Cate: Daisy Banks is here today! Welcome, Daisy! Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Daisy: I am a writer. I’m interested in history. I love to visit
antique fairs and shops when I’m not writing. I have two sons and am very proud
of them both.
Cate: Nice! Have you ever had an unusual experience you couldn’t explain?
Daisy: Yes, several. I grew up in a family home where unusual events
such as things disappearing and then reappearing in strange places were said to
be the work of the fairies. I must have been about six when one of my smallest
doll’s shoes went missing. I remember being very cross about it. The tiny shoe
was gone for weeks, and then one day it was discovered in full view on the arm
of a chair. Things like that happened all the time. As I got into my teenage
years the odd things continued. My favorite recollection is the light switching
itself on for me when my arms were full of a large bundle of clean laundry and I
couldn’t reach the switch. No one else was present to put the light on and I
have no explanation for how it happened.
I also recall seeing two young children staring out of a window in a
very large Elizabethan house in a park I visited. Somehow I knew they weren’t
what might be described as real. Much later I discovered the sighting of the
pair of children is well known to local ghost hunters and the old house has had
a sad reputation for many years.
A little later in my life when I was on vacation in Devon I was woken in
the middle of the night by the sound of a drum. This wasn’t someone doing a
spot of band practice but someone walking up the lane by the cottage beating a
drum like the sort used to call up support hundreds of years ago. If any of the
readers have been to reenactment events they will know the kind of drumming I
mean. If you aren’t familiar with reenactments this u tube link will give you
an idea of the sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G24_1FbBrbg
My husband didn’t wake at the noise and
I knew if I looked out the window I’d see nothing, so I simply let it pass and
went back to sleep. I do wonder about that lonely drummer though, perhaps there
is a story there I might get to write one day. This list is getting rather long
and I have not shared all the things I could but I’ll stop here.
Cate: Oh my goodness! That's scary. What frightens you the most?
Daisy: I could say I truly don’t like large spiders. I am terrified by
them, even if it might sound a bit silly, the fear is very genuine. On a more
serious note the thought of serious illness or something bad happening to a
family member is something I dread.
Cate: You're not alone, lol. Ever gone on a ghost tour? Or ghost hunting on your own?
Daisy: A little while ago I went with some friends to a hotel in
Dudley, the Station Hotel, which is a known ghost hot spot. A séance was scheduled
and a ghost hunt took place that evening, with a walk through the cellars. I
couldn’t do that as cellar air always makes my asthma bad. I didn’t mind
waiting for the other members of the group and I sat in the lobby with a cup of
coffee where I enjoyed the ambience of the place, including the aroma of cigar
smoke, which was rather odd as being a public building there is no smoking
allowed inside the hotel. I happened to mention the smell to the member of
staff who came to take my empty coffee cup and she reassured me everything was
fine. The cigar smell was merely one of the regular ghosts making their
presence known. So even though I skipped the cellar tour I was gifted the
experience of a ghostly visit.
Cate: Very cool. Any favorite Halloween recipes you’d care to share?
Daisy: I live in the UK and can pretty much guarantee that Halloween
night will be cold, damp and misty. There may well be rain too. Therefore I’ve
chosen a spicy soup recipe, just the thing to keep people warm if they go out
on Halloween night.
Spiced Red Lentil Soup
1 onion
1 red pepper
2 sticks of celery
8oz of courgettes/zucchini
4oz of red lentils
1 tablespoon of oil
1 teaspoon each of paprika, and turmeric
A pinch each of cayenne pepper, cinnamon and turmeric
1 can of chopped tomatoes
One and a quarter pints of vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
A teaspoon of basil.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Chop all vegetables finely.
Wash lentils.
Heat oil and fry the spices in a deep pan. Add the vegetables and
lentils to the pan. Stir well so spice mix coats the ingredients. Cook for
about 5 minutes.
Open can of tomatoes and tip them into a large jug, add enough stock to
measure two pints and add this to your pan of vegetables.
Sprinkle in the basil and add the bay leaf.
Bring the pan to the boil and let the soup simmer for 40 minutes or
until the lentils are cooked and soft.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with some crusty bread. Delicious. After that you’ll be ready
for a cold night outside and I expect the children would still have plenty of
room for sweeties.
Cate: My mom always loved lentil soup! So for the real goodies... tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it
online.
Daisy: I have two new releases with Liquid Silver Books, one currently
out is Christmas Carols, a sweet Victorian Historical romance, and my
forthcoming release due out on 23rd November is Serving the serpent,
a sweet fantasy romance involving fashion conscious dragons and their young
servant. However, the story I have chosen to showcase here is the one that
appears in the Halloween Special for Sexy to Go. Buy links at the bottom of the
page.
Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt?
Daisy: This is from my story Charity’s Fortune that appears in the Sexy
to Go Halloween Special Compilation. Do be aware Sexy to Go is 18+ but I’ve
made sure this excerpt suitable for everyone.
Blurb: Halloween is a
time the young people of the county can get together without too much attention
from their elders. This night the courageous will find out their future.
Charity Burbage isn’t brave but she is willing to let Joe Anderson help her
discover all she might need to know.
Excerpt
“You go first,
Kathleen, it must be you for you’re eldest,” Charity said to her sister.
“No, it doesn’t go with
age, but with name. Matthew told me so. You’re next. I’ll wager they call you
by name,” Kathleen spoke loud enough to cause a rash of laughs among the six
other girls who stood next to the apple bobbing barrel.
