Urban Gothic

You know, years ago, I couldn’t watch horror movies. I was too afraid to even watch The Shining. When I moved to England, my husband had a whole collection of movies with stuff in it like Hellraiser. He said; just give it a chance... When I finally did, I realized that it was nothing to get so worked up over. Especially The Shining. The world of satellite television and having two dozen movie channels certainly helps. 

I love the cover for Candy Girl. Jinger Heaston at Whiskey Creek Press is behind the design. I gave the cover art department a few ideas and the results were slamming! It was not what I expected, but it’s a fabulous cover. 

Candy Girl is written in my Urban Gothic style. I was inspired by a house in Pittsburgh. It sat up on a small hill. Across the road is a cemetery and a funeral home was beside it. The house was green and had a gothic tower. I was absolutely fascinated by this house. I even had thoughts of knocking on the door and saying, You don’t know me, but I was wondering if you would consider selling me this house. A few years ago, I went home to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving and went to see the house. It was gone! It had been bulldozed away. As sad as it was, I have comfort in the knowledge that no one else will ever have the house. 

So, my heroine, Misty Jordan, goes home to Pittsburgh to come to face to face with a man who once nearly destroyed her life while he was intoxicated. But when she finally gets there and he doesn’t recognize her, but instead believes she has come to accept a live in job, she finds herself being sucked into his world. Jaydan is an enigmatic recluse with a tormented soul. He knows that he has met Misty somewhere in the past, but can’t place a time or date. When they start to come together romantically, Misty is placed in the unenviable position of whether or not to tell him she came there under false pretenses, which will almost certainly kill the relationship. Or does she live the lie forever. Both choices are equally bad. 

Candy Girl, like A Season In Avalon, was a pleasure to write. Both Whiskey Creek and Tree Press never tried to censor me, but instead let me indulge a little bit of the dark side of human nature.