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Writer in the Garret

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Writer in the Garret

Category Archives: Gothic

E-book of Edge of the Shadow on tiny sale at Amazon

08 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Ghosts, Gothic, Hauntings, Wisdom Court

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ebooks

Bargain basement price of $3.82 (as opposed to $3.99) at Amazon. Why? Dunno. Maybe they have an oversupply of electrons and decided to whittle the amount accordingly.

 

This is your chance to venture into the ghostly world of Wisdom Court, where women go to pursue their dreams.

 

 

http://amzn.to/2mkbTl0

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31 Days of Spooky Stuff, October 20: The Night of the Hunter

20 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Gothic, horror movies

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

horror, shadows

nightofhunter1

This 1955 film is a strange, nightmarish depiction of evil loose in the land. As the Criterion Collection describes it,

The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic—also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee—is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil.

nightofhunter2

I first saw this film at the recommendation of a friend who’d seen it decades earlier, and who shivered when she told me about it. The memory of it still scared her after all those years. While I watched it, my critical side noticed the slow pacing and wondered at some of the artificial-looking sets, but as the story deepened, the film took on the quality of a dream. The children couldn’t run fast enough to escape the evil man pursuing them. No matter what they did, he was still close behind them. The shadows darkened, my heart beat faster, and I couldn’t tell how the horror would end.

The Night of the Hunter is a spooky movie and I hope you like it.

(I’m including a link to Roger Ebert’s review of The Night of the Hunter because I always liked his film criticism, and because I miss his work.)

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-night-of-the-hunter-1955

Comment to enter the drawing for a signed copy of each of my Wisdom Court books: Edge of the Shadow; A Signal Shown; All In Bad Time. The drawing will occur on October 31.

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31 Days of Spooky Stuff, October 17: Two Early Horror Films

17 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Gothic, Hallowe'en, Spooky movies

≈ Leave a comment

I’ve always loved old movies, and when I was growing up, a couple of Denver’s TV stations offered lots of them, many of them horror films. Thus it was that I became familiar with the genre, many of them the classics, some wonderfully schlocky. I happily watched my way through the parade of traditional monsters. Somewhere along the way, however, I came across a couple of films that have been lodged in my memory ever since, and they seriously deserve to be in the horror category. They own the category.

 

freaks2

freaks1

Tod Browning’s Freaks came out in 1932, a revenge drama about a group of circus performers and sideshow artists getting even with so-called “normal” villains. Browning cast actual members of a circus sideshow who were disabled to portray the “freaks.” Audiences of the day were appalled and the film flopped in the U.S. and was banned in the United Kingdom. Freaks is, however, one of the most poignant and humane horror films I’ve seen, and the lingering question it leaves is a profound one: Who in the story are the real freaks?  The film is available at Amazon. http://amzn.to/2diNRpm

 

 

nosferatushadow

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nosferatu  By F.W. Murnau – screen capture around the 1hr 19min mark, PD-US, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22848473

Nosferatu, a German Expressionist film released in 1922, is one of the most visually frightening films I’ve seen, thanks to the appearance and performance of Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok. As Wikipedia summarizes: “the film was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel (for instance, ‘vampire’ became “Nosferatu” and “Count Dracula” became “Count Orlok”). Stoker’s heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, a few prints of Nosferatu survived, and the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema.[1][2]”  

I was alone in the house when I first saw Nosferatu, and I turned on every light in the place until my parents got home. Seriously creepy. Also available at Amazon. http://amzn.to/2dWAuJl

If you’re into spooky stuff for real and haven’t seen these films, you might consider having your own little movie madness as Halloween gets closer. I guarantee some shivers down your spine.

Comment to be eligible to win a signed set of the three Wisdom Court novels: Edge of the Shadow; A Signal Shown; All In Bad Time. The drawing will take place on Halloween.

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31 Days of Spooky Stuff, October 16: The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

16 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Gothic, Grief, Hallowe'en

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Edgar Allan Poe

eapoe

I’m a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe. The man wielded words with precision, knowing how to spread melancholy and dread. Among my favorites of his work is The Raven, which has become a part of my genetic makeup over the years. I’ve read it so many times, and listened to as many renditions as I’ve been able to find. Including the Simpsons version, of course. It provides a moment of pleasure, along with an uneasy recognition of our own inevitable mortality.

Below, a link to the entire poem.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/48860

But the way to truly appreciate “The Raven” is to listen to it. My favorite reading is by James Earl Jones.

Get yourself a nice cup of tea, or a glass of port, and listen. Happy Halloween.

