Tag: Historical fiction

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Online Live Book Launch!!

Join me and author of Rarkyn’s Familiar Nikky Lee for a virtual book launch March 9th 19:30-20:30 AEDST (+11:00 UTC) for The Devil and the Loch Ard Gorge. A belated launch due to my extended illness but it’s finally time to celebrate this gothic horror novelette.

The virtual launch will be held live on Facebook and will remain available as a recording on my Facebook page. Nikky and I will discuss all things gothic horror, hauntings, traditional gothic literature and the history behind the ill-fated Loch Ard shipwreck in 1878 off the infamous southern Australian shipwreck coast.

The virtual book launch can be accessed here.

SIGNED copies of the The Devil and the Loch Ard Gorge are available for purchase via my Shop or kindle and paperback on Amazon here. SIGNED bookplates are also available from my Shop for overseas customers where postage from Australia is unfortunately prohibitive.

Hope to see you there and join the online discussion or via the discussion board!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Background to The Devil & Loch Ard Gorge

In my novelette The Devil & the Loch Ard Gorge, I was inspired by Victorian era Gothic literature and the history of the Australian shipwrecks. You can read more about the history of the Loch Ard shipwreck here.

My initial inspiration for The Devil & the Loch Ard Gorge was a song “The Loch Ard Gorge” by Australian folk singer/songwriter Russel Morris which retells the historical shipwreck event in a magically haunting way.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Devil & the Loch Ard Gorge Release!!

My gothic horror novelette The Devil & the Loch Ard Gorge was released on 15 October, 2022 published by Black Hare Press.

Seána McKinnon, daughter of a well-to-do London businessman and his wife, finds love in the arms of a lowly artist. Her parent’s disapproval of their relationship lays heavy on her heart until, borne of frustration, she makes a bargain with the Devil that will be with her for all her years.

When she flees Gravesend on the ill-fated Loch Ard, dark shadows sail with her.

Will Seána ever be free of the horrors that defile her past and haunt her future?

Details on how you can purchase ebook and paperback copies of The Devil & the Loch Ard Gorge here.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

From the Blurb:

“ The year is 1806. centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation’s past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell, whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.”

My Review:

I recently read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by UK author Susanna Clarke. Despite my initial hesitation at the daunting and considerable detail and length of the novel, I found like those before me, these misgivings paled in comparison to the wonder of the book itself.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell follows two main protagonists in the early 1800s in their efforts to reinstate English magic. Both are talented magicians and while Mr Norrell asserts himself as England’s magician and hoards all books ever published of magic, he soon takes on an enterprising student in the gentleman Jonathan Strange. While Norrell is fearful of new things and sudden changes, Strange is his opposite. The two magicians serve the English parliament through their combined efforts to defend England and defeat Napoleon Bonaparte. However, Norrell can never shake his fear that Strange will better him and deliberate actions to undermine their trust and future partnership are laid down from the first. But the darkest secret of Norrell’s early magic that causes the greatest danger. In very early attempts to gain favour in London society, Norrell performed magic beyond his own talents by seeking the aid of a Faerie which he bound to himself as a servant. Norrell keeps this secret from Strange and much of English society even after the two magicians quarrel and the friendship is broken.

The following years of bitter rivalry between Strange and Norrell see the exploitation of both magicians’ greatest weaknesses. Norrell has his fear and paranoia played against himself and Strange has his arrogance and rashness turned against himself. Throughout it all, the beings of Faerie manoeuvre and plot to overthrow both magicians and so retain hold on the dominion of a Faerie kingdom. The final battle between Norrell and Strange becomes a partnership to save innocent mortals stolen into Faerie including Jonathan Strange’s wife.

Final Thoughts:

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a delightful and often dark tale, and a skilful alternate history of the Georgian era. The prose feels realistic as though truly compiled from Georgian authors. Despite the seemingly slower pace of the book’s action, the tone does not feel overburdened by it. High praise for the philosophical accounts, a detailed history and characters, and the introspection of morality led to a lingering sense of satisfaction, of closure, for the ending of the stand-alone novel.

My Conclusion?

Highly recommended for fans of alternate history, Gaslamp fantasies and gothic fantasies. Despite the daunting size of the book, it is a beautiful story, masterfully written and compelling. Well worth the read!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Mexican Gothic

From the Blurb:

“After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.”

