Happy Book Birthday-Whispers Beyond the Veil!

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Jessica: In New Hampshire, feeling lucky and grateful

WhispersBeyond_FixToday is launch day for my fifth novel, Whispers Beyond the Veil. Do you hear that world? Fifth novel! I can’t believe it’s true. The surprise and the joy never get old. It’s like magic really, the whole delightful business.

I feel like stopping people on the street and telling them how much I love my life! I want to chat with the old guys walking arthritic beagles, the bleary-eyed mothers waiting with rambunctious kids at school bus stops, the kid furiously texting as he saunters along the sidewalk.

I think one of the reasons it still feels so magical is that Whispers Beyond the Veil is a departure from the books I’ve written in the past. Live Free or Die and the Sugar Grove books are contemporary and light hearted and told entirely in the first person. The worlds of those books are safe until an unforeseen disaster strikes and throws things for a loop. The protagonists of those stories, Gwen and Dani, have lived lives of relative comfort, in communities that function like extended families. The towns of Winsow Falls and Sugar Grove are idyllic and entirely imaginary. At their hearts these books are about what it’s like to be an insider.

Whispers Beyond the Veil is historical fiction, set in 1898.The tone of the story is more serious. And it is told from the first person perspective of protagonist, Ruby Proulx, as well as the third person voice of police officer, Warren Yancey. Life for Ruby has been anything but comfortable or safe. Her family has been a small, fragile one; just her mountebank father and herself. Her first experience with feeling like a part of a stable community appears when she finds sanctuary with her aunt in the complex, real world town of Old Orchard, ME. Ruby relies on her perspective as an outsider to help insider Warren Yancey solve the crime.

Having the opportunity to tell stories in such different ways, with very different voices has kept things interesting and magical for me. I hope readers of Whispers Beyond the Veil will find it to be so too!

Readers, how do you find magic and joy in your daily life? Writers, do you like to play with different types of stories to keep the experience fresh and fun?

 

 

 

Published by Jessie Crockett

Jessie Crockett wears a lot of hats, both literally and literarily. As Jessie Crockett she is the Daphne Award winning author of Live Free or Die and the nationally bestselling Sugar Grove series. As Jessica Ellicott she has received starred reivews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal for her historical mystery Murder in an English Village. As Jessica Estevao she writes the Agatha Award nominated Change of Fortune Mysteries. She loves the beach, fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England where she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar.

34 Thoughts

  1. Jessie, this sounds terrific. I love historic novels, and I’m looking forward to reading Whispers Beyond the Veil very much.

    Good launch!

    I find magic and joy in writing fiction. What could be more magical than “putting pen to paper”and have a story face you back?

  3. Pingback: Twitter Authors – Jessica Estevao | Toss the Typewriter

  6. Isn’t it fun to stretch yourself and try something different? I think it keeps us fresh as writers and makes us think about how we define our characters. This sounds like a very interesting read!

  8. I find magic in my friends…I was just talking about your latest book to a crowd of long lost family that I had for dinner on Saturday. I counted out on my fingers, the amount of books you had written and published. I said, “Jeff, it is five”..five..all of the fingers on my left hand!
    Yes I find magic in my friends. Proud to read you, Lauri

  11. Magic is in many things if your remember to look for it! As Barbara Kay said, reading is magic, but so is writing. And even better seeing Whispers Beyond The Veil on the FRONT table at Barnes and Noble! I can’t wait to read it.

  12. Congratulations on your fifth book!!

    I find joy in appreciating the things and people around me; having a network of wonderful, caring friends, and a loving, supportive husband gives me immeasurable joy. Nature and a measure of health to enjoy, along with reading, is pure joy.

  17. Congrats on the new book, Jessie! It is fabulous, and I’m not a fan of the paranormal side of the cozy spectrum, so that’s saying something.

    Mark

  18. First a big congrats on this book release!! I have had it preordered forever and got it today. I cant wait to read and review it! I love the time period this is written in. I do have to say I hope you are still going to be putting out the Sugar Grove books as they crack me up and I love them. I find magic in nature – the flowers, the bugs, the leaves and in the way my dog can be so happy and peaceful and love so unconditionally. That is my magic.

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