To enter the October 31 drawing, make a comment (press the comment button on the top right of the page.) The prize will be a signed copy of each of the Wisdom Court books: Edge of the Shadow; A Signal Shown; All In Bad Time.

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31 Days of Spooky Stuff, October 6: The Uninvited

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Books I like, Ghosts, Gothic, Hauntings, Uncategorized

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Tags

books, horror

One of the inspirations for my Wisdom Court novels is this 1942 novel written by Irish author Dorothy Macardle. It’s a thumping good ghost story that was later adapted to film in 1944.

In this January 9, 2016, review in the Irish Times, author Anna Carey provides an interesting feminist slant to an old form: the haunted house novel.

The Uninvited, by Dorothy Macardle: ghosts of a sensible persuasion

by Anna Carey

This chiller from 1942 is decidely old-fashioned, but the author makes it all enjoyably eerie – and throws in a few pithy social observations as well

Dorothy Macardle: like many other Republican feminists, was appalled by the decision to enshrine the domestic role of women in the Constitution. So perhaps it’s not surprising that, a few years later, she wrote an excellent novel that shows just how unhealthy it can be to idolise women as pure domestic goddessesDorothy Macardle: like many other Republican feminists, was appalled by the decision to enshrine the domestic role of women in the Constitution. So perhaps it’s not surprising that, a few years later, she wrote an excellent novel that shows just how unhealthy it can be to idolise women as pure domestic goddesses

After the Irish Constitution was introduced in 1937, the writer and activist Dorothy Macardle wrote to her good friend, Éamon de Valera, to tell him what she thought of it. “As the Constitution stands,” she wrote, “I do not see how anyone holding advanced views on the rights of women can support it, and that is a tragic dilemma for those who have been loyal and ardent workers in the national cause.”

Macardle, like many other Republican feminists, was appalled by the decision to enshrine the domestic role of women in the Constitution. So perhaps it’s not surprising that, a few years later, she wrote an excellent novel that shows just how unhealthy it can be to idolise women as pure domestic goddesses.

First published in 1942, Uneasy Freehold has been reissued as the second in Tramp Press’s brilliant Recovered Voices series, The Uninvited (its American title). In it, two Anglo-Irish siblings, Roddy and Pamela Fitzgerald, find an enchanting house for sale in Devon called Cliff End. But when they make enquiries about purchasing it, the owner tells them that it’s been empty for 15 years.

Its previous residents were the owner’s daughter Mary, her artist husband Lyn, their small daughter Stella, and Lyn’s model and mistress, Carmel. Mary and Carmel both died tragically at Cliff End, and Stella was brought up by her grandfather. Six years earlier, a couple lived there, but left after having “experienced disturbances”.

Roddy and Pamela are undeterred, but once they’ve moved into Cliff End strange things start to happen. They hear a woman sobbing and see mysterious lights. And then a mist appears, a mist that looks very like a woman with cold blue eyes.

Who exactly is haunting the house? And what does this spirit want with Stella, now a young woman who yearns for the perfect mother she never really knew?

Stella’s fascination with Mary allows Macardle to explore the dark side of the blind veneration of a saintly mother figure. Stella’s bedroom is a Marian shrine – in both senses of the word: “Pale blue walls – her mother’s favourite colour . . . Mary’s pictures – Florentine madonnas; a sketch of Mary as a girl and before it, in a glass vase, one white rose; even a statuette of her mother – a white plaster thing. It’s a culte. Oh the piety, the austerity, the white virginal charm!”

Macardle shows how limiting this cold ideal of virtue can be – and how long its unhealthy effects can linger.

Of course, the ultimate test of a ghost story is whether it’s scary or not. And while The Uninvited is enormously readable and full of nicely spooky moments, it rarely produces the sort of creeping dread triggered by, say, Elizabeth Bowen’s The Demon Lover. This is mostly because the moments of terror are generally balanced by the characters’ sensible and thoughtful discussions of what might be causing them. This may sound tame, but turns The Uninvited into a different yet equally enjoyable ghost story.

Pamela and Roddy become not just the victims of a haunting, but amateur sleuths determined to unearth the source of the mysterious incidents at Cliff End. They put together a dossier on the previous household and bring in friends and experts to help them. I was not surprised that Roddy, putting off writing a book review, wondered “how on earth was I to give my mind to Peter Wimsey and his mysteries while our own diabolical problem was crying out to be tackled?” There’s more than a touch of Wimsey-creator Dorothy L Sayers’s wit and inventiveness about The Uninvited.