Review:

One of my Halloween reads for 2020 was the highly acclaimed horror noir novel Mexican Gothic by Mexican-born Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Mexican Gothic is set in 1950s Mexico and follows female protagonist, a wealthy young socialite Noemi Taboada. After a mysterious letter arrives from her cousin, Catalina, newly married a year but moved to her husband’s estate in a remote village in rural Mexico, Noemi goes to check on Catalina as her father’s envoy and hopefully procure permission of Catalina’s husband, Virgil Doyle, to take Catalina back to Mexico City for psychiatric care. But within moments of arriving at High Place, Noemi is uneasy within the old house and near-abandoned village below serves as a brutal reminder of the once flourishing community, now gone. Despite Noemi finding that Catalina seems much improved, now claiming a case of tuberculosis and suffering an odd listlessness and occasional lapses of paranoia. Unsatisfied with this uncharacteristic behaviour of her cousin, Noemi starts visiting the traditional healer once-frequented by Catalina. There she learns the dark and tragic history of murders, epidemics and murder-suicides that have dominated High Place since Virgil’s grandfather first arrived from England. Now aged and dying, Harold Doyle is still the master of High Place, and is a cold, repellent man Noemi cannot abide and also fears.

Certain the aggressive and ever-present house staff are keeping Catalina in a constant drug-induced sleep, Noemi finds Catalina’s husband to be as cold and unpleasant as his grandfather. Virgil’s true character is revealed in his increasingly threatening and lecherous behaviour toward Noemi. Out of options to save her cousin but unwilling to leave Catalina behind at High Place and to the mercy of Virgil, Noemi finds an unlikely ally in Virgil’s younger brother, Francis, a kind, awkwardly shy man who is everything Virgil is not.

Slowly, Noemi’s grasp on reality starts to fade and the haunting atmosphere of High Place begins to affect her just as it did Catalina, dominating her waking fears and nightmares. Noemi becomes sure of a malevolent presence within the house itself and starts seeing apparitions, hearing the voice of the now-dead daughter of Harold Doyle, who committed a murder-suicide, killing her family except for Virgil, Francis and Harold Doyle. In the quickly escalating events, Noemi discovers how Harold Doyle bears the responsibility for cursing his lineage and how his cruel and vile actions gave life to a malevolence within the very fabric of High Place.

My Thoughts:

Mexican Gothic was a dark twist on the disturbing greed of colonial dominated Mexico and the ideals that allowed racism and classism to flourish. The interesting history of anthropological sciences, the history of eugenics provide the foundations for an unusual re-imagining of a haunting, making Mexican Gothic a ghost story in the Lovecraftian fashion of weird fiction.

My Conclusion?

Recommended for anyone who appreciates historical noir fiction, the gothic noir of The Crow Garden and classics like Frankenstein and A Turn of the Screw.

Posted on by

The Bee and the Orange Tree

I read The Bee and the Orange Tree by Australian author Melissa Ashley. A wonderful historical fiction set during the early stages of the French Revolution but focused on the female literary circles surrounding Baroness Marie Catherine D’Aulnoy established as an author in her own right after successful publication career of several novels and fairytale collections. The darker, more disturbing undertone throughout the novel is that of female oppression during the reign of the French King Louis XIV, where the fairytales of young heroes and heroines overcoming impossible odds is a glittering hope for the oppressed women and subjugated peasants of France.

The Bee and the Orange Tree follows Angelina, Marie Catherine’s daughter, raised in a convent with barely any contact with her mother or father. Angelina is recalled from her only known world of the convent, to aid her ageing mother as an assistant. Soon, Angelina finds herself among the literary salons of Paris, attended by some of the most talented writers and poets but also many wealthy or noble families. Angelina is disheartened to discover the popularization of the craft and art her mother worked hard to establish herself and which Angelina greatly enjoys. Angelina is quickly confined by the existence of a respectable woman, suddenly missing the relative freedom of the convent especially as Marie Catherine has not written a single word after suffering an unusual form of writers block.

At one literary circle, Angelina is introduced to her mother’s protege, a young talented writer named Alphonse. Although unsure of her feelings toward Alphonse, Angelina is soon aware that Alphonse’s attempts to court her are only aimed at gaining Marie Catherine as a potential benefactor. This revelation hardens Angelina’s mistrust of Parisian society, which only deepens further when Marie Catherine’s good friend, Nicola Tiquet is accused of adultery and attempted murder. The subsequent trial of Nicola Tiquet, an independently wealthy and powerful woman without the need of a husband to support herself, becomes a focal point for Angelina’s realization of the oppressive nature of French society and the discrimination against women and any of unequal status. Against this is the greater landscape of the early French Revolution and the the determination of the powerful to hold onto power. Throughout these dramatic social challenges, Angelina learns disheartening truths about both her parents, discovering both are willing to sacrifice for their own aims and Angelina soon finds she has more in common with Alphonse than she imagined.

