Awesome book!

Spoiler alert: Lucas Mackenzie is a ghost. Has been ever since he died at age ten. But he techs a traveling midnight ghost show, and the afterlife is anything but dull. Join Lucas and his ghost pals as they hobnob with the celebrated dead at Forest Lawn, party in abandoned funeral homes, watch movies outdoors in cemeteries, vacation at Lily Dale, bowl in all-night bowling alleys, and frighten teenagers in old theaters on Saturday nights.

Can Lucas keep the show alive despite a dedicated ghost hunter? Can he win the heart of the show's fifteen-year-old psychic? Can he find his once-forgotten family? Keep reading long, long into the night, to the final act, when the London Midnight Ghost Show visits Lucas’s hometown for a Halloween you’ll never forget.

A longtime performer of and writer about spooky magic, magician and author Steve Bryant introduces young readers to one of the most offbeat branches of the American entertainment scene, that of the live theater midnight ghost show. It doesn't take a magician to predict that you will enjoy this debut novel of love, death, and magic from Month9Books ("Speculative fiction for teens and tweens, where nothing is as it seems! ).

And new as of October 2016: Steve's next spooky tale, his companion novel McGrave's Hotel. Get it today!

HAUNTING A BOOKSTORE NEAR YOU -- To make it clear to his Little Egypt Magic readers what he had been up to (publication of Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show), Steve posted the following interview with zombie correspondent Gus Grime from radio station WZMB. His transcript is repeated below, modified from its original wording to accommodate a more general readership.

The ad that got Steve interested in ghost shows.

GG: I am on the air with Steve Bryant, author of The Little Egypt Book of Ghosts and the Genii article "Zombieland," about magician Jack White and his Dr. Blood's Zombie Show. His latest offering is Lucas Mackenzie and The London Midnight Ghost Show. Tell me, Steve, what is your new book about?

Steve: It's a middle grade novel about friendship, family, and phantom romance.

GG: Are you being cryptic or just alliterative? Tell me a little more about your book. What is the story?

Steve: Hmmm, I should probably issue a spoiler alert if we are going into details. How about this:

Emerging from four years of postmortem amnesia, young Lucas Mackenzie comes to realize that he is dead and his family is alive, and he yearns to get in touch with them. But Lucas is a ghost in the company of a traveling midnight theater ghost show, and contact with the living is against the rules.

Lucas keeps his attempts at contact a secret as he and his fellow phantoms hobnob with the celebrated dead at Forest Lawn, party in abandoned funeral homes, watch movies outdoors in cemeteries, vacation at Lily Dale, bowl in all-night bowling alleys, and frighten teenagers in old theaters on Saturday nights.

Can Lucas keep the show going despite dwindling audiences and a dedicated ghost hunter? Can he capture the heart of the incomparable Columbine, the show’s enchanting fifteen-year-old psychic? Can he find his way back to his once-forgotten family? Keep reading long, long into the night, to the final act, when the London Midnight Ghost Show plays in Lucas’s former home town, to surprising and afterlife-altering consequences.

GG: Delicious. Where is this story set?

Steve: As my magician friends know, the midnight theater ghost shows flourished in America from 1929 to 1960 or so. My story is set in 1959 Americana, near the end of that era. It was a fertile year for those of us who lived through it and loved all things spooky. It was the year we grinned over Charles Addams cartoons, cringed at classic and contemporary horror movies, searched for Bridey Murphy, scanned the skies for UFOs, worshipped Forrest J Ackerman and his Famous Monsters of Filmland, and anticipated Disney's Haunted Mansion. My cast of spooky thespians interacts with many of these elements as they crisscross the country giving performances.

Lucas at Barnes and Noble.

GG: I'm salivating. How did the book come to fruition?

Steve: My agent is Anna Olswanger, and she's fantastic. If you hang out in the children's section of any Barnes and Noble, not that you should, you will find that many of the top titles are represented by her. That includes the recent Newbery Honor book Paperboy, by Vince Vawter. Anna hooked me up with Month9Books, the perfect home for Lucas and his pals.

GG: What is Month9Books?

Steve: Month9Books is a young publishing house (it will turn two on October 31, 2015) that specializes in spooky and fantasy fiction for teens. Its motto is "Speculative Fiction for Teens & Tweens ... Where Nothing Is As It Seems!" Month9Books is one of three imprints under the amazingly multitasking Georgia McBride. Georgia has completed over 100 publishing deals in the past two years. You might like Dead Jed: The Adventures of a Middle School Zombie, by Scott Craven. For Lucas, I spent about a year working with one of Georgia's top editors, Jackie Kessler, who has credits in the Buffy universe, and the book is scheduled for release February 24, 2015. You can preorder it today on Amazon.

GG: Now that the book is coming out, does this mean you'll be devoting more time to your web site?

Steve: Not quite. I signed a two-book contract, and the second book is due out in the fall of 2016. So the fun continues. Meanwhile, I hope everyone enjoys Lucas.

GG: I look forward to reading it. It would be faster for me to absorb it, of course, if I could just skip the reading and feed on your brain.

Steve: Thank you for having me on your program. I'll be going now.

Links to additional interviews with Steve Bryant:

Ashley's Paranormal Book Blog

Ghosts, Love and a Ghoul Show ... what's not to love? This book was great! It was very different from anything I have read before, and having gone into it, with a very open mind, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to read this book. It is fun, exciting and has a great story inside. I enjoyed the book from the start. The characters are witty and behave as anyone in the YA range would. They are beginning to discover there's more to life, or death, than they thought previously. Though they are dead, so don't grow old like you and me, they think about the future and their lives as they grow. The things they think about and discuss are often the conversations YA readers would be discussing, including relationships and discovering their interest in being part of one. I find that this is typical of most YA reads, and well within the realms of the book, especially as most of it is mentioned rather playfully. -- Natural Bri- Pursuits of Life
	With Mr. Bryant's novel, I felt an electric pulse of excitement, because who like the author said wouldn't want to get behind a 10 year old kid who's fallen in love with a ghost!? I find this interaction fascinating, as everyone loves to speculate about how ghosts can interact with humans and vice versa, but in this novel, there is more going on than living-dead communications! The joy for me initially without reading the story, was the cover-art itself as I think the artist who rendered it was bang-on brilliant in their depiction on behalf of what we could hope to find inside! -- Jorie Loves a Story
This is an exciting read all the way to the end! I really loved the way the author took this ghost show that is so wholly paranormal and set it in normal towns in the US even specific towns. It brings a new sensibility to the book and I really enjoyed it being set in the real world rather than in the afterworld as we see so much. You have to pick up this book if you love paranormal young adult books! It is great and I am thrilled to have been able to read it! --WS Momma Readers Nook	Reading Lucas in London.
Lucas Mackenzie and the London Midnight Ghost Show is rich with literary devices. You could base an entire lesson on figurative language on its chapters, with examples such as alliteration (appreciative applause), onomatopoeia (Ka-boooooooooom!) and personification (the words danced). Introduce Spanish and French vocabulary, the nuances of regional dialects, and inference skills, all while captivating your young audience. Supplement the story with a side studies on circus history and geography. Introduce classic literary figures such as Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe. Take a moment for artwork and create the posters described in the story. Even Disney fans are rewarded for reading this book. See all the possibilities?” -- Dede, Savings in Seconds
	What a great book to give kids insight into an earlier era, the 1950s, and into the world of magic--simultaneously. Amidst all the fun and historical details of Southern Illinois, the author found a way to infuse the novel with real heart and make me care about the reunion of the protagonist. I've loaned my copy to my grandsons and know they will enjoy it. -- Englishteacher, Amazon