dae's Christmas pastI’ve been able to talk to animals since I was a child. My parents never believed me, and for a long time, I wasn’t sure it was real. This led me to believe I had to look elsewhere for a way to make a living. I have been everything from a spiritual advisor to a palm reader and a medium. None of those things were real. But one day I found a way to earn my keep by using the one talent I really had – talking to people about their pets.

People are always surprised when they learn how different their pets view them. They think their dogs love their food when really they hate it. A cat might not like his pink bed, and a hamster might be out of sorts from running on a wheel every day. That’s where I come in. I can communicate the problems pets are having with their owners and vice versa. It makes life so much easier for them.

Years ago, I moved to Duck, North Carolina during a part of my life when I was Mrs. Roberts, Spiritual Advisor. I bought a little shop on the newly created boardwalk, but there wasn’t enough trade to pay the mortgage so I moved on. In Wilmington, I got a job as a radio call-in host. I did very well with that.

Now I’m back in Duck, but only temporarily. You see, I can also talk to wild animals too—horses, sheep, birds, whales—even fish. The wild animals have been asking me to come to Duck to help with a problem they’ve been having. The excavation of an ancient horse cult has been causing all kinds of problems, and it’s bound to get worse.

I met the Mayor of Duck, Dae O’Donnell, who also has a psychic gift for finding lost things and people. Together, I hope she and I can take care of this problem before it gets out of control. I don’t know what’s buried in that deep pit where the archaeologists found the huge stone horse but evil emanates from it.

It’s too bad people aren’t as evolved as animals! It would be so much easier communicating with them.


You can read more about Mary Catherine in Dae’s Christmas Past, the sixth book in the “Missing Pieces” mystery series, published by Joyce and Jim Lavene. The first book in the series is A Timely Vision.

GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment by 6 p.m. eastern on November 18 for the chance to win a print copy of DAE’S CHRISTMAS PAST. The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

About the author
Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Penguin, Amazon, and Simon and Schuster along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family. Visit them at www.joyceandjimlavene.com.