Y’all. I have now had the exquisite honour of interviewing the amazing Shelby Mahurin TWICE now! How wild is that?! We’re here because Blood & Honey, the sequel to the phenomenal Serpent & Dove, will be out soon! Talk about a stunner of a novel, and it pairs so well with the story we’ve read so far. I was definitely happy with getting to learn more about the characters, especially Coco. I promise you your heart will hurt after this one, because Shelby did not hold back! I can’t wait, and neither should you! Go get that pre-order in if you can or request it at your library!
Thanks for being here Shelby! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and about Blood & Honey?
Thanks for having me, Nathalie! I’m happy to be here. 😊 And of course—my name is Shelby Mahurin, and I hail from the Middle of Nowhere, Indiana. I love reading paranormal and historical romance. I love dark lipstick. I love the Office. I’m not particularly interesting, but I did used to be a professional photographer. That’s kinda cool, I guess.
Blood & Honey is the sequel to my 2019 debut, Serpent & Dove. It follows Lou and Reid—a witch and witch hunter who fell in love in S&D—as they engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse with Morgane, queen of the witches and Lou’s very own mother. Part of this game involves gathering allies in the form of Dames Rouges, loup garou, and even Troupe de Fortune, a group of mysterious performers traveling along La Rivière des Dents. It was so much fun to expand the world of Belterra in this book!
How has the process differed for you while writing Blood & Honey vs. Serpent & Dove?
I pantsed the entire first draft of Serpent & Dove. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, but I sure had a fabulous time figuring it out. Seriously, I didn’t plan the big plot twist at the end or anything. I literally thought of it as I wrote it. Looking back, it was absolute madness.
While I still do enjoy the discovery aspect of drafting, I consider myself more of a pantser-plotter hybrid now. I create loose outlines, planning the general direction and seeing where it takes me. Of course, I still ended up scrapping a large part of Blood & Honey, but with Book 3, I’m getting better at following through. That’s probably because of my critique partner. I didn’t have one with Serpent & Dove and the first draft of Blood & Honey. She’s a plotter at heart, so she keeps me on track, acknowledging when I have a good spontaneous idea and reeling me back in when I have a…not good one.
I loved exploring Coco’s past a little bit deeper in this sequel, was there anything particularly compelling about her that you felt you needed to get on the page for readers to see when you first started writing the story?
Coco is so much more than Lou’s best friend—she’s a princess in her own right, and I wanted to explore that side of her in Blood & Honey. It just made sense. We travel to her home and meet her kin within these pages; she stars in the titular scene. She’s such a complex character. Though she and Lou are alike in many ways, they’re also not. They share a sense of loss, of guilt, yes, but they feel these emotions for wildly different reasons. We’ll learn some of Coco’s reasons in B&H.
Lou’s hair snafu was horrifyingly hilarious! Have you had any similar misfortunes in your hair life?
I’ve never actually melted my hair (thank GOD), but I did stupidly chop it all off after my wedding. I immediately regretted that decision. Short hair looks wonderful on so many people, but alas, I am not one of them. Lou’s hair fiasco is definitely a self-insert—it’s the stuff of my nightmares.
If you could visit your characters during a moment in time within your book, where would you go?
I think it would’ve been fun to stroll into the bar scene at the beginning of the book. I’d down a couple drinks with Lou and Ansel, poke fun a bit at Reid, flirt with Beau, maybe steal Claud Deveraux’s mandolin—and then promptly leave. Promptly. Otherwise, I’d maybe choose to be a bird overhead or something in La Ventre when the group meets the werewolves.
What is a tale that Lou and Coco might tell that Ansel and Reid might completely fall for?
The real question is what wouldn’t they fall for? Reid would be harder to fool because he’s naturally suspicious of everything they say, but Ansel—they could have fun with Ansel. I can already imagine the shenanigans: Ansel drinking the literal hair of a dog to ease his first hangover (“You’ll be fine in no time,” Coco promises), Ansel sprinkling cinnamon over every meal to make himself more attractive (“It’s a natural aphrodisiac,” Lou insists), Ansel toting around a bulb of garlic to ward off vampires (“You stink,” Reid grumbles.)
Beau was a particularly interesting fellow for me this time around, what are some books that might be tucked away on his shelves?
Ah, Beau. I have to admit I enjoy him more than almost any other character, despite the fact that you won’t find any books on his shelves. Maybe a couple of magazines? And only because he resembles the cover model for that one issue of GQ—except he would wear the suit way better. (Don’t worry; he’s already sent in his headshot twice.)
In all seriousness, instead of reading, he’d probably while his time away on TikTok and Snapchat. Ever thirsty.
I love watching your Instagram stories, and I especially love when you do Q&A’s. Has anything a reader ever mentioned (fan theories/suggestions/concerns) ever get written or explored in your books?
Ha! Thank you! But no, not usually, since at the time of most Q&As, the books have already been written. For example, I didn’t start posting Blood & Honey Q&As until after I’d turned in the book. Same with Serpent & Dove. Of course, some fan theories are going to be right! But not all. 😉 To be fair, I do sometimes jot down concerns or questions readers submit if I haven’t yet thought to address them in future books!
Any hints for book 3? Pupdates?! How are you keeping sane before the book release?
So far, I am loving Book 3, which does have an official title now! 🎉 I think we’ll be announcing both it and the pub date this fall. The weeks leading up to pub have been so crazy busy—we’re moving on top of everything else—that I haven’t had too much time to lose it! Probably a blessing in disguise. If I think too long or too hard about the time and emotion I poured into this book, I might get a little weepy.
Will you be doing an online launch for Blood & Honey?
Yes! Not a typical launch because of Covid-19, but I will be hosting a live Q&A on my Instagram page at 7pm EST. You can submit your questions beforehand via the Questions sticker in my story (this’ll go up on August 31), or you can wait until we go live. I’ll be answering questions from viewers too! I also have several virtual events planned in September and October with Adrienne Young, Renée Ahdieh, Rena Barron, and Sarah J Maas, along with a couple of panels. You can see more details over on my IG or at www.shelbymahurin.com.