The Bee and the Orange Tree was an engrossing, complex historical fiction where the stories of each of the characters were as much the focus as the development of the fairytale literature and women’s rights in France during the eighteenth century. A wonderful read and highly recommended!

Posted on by

Beauty in Thorns

I just finished reading historical fiction novel, Beauty in Thorns by Australian author Kate Forsyth. Beauty in Thorns was inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite movement during the mid-to-late 1800s. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was initially founded by the painters William Holman-Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the late 1840s. The movement expanded to later include socially conscious artists such as William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones , with Dante Gabriel Rossetti still acting as a unifying figure even after his death. The concepts utilized by the Pre-Raphaelites was to combine representations of medieval chivalry with religious and nature motifs thereby rebelling against mass-produced items where increasing mechanical technology of the Industrial Revolution was considered a social malaise. Beauty in Thorns focuses on the women involved in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the wives, mistresses and relatives who were somewhat removed from the praise of the male pre-Raphaelites. Beauty in Thorns follows three prominent women of the pre-Raphaelite movement, where interconnected storylines of Elizabeth Siddle, Jane Morris and Georgina Burne-Jones are contrasted with the more historically famous lives of their male partners. The overarching scope of Beauty in Thorns captures the conception, development and final triumph of Edward Burne-Jones’ series of paintings ‘The Legend of Briar Rose’ inspired by the Grimm tales of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’. The grand sweep of the saga details the interconnected lives of Gergiana Burne-Jones and her enduring love and acceptance of the sacrifices made for her husband’s art to flourish. The contrasting figure of Elizabeth Siddle who struggled to be recognized on the same level as male artists and like her own lover and eventual husband, Dante Gabriel-Rossetti. The final story follows Jane Morris who married the wealthy artist and socially conscious William Morris but who through societal prominence was granted more liberty than either Georgina Burne-Jones or Elizabeth Siddle, even when she remained married to William Morris but was the mistress to Dante Gabriel-Rossetti.
Beauty in Thorns had complex intersecting storylines that linked Elizabeth Siddle, Jane Morris and Georgiana Burne-Jones, where the common struggle of social oppression was reflected differently depending on social class. It was such a pleasure to read Beauty in Thorns. I definitely recommend it!

Posted on by

Goddess

Goddess by Australian author Kelly Gardiner is a witty, complex and beautiful novel re-telling the life of French historical figure Julie d’Aubigny in the seventeenth century. Julie’s character is fiercely portrayed and utterly fascinating, the famous (and infamous) woman who boldly defied social convention instead honouring the truth of herself. Julie d’Aubigny was a remarkable woman who lived during the era of the Sun King’s court at Versailles, France. A woman who was intelligent, educated and trained to sword-fight before becoming an esteemed opera singer, she was the lover of Europe’s powerful men and women and beyond equal. Not surprisingly, it was Julie’s wit, razor-keen intellect and volatile personality that often led to social conflict, duelling and other escapades. Although these seem only consequences of passion to d’Aubigny, Julie never succumbed to social convention. While being hunted with imminent execution, Julie d’Aubigny follows her lover, a nun, within a convent, where still in hiding, Julie dies aged 33. Despite this lonely end, d’Aubigny appeared a woman who lived vibrantly, acknowledged regret but not remorseful for its existence.
Goddess is a novel sparkling with a sense of wonder, empowerment and freedom.

Posted on by

The Wild Girl

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth proved greater than expectations for a recounting of the romance behind the classic collection of fairy tales for which the Grimm brothers’ found fame.While The Wild Girl recounts the friendship and romance of Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm, the enduring romance provides a space apart from the bleak reality of Hesse-Cassel during the Napoleonic Wars. The darker aspects of life in war-ravaged Europe are abundantly clear in the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, too poor to travel throughout Europe and collect folktales for their scholarly volume, instead relying on pieces donated from many sources. Dortchen, the middle daughter of the apothecary next-door, is one source and provides many of the most vivid and loved tales in the collections.
The Wild Girl is a rich historical tale, revealing the dark elements of Napoleonic Europe, the silent history behind the classic fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and the untold story of Dortchen Wild.