Author Interview & Giveaway: B*Witch by Paige McKenzie & Nancy Ohlin

Crushed on by Kelly BookCrushin, on July 6, 2020, in Author Interview, Giveaways, New Releases / 0 Comments

Author Interview & Giveaway: B*Witch by Paige McKenzie & Nancy Ohlin

B*Witch, a contemporary paranormal story, comes out tomorrow and we are here chatting with authors Paige McKenzie & Nancy Ohlin about their co-written novel. Check out their favorite witches, their inspiration, and what they’re writing next in our interview below!

B*WITCH

by Paige McKenzie, Nancy Ohlin
on July 7, 2020
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
IndieBound, Audible
Goodreads

A lone witch has powers. A coven has a multitude more.

New girl and secret witchl Iris just wants to get through her first day of school without a panic attack. The last thing she expects is to be taken in by a coven of three witches-soft-spoken Greta, thoughtful and musical Ridley, and fiery and spirited Binx. They may be the first witches Iris has met IRL, but their coven is not alone in their small northwestern town.
The Triad is the other coven at their school. When the Triad's not using spells to punish their exes or break up happy couples for fun, they practice dark magic. The two covens have a rivalry stretching all the way back to junior high.

When tragedy strikes and one of their own is murdered, the rival covens must band together to find out who is responsible before it's too late. Someone's anti-witch ideology has turned deadly . . . and one of them is next.

With an inclusive cast of teen witches who leap off the page with style, attitude, and charm, B*Witch is a singable read perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mean Girls alike.

Interview with Paige McKenzie & Nancy Ohlin

Now that we have our readers attention, what is the one or two sentence pitch you would make for them to read B*Witch?

B*WITCH is a sometimes funny, sometimes dark, sometimes super-dark mystery set in a contemporary world where witchcraft is illegal and anti-magic hate groups are on the rise. Two rival covens—one “good” and one “bad” (notice the quote marks!)—have to put their differences aside to solve the murder of a witch at their high school.

Favorite Witches in media?

There have been so many good witches in stories but we are loving the Practical Magic ladies! They are all supportive of each other and their differences with a heavy respect for their own powers. Plus, the quotes are fantastic: ” there are some things I know for certain: always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.”Of course, it might just be the magical movie house that we love…

What inspired y’all to write modern day witches?

We knew we wanted to write a YA novel about witches. At first, we were thinking 19th century England, lots of fog, velvet cloaks, and cauldrons … but then our characters, Greta and Div and Iris and the rest of them, just kind of showed up in our brainstorming sessions, and they planted themselves in our heads and refused to leave. At the same time in the real world, the U.S. was seeing an increase in anti-immigrant sentiment as well as continued discrimination against the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities. We decided that we wanted to explore the themes of prejudice and intolerance through the lens of witchcraft.

Are witches in books making a comeback or did they never go away and I am just finally reading them in YA?

Personally, witches have always been a part of my world so I might be the wrong person to ask!

How was the experience co-writing B*Witch?

We adore working together! Because this is our 2nd book to collab on, we have found a good short hand. We often joke we could just keep creating worlds for the next 20 years and never get tired of it!

What is up next for you both? If you can’t say, please give us some recent book recommendations you’ve been loving!

We are busy writing a sequel to B*WITCH!