Today I’m talking to Peggy Chambers, author of 2 YA Fantasy Novels, 3 Adult Suspense Novels, 1 Adult Fantasy Novella, and 1 Adult Pulp Fiction novel. She is a contributing author to the Deerbourne Inn series and her book Witches’ Cliff is out now.
What’s the first book you remember reading on your own as a child, or your favourite childhood read?
I remember the Dick and Jane books from grade school when I first started reading. I loved taking the newspaper my dad always read and picking out words I’d learned at school. My favourite books to read later in grade school were the Nancy Drew series.
What’s your favourite place to write?
I have an over-sized red leather recliner in the guest bedroom that used to belong to my father-in-law. It is too big for me, but immensely comfortable. In the room I am surrounded by family objects: my grandmother’s bed, a small table that belonged to my dad, pictures from my aunt, and a muse in the form of a drawn print from a friend I used to work with. All these things are comforting and inspiring.
What’s the most important lesson you have learned on your writing journey so far?
Keep learning. You can never learn all there is about writing. I love to learn what other writers do and try it in my own writing.
What do you do when you feel stuck?
Like most writers, I get stuck in the middle of the story. I always know how it starts and where it is going. The middle of the story is more difficult. When I get stuck, I write a different section of the story, leave it at the bottom of the manuscript and eventually it will go in the right place.
Writers are readers too. Please recommend a romance you recently read and enjoyed.
I love the Outlander series by Diana Gabledon, but I recently read three romance novellas in the Deerbourne Inn series, Hope’s Dream by Peggy Jaeger, Soul of the Storm by Jean M. Grant, and Lyrical Embrace by Amber Daulton. I highly recommend them – a short read with a powerful story.
What was it that appealed to you about the Deerbourne Inn series?
I love a quaint inn. I’ve never been to Vermont, though it is on my bucket list, but the setting at the inn on Halloween made me think of witches and then the Salem Witch Trials that took place near the area. It made for the perfect backdrop for a story. Also, the Wild Rose Press has some impressive authors in their stable. I wanted to get to know them and be associated with them as people and authors.
What was the inspiration behind Witches’ Cliff?
I chose the holiday of Halloween because I thought most of the stories would be set at Christmas. As I said, Halloween made me think of witches and I started to research the Salem Witch Trails. The story took off from there. I don’t write historical novels, so I set it in the present and included a visit from a ghost who knew about the witch trials of Willow Springs.
Tell us about Witches’ Cliff in 150 words or less.
In 1692 Salem, Massachusetts held the witch trials and many innocent women died. During that same dark time the tiny town of Willow Springs, Vermont had their own slaughter at a local cliff. Penny Winter’s ancestor was one of those witches.
Years later Penny’s mother moved to Salem with her new baby to avoid the long memories of her neighbors. Penny learned the wiccan ways from her mother and became a professor of history at a local university. And then she met Jeff.
With no relatives to depend upon, Penny returns to the town where her grandmother died to seek her opinion of the man who has asked her to marry him. She once again encounters a Willow Springs witch. It’s Halloween and Penny desperately needs to talk to her ancestor before she marries, and it has to be at the cliff where grandma died. But she is not alone.
Do you have an extract you can share with us?
Appearing from nowhere, the elderly woman, in a tattered dark dress stood in the middle of the road. Her wild hair strung with branches like she had fallen in the forest before stumbling onto the highway.
Swerving to a stop on the side of the road, Penny threw open the door. Jumping from the car she raced back where the woman had been – and stood in the middle of the road turning around.
No one was there.
She spun in a circle three times, searching the woods beside the road for the woman. Where could she have disappeared? The woman was there – Penny saw her. But no one could be found in the area, now.
A horn blasted behind her making Penny jump and twist around. The semi barrelled down the highway and she leapt out of the way, running for her car. That was real, and much too close.
“Go home.” The voice whispered in her ear. And once again Penny spun around.
Buy link: https://tinyurl.com/y3fktu44
Where can readers find you online?
My website is located at http://peggylchambers.wordpress.com/ where I write a weekly blog. You can like me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BraWars, connect with me on Twitter at @ChambersPeggy, or on Instagram at champeggy.
Thanks for stopping by Peggy. I’m intrigued to read Witches’ Cliff and I LOVE your cover.
Earth/Fire witch Mercy Rose’s insatiable curiosity always gets her in trouble. After a break-in at her Colorado flower shop, and a court battle that comes to a screeching halt in her favor, she arrives at Deerbourne Inn for a much-needed getaway. Looking for peace and quiet, she finds just the opposite in a startling, handsome but mysterious man and his dog.
Licking her wounds after a bad relationship, San Diego accountant Caitlyn Summers travels to Willow Springs to help her friend gear up for the annual Maple Sugar Ball. She isn’t planning on staying long, but one encounter with the delicious Corey Duncan has her re-evaluating her plans.
her book Soul of the Storm is available today.
that revealed how quilts were hung on fences or clotheslines to serve as signals to escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad. Of course, people were the ones to choose the quilt to hang, a fact which helped me form the heroine.
Laura Boon Author 