Right in time for the holidays, Hattiesburg author Jason Beverly is taking readers back to the town of Christmas, Mississippi with his recently-released book “More Christmas Clues,” the sequel to last year’s “Christmas Clues.”
The book, which is the second of a three-book series, follows Cam Cade and his wife Eve, who are traveling home from a Christmas event when their toddler twins mysteriously age by seven years and vanish from the back seat of the car. While searching for the kids, Cam and Eve find themselves back in Christmas, where they are transported to the 1970s.
“I already knew that people love holiday movies and holiday books, so I had already made up my mind that I would write a sequel to (Christmas Clues),’ said Beverly, who is a graduate of Hattiesburg High School and the University of Southern Mississippi. “The response I’ve gotten from fans, family members and friends, that only reaffirmed that I was doing the right thing by writing a sequel.
“And I just wanted to make sure that I could put another book out there that would make people happy and (make them) smile.”
While in the 1970s, Cam and Eve become enmeshed in the culture of that era, including its clothes, hairstyles and speech.
“The main thing (I want to impart to readers) is to try not to judge people, and just be kind,” Beverly said. “We have enough animosity and evil things happening in this world right now.
“If there’s anything anybody can learn from this book, it’s be kind and don’t judge other people.”
To support “More Christmas Clues,” Beverly will hold a book signing from 3-4 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Author Shoppe, 140 East Front Street in downtown Hattiesburg.
The new book can be found at www.jasonbeverly.com, along with Beverly’s other books “Christmas Clues,” “Ghosts of Beauvoir,” “The Flying Church of Orleans Parish,” “Mississippi Revival Roads” and “Releasing Magnolias Along the Mystical Railway: A Collection of Mississippi Ghost Tales.” Other than the “Christmas Clues” series, Beverly’s books mostly deal with topics such as history, urban legends, racial issues, folklore and supernatural elements.
Beverly has one more books left in the “Christmas Clues” series: “The Final Christmas Clues,” which is expected to be released in 2023. He hopes all three books will eventually be adapted into holiday movies.
Next year, Beverly plans to release two novels. The first is “Faith-Walking at the Flying Church,” which will be the follow-up to “The Flying Church of Orleans Parish.” The second will be a “An Eighties-Something Christmas,” which will be the first in a three-book series dealing with Christmas in various decades, followed by “A Nineties-Something Christmas,” and “A Double-Zero-Something Christmas.”
“It’ll be set in today’s date, but the characters will end up somehow being transported back to the 80s or 90s during Christmas time,” Beverly said. “Those were some laid-back, cool decades.
“You didn’t have to worry about cell phones all the time, and everything was simple. So I think a lot of people wish they could kind of go back to those days. That’s my motivation for a new series of Christmas books.”
