FEATURED AUTHORS: JOYCE & JIM LAVENE

ABOUT THE BOOK

Give ‘em Pumpkin to Talk About
A Pumpkin Patch Mystery
First in a New Series

Richmond attorney Sarah Tucker returns to sell her family’s abandoned farm in Misty River, Virginia despite unanswered questions about her grandparents’ disappearance sixteen years earlier. Sarah was only twelve when she went to visit and found her grandparents had vanished. No amount of searching has brought answers.

Now Sarah is faced with other issues when a man is killed who claimed to have information about what happened to her grandparents. She learns of a Confederate chest of gold that is said to be buried on the property, and treasure hunters who are willing to do anything to get their hands on it.

Were her grandparents murdered for the gold? Sarah can’t sell the land and go back to her life until she has answers. But the cost of the answers may be her life.
Includes farm-fresh recipes!

INTERVIEW WITH JOYCE & JIM LAVENE

Joyce and Jim, you co-author your books. How did you get started writing and when did you consider yourselves “authors?”
We had our first book published in 1999. It was a Silhouette Romance titled A Family for the Sheriff. We started writing together in the early 90s.

What's your favorite thing about the writing process?
Rough draft – the chance to tell the story from beginning to end.

How long is your to-be-read list?
Too long.

Can you share some of your marketing strategies with us?
We take every opportunity to talk to our readers and interact with them on as many levels as we can in person and online.

If you could only watch one television station for a year, what would it be?
BBC.

How often do you tweet?
Every day. It is part of our marketing strategy.

How do you feel about Facebook?
Love it! There is no better way to connect with readers.

What five things would you never want to live without?
Words. My family. Trees. Back roads. Water.

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
A complex mix of both.

What choices in life would you like to have a redo on?
None. I am happy with my life and the choices I have made.

What’s one of your favorite quotes? 
Not to the swift the race;
Not to the strong the fight;
Not to the righteous, perfect grace:
Not to the wise, the light.
But often faltering feet
Come surest to the goal;
And they who walk in darkness meet
The sunrise of the soul.
- Henry Van Dyke

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel. I never realized how difficult it is to write about yourself.

Where is your favorite library, and what do you love about it?
Cannon Library in Kannapolis, NC. They are very charming and hospitable to everyone.

You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?
Tinkerbell.

What's your relationship with your cell phone?
Love it.

How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
3 or 4.

What is your favorite movie?
Right now – Jupiter Ascending. Every morning I get up and say, “Yupiter, get the coffee.”

Do you have a favorite book?
Right now – Dresden #3
Do you sweat the small stuff?
Always – the small stuff is important.

What are you working on now?
The first Canterville Bookshop Mystery – A Dickens of a Murder, November 2015

Lightning round:
Cake or frosting? Both.
Laptop or desktop? Laptop.
Chevy Chase or Bill Murray? Eww!
Emailing or texting? Texting.
Indoors or outdoors? Bugs or not bugs?
Tea: sweet or unsweet? Unsweet with lemon.
Plane, train, or automobile? Auto

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery and urban fantasy fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. Their first mystery novel, Last Dance, won the Master’s Choice Award for best first mystery novel in 1999. Their romance, Flowers in the Night, was nominated for the Frankfurt Book Award in 2000. They have written and published more than 70 novels that are sold worldwide for Harlequin, Penguin, Amazon, and Simon and Schuster. They have also published hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in Midland, North Carolina with their family and their rescue pets—Rudi, Stan Lee, and Quincy.

Connect with Joyce & Jim:
Website  |  Facebook  | Twitter  |  Amazon 

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