Between the cover and the title, I couldn’t resist Bob at the Lake by R. Murphy.
Sooooo, come and join me on a ghostly adventure that will having you laughing and crying, singing and dancing, leaving you with a good feeling when you are done.
I have tons to share with you: an excerpt, my review, a visit from Roz and a giveaway, so be sure and check out all the fun.
Bob at the Lake by R. Murphy
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BLURB
Take a crabby woman of a certain age, move her to the wintry shores of a New York lake, and then throw in a martini-loving ghost from 1920s Manhattan. Last, stir in the good-looking grape grower who lives up the hill. Now there’s a recipe for a potent screwball cocktail!
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EXCERPT
“Trust me, it will hit you like a brick of gold.”
That’s Bob. He’s my ghost. Well, not my ghost since I’m sitting here writing, but the ghost who lives with me. Other women probably get muscleman ghosts who can fix plumbing and take out the garbage, or romantic ghosts who set their hearts a-flutter. Me, I get a ghost who’s middle-aged, plump, and who likes to lounge around the house in a silk smoking jacket from the nineteen-thirties. Not exactly the kind of ghost I’d ever imagined I’d get. I will admit, though, that Bob does make an amazing martini. A martini that, in fact, hits you like a brick of gold.
I found, unfortunately, the longer Bob lived at my place, the more I appreciated his skill with martinis. Which was probably not a great thing for my liver, or my relationships with my sisters, but what the heck.
Remember the Great Recession? According to the newspapers, some consumers seem to be wiping it from their memories, but it had a big impact on a lot of people, including me. That economy hurt. Lost jobs, lost houses, lost marriages, lost hopes—lives turned upside down in the flutter of a pink slip. People scrambling just to keep from drowning—couch surfing, penny pinching, living newly frugal lives.
Like millions of others, the economy sucked me into its undertow…
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MY REVIEW OF BOB AT THE LAKE
“Trust me, it will hit you like a brick of gold.”
That’s Bob. He’s my ghost.
So, here she sits – with Bob – drinking the golden martini he just made her.
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The cover is such fun and the blurb put a smile on my face in this, not your usual, ghost story. I felt this would be rollicking good fun and I was not disappointed. I was smiling while reading along, but when they met, I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. The story and writing are humorous and uplifting. The setting is in the Finger Lakes region of New York, of which I am very familiar. I lived in the area for ten years and love it when I can imagine myself in the characters place.
I thought of Casper the Ghost and the Ghost of Mrs. Muir. Bob is a fun, whimsical ghost that doesn’t take life seriously. Why should he? He’s a ghost. He has a mission and when it is done, he will move on.
Sooooo, come and join me on a ghostly adventure that will having you laughing and crying, singing and dancing, leaving you with a good feeling when you are done.
She moved to her summer home on Crooked Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York after losing her nine to five job. I laughed when she talked about her feelings of isolation. Anyone moving to a remote area like this after living in a big city would have an adjustment period, if they ever did adjust.
I read a lot of mysteries and watch lots of TV shows about murder and serial killers, as did the character. Just imagine, sitting in the dark on an isolated winter lake, alone, knowing no one and used to hearing the sounds of the big city. The silence can be an enemy, leaving you jumping at every creak of the house. I can and do have experiences where my imagination runs wild and spooks me. I laugh at myself, as I make sure the doors and windows are locked and the blinds are all closed, so it was easy to step into her shoes and call for Bob. After all, a ghost is better than nobody.
She is not a spring chicken and has been around the block a time or two. She is a freelance business writer and works hard to do her work justice, going above and beyond. So she had some way to make money.
She wonders, How do writers support themselves? She thinks each chapter of a book should start out with – How I Paid the Bills while writing this Chapter or how to cut eating expenses – take one package of ramen noodles…. I liked that R slipped things like this into the book, things I was already curious about.
Her descriptions of the characters brought them to life. I loved them all, even the bitter old neighbor lady.
Their road trips are an adventure and I am exhausted and ready to return home myself.
I felt sad when she talked of her dad and like real life, I don’t want to think about that. I read every wonderful word anyway.
