Things that Go Bump in the Night!

Since we’re very nearly at Halloween already, I thought I’d do a little post about my speculative romance books, since there’s been a lot of attention lately on my contemporary romance, with the publication of the fifth and final Tuppenny Bridge book. (You can buy Hope Blooms in Tuppenny Bridge here, by the way. And Summer in Tuppenny Bridge - the first in the series - is currently enrolled in Prime Reading, so Prime members can read it for free!)

Now that I’ve got the obligatory promo out of the way, let’s get back to my speculative romances, shall we?

You might well be asking, what exactly is speculative romance? If you are I don’t blame you in the slightest. I hadn’t got a clue what it was myself until a few months ago, when someone mentioned to me that it might be a good term for the some of the books I write. I duly paid a visit to Auntie Google and looked it up. Here’s what Wikipedia says:

“Speculative fiction is an umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or other imaginative realms.”

While this article on LinkedIn states:

“George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (1996-2011), J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (1997-2007), H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror” (1929), and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series (1998-2004) are all examples of ontological speculative fiction and deal with things are that not real and could never be real.”

Speculative romance, then, combines this type of fiction with a romantic story, which can be sweet or spicy, depending on your preference. (Don’t ever expect spicy from me - you’ll be sadly disappointed!)

The six-book Witches of Castle Clair series

I’ve always been a bit uneasy about using the term paranormal romance for my witchy books, as that tends to imply spicier books than I write. Believe me, I’ve been in some paranormal romance readers’ groups and they like it hot!!! Whereas the heat levels in my books are best described as lukewarm. I mean, how could I look people in the face?

So I prefer this term really, although it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and it’s not great that it has to be explained to most people. My favourite way of describing my Castle Clair books is “WitchLit” but, sadly, that doesn’t seem to be an official “thing” yet.

And, of course, that wouldn’t help with my next series, which is all about ghosts!

I’ve finished writing the first book in my new series for Boldwood Books and have just embarked on structural edits. Like The Witches of Castle Clair, it’s set in a very real world. Whereas The Witches was set mostly in a North Yorkshire market town, The Ghosts (sorry, the series doesn’t yet have an official title) is set in a pretty, Cotswolds village.

If you liked the style of writing in my witchy books, you should enjoy the ghosty ones, because they’re written in a similar style. However, I think it’s fair to say that the witchy books got more in-depth, with increasingly higher stakes as the series progressed, and - a bit like the Harry Potter books - while the series started with a standard length novel, by the time it ended you had two books’ worth of words!

Click the image to watch my short Halloween reel!

There won’t be any of that with the ghosty books. For one thing, I indie published the witches, so had complete freedom to take the stories wherever they led me, whereas this series has a publisher keeping a stern eye on my word count! For another, they won’t be as complex as the witchy books, which ended up featuring fae, seers, and a huge twist on British myths and legends.

For this series I’m very much keeping the books to a more manageable length, like Belle, Book and Candle or My Favourite Witch, rather than the later four books in the Castle Clair series. It’s definitely an ensemble piece and you’ll get to meet lots of villagers - alive or otherwise. The series will have lots of gentle humour, friendships and family, romance, and a gorgeous setting.

I love ghost stories - but only if they’re not too terrifying. As most of you will know I re-read A Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve, and I love spooky stories, like the (milder) ones by MR James and The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde. If you watched BBC’s comedy series, Ghosts, you’ll get the sort of vibe I’m aiming for. I absolutely adore that series and it was one of the inspirations for my new books.

The idea of a lot of ghosts in close proximity, with just a few lucky/unlucky (depending on their point of view) people who could see them… I already had another idea for a series set in a very special village in the Cotswolds, and I was thinking about writing that as a straight contemporary romance series. Then, one day, I suddenly thought, “What if…”

How cute is this ghosty? Adopted for me by Jessica Redland.

Naturally, I ran the idea past my friend, Jessica Redland, and held my breath wondering if she’d tell me I was mad. But her eyes lit up and she said she thought it sounded fabulous, and that she could see from my face as I was telling her my thoughts that I was really excited about it.

‘Go for it!’ she said. So I did. And here we are.

I had such a lot of fun writing book one, I really did. I do love writing about things that aren’t quite normal, you know? I’m about to start work on the second book in the series and I’m not even dreading it. Usually, writing a first draft is like wading through treacle, but I’m so excited to get back to the world of the ghosts that I’m actually looking forward to it.

It reminds me of how I felt working on The Witches of Castle Clair. It also reminds me of how much I miss them. You know, Halloween’s great, but seeing all the witchy stuff in the shops is a constant itch that needs scratching. I have a lot of witchy characters who might well be missing me, too.

Find us wherever you listen to your usual podcasts.

It doesn’t help that I’m co-hosting The Witchy Wednesday Book Chat podcast with my friend, Helen Phifer, either. We’re reading some amazing witchy books and it’s really making my fingers itch to get back to Castle Clair!

I have loads of ideas for those characters. I’m just not sure how to bring them to fruition. For one thing, I have a potential for three spin-off series in mind. Now, do I write three new series and keep them all separate? Or do I make it one new series and mix the stories up a bit, including ones from each of the series under one big umbrella (it could work as they’re all linked to Castle Clair and all feature characters readers have met before)?

If I kept them separate it would mean readers would know exactly which characters would feature and what sort of story they’d be getting.

However, it would also mean that it’ll be years before I get to introduce series two and three if I’m writing series one first.

Decisions, decisions…

Of course, the other problem is time. I’m committed to writing twelve new books for Boldwood Books over the next three years, so it’s going to be a heavy workload as it is. It’s likely that the best I could manage realistically would be one witchy book a year for the foreseeable future, so…

That being the case, should I write one a year but not publish it, waiting until I have a few ready to go and then publish them all in one year?

Or should I publish them as they’re ready, to keep the characters fresh in readers’ minds?

What would you do? I’d love to know if you have any suggestions that would help me decide!

One thing I have decided for sure is to change the covers of the Castle Clair books. Again.

I loved these cosy, magical covers!

I really loved my first three covers, done by the talented Berni Stevens, but I was advised by several people “who knew” that they weren’t attracting new readers of the paranormal genre. I looked around for a designer who specialised in paranormal fiction and found a company called Deranged Doctor Design. I was absolutely enchanted by the covers they produced for me. I still am. But I was taken aback when one reader admitted she’d read the books in spite of the covers!

I asked her what she didn’t like about them, and she said she thought the books were Young Adult!

I hadn’t even considered that, but now when I look at them it’s all I can see. Also, with the rise in popularity of witchy fiction (and boy, hasn’t it taken off now!) there are new trends in covers, and mine seem a bit old hat these days. So yes, they’re definitely going to get new covers, and then I will finally get a paperback for Destiny of the Witch. I held off on doing one because of my doubts about the covers, you see.

Apologies for my long and rambling post! It’s basically me thinking aloud, isn’t it? Well, not aloud, but you know what I mean. Anyway, right now it’s all about the ghosts, and I can’t wait to get cracking on Book Two! Roll on February 22nd 2025 when I’ll be able to introduce them all to you.

I hope you have a spooktacular (ouch!) Halloween, and if you do happen to have some close encounters with any witches or ghosts, be nice! Some of them are absolutely lovely. Trust me!

Have a great week, and happy Halloween!