In fact, the dark subject matter and the complex issues explored by Macardle, combined with the engaging characters and light touch, make The Uninvited one of the most entertaining Irish novels I’ve read all year.

When de Valera was asked for his verdict on the 1944 film version of The Uninvited, his response was: “Typical Dorothy”. I hope she took it as a compliment.

Anna Carey’s latest novel is Rebecca Is Always Right

Comment to be entered in the Halloween drawing. A signed copy of the Wisdom Court Trilogy: Edge of the Shadow, A Signal Shown, and All In Bad Time, is the prize.

the-uninvited

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You know those words I was talking about…?

06 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Ghosts, Gothic, Hauntings, Mysteries, Wisdom Court, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

plot elements, Writing

Gentle readers, today I’ve been in a swirl of words, not all of them having to do with NaNoWriMo. Not only am I writing Wisdom Court Book 3, All In Bad Time, but I’m also marketing and publicizing the first two Wisdom Court Books: Edge of the Shadow, and A Signal Shown. (This while falling short in the promotion of my two mysteries, Scavenger Hunt, and Obstacle Course. My bad.)

This is the day Edge of the Shadow has been featured on EReader News Today, and I’ve been sharing that fact through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin. Once again I’ve noted that my Wisdom Court books carry a lot of labels. There are a lot of different elements in my books and they come from different genres.

All of the books I’ve written have been categorized as cross-genre. That means several things, some complimentary, some not. Historically books have been sold by genre, meaning bookshelf space given to them is ideally in a specific bookstore location. Mysteries with mysteries, romances with romances, paranormal with paranormal, etc. It gets murkier with mainstream novels, which get away with including various aspects under the umbrella of mainstream. Whatever that means.

The stories I like to tell myself involve more than one template. In the case of the Wisdom Court books the two things that intrigued me in the initial phases were first, the idea of a woman getting what she’d always wanted most, the chance to be totally supported for a year while she worked to make her biggest dream come true. Second, to observe the relationship among the five or six women living at Wisdom Court while they all got to be stars. The protagonist meets a lovely man. So, women’s fiction with an element of romance.

But then I began to wonder about paranormal events getting in the way of such an idyllic set-up. A problem that must be solved. Mystery, right? My belief that our memories and regrets are like ghosts haunting us as we age had me wanting those women forced to deal with scary supernatural stuff while they were supposed to be setting the world on fire during their year at Wisdom Court. Paranormal, supernatural, Gothic, horror, ghost story.

Thanks to the rise of independent publishing, I’ve been able to get the Wisdom Court books into print (POD) and on-line as ebooks. But as for promoting them, the old rules apply, because readers want to read what they like. So here’s my challenge to those of you who’ve read Edge of the Shadow and/or A Signal Shown. How would you describe them? How many genres would you have to mention to let readers know what they’re getting? I’d really be interested in having you weigh in. Thanks.

 

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My first NaNoWriMo Adventure, and an Announcement

04 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in e-books, Gothic, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

ebooks, Nook books, Writing

9781614176459First the announcement: Nook has my two creepy/Gothic novels on sale Nov. 3 – Nov. 6 !!

http://bit.ly/1tUB5Ns  Edge of the Shadow

 

9781614176473

http://bit.ly/1x2KoyA   A Signal Shown

 

 

 

I’m on the fourth day of NaNoWriMo  (National Novel Writing Month).

I’ve never done it before, but I’m behind on my work in progress (All In Bad Time, Wisdom Court Book 3).

Do you want me to tell you the word totals so far? Sure you do.

Day 1, 2288 words   Day 2, 1621 words   Day 3, 2633 words.

Now, off to write the words for today. Send me some energy & inspiration, please.

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Did I mention I got to write “The End?”

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Yvonne Montgomery in Ghosts, Gothic, Wisdom Court

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ebooks, shadows, writing process

Although, as we know, we never really reach the end. And so I’m zipping through the manuscript of A Signal Shown, Book Two of the Wisdom Court series, adding a bit here and there so I can get it off to my beta readers. As I finished on page 301, I let out a deep breath and thought about heading to the refrigerator for the bottle of champagne I put there several days ago. I never pass up a chance to click champagne glasses because they’re not always frequent, those celebratory writing moments.