Oh no. The book is over but the story isn’t.
R Murphy writes of high and lows, life and death, laughter and sadness – life – in a highly entertaining, easy to read novel that had me captivated from beginning to end.
4 STARS – Would Highly Recommend To Others
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Writerly Workouts?
Roz here:
As anyone who’s read my debut novel Bob at the Lake knows, I’m a very reluctant exerciser. Squabbles with Bob (the ghost who lives with me), Finger Lakes wines, and homemade cookies are my pastimes of choice and it takes a lot to levitate my (somewhat oversized, I admit) butt out of a chair to work up a sweat. Luckily, though, I live in a house surrounded by hills, and they provide an amazing workout anytime I want one.
The only thing that pushes my butt up those hills is music. Hard, driving music. This morning, motivated by an article about the work habits of creative people and stunned to see how many writers include vigorous workouts in their lives, I’ve decided to goose up my hillwalking routine. That means, of course, that I have to goose up my music.
For fun, I thought I’d share some of the hyper-pumping songs I’ve added to my new Playlist entitled: “Butt up Hill.” (Bob hates this music. He can be an old fuddy-duddy sometimes. He’d rather I work out to the tunes of Irving Berlin or George Gershwin. Don’t get me wrong–I love Bob’s musical selections. They’re just not going to achieve my exercise mission: ‘butt up hill.’)
So here you go: Five musical selections guaranteed to push your heinie up a steep incline…
1) Kenny Loggins, “Footloose”
2) Bay City Rollers, “Saturday Night”
3) Lady GaGa, “The Edge of Glory”
4) Cast of Glee version, “Party All the Time”
5) Tina Turner, “The Best”
I’d love to get any reader recommendations for songs that might fire up a reluctant workout queen to put on her sneakers and hit the hill. Please add them below or join me on Roz Murphy Author on Facebook. I look forward to checking out your suggestions!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roz Murphy is the pseudonym of a shy, retiring writer who doesn’t want her neighbors to know how nutty she really is. Brooklyn-born and Jersey-bred, Roz now lives on the misty shore of one of New York’s beautiful Finger Lakes. Prior to that, her business writing career took her to many locations, including Manhattan, where she worked for a number of years. As a freelance and corporate writer, Roz won several national and international writing and communications awards.
Now Roz is pursuing her first love—fiction. She’s writing the ‘Bob’ books, the humorous chronicle of a crabby ‘woman of a certain age’ who moves to the wintry shores of a New York lake—and gets a ghost. And not just any ghost, mind you. Bob’s a plump, middle-aged ghost from 1920s Manhattan who swans around in a silk smoking jacket and drinks far too many martinis. Stir the good-looking grape grower who lives up the hill into this mix and you get a pretty potent screwball cocktail!
When she’s not reading, writing, hill-walking, staring mindlessly out the window at the lake or piling rocks onto her ever-diminishing lakefront, you can usually find Roz hanging out with her family, travelling, or exploring the amazing wines and wineries of the Finger Lakes.
‘Bob at the Lake’ is exclusively available as a Kindle download from Amazon. Please join Roz Murphy Author on FaceBook for updates on the many adventures of Roz, David—and Bob.
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GIVEAWAY
The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and a $10 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn host.
ENTER THE RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY HERE
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found by clicking on the image below.
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To get your copy of Bob at the Lake or learn more about R Murphy, click on the cover below.
If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
Look on the right sidebar at Home and let’s talk.
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Terri Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can remember. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her husband and three cats.
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Janelle Stalder was born and raised in Brampton, Ontario. At an early age she developed a love for literature. Her debut novel, Eden, was the first book in a series of four, released in September of 2011. The second book, Eden-West, was released in July of 2012, and the third book, Eden-South was released in March of 2013. The fourth book of the Eden Series, Eden-East, will be release at the end of 2013. She is a strong supporter of other independent authors, and loves to interact with her readers. When she’s not writing, Janelle is at home with her husband, two children, Aiden and Elora, and her two furry children, Alice and Lily. She now resides in a small town in Ontario in her old, possibly haunted, century home.
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