and when he does get to know someone well he has trouble not clumping them in with “people I take care of”…even when those people aren’t necessarily alive.

At the end of the day I can only hope that I took all of the stories my friends were good enough to tell me and that I’ve absorbed over the years, all of the little idiosyncrasies I’ve observed, and blended them well into something that comes off as realistic.

The Paranaturalist

Release date June 27^th, 2016

Blurb:

As a kid, Joseph Appleyard saw things hidden from others. Now he is The Paranaturalist, an investigator and cohost of a television show that seeks to prove the existence of the paranormal. Some think Joe is crazy, but they don’t realize he knows firsthand there’s more to the world than what most perceive. The trouble is, somewhere along the way, Joe lost his vision and it left his world flat and dull. One night an investigation goes horribly wrong, and a powerful ghostly manifestation sends Joe tumbling into a river. Spirit worker Owen Watson saves Joe’s life, and once they are back on dry land, whatever has been blocking Joe’s vision has been washed away.

When a haunting goes from annoying to dangerous, people turn to Owen Watson. He hates those infuriating hacks from TV, but when he pulls Joe from the river, his mind begins to change. Joe is scared and confused, and Owen realizes he might just be the real thing. Together, they work to understand the part of Joe that has been shut away for so long. But just as Joe is reacclimating to his abilities, his career as a paranormal investigator is in danger of being ripped away. Owen would gladly battle a bloodthirsty spirit for Joe, but he’s out of his element in the world of reality television.

Buy Links:

Dreamspinner Press E-Book

Dreamspinner Press Paperback

Amazon

ARe

Ki grew up in small town nowhere pretending that meteor showers were aliens invading, turning wildflowers into magic potions, and reading more than was probably healthy. Ki had one amazing best friend, one endlessly out of grasp “true love”, and a personal vendetta against normalcy. Now, as an adult, living in Erie, Pennsylvania, Ki enjoys the sandy beaches, frigid winters, and a wonderful fancy water addiction. Seriously, fancy waters…who knew there were so many different kinds? It’s just water…and yet… Ki shares this life with a Muse, a Sugar Plum, and two wonderful children.

Social Media

Blog: www.brightlybooks.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kibrightly

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kibrightly

Tumblr: http://kibrightly.tumblr.com/

Ki brougth along a paperback copy of “The Paranaturalist”for one winner. (US )

(If the winner is from outside the US , an ecopy will be provided)
a Rafflecopter giveaway