Interview+Giveaway: The Woods of Hitchcock by Ann W. Jarvie

An interview with Ann W. Jarvie, author of The Woods of Hitchcock from the psychological suspense Henrietta Series

The Woods of Hitchcock by award-winning author Ann W. Jarvie is a thriller about a psychically gifted Chicago copywriter and victim of violence who returns to South Carolina’s equestrian country to solve a riddle involving murder, the metaphysical and the secrets of her eccentric family.

Suzanne Clayborn is a psychically gifted southerner working in her dream job in Chicago, which also conveniently takes her away from the ghosts of her past. But when she’s nearly killed, she realizes all she wants is to return home to her eccentric family, her horse and the one place she feels safe: Hitchcock Woods, an enchanting equestrian forest in South Carolina.

But instead of finding solace, Suzanne becomes entangled in a murder spree, while stumbling upon an old manuscript, written by her sage grandmother. As she explores it, Suzanne uncovers a tome of long-buried family haunts and ancient metaphysical secrets offering healing and inspiration. She also begins to understand her unwanted psychic abilities, especially after meeting a mysterious stranger in the Woods whose ominous riddle suggests others close to her will die within the week…

Brimming with raw emotion and a trail of psychological twists, a story of hope and transformation begins to unfold. Yet with the riddle’s deadline looming, Suzanne’s present must ultimately collide with a violent past. Will she be able to solve her life’s riddle and fulfill her destiny? Or will she die along with those she loves?

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Excerpt from The Woods of Hitchcock

Suzanne Clayborn woke up in darkness, mouth taped shut.

Jerking only made the ties around her wrists and ankles tighter, but it wasn’t just the bindings holding her down. Her muscles weren’t working right, like her whole body had fallen asleep. All she could do was lie there on a floor, heart pounding in terror, listening to the eerie bangs of pipes hidden somewhere behind the shadowed walls.

Her body trembled, despite an overwhelming heat, heavy and putrid, falling on her face and neck like the terrible breath of a monster. She had no memory of what had happened to her or where she was now. She only knew she was immobilized, maybe paralyzed, and every inch of her head ached. She might’ve welcomed another blackout, but the fumes were acting like smelling salts, forcing her to remain awake.

Yet she preferred consciousness—she didn’t want to die. It wasn’t that she feared the afterlife. That was actually the only good thing about the tragic accident years ago, when she was thirteen, when she’d felt her soul float away in bliss. It was the coming back that was the scary part. What she’d seen and felt when she’d woken up, and almost every day since then, could not be unseen or unfelt. It was a secret horror, her life irreversibly altered with strange, new abilities she didn’t need or want. Still, she didn’t want to die—not now, not like this—because she was struck in this dark moment with an awful knowing, a bothersome niggling in the deepest part of her soul about something important she had to finish in this life.

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Interview with Ann W. Jarvie

-What inspired you to become a writer?

I’d say there were two people who inspired me the most. The first was a wonderful high school teacher who saw something she liked in my writing, selected me as yearbook editor, and encouraged me to become a journalism major, which I did. She also was one of my biggest cheerleaders when I started writing novels. The second person was someone who passed away long before I was born: my maternal grandmother, Henrietta, who was also the inspiration for my first novel, The Soul Retrieval. Henrietta lived on an Apache reservation with her physician husband until he mysteriously died there. Her life and the family’s murder mystery intrigued and haunted me. I couldn’t let it go. So I started making up a story about it and started writing, with a Henrietta-inspired character as my protagonist.

In my new thriller, The Woods of Hitchcock, my Henrietta character plays a secondary role as the sage grandmother to my protagonist Suzanne Clayborn. The Woods of Hitchcock is the sequel to The Soul Retrieval, although both novels stand completely on their own.

-If you could visit your book’s world for a day, what one thing would you do?

I would ride Suzanne’s gorgeous Andalusian horse, Misty, through Hitchcock Woods, the enchanting equestrian forest that serves as my thriller’s setting in South Carolina.

-It’s two in the morning. What does your protagonist reveal in confidence? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell.)

It just so happens that in the opening scene of The Woods of Hitchcock, and it’s about 2:00 a.m., my protagonist Suzanne is trapped in a dark room with a ticking bomb. There, she reveals so much of her inner truth, surprising even herself. In this excerpt, the first paragraph sets the scene, followed by her revelation:

Her body trembled, despite an overwhelming heat, heavy and putrid, falling on her face and neck like the terrible breath of a monster. She had no memory of what had happened to her or where she was now. She only knew she was immobilized, maybe paralyzed, and every inch of her head ached. She might’ve welcomed another blackout, but the fumes were acting like smelling salts, forcing her to remain awake.

Yet she preferred consciousness—she didn’t want to die. It wasn’t that she feared the afterlife. That was actually the only good thing about the tragic accident years ago, when she was thirteen, when she’d felt her soul float away in bliss. It was the coming back that was the scary part. What she’d seen and felt when she’d woken up, and almost every day since then, could not be unseen or unfelt. It was a secret horror, her life irreversibly altered with strange, new abilities she didn’t need or want. Still, she didn’t want to die—not now, not like this—because she was struck in this dark moment with an awful knowing, a bothersome niggling in the deepest part of her soul about something important she had to finish in this life.

-Which of your characters would you go out for drinks with?

I’d go out with Suzanne, my protagonist. She and I share a similar career and a love of horses. But I’d want to know more about her psychic abilities.

-You’re in a tavern, and a dwarf challenges you to a duel. What do you do?

I’m a lover, not a fighter. So I’m definitely not participating in a duel with pistols. Instead, I’d challenge him to a wine-drinking duel…my treat.

-Is there a genre you could never write? Which and why?

I’ve always loved a good ghost story and also tales with forbidden secrets and metaphysical elements, which is why these elements are contained in The Woods of Hitchcock. I find these subjects fascinating, but I simply could not write about them in the horror genre. Why? Because novels require a lot time, usually years, to complete, and I wouldn’t want to put my mind in horror-filled places for that long. Also, I wanted to try my hand at writing a contemporary thriller. As I was plotting The Woods of Hitchcock, I started to imagine what it was truly like to see, feel and hear ghosts as well as higher spiritual beings, but not in a horrible way. It was more inspirational. Consequently, these psychic abilities kept creeping into my main character’s profile. I decided to go with them in a big way to satisfy my own interests and to enhance overall suspense.

About Ann W. Jarvie

Ann W. Jarvie has a B.A. in journalism and twenty-five years’ experience as a writer in advertising and public relations agencies, in Chicago and South Carolina. Although it stands completely on its own, The Woods of Hitchcock is an indirect sequel to Jarvie’s award-winning debut novel, The Soul Retrieval, which received four literary awards, the highest score by Writer’s Digest e-Book Awards’ judges (5 out of 5 on all points) as well as myriad positive reviews. Jarvie currently lives in Paradise Valley, Arizona with her husband, their boxer dog and boxer mix rescue.

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Giveaway

Ann W. Jarvie will be awarding a $75 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway