Terrible Ten with Amy Reade

Amy"s second novel, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, is out today and she's here braving the Terrible Ten.

1.    What’s one thing that drives you crazy?
It drives me crazy when someone in my house doesn’t put something where it belongs. I spend waaayyy too much time looking for things that should have been put away.

2.    What is your guiltiest guilty pleasure?
Napping. I don’t do it that often, but when I do, I always feel like I should have been doing something else.

3.    What is your most embarrassing moment?
This happened about ten years ago. My two-year-old son had escaped, naked, onto our front yard and was running for the hills. I ran out after him as my neighbor (whom I’ve always considered absolutely perfect and who is, by the way, a wonderful person) watched the scene unfold in a mixture of dismay and pity. I had been cleaning, so I was barefoot, dressed in old baggy leggings and one of my husband’s shirts, and had my hair in a do-rag. I tripped over my own feet and landed on the ground like a felled tree. That would never happen to her. If she fell, she would land in a rabbit hole and emerge as a Disney princess.

4.    What is the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?
Once I was playing tag and I ran through a fire pit that hadn’t been doused. I spent a week in the hospital and never did catch the person who was “it.”

5.    What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?
I left my home in New York State to go to law school in Indiana, where I didn’t know a single soul.

6.    On what life choices would you like to have a re-do?
That’s a tough one because I believe there’s a reason for everything we do. If I had a re-do on something, I’d be missing part of me. That being said, I worked at a law firm in New York that managed to suck every bit of joy out of me. I might take a re-do on that. On the other hand, how else would I know what it feels like to absolutely hate my job?

7.    What makes you nervous?
Driving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania makes me nervous. I’ve driven in New York City a hundred times and I find that much easier than venturing into the City of Brotherly Love. For some reason I just can’t make sense of the street layout.

8.    What makes you scared?
Flying. Not a good fear to have for someone who loves to travel!

9.    When was the last time you did something for the first time?
I celebrated my eldest child’s seventeenth birthday two days ago. Time flies!

10.    One of your main characters has to die. Which one would you kill off?
I’d have to kill off Macy Stoddard, the main character in Secrets of Hallstead House. I love Macy, but Carleigh Warner, the main character in my second book, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, is mother to a three-year-old and I can’t bring myself to kill her off. 
   

About the book:

"Do you know what stories Sarah could tell you about the things that happened in these little cabins? They’d curl that pretty red hair of yours."

Outside of Charleston, South Carolina, beyond hanging curtains of Spanish moss, at the end of a shaded tunnel of overarching oaks, stands the antebellum mansion of Peppernell Manor in all its faded grandeur. At the request of her friend Evie Peppernell, recently divorced Carleigh Warner and her young daughter Lucy have come to the plantation house to refurbish the interior. But the tall white columns and black shutters hide a dark history of slavery, violence, and greed. The ghost of a former slave is said to haunt the home, and Carleigh is told she disapproves of her restoration efforts. And beneath the polite hospitality of the Peppernell family lie simmering resentments and poisonous secrets that culminate in murder — and place Carleigh and her child in grave danger . . .

About the author:

After deciding that the practice of law was not as thrilling as she thought it would be, Amy found her passion in writing. Her first novel, Secrets of Hallstead House, was published in 2014. It tells the story of Macy Stoddard, a nurse who goes to work for a private client among the Thousand Islands in northern New York only to find that there are secrets reaching into both her past and her future. In the face of violence and threats, Macy must search for the identity of the person who will stop at nothing to keep those secrets buried.

Her second novel, The Ghosts of Peppernell Manor, will be released on April 28, 2015. Here’s a brief synopsis: Peppernell Manor, an antebellum plantation near Charleston, has seen better days. But when its owner hires restoration specialist Carleigh Warner to oversee its return to grandeur, disagreements over the property’s future threaten to tear the Peppernell family apart. Carleigh is swept unwittingly into a whorl of secrets that she must face to protect her future and her daughter’s life.

Amy lives in New Jersey with her husband, three children, one fantastic dog, two cats who refuse to speak to her, and one tiny fish named Poseidon. She loves reading, traveling, and anything to do with Hawaii.

Amy loves to connect with readers online and in person. Connect with her at:
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