“Don’t,” Charity
scolded. She glanced at the dim lit hay bales and again wished she’d refused to
come to the Anderson’s Halloween party. If Mama knew the goings on here in the
barn she’d be furious with the Anderson boys, and the Riley lads, as well as
Robert Fisher, and even angrier with all the girls. No doubt about it, Mama
would order her and Kathleen to a week of early nights abed after a bread and
water supper so they could atone for such an adventure. “I think we should go home, Kathy,” she said
and took her sister’s arm. “All this is wicked sinful.”
Kathleen shook her
head. “Don’t be a baby. How else are you supposed to find out if you’ll be wed?
Or rich? Or an old maid?”
“Da has said he will
see us both wed well, you know it.”
“Piffle. Da’s idea
and mine of well wed are two very different things,” Kathleen whispered. “Joe
and Matthew are doing the soothsaying using paper symbols and the icy hand. I’m
staying for my turn. I want to know.” Kathleen leaned a little closer. Her
breath warmed Charity’s ear. “I want Matthew to tell me himself while we are
all alone.”
Charity gasped.
“Dear Lord, all alone? Why Matthew would have to marry you after that.”
Kathleen gave a smug
smile and a tiny nod. “Exactly.”
“You won’t,” she
whispered. “Promise me, Kathy, please? Swear you’ll not.”
“You little goose.
Do you think Matt and I don’t kiss?”
A lump settled in
Charity’s chest and she couldn’t speak. Her beautiful, angel faced sister had
sinned in such a way? She glanced at Kathleen’s perfect profile against the
darkness beyond the lamplight. Her sister was a wicked sinner, and yet, somehow
she’d got away with it so far. Maybe retribution came later? An agony of
curiosity swept through her. “Tell me what happened?” she murmured.
“As if I’d tell you
anything about what goes on between me and Matthew? You listen to Ma too much
and you’ll blab like a toddler if she pushes you to talk. It’s time you did
some thinking of your own. They’ll be calling you next. I wager you my best pink ribbon it will be
Joe who calls your name. He’s a hankerin’ for you so Matthew says.”
Even Joe’s name made
Charity’s stomach roll. Each fear she had melted at the edges as she dwelt on
him. Her skin tingled and heaven help her, the thoughts of kissing with him,
his mouth on hers, blotted out many of the warnings of sin, but not all.
“Don’t look so
po-faced,” Kathleen said. “I know well enough you like him above all others. I
reckon he knows it too. You’re both of age to wed. If you promise each other, then
where’s the harm?”
“Charity Burbage.”
She craned her head
toward the dark curtain the boys had hung up between a pair of towers made by
six fat sacks each side. The voice came from within its folds. A deep voice,
but she would darn well know it anywhere. That was Joe calling and it was her
name he called again.
“Charity Burbage.”
Kathleen gave her a
gentle shove and a smile. “Go on.”
All Charity’s
thoughts tumbled around. The Anderson men were said to have the second sight.
How often had she heard that? They were good men, honest and true to their
word. No one in the county said otherwise. They could tell fortunes. They read
palms, and any girl would be happy to wed one of them because—she shivered at
the memory of grandma’s words. “Anderson men have a way with women. Get
yourself an Anderson man and if you can hold him you’ll find you’re a happy
wife.” Was Granny right?
She stepped over and
stood before the curtain and even though her hand shook she moved a little of
it aside.
“Enter, seeker of
the truth.”
She recognized
Matthew. She knew his voice almost as well as Joe’s. She glanced back over her
shoulder and her sister’s gaze met hers.
“Go on,” Kathy
mouthed. “Go and find your way to happiness.”
Swallowing hard
Charity stepped through the gap in the curtain into a deeper darkness than that
in the rest of the barn. Her breathing cranked up another notch. Here, only one
tiny glazed lamp flickered. Three black garbed, hooded shapes stood at the back
of a seated one at a table. On her side there was a chair so she could sit
opposite the fearsome masked figure.
Her knees sagged
like she had the ague. She pulled the chair out and sank down on to it.
Cate: What inspired you to write about the theme?
Daisy: Memories of Halloween parties in childhood and all the lore and
legends I read about soothe saying. When I was a teenager my friends were
interested in the prediction games, apple peeling, corn scattering and things
like that. We had a lot of fun with apple bobbing and a game where little
objects were put in a black bag, each had a meaning in the same way the paper
symbols in Charity’s Fortune have a meaning, the one that always intrigued me
was why the button meant a bachelor life for a man. I guess it meant he’d have
to sew on his own buttons as he’d have no wife to do the task.
Cate: Anything else you’d like to share?
Daisy: I have a lot going on
this side of Christmas. During October I’ve been showcasing different authors
each Thursday on my blog as part of the Paranormal
Tour organized by Carmen Stefanescu and that continues right through into
December. My newest sweet story Serving the Serpent, published by
Liquid Silver Books comes out on the 23rd
of November and from the first of November there will lots of posts about
dragons on my blog. There will be more about my stories and those of other
authors who contribute to the Sexy to Go monthly collections, as there is a
Halloween Special as well as the usual monthly compilation. There will be
specials for Thanksgiving and Christmas too. In December I’ll be offering a
free read on the blog as a part of the Daisy Banks Christmas Cracker. I will
have some more exciting news to share in January too.
Many thanks for reading and I’d like to wish you and all the readers a
fabulous Halloween.
Find
Daisy Banks here
Twitter
@DaisyBanks16
Pinterest
http://bit.ly/16sF1XG
Buy
links
Daisy
Banks is the author of:
Serving
the Serpent out on November 23rd
Christmas
Carols
Marked
for Magic
To
Eternity
Timeless
A
Perfect Match
Valentine
Wishes
A
Gentleman’s Folly
Your
Heart My Soul
Fiona’s
Wish
A
Matter of Some Scandal
Cate: Thanks for sharing in the Halloween fun, Daisy!