As soon as I have feedback from the readers I’ll make one more pass through the prose and then submit the book for eformatting at ePublishingWorks!. They’ve done such good work with my two mysteries Scavenger Hunt and Obstacle Course. As soon as the new book is ready, the first Wisdom Court book, Edge of the Shadow, along with A Signal Shown, will be epublished. And how will I greet that frabjous day? By telling the world about my wonderful books and–oh yeah–by plugging away on the third Wisdom Court book, All in Bad Time. You have to be true to the story arc.

So, my friends, here’s a sample from Wisdom Court Book One, my first metaphysical thriller, Edge of the Shadow:

“Mistletoe to break the lock.” The woman seated at the small table sprinkled leaves into the shallow bowl next to the candle illuminating the room.

The windows at her back were closed and curtained but the flame fluttered, deepening the red of her upswept hair and gleaming along the silver threads in her robe. Her gaze darted toward the gloom in the corners as she reached into another bag.

“I call upon the spirits.” Spiky thistle leaves fell to the pottery surface. Groping inside a leather pouch she pulled out dry needles. They dropped from her hand as she whispered, “Yew to raise the dead.”

A gauzy sack yielded graying fronds. “Balm of Gilead, manifest the one I seek.”

After a glance down at the ancient book open across her lap she murmured, “Protection born of amaranth. And borage for courage,” she added under her breath, releasing the last bits into the container.

Shadows stirred along the wall as she twisted the candle from the saucer and held it to the herbal mixture, taking care to push her flowing sleeve away from the dish. Pungent smoke drifted upward as she replaced the taper.

A breath of air touched her and she turned, half-glimpsing motion but unable to find its source. Again the flame wobbled, and behind her the curtain billowed upward. The border of the coarsely woven material brushed the wick as it fell back into place.

A tiny spark gnawed along the threads until it burned.

And that’s The End for today. Cheers!

 

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Boomer Gothic and a Year of Her Own

14 Thursday Feb 2013

Tags

Barbara Michaels, Bronte sisters, mansions, Mary Stewart, shadows, Victoria Holt

Back in the day, my favorite fiction genre was gothic, and I read as many such novels as I could find.  My favorite authors were Mary Stuart, Charlotte and Jane Bronte, Phyllis A. Whitney, Barbara Michaels, Elsie Lee, Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt, Joan Aiken..the list is long. As an English major in college I read Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, and discovered Anne Radcliffe, Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, more Poe, some of Dickens, Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Stevenson’s Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.  You get the drift.

By the time I got serious about writing, the market for gothics had pretty much dried up, and I was reading mysteries.  I decided to write one set in Denver, and after hundreds of years and thousands of revisions, I published two of them, the previously mentioned Finny Aletter mysteries, Scavengers and Obstacle Course (both soon to appear as e-books.)

But, in my heart of hearts, I still yearned for gothics.  I wanted to tell myself a story set in an old house where odd things happened, and I wanted to create characters who began to regard each other with suspicion.  Dark psychological overtones would match the shadowy corners and somewhere along the line, a scream would split the night.  Good times would ensue.  Thus was born Wisdom Court.

Set in Boulder, Colorado, Wisdom Court is an institute for accomplished women who have not yet achieved their professional goals.  Each is invited to spend a year there (short trips home allowable, but most time is spent in Boulder), all expenses paid.  Artist, scientist, writer, whomever the Board chooses, receives a year of her own.

Andrea Bellamy, the protagonist in book I, Edge of the Shadow, is a forensic artist who yearns to paint, and her invitation to Wisdom Court allows her to imagine a new career as a fine artist. Widowed some years earlier, she has seen her daughter through college and now has the opportunity to truly change her life. She takes a leave of absence from her job, rents out her house, and heads for Boulder.  She is welcomed at Wisdom Court by the staff and other associates staying there.  As she settles into bed that first night, her heart is filled with gratitude and her mind races with excitement.  At last she will be able to focus on her artistic dreams.  For at least this one year she can put herself first.  And then she awakes screaming…

You’ll have to read Edge of the Shadow to find out what happens to Andrea and the other women at Wisdom Court.  The book will be published online in the next few months.  I’m writing about it now out of curiosity.  Having written EOS as well as being two-thirds into the second Wisdom Court book, A Signal Shown, I’m wondering how many fellow gothic fans are out there.  I don’t yet have throngs of blog followers, but I’m impatient enough to issue the question anyway: how many readers out there are interested in gothics?  The Wisdom Court story arcs through three books, so I’m committed to at least the trilogy.  Will I find readers to share in the pleasures?  Let me know.  I’ll keep writing.

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Posted by Yvonne Montgomery | Filed under 19th century novels, e-books, Gothic, Hauntings, Wisdom Court

≈ 4 Comments

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