Today I am delighted to bring you an interview with Anne-Marie Ormsby as an add on to the recent blog tour – before we get stuck into the interview, let’s take a look at her book – Purgatory Hotel!
Dakota Crow has been murdered, her body dumped in a lonely part of the woods, and nobody knows but her and her killer.
Stranded in Purgatory, a rotting hotel on the edge of forever, with no memory of her death, Dakota knows she must have done something bad to be stranded among murderers and rapists.
To get to somewhere safer, she must hide from the shadowy stranger stalking her through the corridors of the hotel, and find out how to repent for her sins. But first she must re-live her life.
Soon she will learn about her double life, a damaging love affair, terrible secrets, and lies that led to her violent death. Dakota must face her own demons, and make amends for her own crimes before she can solve her murder and move on.
But when she finds out what she did wrong, will she be truly sorry?
BUY LINKS
AMAZON – https://goo.gl/SWNMGx
GOODREADS – https://goo.gl/LhZ47j
AUTHOR INTERVIEW!
1. When did you know that you wanted to be an author?
I was always encouraged by my parents to read from a very young age, we always had a lot of Enid Blyton around so I read all of those, along with various other books from the school library. But when I was nine I read my dad’s copy of Ray Bradbury’s The October Country, and it blew me away. His style of writing and the subject matter he wrote about was pure magic to me and I decided then that I wanted to be a writer.
2. What inspired you to write this book?
It was a combination of ideas that had been in my head – the story of a doomed relationship full of secrets, a haunting etc. But the key to the whole thing was a Nick Cave song called God’s Hotel, which is basically about heaven. But it got me to thinking about what if the afterlife wasn’t so nice- what if purgatory was this big creepy limitless hotel where you had to do your time before you could get into heaven.
I’ve had a thing about hotels for a long time – I blame The Shining – but I generally find them to be quite creepy and the transitory nature of hotels fascinates me. Different people occupying the same spaces night after night.
So in my head Purgatory Hotel was built, and then I started thinking about how awful it would be to end up there, especially if you didn’t know what you had done that was so wrong. So poor Dakota was created and after that her story unravelled.
3. If you could sell this book in one sentence what would it be?
A young woman is murdered and finds herself in the afterlife with no memory of how she died or what she did wrong to end up in Purgatory; she must solve the riddle of her own life and death before she can make amends.
4. What are you up to next?
I’m in the early stages of writing my next book, which is a paranormal thriller set in London. I don’t have as much time as I used to as I work full time and I have a toddler so finding the space in my life has been a bit more difficult this time around. But the story is all there, I just need to get it on paper!
5. Who is your biggest inspiration?
I don’t have one particular inspiration, I am inspired by so many different writers and artists, but for a shortlist I’d say; Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, David Lynch and Nick Cave.
Bradbury for his magical use of words to create a very visual reading experience. Kerouac for his refusal to write in a standard prose style, for making poetry in the form a novel. Lynch for his ability to turn the simplest every day things into something sinister and Cave for being able to write about murder and evil in a way that is both beautiful and disturbing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
On a warm day in July 1978, a mother was admitted to hospital, awaiting the arrival of her new baby. She was reading Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie and the midwives thought it a gruesome choice for an expectant mother. A story of a long forgotten murder and repressed memories. As it turned out her new baby, Anne-Marie would grow up and find herself drawn to all things macabre, and would one day herself turn out a story of murder and memories lost.
Anne-Marie grew up on the Essex coast with her parents and six siblings in a house that was full of books and movies and set the scene for her lifelong love of both. 
She began writing short stories when she was still at primary school after reading the book The October Country by Ray Bradbury. He was and still is her favourite author and the reason she decided at age 9 that she too would be a writer someday.
n her teens she continued to write short stories and branched out into poetry, publishing a few in her late teens. In her early twenties she began committing herself to writing a novel and wrote one by the age of 20 that she then put away, fearing it was too weird for publication.
She wrote Purgatory Hotel over several years, but again kept it aside after several rejections from publishers. Luckily for her, she found a home for her twisted tale with Crooked Cat Books.
Her favourite authors include Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, Stephen King, Denis Lehane and Douglas Coupland. She also takes great inspiration from music and movies, her favourite artists being Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Johnny Cash, Interpol, David Lynch and David Fincher.
Anne-Marie moved to London in 2008 where she lives to this day, amidst books and DVDs, with her husband and daughter.
Facebook: https://goo.gl/JC4NR3
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AOrmsbyAuthor
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17197211.Anne_Marie_Ormsby
Blog: https://pirateburlesque.wordpress.com/
Website: https://www.annemarieormsby.com/
donnasbookblog 
I was totally gripped by purgatory hotel and i am eagerly awaiting anne-maries next book xxx
She is a beautiful person inside and out.
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