Authors Interviewing Characters: Paulette Kennedy
THE DEVIL AND MRS. DAVENPORT
The bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure―from the living and the dead.
The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices.
Missouri, 1955. Loretta Davenport has led an isolated life as a young mother and a wife to Pete, an ambitious assistant professor at a Bible college. They’re the picture of domestic tranquility―until a local girl is murdered and Loretta begins receiving messages from beyond. Pete dismisses them as delusions of a fevered female imagination. Loretta knows they’re real―and frightening.
Defying Pete’s demands, Loretta finds an encouraging supporter in parapsychologist Dr. Curtis Hansen. He sees a woman with a rare gift, more blessing than curse. With Dr. Hansen’s help, Loretta’s life opens up to an empowering new purpose. But for Pete, the God-fearing image he’s worked so hard to cultivate is under threat. No longer in control of his dutiful wife, he sees the Devil at work.
Paulette Kennedy’s Interview with Loretta Davenport
Myrna Grove, Missouri
The scene in this small diner is one you might see in any town along Route 66 on any given day in November—a trio of mechanics in coveralls, a businessman in a three-piece suit, young people cutting school in favor of Coca-Colas and cheeseburgers. Mrs. Davenport is late, but the coffee is strong and the service efficient. When she arrives, she’s nervous, furtive, her eyes bouncing around the room. She slides into the booth across from me and shrugs out of her rain-spattered jacket. She’s dressed in a simple, hand-knit cardigan and a mustard-colored skirt, feet clad in sensible oxfords. Her hands are small and white, nails neatly trimmed. She clasps her coffee cup eagerly, her lips pressed into a wary smile.
PK: Thank you so much for joining me, Mrs. Davenport.
Loretta Davenport: You can just call me Loretta.
PK: All right. Let’s talk about the voices—the spirits. You say you first experienced these psychic visitations after a bout with the flu?
Loretta: Yes. But I’d always had inklings about things, even before then. Knowing who was on the other end of a phone call before I picked it up, for example. Dr. Hansen tells me I have innate abilities.
PK: Dr. Hansen is well known for his work in parapsychology, including forensic investigation. Have you assisted him in any of his investigations? Perhaps in the case of the local missing girl, Darcy Hayes?
Loretta: I’m not at liberty to say, but I have a great interest in helping people, and if my abilities can be put to good use, who am I to deny my calling?
PK: You strike me as a woman of conviction, Loretta, but one who has endured great loss. I understand you lost your mother at a young age. That must have been incredibly difficult.
Loretta: Yes. It was. I blame myself in many ways…I had a premonition about her death, and I ignored it, you see. If I’d only…
PK: Surely you know it wasn’t your fault?
Her eyes track the rain on the windowpane.
Loretta: You can’t hear that enough, you know. That it wasn’t your fault.
PK: You’re a mother yourself, aren’t you? Tell me about your children.
Loretta: Luke is my eldest—he’s so smart. He wants to be an artist when he grows up. And Charlotte is like sunshine. She spreads happiness wherever she goes. I’m very proud of them.
PK: I can tell. Let’s go back to the spirits. Do you see the dead often?
Loretta: Yes, more and more. They’re always there. It’s a bit like tuning in to a radio frequency. There’s someone behind you right now, in fact.
I glance behind me. There’s no one there, but an eerie sensation prickles along my arms all the same.
Loretta: You’ve lost a lot of people, haven’t you?
Her eyes are soft, but with an unshakeable confidence. I have the sense that whatever she might tell me, I’d believe.
PK: I have lost a lot of people I love. But let’s talk about you, Loretta. When the spirits come to you, does it frighten you?
Loretta: It did, at first. Some of them are very upset. But then, I realized they’re just people. Hurting souls, who loved and lived as we once did. They care very much about what happens to those left behind. That’s mostly why they come to me—out of concern for the living.
PK: What would you say to people who might call you delusional?
Loretta: Well, my own husband thinks I’m cracking up, so I suppose I’m used to it by now. But I know that this is my calling. What I’m meant to do. Joan of Arc heard voices, saw visions. So did countless others throughout history—common people who were elevated by purpose, faith, and conviction. Why not me?
PK: Well, I for one think you’re very brave.
Loretta: Thank you. Sometimes I don’t feel that way. It’s difficult sometimes, balancing it all—being a wife, a mother—while trying to find meaning in life for yourself. There are days I can barely bring myself to get out of bed. But I must. For my children.
Loretta looks nervously toward the window. A blue Chrysler Saratoga enters the parking lot, rain splashing beneath its stylish white wall tires.
Loretta: I…I have to go. My husband is here. He thinks I’m at home. I’m so sorry. I need to go.
She fumbles in her pocketbook, leaves two quarters on the table, and pulls on her jacket, lifting the collar to hide her face as she rushes to the exit on the other side of the diner. As I watch her go, I realize that Loretta Davenport is a woman haunted by the living as much as the dead. I only hope she can someday find peace.
—
Paulette Kennedy is the bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil, which received the prestigious HNS Review Editor’s Choice Award. She has had a lifelong obsession with the gothic. As a young girl, she spent her summers among the gravestones in her neighborhood cemetery, imagining all sorts of romantic stories for the people buried there.
After her mother introduced her to the Brontës as a teenager, Paulette’s affinity for fog-covered landscapes and haunted heroines only grew, inspiring her to become a writer. Originally from the Missouri Ozarks, she now lives with her family and a menagerie of rescue pets in sunny Southern California, where sometimes, on the very best days, the mountains are wreathed in fog.
You can connect with her on Instagram at @pkennedywrites or her website: www.paulettekennedy.com
Category: On Writing
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