February Backlist Bonanza: 'Guardian Angel' and 'Dollhouse'

I was way off my center all of January (bad cold and a crazier than usual workload at the day job), so I barely managed a couple (three?) posts on the books I had on offer for my monthly Backlist Bonanza sale. I hope to do better this month though it looks like the day job's set to be just as nutty as last month. A shocking development, yeah, but also good in the sense of steady work in the face of a shitshow of a GOP administration (and I use "administration" in its loosest sense). 

So for February, two new books are 50% off:

GUARDIAN ANGEL

When nineteen-year-old Dominic Coville's parents die in an accident, leaving him not only alone but on the brink of poverty, he desperately searches for work and is thrilled when the post of secretary is awarded to him despite his obvious inexperience and ignorance. Mr. Wynyard Knight of Mandrake Abbey, however, gladly welcomes Dominic and earns the young man's immediate sympathy for his fragile health as well as gratitude for the promising new life now awaiting Dominic. 

Inside rock and timber, hungry shadows seek... 

But unusual things soon happen and appear to focus solely on him, and Dominic begins to wonder about the true history of Mr. Knight, the strange young man haunting the third floor, and Mandrake Abbey. With the persistent and increasingly violent attempts at communication by an angry ghost shadowing his hours, Dominic struggles to unravel the mysteries of his new home. And even with the help of a handsome young gentleman who's an aspiring supernaturalist as well as his clairvoyant sister, danger closes in far too quickly. 

Then it's only a matter of time before carefully constructed façades fall away, and the sickly, decaying underbelly of Mandrake Abbey's centuries-old collection of stone and timber will reveal itself. 

Set in an alternate England sometime before the mid-19th century, Guardian Angel weaves a tangled and dark tapestry of old magic, romance, and madness, a celebration of classic gothic fiction and its macabre sensibilities.

DOLLHOUSE

A bright future stretches out before Arthur Summerfield when he and his sister, Jane, are whisked off to the continent by Jane's fiancé. Catching the attention of a wealthy traveler ushers the pair into an exciting world filled with new friendships, young love, and a darkly magical land of misty mountains and mysterious guardian wolves.

While Arthur settles down into his new life in the town of St. Jude, Jane and Matus move into a centuries-old converted tower house fifty miles away. One that welcomes its new residents after decades of emptiness.

And centuries of loneliness.

The new residents stir the silent walkers of the house, their fates nothing more than cryptic entries in the journals of a long-dead mistress. As the house awakens, Arthur also draws the attention of Bohemia's guardian wolves, summoned to the town by their ancestor's calls.

Past and present come together in a chilling montage of centuries-old tragedies, an orphan's brush with the occult, and a young man who suddenly finds himself the focus of supernatural forces. Alone, armed with nothing but his wits, Arthur must venture into the deepening shadows of a haunted tower house to save the lives of those he loves most.

Guardian Angel is the first book under the Arcana Europa heading, and it's a collection of standalone novels that only share a universe, not an arc. Dollhouse is part of the Curiosities collection, which is also a collection of standalone novels sharing the same universe. Both e-books are half off through the end of February.

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. 

Fun Times!

I've been sick, hence my radio silence over here. I've only had enough energy to check out the nightly chatter thread at Joe My God, and that's it. The last two weeks were rough, and while I'm much better now, I'm still putting up with residual coughing. I was supposed to post more about the two books currently on sale this month, but NOPE! That ship's gone, and all my energy levels and enthusiasm for it went with it.

But never say never. I'll rustle up a couple more posts about the books before the month's end since we'll be shifting gears with new books to put on sale for February.

My bout with a bad cold for two weeks also threw me off my game with my WiP, and again, I very nearly ditched the book and started over with a completely new one (The Twilight Lover). As I'm still not completely out of the woods yet, today's writing was sluggish but much less so than before. I'm also going back and inserting new chapters to fix the issues that've been messing with my head for a while now. It's working so far, but there'll be major tweaks I'll need to do with those chapters I've already written. As I type this post, we're at close to 50% of the book, which is terrific. 

Speaking of which, I'm once again reminded to get going on the gallery page for The Perfect Rochester, a book that keeps tempting me with an earlier release date. So far, as wonderful as it sounds, I refuse -- REFUSE, YOU HEAR ME? -- to cave in. Not today, Satan!

It's still on for March 1 even though I've been done with it for close to a quarter of a year now, and I hope to keep that gap up (even increase it slightly) for future books. And that's part of the reason why I'm not giving up on Compline and starting over either with this book or with another. There's no excuse in my case, anyway, since it's not even writer's block that's bogging down my progress. It's that mysterious wrench that's been jamming the spokes, and I have to keep analyzing what I've written down to see what's not working.

