The Secrets of Grimoire Manor
A little bit about Author Christopher Ferguson’s background…
I am a psychology professor at Stetson University in Florida and clinical psychologist. I am probably most “famous” for my work on violence in video games, although I am involved in trying to understand media and technology moral panics in general. I am now doing research on the social media moral panic (and yes it is one), and you can sometimes spot me being interviewed in news media. I’ve been writing both fiction and non-fiction seriously since about 2007. My particular love is for speculative fiction, horror, sci-fi and fantasy as well as mysteries. Psychology is my day job. Keeps the lights on until I hit it big and all that.
The Secrets of Grimoire Manor Blurb
At fourteen, Nevine Turner believed foster care was the epitome of despair. However, her perception changes completely when she is sent to the mysterious Grimoire Manor for Orphaned Girls. Nevine discovers that Grimoire Manor is filled with cranky teachers, abandoned attics, and four generations worth of anguished and tortured Grimoire family souls haunting their former home. Barely settled in, Nevine finds herself mysteriously whisked to the city of Prague in the year 1888. There, she is saved from a murderous ghoul by Xanthae Halruaa, an eccentric physicist and ghost-hunter. From Xanthae, Nevine learns the trade of ghost-hunting. Together, they work out the secrets of the haunting of Grimoire Manor, the Ghoul of Prague, and the mysterious connections between the two that force Nevine to flip between Grimoire Manor and Prague when she sleeps.
This is a spotlight on “The Secrets of Grimoire Manor” by Christopher J. Ferguson
Inspiration to write The Secrets of Grimoire Manor…
I’m a lover of gothic horror and I wanted to write something with female protagonists involving science, in this case using science to fight monsters. I’d been to Prague several times and the city struck me, even in modern times, as the most haunting I’d ever seen. I knew I had to write about it in the context of a horror story. But I also wanted to write something that was both scary and had some light moments. And so I hatched the basic idea of a time-traveling orphan girl and eccentric woman scientist who mentors her. And plenty of ghosts and a literal ghoul as well.
The Grimoire Manor of the title is set in my home state of Rhode Island (in her sleep, the lead character Nevine time travels between modern day Rhode Island and 19th century Prague). I think people will enjoy the touches of humor in the book, but there’s some real tension as well. Oh, and a flamethrower. You can’t go wrong with a flamethrower.
Some of Christopher’s other works…
All of my books are available on Amazon.
Suicide Kingsis my first book. It’s a murder mystery set in Renaissance Florence, featuring a young woman investigating the death of her mother in the highly patriarchal society of Bonfire of the Vanities era Florence.
Furyis my second book. In Dark Ages Greece, a slave girl Tisiphone is trained as an assassin for the Greek Empire of the North and must learn the brutal arts of war while maintaining her humanity.
I’ve also got several books of non-fiction.
Moral Combat considers the video game moral panic, how it happened, and what the science actually tells us about kids who play video games. Should we be concerned?
How Madness Shaped History is pretty much what it says on the tin. A fun roundup of scoundrels, psychopaths and mad visionaries and how they changed history, usually for the worse.
Catastrophe! The Psychology of How Good People Make Bad Situations Worse examines the psychology of how emotions and cognitive biases often lead us to make foolish, self-centered and outright ghastly decisions, and how we can recognize those foibles within ourselves.
Christopher’s favourite scene from The Secrets of Grimoire Manor…
Nevine found herself in the cramped and dark room that was to be her home for the next four years. Overhead hung a light bulb from a chain with a cloth lampshade meant to try to mask its dreariness. Set across from the door was the room’s only truly pleasant feature: a little alcove with a decent sized window that looked out over the backyard, the Newport cliffs and the ocean beyond.
Nevine rushed over to the window and pulled it open with all her might (and the creaky window did take all her might) enjoying for a moment the cold fresh blast of air that welcomed her efforts.
“Just because it has a nice view,” Aurora said from behind her, “doesn’t mean you’re not in Hell.” Nevine turned, a little shocked, and sat on the bed closer to the window, presuming it was hers. “And rest assured, you are in Hell.”
