ParaMysMo 2014: Dawn Eastman, author of the Family Fortune Mysteries - October 16, 2014

Please welcome Dawn Eastman, author of the Family Fortune Mysteries. Clyde Fortune tells us about Halloween in Crystal Haven, Michigan.

Halloween in Crystal Haven by Clyde Fortune

(From the Family Fortune Mysteries by Dawn Eastman)

I grew up in Crystal Haven, Michigan and there is no better time to be here than at Halloween. It’s a wonderful tourist town on the west coast of Michigan. There are many lovely vacation spots in the area boasting beaches, forests, boating, and shopping. But my town carved out a niche no other town wanted. The citizens of Crystal Haven have cornered the market on goods and activities of a more otherworldly nature. The psychics, tarot readers, palm readers, and crystal and herbal remedy practitioners guarantee that there is something for everyone who comes to visit.

Not surprisingly, Halloween is big business here. It’s the last big tourist influx before the brutal winter sets in so it’s always busy. As a kid I loved this time of year, watching the town pull together to plan the Fall Festival and spending hours with my friends designing our costumes. My Aunt Vi (my mother’s sister) always decorated our old Victorian with cobwebs, skeletons, spiders, and cauldrons. There were more pumpkins on our porch than in the local pumpkin patch. And she delighted in dressing up as something terrifying – the gorier the better. My friends thought she was great – I spent the week carefully peering around every corner to keep her from jumping out at me. That cold nip in the air and the scent of wood smoke always brings me back to those happy days of childhood.

Like so many other things in my family, Halloween has occasionally been the catalyst for a pitched battle between Aunt Vi and my dad. Aunt Vi embraces all things spooky, haunted, mysterious, and sugar laden. As a dentist, Dad doesn’t approve of the candy. And as a self-proclaimed realist, he doesn’t much care for the talk of ghosts, séances, or things that go bump on Halloween night. One year they had a contest to see who could give away the most treats. It was a losing proposition from the beginning for Dad. He gave out the healthy treats, Vi had the candy. I’m sure I don’t need to say who won that one. Dad is still trying to live it down.

This year, my friend Diana is in charge of the Fall Festival. As a practicing Wiccan, she put her own spin on things. Wicca classes and workshops will join the pie-eating contest, costume parade, and apple bobbing. The usual bonfire with marshmallow toasting will be followed by a Samhain ceremony in the woods. It’s not really my idea of fun – I fall more in Dad’s camp on the spooky meter – but I promised Vi I would go with her. Her opinion is the spookier the better and she didn’t want to miss it. Diana made me promise to stay and keep Vi in line. Her…curiosity…can be difficult to control. But, I’m sure it will be fine. What could go wrong? At midnight. In the woods. On Halloween.

Right?

Pall in the Family
A Family Fortune Mystery 1
Berkley, August 6, 2013
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 304 pages

The aptly named Crystal Haven is the destination for tourists seeking psychics, séances, and the promise of contacting the spirit world. In this small western Michigan town, everyone knows the Fortune family. Rose is gifted with tarot card readings. Her sister, Vi, is a self-proclaimed pet psychic. And Rose’s daughter Clyde is…

A cop. A cop on leave from Ann Arbor, more specifically, who’s come home to kooky Crystal Haven to reevaluate her life. Mom and Aunt Vi can’t wait for Clyde to finally embrace her own psychic gifts and join the family business. Clyde would prefer the low-stress lifestyle of a dog walker and the low-key company of her nephew, Seth.

But when a local psychic is killed, leaving behind a traumatized Shih Tzu, it seems to be in the cards for Clyde to get involved. With her old flame Mac leading the investigation, that may prove awkward. Whether she uses her skills as a cop or her long-denied psychic abilities, it’s up to Clyde to divine a killer’s identity before someone else suffers more misfortune.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Be Careful What You Witch For
A Family Fortune Mystery 2
Berkley, July 1, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 304 pages

Leaving a traumatic police career behind, Clyde Fortune has returned to her seemingly quiet hometown of Crystal Haven, Michigan. In spite of the psychic powers of its residents, there’s no telling what trouble is brewing in this burg…

The highlight of this year's fall festival in Crystal Haven is a bonfire with a witch’s cauldron resting over it. Clyde’s best friend, Diana, leads a ritual to divine the future, but it seems no one foresees that one of their own will drop dead—or that Diana will be a prime suspect.

Clyde already has her hands full with her eccentric family, runaway nephew, and burgeoning secret romance with a hunky homicide detective. But after another coven member is attacked, Clyde suspects there’s a witch hunt afoot and focuses her psychic and sleuthing skills to clear her friend’s name and catch a killer.

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

Upcoming

A Fright to the Death
A Family Fortune Mystery 3
Berkley, April 7, 2015
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 304 pages

From the author of Be Careful What You Witch For, here is the newest Family Fortune Mystery, starring former cop Clyde Fortune, who—snowbound with her kooky family in a creepy castle—is climbing the walls and combing the halls, looking for a cold-blooded killer…

After their flight to Mexico is cancelled, Clyde and her detective boyfriend, Mac, end up snowed in with their families at a supposedly haunted hotel. Clyde’s tarot card reading mother, Rose, is making dire predictions for the weekend, and self-proclaimed pet psychic Aunt Vi is enchanted by the legend of the hotel’s ghost—until the power goes out and a body turns up.

With a hotel full of stranded suspects, Clyde will have to draw on all her skills—both the police ones she’d rather forget and the psychic ones she’d rather ignore—to solve the bone-chilling mystery before someone else gets iced…

Amazon : Barnes and Noble : Book Depository : Books-A-Million : IndieBound

About Dawn

When I was ten years old, my two favorite things were climbing trees and reading. As a bonus, I discovered if I combined the two, I could hide from my mother when she wanted me to clean my room. Nancy Drew and I spent many afternoons solving crimes and avoiding chores. Eventually, I moved on to Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, and Stephanie Plum. I improved my housework-dodging ploys.

After many years in Michigan, I now live in Iowa with my husband, son and daughter. When I...m not writing or chauffeuring kids, I keep busy catering to the whims of a bossy bichon-shih tzu mix who wants to rule the world.


Website  ~  Facebook  ~  Twitter @DawnAEastman

The Giveaway

What:  One entrant will win her/his choice of a Mass Market Paperback copy of Pall in the Family or Be Careful What You Witch For by Dawn Eastman.

How:  Log into and follow the directions in the Rafflecopter below.

Who and When:  The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59PM US Eastern Time on October 31, 2014. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter

*Giveaway rules and duration are subject to change without any notice.*

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