In other news, I've decided to buy Flow and own it outright as I love the movie so much it's worth paying for and watching several times over. I'm actually not a big film collector. I used to own a few VHS tapes and then a few DVDs, but over the years I didn't bother to replace my entertainment center when things broke down and ended up donating what I had.

Nowadays, with streaming services everywhere, I buy streaming movies, but I'm extremely picky about them. When before I used to have half a bookcase of tapes and DVDs, now I can count on one hand the movies I own on streaming. And Flow just made it because LOVE. 

Anyway, that's it for now. I figured I owe visitors to this site (those who aren't bots, that is) a quick update following nearly two weeks of silence. I hope to get back here tomorrow and talk some more about this month's Backlist Bonanza titles and might condense both books into one post. We'll see.

'The Winter Garden and Other Stories' and My Attempt at Allegory

This actually focuses on one specific story in the anthology: "Clouds' Illusions". It was by and large inspired by a short story that I fell in love with because it starts with one thing -- a pretty straightforward account -- and then shifts focus so subtly as you continue to read that the end completely throws you, and you're forced to either go back and reread or sit back and rethink what you've just read. And it's because the entire thing is actually an allegory of a person's life and how quickly time flies.

The story I refer to is Naguib Mahfouz's "Half a Day", which you can read in its entirety here. 

Now my take on an allegory is "Clouds' Illusions", whose title was also inspired by "Both Sides Now" (Joni Mitchell), which is all about innocence, perception, and harsh reality through time. For "Clouds' Illusions" (part of the song lyrics), the allegory takes place in a circus, where a child enters, experiences a lot of things (excitement, joy, loss, discovery, and maturity), and leaves as an adult. The rain is part of the allegory as well, and as tempting as it is to explain how, I'd rather have readers figure it all out.

Of course, growing up, the version I listened to the most was that by Judy Collins.

Here's a funny background bit about that specific story.

I originally submitted it to a gay fiction anthology years ago that was being put together by a small press. The editor in charge of the book accepted the story, and when the publisher reviewed the selections, he (the publisher) emailed me and asked what the story was all about because it didn't make sense. So I had to explain what it all meant to him, and he ended up rejecting the story. 

So I decided to add it to my own growing collection of gay-themed fairy tales that my then-publisher (another small press) first published individually before compiling the stories into one book. After I got my rights back, I republished the anthology as you now see it. 

The Winter Garden and Other Stories is currently on sale for $1.59 through the end of January.

Almost Had a Third Go at It (Also: 'Flow'!)

Firstly, I nearly trunked Compline and started over with a third attempt, but I managed to carry on with what I have and make it work. By and large. There's a problematic chapter I think I'll have to overhaul completely for the plot to work, and so far, it's making sense only by the skin of its teeth. 

That said, I'm now over 30% done, and it's turning into a much bigger challenge to write this book than first expected. Re-imagining a fairy tale is much more difficult than people might think. I'm taking what's essentially a short and simple story that's only a few paragraphs long, breaking it apart and reducing it to its most basic and essential elements (the piper, the rats, the children, and the adults), and weaving my own take on the story and its themes. 

It was less problematic re-imagining "Bluebeard", let me tell you, and I might complain and snarl and conk my head on the keyboard, but I don't like giving up on it. And I'm glad I didn't give in to the temptation to start over. 

Incidentally, the original plot I had for this book involved a gothic boarding school, and now I'm taking that idea and tweaking it to see if I can still use it for a future book. I'm not holding my breath, but it's good to keep it in the back of my mind just in case. 

And speaking of story ideas for future books, I just had a bonkers possibility for another dive back into the Nightshade universe, but it'll still need a lot of mental work before I can consider it a possibility. It's an idea that'll be great as another dark comedy, though, which I'm always game for.

Secondly, I finally watched Flow, which I love to pieces. I didn't expect to cry not once, but twice, at a couple of scenes that were just devastating yet beautifully rendered. The animation, period, is stunning and the story even more so in its simplicity. It's visual poetry that's deceptively straightforward in some ways, particularly in that scene with the secretary bird and the cat on the top of the rock formation. That was the first scene that got me bawling because I interpreted it a certain way, and it made so much sense though I wasn't ready for it. Not going to spoil things for everyone who hasn't seen it yet. 

And I'm glad to see a small, modest film -- the quintessential scrappy underdog -- face down titans like Disney and Pixar and Dreamworks and come out of it with an award. I love seeing art that's so different from what's been put out by Hollywood get recognized and rewarded. There are so many unacknowledged films and books and songs that are superior in quality to many of the more popular fare but suffer from the absence of a marketing budget or the help of word-of-mouth advertising. It's such a welcome change when something like Flow rises on its own merits and reminds people like me that, yeah, good art is still being made. It's just up to us to make sure it never stops.