Award-Winning Short Story Writer, Ripley Patton, Releases Her First Novel, Ghost Hand

Portland, OR, February 17, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Ripley Patton grew up in a sleepy town in Southern Illinois just like the main character of her new young adult paranormal thriller, Ghost Hand. In the first book of this three book series, seventeen-year-old Olivia Black discovers that her ghost hand, a rare birth defect, can do more than light up a room. It can reach into people and pull things out. Things from the darkest depths of the human psyche never meant to exist in this world. Olivia can pickpocket the soul. But she can’t control her ability, or the strange items it extracts, and the only thing between Olivia and the men bent on taking the power of her hand is a boy she barely knows and doesn't trust.

As well as pulling from her own teenage years and those of her two teen children, Ripley utilized the experience of her husband who has been a social worker and therapist with troubled youth for over 15 years.

Ghost Hand touches on the delicate subjects of genetic deformity, body image, cutting, death, grief, and the psychological burdens we all acquire in adolescence, while still managing to infuse humor and a modern teen aesthetic into this page-turning thriller.

What are people saying about Ghost Hand?
This novel stands alone - a story in itself - but there's no doubt its readers will be hanging out for the second book in Patton's PSS Chronicles. Buy a copy of Ghost Hand for your teens -and watch them disappear. - Beattie's Book Blog

Ghost Hand is an exciting and riveting story which kept me turning the pages to find out the next tension-filled moment. I highly recommend it, both to YA readers and older. – Mallory Anne-Marie Haws – Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer

About the Author
Ripley Patton lives in Portland, Oregon with one cat, two teenagers, and a man who wants to live on a boat. While living in New Zealand from 2005-2011, she won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Short Story 2009 and a second Sir Julius Vogel Award in 2011 for Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror for founding SpecFicNZ, a national association for speculative fiction writers in and from New Zealand. Ripley is a proud self-published Indie author who funded the publication of Ghost Hand through Kickstarter.