Mary Hooper Blog Tour: Tricks of the Trade, Extract and Giveaway!

As part of the UK Blog Tour for her new book Velvet, Mary kindly stopped by to talk about the tricks of the trade.  So I will hand you over...
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The Tricks of the Trade :  The Spirits Speak

This trick is still worked now, and depends upon the medium having an accomplice planted in the audience. When the envelopes containing the audience’s questions have all been collected, the medium is handed the first envelope and, without opening it, answers the question inside. The person who asked the question (the accomplice) appears very impressed, following which the medium opens the envelope in order to read the question out. What they actually do, however, is open a genuine envelope from someone in the audience, memorise the question and throw it away. They then pick up the next sealed envelope and pretend to use the spirits to answer the question inside, when what they are really doing is answering the question from the one opened earlier. They repeat this process over and over again, letting the ‘spirits’ answer and staying one envelope ahead the whole time.
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Thanks Mary!  I always wondered how they did it!

You can find Mary Hooper in the following places:

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Here is the synopsis for Velvet, taken from Goodreads: 

Rose is a laundress in a Victorian steam laundry. With both her mother and father dead, she is an orphan and has to rely upon her own wits to make a living. The laundry is scalding, back-breaking work and Rose is desperate to create a better life for herself. Then Rose is noticed by Madame X, a famed medium, who asks Rose to come to work for her. Rose is dazzled at first by the young yet beautifully dressed and bejewelled Madame. But soon Rose realises that Madame X is not all that she says she is, and Rose's very life is in danger ...A romantic and thrillingly exciting new novel from an acclaimed and much-loved historical writer for teens.

Sounds awesome doesn't it!   Here's a little taster for you...

Velvet Chapter 1[1]





Plus, I  have one set of Mary’s historical fiction titles to giveaway:

At the Sign of the Sugared Plum, Petals in the Ashes, The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose, At the House of the Magician, By Royal Command, The Betrayal, Fallen Grace and Velvet!

The giveaway is open to UK entrants only.  Closing date is 16 September 2011.  Just fill in the form below to enter.  Good luck:)

This giveaway is now closed.

Fallen Grace Trailer and Sample Chapter

From Goodreads: Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing. Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to the famed Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something at least to the little baby who died at birth, and to avoid the ignominy of a pauper's grave. Distraught and weeping, Grace meets two people at the cemetery: Mrs Emmeline Unwin and Mr James Solent. These two characters will have a profound affect upon Grace's life. But Grace doesn't know that yet. For now, she has to suppress her grief and get on with the business of living: scraping together enough pennies selling watercress for rent and food; looking after her older sister, who is incapable of caring for herself; thwarting the manipulative and conscience-free Unwin family, who are as capable of running a lucrative funeral business as they are of defrauding a young woman of her fortune. A stunning evocation of life in Victorian London, with vivid and accurate depictions, ranging from the deprivation that the truly poor suffered to the unthinking luxuries enjoyed by the rich: all bound up with a pacy and thrilling plot, as Grace races to unravel the fraud about to be perpetrated against her and her sister.



Sounds great doesn't it? Check out the trailer below:





Look Good? Here's a peek at the first chapter:

Fallen Grace Sample Chapter

Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper - published by Bloomsbury 7 June 2010.