31 Days of Halloween – Interview with Bruce Jenvey



The Great Northern Coven  by Bruce Jenvey

·  Q: Bruce, you were with us last year for
the 31 Days Of Halloween with the release of Angela’s Coven, the first book in
the Cabbottown Witch series. What’s the last year been like for you?

A: It’s been a real roller coaster! I
enjoyed a very nice “Nook Signing” tour through the Barnes & Noble stores
last fall, and was surprised to see how many people came to the events dressed
as Witches! I did some radio and TV interviews and Angela’s Coven was off to a
good start. The book collected a lot of really great reviews and some
impressive award nominations, too. But as all the hubbub of the release settled
down, I had to make that conscious effort to climb back into the next book. I
found out that writing while promoting is NOT an easy thing to do.
Q: Is that the book you have for us this
year?
A: Yes, and if my Reading Circle and my
Editors are right, you’re going to enjoy this one even more than Angela’s
Coven. With both books, you will laugh out loud, and then cry before laughing
again… and then crying again. It’s a fun read.
Q: Tell us what you can about it.
A: This one is called ‘The Great
Northern Coven’ and takes place in Alaska. It’s got Bush Pilots, friendly, small
town people and a whole tribe of Native Americans. It’s based around Inuit
cultural beliefs, and finds similarities to these in our own culture. I guess
you’d say the general theme is that while our specific practices and social
structures may vary, we are all connected. Of course, the book features our
chief Villain, Lucifer and his minion as well as one very unsuspecting
Eagle-Man… an angel in the flesh. One really big difference is the theme of the
two stories: Angela’s coven was about second chances, starting over and new
beginnings. The Great Northern Coven is more about letting go of the past,
moving on and taking that next step forward in life. Here, let me give you the
link for the trailer, I think that will give you a good taste for The Great
Northern Coven:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkmAx1eFSbg&feature=plcp
I’ve been doing the book tour thing
through Barnes & Nobel again this fall, but this year I have Angela’s Coven
in paperback besides The Great Northern Coven E-Book.
Q: Is this a direct sequel to Angela’s
Coven?
A: No, actually, it’s more of a parallel
story. It runs its own path but then connects directly to the Cabbottown
Witches partway through. When it does
connect, it comes into the timeline after the end of the first story. That’s
part of what I meant when I said the book makes the point that we are all connected.
Q: Then, do people need to read Angela’s
Coven first?
A: It’s not crucial to enjoying this
story, but I would advise it. In the chapters that connect us directly to
Cabbottown, you might feel a little lost, though I have tried to bring the
necessary information into this story, too. I know you’ll enjoy this one more if you read Angela’s Coven first, but I know
there will be those that read them out of sequence and I’ve tried to allow for
that.
Q: Where will you take us next? What’s
the work in progress?
A: Oh, I’ve got a real fun one I’m
working on for you now! Ever since Angela’s Coven was released, I’ve had people
coming up to me and telling me they want to know more about Angela; where she
came from, her past, how’d she get the way she is, the background on her coven.
So, the third book in the series will be a Prequel to the first one, and will
cover, roughly, the time period from World War I through the Roaring Twenties.
It’s got, Rumrunners, Gangsters, Flappers and lots of excitement. It’s even got
an Avenging Angel. I think it will be the best one yet, really, I do!
Q: Do you have anything else in the
works you can tell us about?
A: Funny you should ask. When I gave up
advertising and journalism and started to play with fiction, I wrote a small
number of short stories that are not related to the Cabbottown Witches, but
have never seen the light of day. It’s been suggested by my reading circle that
I might put those out there as novellas, one at a time in the 99-cent price
range to see what kind of attention they get. Just might do that… in my spare
time.
Q: Who is your favorite author and why?
A: There’s going to be two answers here:
1. Stephen King. The man has an uncanny
imagination as to what could be and
makes you start to think, ‘why not?’ I also like his raw approach to narrative.
I know some editors who wouldn’t allow that from a new author but he makes it
work. He gets to use sentence fragments and start sentences with conjunctions.
But he’s Stephen King. Isn’t he.
2. Clive Cussler. What an incredible
sense of adventure! And that’s what we want when we read, isn’t it? No one ever
wrote an exciting book about working in your kitchen. (But wait, I think I did that!)
Q: What’s the weirdest
thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?
A: Gotta be sitting in a parlor of an
early 19th century house, underneath two-hundred-year-old Witch Bottles,
waiting for a ghost to come down the staircase. Back when I was a magazine
publisher, we did a lot of traveling to strange places around the Great Lakes
in efforts to get the stories nobody else had. That’s where I pull a lot of my
experiences from. We did a lot of that kind of thing in those days. That
particular night just seems to stick in my mind. Then there was the night we
spent in the haunted fort waiting for the ghost platoon to march by…
Q: Where can we find your books? How can
we get a hold of you?
A: Oh, you want my links! Here’s the
list:
Webpage: www.covenbooks.com (E-mail=
bruce@covenbooks.com)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/covenbooks
Twitter: @brucejenvey
My Publisher: Museituppublishing.com
Both books are available from the
publisher, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and many other places.

  
 
Bio

Bruce Jenvey was raised in rural
Michigan with a great interest in history, popular culture and the paranormal.
After earning a B.A. in Psychology from Michigan State University, he migrated
to the Detroit area and began a career in advertising. For twenty years he
worked in agency creative departments on such national accounts as Pontiac,
Cadillac, Mr. Goodwrench, FTD, Budweiser and more. And then one day… he was
downsized.
Taking inventory of his skills as well
as his love of sailing and history, Bruce founded “Great Lakes Cruiser
Magazine.” He and his wife, Christine, spent the next ten years traveling the
region as he and his staff recorded the local history and told their readers
about some of the most wonderful places to visit along the shores of America’s
Inland Seas.
Along the way, Bruce had unique access
to untold incidents and documentation of the unexplained. He collected and
chronicled these experiences in every place he found them, from the shores of
Lake Michigan to Upstate New York. As he did so, he was struck by how
consistent and similar these accounts were from region to region leading him to
the conclusion that all we see may not be all there is to know…
Today, Bruce is pleased to share with
you so very many of these real-world experiences and accounts, all pulled
together and retold here, in the fictionalized saga of his Cabbottown Witches.

·        
Blurb

The Great Northern Coven: J.R. is a
bush pilot who drifts into small town, Haines, Alaska and signs on with the
local flying service. He’s looking for a fresh start, a new beginning, and a
place to hide from the painful past that literally haunts him day and night.
What he doesn’t realize is the local Inuit Indians believe he is the missing
piece in an ancient prophecy they have been waiting centuries to unfold. His
arrival sets in motion a series of events that risks everything for everyone,
right down to their very souls. It also brings forth a great evil and the only
one who can save them all has to draw on her long-forgotten heritage of witchcraft.
This is the second book in the
Cabbottown Witch Novels and is a story of the eternal struggle between good and
evil with a wide range of characters from Lucifer and his minion, to pilots,
barmaids and the ladies of the Tsonokwa Lodge… and of course, one very
important Eagle-Man. But where Angela’s Coven centered on starting over and
second chances, The Great Northern Coven is a story of letting go, moving on
and taking that next step forward in our lives.

·        
Link to Excerpt


·        
Book Trailer


·        
Buy Link, your website link