Daunting Darkness (Paige Papillon Paranormal Mysteries) 
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Partners in Crime Book Services (January 7, 2022)
Print length ‏ : ‎ 289 pages

Synopsis

Following your dreams can become a nightmare.

Paige Papillon has always loved mysteries. So much so, she enlists in the Police Academy to one day become a detective.

But when she washes out of training, her Sergeant inspires her to go another route: become a private investigator.

After a few boring cases, she receives an envelope full of cash and mysterious clues that lead to the discovery of a cover up of paranormal proportions.

Worse, the Sergeant’s wife is at the center of it. Can Paige solve the mystery and stay alive, or will she become a midnight snack for a monster?

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Freaky Familiars (Paige Papillon Paranormal Mysteries)
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Partners in Crime Book Services (January 7, 2022)
Print Length ~140 Pages

Synopsis

No time for a catnap for this paranormal detective!

Now aware that things that go bump in the night exist, private investigator Paige Papillon has expanded her business to include clients of all species.

Assisted by a former detective and his mystery writer wife with a checkered past, she begins to settle into her new job as Chicago’s premier paranormal PI.

But when her best friend’s cat goes missing, Paige realizes how much she still doesn’t know about the supernatural world. It’s a race against the clock to save a shapeshifter and prevent a witch’s familiar from being sold to the highest bidder.

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Guest Post

Perfect endings? With the exception of fairy tales, they don’t exist. Perfect endings are not real, and with today’s market, they should not be. Once upon a time–pun intended–they were perfect, but the stories everyone really remembers, the stories that make you feel, do not have perfect, happy endings. Take Shakespeare. Take, if we are going modern, Stephen King. Their works could have about five different outcomes each, and no two fans can 100% agree on what the ‘perfect ending’ can be. Even today’s romance novels with the promise of ‘HEA’ do not have perfect endings, because the readers cannot all be satisfied. It just isn’t possible.

I think a perfect example of an unsatisfying ending is Harry Potter, with their ‘all was well’. How was all well? George lost his other half, Teddy Lupin was left orphaned, children were massacred, and a war hero was wrongfully murdered before anyone could recognize his greatness and his lifelong sacrifice. I’d say about half of the fanbase is satisfied with that ending, but the other half is torn in multiple directions over what would have been a better ending. I am part of that latter half, personally.

This is why HP has so much fanfiction written about it.

When it comes to my own stories, I am never satisfied with what I write. While there is no such thing as a perfect ending, there is such a thing as a perfect cliffhanger.

Which I could not do when writing the Paige Papillon Paranormal Mysteries. They needed an ending, and they needed to be PERFECT. Cozy mystery readers will accept nothing less, and I don’t blame them. No one wants a mystery to not be solved at the end. I’d probably throw the book at a wall if that happened.

But because Paige is a cozy mystery series, the journey to GET to the ending is as important as the ending itself. We require red herrings, missed clues, foreshadowing, and a great plot twist. Most of all, we need to entrance the reader for about 35k words until we begin to show them the conclusion. It’s not easy, and then we have that ending hanging over our heads like a guillotine.

With Daunting Darkness and Freaky Familiars, both their red herrings came easily. Their endings, however, did not. I had to wonder, if I was the reader, what would I want to happen at the end? How can I remove cliches? How can I make the reader shut the book and say, “That was perfect!”

I can’t.

Nothing can be truly perfect. But it can be satisfying, and that’s just as good if not better than perfection.

After all these years, readers want endings wrapped up in a neat little bow, and so do we. We want to know our characters are either happy, or resting peacefully. However, that is not always the case, in fact, it is rarely the case.

I was just rewatching a TV show the other day and a character said a very simple phrase: endings are hard. He’s right. Endings are hard. Because even if you manage to please yourself, you can’t ever please every single reader. It’s impossible: we might be creators, but we are not God. We have to write what feels best to us, and hope that others enjoy it. Even if they don’t prefer it as an ending, if they are entertained, that’s what really matters.

I hope everyone who takes a chance on Paige’s stories enjoy them half as much as I enjoyed writing them.

About the Author

Lily Luchesi is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of the Paranormal Detectives Series.

Her young adult Coven Series has successfully topped Amazon’s Hot New Releases list consecutively.

She is also the co-owner of Partners in Crime Book Services, where she offers a myriad of services alongside her business partner Annie Smith, including editing.

She was born in Chicago, Illinois, where many of her stories are set. Ever since she was a toddler, her mother noticed her tendency for being interested in all things “dark”. At two she became infatuated with vampires and ghosts, and that infatuation turned into a lifestyle. She is also an out member of the LGBT+ community. When she’s not writing, she’s going to rock concerts, getting tattooed, watching the CW, or reading comics. And drinking copious amounts of coffee.

She also writes contemporary books for adults as Samantha Calcott.

You can also keep up with Lily via her newsletter … and receive a free e-book as well!

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