COZY PARANORMAL AUTHOR VALONA JONES ON WHY SHE SET HER SERIES IN SAVANNAH

Valona Jones, aka Maggie Toussaint, writes paranormal cozies set in coastal Georgia. She lives in coastal Georgia, where time and tide wait for no one. To learn more about Maggie/Valona and her books, visit her Valona Jones and Maggie Toussaint websites.

Why Savannah? 

For all of my life, Savannah has been the big city, the gleaming “Oz” of coastal Georgia. At just over an hour’s drive from my childhood home, trips to Savannah were Very Big Deals. That’s where we went for school clothes and new shoes, and then we ate out. What a novelty for our family to dine at a restaurant!

 

One Savannah restaurant I enjoyed was Morrison’s Cafeteria because I could get whatever I wanted, and there was no negotiating over vegetables I didn’t want to eat. I loved their macaroni and cheese.

 

The other restaurant I remember fondly was The Pirates’ House with its gloomy basements and spooky history. Built in 1753, the site was first purposed as an inn for sailors. Then it became a restaurant and a meeting place for all who plied the seven seas, seafarers and pirates alike. Situated a block from the Savannah River on Broad Street, tunnels connected this place to River Street. According to legend, men of yesteryear were shanghaied (kidnapped) from this site, awakening on a ship at sea.

 

As with any settlement with a history of nearly 300 years, conflicts and disease took their toll, and ghost stories abound. Savannah is known as the City of the Dead, and it’s one of the oldest cities in America. Factors Walk on the river is where the city received and shipped goods of all kinds. Some say Savannah was built on cotton, rice, and other goods, but I say Savannah was built on her dead.

 

When I decided to write a paranormal cozy mystery series about a candlemaker, I realized this story world had to be set in Savannah. Yellow Fever Epidemics hit the Georgia coast three times: notably in 1820 with 895 deaths, in 1854 with deaths assumed to be similar to the 1820 outbreak (However, reporting of this pandemic was concealed by authorities), and in1876 with more than 1066 dead in two weeks. The vast number of bodies overwhelmed cemeteries and funeral homes, leading to mass graves and corpses laid out in tunnels under the city. One mass grave site is in Colonial Park Cemetery, which contains many of the people from the 1820 outbreak. Some mass grave locations have been lost through time.

 

Speaking of lost graves, two Black cemeteries were paved over to become Calhoun Square and Whitefield Square. The entire downtown historic district, along with The Pirate House, is built atop Native American burial grounds. Also, unmarked settlers’ graves occurred when people buried their dead on their property. Thus, many Savannah homes, parks, businesses, and streets are literally built atop the dead.

 

Since this new series I’m writing is about a family who manipulate energy, I included a mass grave under the site of The Book and Candle Shop on Bristol Street, a fictional shop and street in the historic district, near Johnson Square. This allowed me to meld history and fiction in a way that fit within the paradigm of Savannah’s unmarked gravesites.

 

As a native Georgian, I felt the tidal pull of Savannah for this story, and my lifetime association with the City of the Dead fostered the certainty that Savannah was the perfect venue for the paranormal Magic Candle Shop Mystery series. That’s how this series came to be set in Savannah.

 

Just for fun, leave a comment naming your favorite restaurant side order.

 

In the Wick of Time

A Magic Candle Shop Mystery, Book 2

 

Tabby Winslow will help her twin sister Sage with anything and everything—and that includes putting out the flames of suspicion when Sage’s boss is found murdered in this magical mystery, perfect for fans of Amanda Flower and Sofie Kelly.

 

December in Savannah, Georgia, is a sight to behold. With all the festivities—including the traditional riverfront luminary display during the boat parade—twin sisters Tabby and Sage Winslow are busier than ever setting up for the big celebration. But that isn’t the only thing on the sisters’ minds. Both Sage and her fellow employee Mary Nicole are vying for the sought-after assistant manager job at the plant nursery. But when Loren Lee, their boss, is found dead, and Sage becomes the police’s favorite suspect, both Winslow girls know that they’ll need more than a flicker of magic and their sisterhood to solve the murder and clear Sage’s name.

 

Soon, Tabby realizes that this is just one of the many problems they have. If being a suspect for murder wasn’t enough, there are more magical problems that they have to fix: Sage’s boyfriend is having a paranormal experience of his own he can’t control, there’s an energy vampire searching for his supposedly lost cousin, her cat suddenly dislikes her, and oh—every time Tabby hiccups, she turns completely invisible. The suspect list grows with each day and it seems everyone has a reason or a connection to Loren Lee. 

 

Tabby and Sage are burning the candle at both ends—but will it be enough to keep their friends safe and find this killer? Or will they be burned by their efforts?

 

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