overview
Maverick ↔ Lucky ↔ Hennessee House.
It’s not a ghost story!
It’s not a romcom!
Please let me live!
While drafting the book, I made the decision to assign the cast a primary romance and horror character trope. For example, intelligent experts in horror movies usually doesn’t make it past Act Two. I thought it was high time for the bespectacled know-it-all to get that guaranteed romance HEA.
Supernatural Romantic Dramedy! You’re going to hear me repeat this a lot. Sorry.
ICYMI earlier this week, I made a video explaining the comps I’m using. Ghostbusters and Casper are for the science and the relationships, not the ghosts. You’re going to hear “no ghosts” a lot too.
characters
Lucky
The FMC who’s been to hell and back again. Do I mean that literally? Well, she is a parapsychologist with an impulsive streak so maybe! She feels woefully misunderstood—the greatest source of irony in her life—and has a soft spot for kids. She’s adventurous, can braid her own hair, loves spicy food, and will never turn down an opportunity to tell a good story.
Maverick
The MMC who instantly becomes the heart of any team lucky enough to have him. He always tries to see the best in people, but if they hurt someone he cares about, it’ll be the last thing they do. Just kidding! Or am I? I mean, he’s emotionally intelligent, a pacifist, and believes violence is never the answer until it is 🙂 Protecting his loved ones is his reason for existing. He also has really weird dreams.
Rebel – She loves vlogging, making her own comics, and baking cookies. Riley is her favorite person in the whole world. Her dad is a close second, but not right now because he won’t let her get a kitten.
Gengar – Likes chasing rodents & getting into territorial fights with racoons. Dislikes all humans who are not named Lucky. She can stay.
Georgia – She’s not quite sure how she ended up working on THREE different paranormal shows, but she knows she’s exactly where she needs to be to reach her career goals.
Xander – Mastermind. Dry sense of humor. Disgustingly rich. But everyone seems to love him for some reason. Most likely because of his incredibly generous heart and understanding nature.
Hennessee House
Ah, what can be said about this unconventional tritagonist? It’s both sentient and haunted. It has an interesting sense of humor (see: warped). It also has a very rich interior… life and quite obsessed with the concept of memory.
setting
If you’re expecting a gothic, dreary, and/or oppressive atmosphere… don’t. Because you’ll be disappointed.
This book is sparkling early morning sunrises, [redacted], beatific florals, [redacted], and [more redacted]. When I started writing, I decided to give Hennessee House agency beyond being infested and infected by ghosts. I created a house that stands on its own, in more ways than one.
Hennessee House’s design is based on Queen Anne style Victorian architecture specific to Northern California built from the late 1800s to 1910. The Carson Mansion and Pinc Lady in Eureka, CA are practically its cousins.
This book is also a summertime romance! Absolutely shocking for my brand, I know. For those in the know, haunting is a year round affair. The supernatural can come for you in any season for any reason—here, we’re in the dead of summer. I intentionally used extreme weather as a means to keep Lucky [redacted for more spoiler reasons].
Time of day also places a huge role within the narrative. Sunrises and sunsets are both extremely important. ‘Places’ in the title is also intentional. The supernatural can also come for you anytime and anyplace.
This isn’t my first time experimenting with using setting as a character (see: Suitehearts). One of my favorite movies is Rose Red—I’ve always felt so bad for the house because it’s never explained why it did ~terrible~ things. It just did. Hill House gets some justification (which I may or may not have referenced) but still! Personally, I really wanted to go in a different direction. People might not like it or think they’d rather have it the old, tried and true way, and that’s okay! I created the house I wanted to, and I stand by it.
Claire Kann 