Another Serialized Novel on Substack

Today I’ll begin serially publishing another novel, The Vanquished and the Surviving, on my Substack, Whimsical Words. Chapter One will be free to all subscribers.

Here’s a photo I took in Portland, Oregon on a cloudy night.

I began writing about “a slightly different Regency England” with faeries, ghosts, demons, and vampires back in the 1990s. I’d been writing neurotic short stories, often with autobiographical elements, and I decided I wanted to write something fun. “Fun” turned out to be gothic, dark fantasy about the Montmorency twins, Margot and Roland, and their social circle.

The protagonist of The Vanquished and the Surviving is their cousin, Vincent, and the novel is based on a dream. That’s right: my subconscious made this up.

The Vanquished and the Surviving

In a slightly different Regency England, Vincent de Montmorency leaves a theater with his brother, Nathaniel, who disappears before his eyes. A suspicious lady and gentleman drag Vincent into their barouche and claim to have consumed Nathaniel’s soul and intend to do the same to Vincent. The couple spontaneously combusts inside the carriage. Cloaked figures accuse Vincent of killing them and take him away. He must spend years imprisoned in a tower, while a hostile tutor trains him to suppress the new Sensitive ability he doesn’t want. But who are these cloaked figures who capture “dangerous”…