'The Flowers of St. Aloysius' and Fave Tropes

The Flowers of St. Aloysius was my second effort at self-publishing a full-length novel (the first being Guardian Angel). This time I dove right into a full-on dark fairy tale, inspired primarily by two fiction tropes.

The first was the "poisoned maiden" trope or legend, which can be found in a lot of folktales from all over the world. My favorite incarnation of it is Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Rappaccini's Daughter" (a highly recommended read, btw). 

The second trope, one that's more modern and more common in romance fiction, is the forced marriage trope. In this instance, one specific moment in a movie I watched years ago was my main inspiration for the forced marriage between Laurent and Brys:

This is a still from the movie Le Reine Margot from 1994. Just get a load of the heaviness of the scene -- visually and thematically. Overseen by a host of cardinals on one hand and the scheming royal family on the other (right side of the picture). Henri and Marguerite don't look happy, and for a better understanding of the significance of the moment, here's a video of the actual wedding scene:

So that moment stuck with me and was easily recalled when I planned the outline of the novel. Forced marriage, enemies-to-lovers, and the poisoned maiden legend all worked well together in the end. In the course of writing Guardian Angel, I considered writing one-shots that are connected to each other not in terms of an overarching plot, but through other elements instead.

Like the country, its folklore and even its commerce, and how all those dictate occult events in each book. The Flowers of St. Aloysius takes place in France, and events in the story are shaped by nature magic and aristocracy and so reads more like a gothic fairy tale than a classic gothic romance like Guardian Angel. Oh, and there's also Roman Catholicism generously worked in (St. Aloysius Gonzaga is the patron saint of young men and boys).

The Flowers of St. Aloysius is one of the books on sale for 50% off all month. You can get a copy from Smashwords or Kobo, and for other online stores, check out the book page on Books2Read.