High desert gothic?
Feb 06, 2021 2:45 am
Imagine Wuthering Heights with rattlesnakes.
When people think “gothic” they usually picture someplace dark and gloomy, like a castle on the moors or a crumbling house. But when it comes to a creepy setting, I’m going to put in an argument in favor of a small desert town.
I set part of Vampire’s Dayrunner in an imaginary town called Red Rock. I gave it a pinch of the woo-woo aspects of Sedona, a smidge of the isolation of Tuba City, and some of the “Instant city! Just add water!” vibe of Maricopa. Red Rock feels, to me, like a very Arizona city. It’s hot, dry, and everything is only a few decades old.
So how is that gothic? What Red Rock shares with the gloomy castle on the moors is the feeling that the land itself is hostile to human life. A city in the desert is a fragile thing, dependent on piped-in water and trucked-in food. The desert can be a hostile land, a land of extremes. The sun is an enemy. The heat can kill within hours. And when the sun goes down in the desert, it can get very cold very quickly. It’s dry enough that trees are often shorter than people, but when it rains, the flash floods can kill in an instant. There are also rattlesnakes and scorpions. Wuthering Heights would have been even spookier with rattlesnakes and scorpions.
The Vampire’s Dayrunner scenes set in Arizona also have some of that wild west vibe, where there’s a novelty and lawlessness of being in a city without a vampire guild. Instead of cowboys and Indians, the novel has rogue vampires and vampire hunters, with Kit caught in the middle.
I think this is a great book, and I hope you love it too. If you already read this book, would you write a review? For some reason, this book has fewer reviews than the others. If you haven’t read it yet, you can get a reviewer copy here. I’ll try to approve review copy requests that come in as soon as I can.
Deadly curses. Unresolved romance. Can Kit expose a killer before it’s too late?
Here are some other authors whose work you may like.
Get to know the High Coven and all its evil glory in the Shadowhurst novella following Beatrix Stonewall, years before Billie was born. Get ready for terrifying secrets, unlikely allies, and a forbidden romance that will leave you wanting more.
In Heaven, physical love is forbidden, and to break the rules is to defy everything Seth has ever known. When Seth is sent on a mission with Grace, Seth must find the courage to make the ultimate decision—save his heart, or save his soul. (Free download.)
Fabulous February Fantasy Freebees
Gratuitous cat photo
BFF
