New project time!
Well, it’s been that time for a while now, but whatever.
This is a project that was, I kid you not, inspired by a single image I saw on Pinterest. This one:
And once I started thinking about it I couldn’t stop and it just snowballed from there. In fact, it snowballed so much it’s grown to be two books because there’s too much story. Its working title is The Midnight Hour and is…as different from In Secret Kept as it’s possible to be. And I love it. I knew I wanted to write something completely opposite and so I find myself writing “penny dreadful meets steampunk” (always for adults). It’s dark and twisted and my characters are seriously messed up*: thieves and assassins and smugglers. Anti-heros all.
I love them so.
And by “penny dreadful” I’m not referring to the TV series (I haven’t seen it yet but I want to, because Timothy Dalton, hello), but the 19th century serial publications that were, in many cases, horror. Think Dracula, Dorian Gray, etc. And the thing with Victorian horror is it was never (or not usually) just about the horror – much of it was their way of exploring the taboo. If you’ve read Dracula** it’s fairly obvious what major themes are going on in there: sex and death. Frankenstein*** deals with life and death and the relationship of science and God.
So I’m thinking about all this as I’m writing. And the writing is coming, though it’s painfully slow. Academia is taking up much of my time, but the characters and the story are straining, trying to break free. It’s time to tell their story.
On that note, I’m going to go and heed their voices. But first, here’s some of the musical inspiration:
SINISTER KID by The Black Keys
WHO WILL SAVE YOU NOW? by Les Friction
Ciao!
*They also really, really, really hate me.
** Which is amazing and Mina Harker FTW.
***Also excellent. And recognized as the first science fiction novel. Mary Shelley FTW.
The Muse's Lair 