Making the Old West More Gothic
By Marie Piper
I came up
with MAIDENS & MONSTERS while bed-bound. Terribly dramatic, right?
Back in
February, Chicago had a bitter cold winter, and I was down for the count for a
few weeks with a one-two punch of bronchitis and a terrible sinus infection. All
I could do was lay around, and so I figured I could at least write something.
For months,
I’d been thinking about adapting THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to the old west. The
Opera House/Music Hall comparison made sense to me, and I liked the idea of
finding the “Wild West” counterparts to the well-known characters from Gaston
LeRoux’s novel (and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, if we’re being honest.) So I
did it.
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The result
was CHRISTINE (Book #1) –
an adaptation of PHANTOM set in 1880 in a small
Kansas town awaiting the coming of a railroad branch. Along the way, the book
became more than just a straight-on adaptation. I’m a big believer in writing female
friendships, so of course Christine got some friends. Four of them, in fact—and
I decided they would be the leading ladies of four other horror/gothic novels-DRACULA,
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, and
FRANKENSTEIN. Together, these five young women became the Maidens of Mapleton,
and the series took off.
I’ve always
loved adaptations, and I’ve read a lot of great ones. I’ve seen Jane Eyre set
in the old west, and recently have fallen in love with Caroline Lee’s EVERLAND,
EVER AFTER series—fairy tales in a small town.
But horror?
Was I nuts? It turns out I’m not! (At least, I don’t think so…)
For
starters, though these books are mostly considered horror, as I delved deep
into them I came to realize that four of the five books don’t really contain
any supernatural/paranormal elements.
Grandly, I
declared a rule for the series: No
supernatural elements.
And then I sort
of kicked myself because that meant I had to figure out what to do with
DRACULA. Because, you know, he’s a vampire.
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In
writing MINA (Book #2), there was so
much good stuff to work with – Lucy’s three suitors, the disappearance of
Jonathan Harker, and a big scary asylum. I don’t know if you’ve ever done any
research into asylums/mental health treatments in the last few centuries, but
it’s dark stuff.
Still, the
looming spectre of the most well-known vampire in literary history stood
waiting. I decided to make my Count (Count Dalca, which means lightning in
Romanian) elusive and mysterious, sure. But I decided to explain his condition
and quirks in a very (I feel) logical and time-appropriate way. I can’t spoil
it here, but it comes down to money and what we knew of medicine at that time,
and of course vice.
Three of
these books are about medicine, and scientific discoveries. The 1800’s were a
time of huge discovery and innovation in those fields, and so this town needed
a doctor.
Enter Dr.
Henry Jekyll.
LUCY (Book
#3) will come out October 25th. Though the Jekyll & Hyde story
is hugely famous and gives me a fantastic jumping off point, it’s also notably
absent of female characters. The original 1886 novella features a maid or two,
but no women characters of substance or even name. By 1887 when it started to
appear onstage as a play, the character of Jekyll’s proper society fiancee
appeared, and she’s been a part of the story in most film/tv/musical
adaptations since then. So I decided to give her a book and a voice of her own.
Did you know
that in 1880 scientists had figured out that Indian tribes chewed willow bark
to alleviate pain, but hadn’t yet figured out and isolated the specific element
in the bark that we would come to know as aspirin? Or that, in this same time
period, it wasn’t uncommon to boil morphine into heroin and use it to treat patients?
Me neither—but these kinds of discoveries came into play as things Henry Jekyll
would be interested in. LUCY also takes place in December of 1880, which was
right after the election of President James Garfield, the closest election in
US History. Of course,Garfield would be assassinated by Charles Guiteau the
next summer/fall.
All of this
science and history has a place in MAIDENS & MONSTERS. I love history and
research, finding tiny tidbits I can work in to enhance the book. Despite
momentary quirks, it’s proving surprisingly easy to take and set these “horror
classics” in my chosen time period and locale. These are books about science
and architecture and religion and greed, themes which fit perfectly and are
prevalent in the creation of America.
I hope
MAIDENS & MONSTERS delights readers as a mystery romance series, but I also
hope people will enjoy the liberties I took. I love the original books, and
hope I did them justice.
Happy
Reading!
Marie Piper
To find out more about myself and my books come visit me anytime!
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Website: http://mariepiper.com
Twitter: @mariepiperbooks
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