Today I am very excited to welcome Abigail Roux to Joyfully Jay.  She is here to talk to us about her new release, Gravedigger’s Brawl (which I LOVED and reviewed here earlier this week). Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Welcome to The Gravedigger’s Brawl virtual book tour! Thank you for helping me celebrate the release of the most haunted book I’ve ever worked on. Over the course of the next few days I’ll be giving away prizes to help you get through the reading experiences, namely bundles of sage to cleanse your electronics after you download a cursed book! In addition, every stop along this tour is a chance to win $10 in store credit to Riptide Publishing as part of their first anniversary celebration! To enter to win one of the prizes, just leave a comment here and make sure you include your e-mail address. Many thanks to Joyfully Jay for helping me keep this spooky Riptide Publishing virtual book tour going!


Warning: This book is Cursed! Part 4 by Abigail Roux

Welcome to the fourth instalment of my behind the scenes tale of the Gravedigger’s Brawl curse! You’ve read the first three, and now you’re back because, like me, you’re just not sure it’s real. How could a book be cursed? It has to be some sort of publicity stunt on my part, right? It’s brilliant really, claiming my ghost story is cursed.

Let me tell you, if I were that creative I’d be making more money!

By the editing stage of this story, I had no doubt there was a curse attached to it. What had begun as a fun way to spend Halloween five years ago had turned into a story in itself. An author who writes about a haunting who winds up being haunted by the book itself, it’s gold! Unless it’s a true story, and then it’s just scary.

Everyone I told about the curse at this point humored me. My mother had experienced the odd occurrences firsthand, so she was a believer. Even my closet friend and most trusted beta, the Canadian, was a believer now because of the weird things that had happened to her during her beta read.

It got through edits unscathed, but as soon as it was returned to me the unfortunate happenings started in full force again. My television was lost to a lightning strike the night I opened the edit letter. The same night I lost my cable and then the electricity went altogether. Probably due to being struck by lightning, but we’ll count it because at the time it was scary.

The lamp in the living room, which I had unplugged, began to turn on again. I took the bulb out, and at night I could hear the lamp clicking as if the switch was being turned. But I prevailed. I edited. I bought a new SmartTV and rejoiced over MLB.TV and Netflix. I ignored it when the house was struck by lightning a second time. And when I had all the rewrites completed, I sent the new manuscript to a group of friends. They knew about the curse, had been listening to me rant about the haunted story. But they later admitted that they didn’t really believe in it. I mean, who would? It’s stupid.

But they were all soon believers. The doctor opened it at work, and soon her work computers were merging apps that were not supposed to be used together, giving her error messages, and acting up in unexplainable ways. She sent the file to her phone, and the phone began to do the same thing.

My author friend S.A. McAuley downloaded the file to her phone to read it while traveling, and I panicked. She sent me a message saying she opened it to read it while waiting for her plane to board, and shortly after a delay was announced because of technical difficulties on the plane. I told her to erase the story from her phone and not upload it again until she was no longer flying. I would not be responsible for the fiery death of my friend and a hundred other people.

The third friend I sent the file to couldn’t even get it to open. I had to copy the story and paste it into an email. Soon after I sent it, she asked if I had attached a YouTube video to it. I said of course not, but her email had arrived with a video attached. It wasn’t just a random video, either. It was a video about flair bartending, which is relevant to the story.

It was relevant to the story!

I refused to send it to a fourth friend who usually reads for me, because she was in the middle of a move out of country. I refused.

At this point I just laughed every time I heard a new tale regarding the cursed ghost story. In July I began to talk about it on my Tumblr, telling readers about it, relating the odd things that happened. People loved it, thought it was great and that I was just trying to be funny.

And then I released an excerpt and made believers out of a whole lot of people.


You can haunt me at several places on the web, including Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and my website. I hope to see you around.


The Gravedigger’s Brawl

Dr. Wyatt Case is never happier than when he’s walking the halls of his history museum. Playing wingman for his best friend at Gravedigger’s Tavern throws him way out of his comfort zone, but not as much as the eccentric man behind the bar, Ash Lucroix.

Ash is everything Wyatt doesn’t understand: exuberant, quirky, and elbow deep in a Gaslight lifestyle that weaves history into everyday life. He coordinates his suspenders with his tongue rings. Within hours, Wyatt and Ash are hooked.

But strange things are afoot at Gravedigger’s, and after a knock to the head, Ash starts seeing things that can’t be explained by old appliances or faulty wiring. Soon everyone at Gravedigger’s is wondering if they’re seeing ghosts, or just going crazy. The answer to that question could end more than just Wyatt and Ash’s fragile relationship—it might also end their lives.

You can read the first two chapters and order The Gravedigger’s Brawl HERE.