A Banshee Interview & Giveaway

I'm happy to welcome Joyce and Jim Lavene back to the blog. They have a new series out! Be My Banshee is the first book in their Purple Door Detective Agency and was released August 19th.

Kathy: The Purple Door Detective Agency is such a great name. I see purple as a mystical color (as well as my favorite) and a door a means of entry, an opening to a new world. Did you intend the name to have meaning? How did you come up with it?

J&JL: Thanks for having us here today!

I love purple too! I agree it is a mystical color, the color of royalty, and deep thought. I thought we should call it the Purple Door Detective Agency when I read the old story about how a purple door means a witch lives there. And since the story centers on a witch, it seemed apt!


Kathy: If you were running a paranormal detective agency (or a regular one for that matter) what type of magical beings would you prefer to hire. Are there any you would not like working in your agency?

J&JL: I think witches are smart and resourceful. They would always be an asset. Some shapeshifters would be good. Probably not demons or mermaids since they tend to be too unreliable.


Kathy: Aine is a bean sidhe. Did you do particular research on this type of fairy? Since she's looking for an O'Neill heir I would say you did!

J&JL:  Yes. We did a lot of research on the beane sidhe which is why she can change into three forms. These are the forms she’s been seen as during the last few hundred years. She would be a strong and loyal partner if you could get her involved in what you were doing. Sunshine Merryweather, our witch, manages it.


Kathy: You write multiple series simultaneously. Do you sometimes discover you've accidentally put characters in the wrong series while writing?

J&JL: No. Not ever. It’s not like Peggy Lee could be in a mystery with magic in it or we could put a mermaid into the Pumpkin Patch Mystery. It’s hard to realize unless you write how your life is impacted by these characters. And while we may write a lot of books, I also have many family members and friends that I would never confuse with any others.


Kathy: Was there a specific inspiration for this series?

J&JL: Sunshine was really the inspiration. We were looking for a younger witch who wasn’t afraid to use her magic, unlike the older witches in the Retired Witches Mysteries. She needed a partner in her detective agency and we found Aine, deciding she would be perfect. Jane was actually a character from a book we started writing years ago and didn’t finish. The three ladies seem to work well together.


Kathy: Are you able to share any future plans for Sunshine Merryweather and Aine?

J&JL: Well Aine and O’Neill have a walk-on role in our November 2015 book, The Canterville Book Shop Mysteries, although the only paranormal in that series is a ghost. We started thinking that most people wouldn’t recognize a magical creature as long as they look human, and set out to prove that theory. Sunshine and Aine will be back next year with their new mystery.


Kathy: Will you share any other upcoming books?

J&JL: Sure! My favorite part of any interview!

November 2015 – A Dickens of a Murder, part of the Canterville Book Shop Mysteries. Simon Canterville and Lisa Wellman try to get a book shop open in Olde Town, Portsmouth, Virginia in time for the holidays when they find a dead man on the roof of their Victorian home.

December 2015 –Murder Fir Christmas is first in the new Christmas Tree Valley Mysteries which is set in the world of the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries in Sweet Pepper, Tennessee.

That book is followed by Fat Tuesday Fricassee, the third book in the Biscuit Bowl Mysteries. It’s Mardi Gras in Mobile Alabama, home of the Biscuit Bowl Food Truck, but things aren’t all fun and games as Zoey and her father are involved in a murder at a krewe party.

January 2016 – The fourth book in the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mysteries, Sweet Pepper Hero, is out with the fire brigade stamping out murders and fires caused by a whiskey war with the help of the ghost of the previous fire chief, Eric Gamlyn.

a Rafflecopter giveaway