Weather - Or Not

by Janis Patterson

Last night we had some terrible storms around here – tornadoes touched down all over the area, baseball sized hail, lots of destruction, and (worst of all) several people died. Fortunately my home and family was spared any real damage – a thorough drenching, small leak in the garage, some greenery down – but it was frightening for a while. Just listening to the area’s tornado sirens going consistently for over half an hour and hearing the trees slapping against the house was nerve-wracking enough.

Which brings me to my topic – weather. Do we ever really realize how much weather is a tool in our books? Yes, you can write a creepy mystery set in a nice suburban villa with brilliant sunshine, balmy breezes and the sound of children laughing in the yard next door. It’s been done, and done well, but to my mind it makes the story lose something. There are those who say the very normalcy of such a setting increases the tension, but I’m not one of them. My mind (no comments, now!) tends to discount danger inherent in bright, sunny days.

How much more disturbing is the low-hanging overcast sky, the shadowy house which no amount of light seems to illuminate completely, the wind scratching at the windows, a driving rain…

Perhaps less-than-perfect weather, night, darkness, shadows all ignite a feeling of unease in a primitive part of our brains. What we cannot see we cannot be prepared for. We are all hardwired to fear the unknown something that lurks in the dark. Did you have monsters under the bed in your childhood? I did. Did I every see them? Nope, but I knew they were there just the same. Sometimes, if I’m working on a particularly intense book, or it’s a stormy night and I’m alone in the house, they might still be there. I’m not going to crawl under and look, either!

Sometimes having an active imagination can be a curse.

Conversely, it’s very difficult to have a lighthearted comedic story set in that same dank and drear house – or shadowy urban alleyway – under lowering, stormy skies.

There’s a cliché opening that Bulwer-Lytton used in the hyperverbal Victorian era – “It was a dark and stormy night…” Once I was beginning a new project (a Gothic mystery) and had the story pretty much pat, but could not get the beginning started until I really used “It was a dark and stormy night…” after which the story just rolled. When the book was finished I did go back and change it, not wanting to be an object of fun, but for my own personal uses it was invaluable. I do wish I could have used it, though…

Writers have a myriad of tools available to them, and the weather is one of the most effective. There’s nothing like it for setting mood and tone.

At least we can control the weather in our books. I would have loved to have been able to last night. 

Fantasy and Shadows

Where does a book come from? Who knows? To write a book takes a combination of hard work, heavy thought, ruthless determination and a little magic. To sell a book takes all of the above and a healthy serving of luck, which is why when we writers do sell one we crow as proudly as new parents.

When said book is a bit of a stretch and takes you in directions you never dreamed, that just makes it the sweeter.

My Gothic hommage INHERITANCE OF SHADOWS is being released by Carina on 12 March. Frankly, I doubted I would ever finish it, and seriously never believed it would sell. It’s set in the indefinite present, may or may not have paranormal elements and the hero and heroine… oh, but I’m telling you too much.

It’s funny – I have loved traditional Gothic romances all my life, but have never cared much for high fantasy. I certainly never intended to write any, but… In INHERITANCE OF SHADOWS the heroine Aurora has come to Merrywood, the estate of her late father’s friend, to attend a convention honoring her late father’s books. She never knew her father and was raised with little or no knowledge of him. He wrote a series of high fantasy novels that have spawned a rabid fandom, intellectual debate and a series of fan-based conventions. He also committed suicide in front of her when she was barely three years old. Or did he? That is another mystery she must solve.

Things at the convention go wildly awry; first of all, Aurora’s former love shows up, intending to write a book about her father – the very thing that broke them up in the first place. Aurora begins having strange dreams where she is taking part in ceremonies her father wrote about. His friend, her host, and his colleagues are annoyingly possessive of her. The conventioneers regard her as a-not-quite-human icon, the essence of the books come to life. And she is not the only being from the books seemingly come to life; creatures from the books begin to materialize, creatures that appear to be real and not just costumed conventioneers. Aurora realizes that not only her sanity, but her very life may be in danger… but by then it is too late to leave. She must find out if the fantastic world her father created is totally and truly imaginary.

During editorial conferences (some call them editorial combat) with my wonderful editor Mallory Braus we both found that the idea of a snippet of one of Aurora’s father’s books at the beginning of each chapter would set the mood of that chapter wonderfully. I had wanted to do this from the beginning, but had not mentioned it because (1) I didn’t think it would sell and (2) I had no idea of or inclination towards writing high fantasy. However, with Mallory’s enthusiastic urging I tried, and was astonished when the varied stories of the non-human creatures of my imaginary world flowed easily from my fingertips. So easily, in fact, that some of these chapter head ‘snippets’ were two and three pages long!

After a lot of internal debate – and urging from both Mallory and my trusted beta readers to go ahead and write the seven book series – I agreed to rein in the snippets to a reasonable length instead of completely eliminating them. However, the idea of taking on the series – seven books in an unfamiliar genre!!! – is a bit daunting. I am much more comfortable with my good old-fashioned Gothics, cozy mysteries and a romance every now and then. As I should be. After all, one most intelligent and perspicacious reviewer said I was the obvious successor to Phyllis A. Whitney and Victoria Holt!

I’d like to know your opinion. INHERITANCE OF SHADOWS is being released by Carina Press on March 12, so let me hear what you think.

Janis Susan May