Romantic Gothic Boarding Schools

My cup of tea right there. RIGHT THERE. And tell you what -- in the course of searching for images I can use for this post, I stumbled across a couple of great ones that are inspiring me with more ideas for the next book on the calendar, and...

IT'S A BOARDING SCHOOL STORY. Wahoo!

Essentially the initial story idea I had for Compline, which would have taken place in a dark boarding school in Germany in the 19th century, has now trotted over to The Twilight Lover, whose notes are still pretty sparse enough for me to rework stuff. I was thinking at first of setting it in the present, but now things are in the air though it's still an option. I'll talk more about it when the time comes.

On that same note, I'd love to write a contemporary novella that's gothic horror without having to lean heavily on old houses and brooding settings, and maybe I'll be able to do that with the next book. The images I ran across very much have an Old World aesthetic, so I'll have to play around with ideas some more to see how I can make these elements come together. It'll be a ghost story, that's for sure. 

Anyway...

The primary setting for Wollstone is in a fantasy boarding school that's physically (and psychically?) isolated. The question of time and place is very murky on purpose as Emil's destined to come to terms with a past that's now haunting him in a trapped environment. As noted before, it was hugely inspired by Revolutionary Girl Utena as well as classic 1970s Boys Love manga like Kaze to Ki No Uta and Toma no Shinzou. 

I love the idea of boarding schools that are fantastical or are heavily influenced by fantasy and magic. The best, of course, would be boarding schools that are fantastical in the gothic horror sense. Wollstone Academy, in terms of the school's physical structure and the layout of the grounds (except for the strange wood that's part of the school environment), was based on my old school, which was a private Catholic girls' school. I just upped the romanticism by a bajillion percent and worked in some imagery from romanticized Chivalry. 

Wollstone is currently on sale for 50% through the end of January.