This gorgeously evocative standalone fantasy from Lisa Lueddecke is inspired by the Hungarian myths of her childhood. Enter a world with a haunted castle, a dark and dangerous forest and poisoned rain, with two fiery protagonists to root for - a book perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and Laini Taylor.
You are the girl who can walk in the rain, and I am the boy who knows the way.
The Eve of Saints approaches and the poison rain which shrouds Castle Marcosza strains at its boundaries. When Beata's brother is taken by the rain, Beata and her friend Benedek must make a perilous journey of discovery to uncover the root of her secret - why she is the only person who can walk through the rain unscathed. But Beata is soon caught up in a game of cat-and-mouse with mysterious Liljana, a girl with hidden powers of her own. And with magic outlawed in Marcosza, can the pair find a way to work together to harness their forbidden ability and unleash its full potential? Or will they find themselves seduced by power and all that it offers...
This ticks off everything I want from a book, with the foundation in myths, dark and dangerous world and magic. Scholastic kindly gifted a copy and I can't wait to read it!
For today's tour stop, Lisa Lueddecke talks about how a location can provide inspiration.
I don’t think I realized until relatively recently how much a certain location can inspire your writing. I spent about a year, right up until a few weeks ago, living on the edge of Salem, Massachusetts, and something about living there really gave me the writing bug. It wasn’t always easy, having a baby and all, but I have pages full of notes and little snippets of ideas and names for a hundred stories, all dreamed up on long walks around haunted places in New England.
At least for me, New England has a definite feel to it that I find hard to describe, even as a writer. The Forest of Ghosts and Bones has a number of spooky scenes that sometimes involve graves or the dead, and I’ve found no shortage of inspiration living where I live. Old graveyards and cemeteries, some of the stones so old they can hardly be read anymore… Forests so dense and old it feels like stepping through a doorway to a primeval time… Houses with crooked floors and secrets you wish they could tell…
If I’ve learned anything about being a writer, it’s that inspiration can strike at any time, in any place. So for me and the sorts of stories I like to tell, stories with snippets of history and folklore and poems and legends, it’s important to surround myself with the things I find inspiring. It turns out that almost anywhere in historic, creaky, haunted New England is just my brand of inspiration. I can’t wait to see what other stories are waiting to meet me amongst the trees and gravestones.
Haunted New England
I don’t think I realized until relatively recently how much a certain location can inspire your writing. I spent about a year, right up until a few weeks ago, living on the edge of Salem, Massachusetts, and something about living there really gave me the writing bug. It wasn’t always easy, having a baby and all, but I have pages full of notes and little snippets of ideas and names for a hundred stories, all dreamed up on long walks around haunted places in New England.
At least for me, New England has a definite feel to it that I find hard to describe, even as a writer. The Forest of Ghosts and Bones has a number of spooky scenes that sometimes involve graves or the dead, and I’ve found no shortage of inspiration living where I live. Old graveyards and cemeteries, some of the stones so old they can hardly be read anymore… Forests so dense and old it feels like stepping through a doorway to a primeval time… Houses with crooked floors and secrets you wish they could tell…
If I’ve learned anything about being a writer, it’s that inspiration can strike at any time, in any place. So for me and the sorts of stories I like to tell, stories with snippets of history and folklore and poems and legends, it’s important to surround myself with the things I find inspiring. It turns out that almost anywhere in historic, creaky, haunted New England is just my brand of inspiration. I can’t wait to see what other stories are waiting to meet me amongst the trees and gravestones.
Thanks so much Lisa for sharing how New England has inspired your writing! It's one of my favourite places that I've visited and definitely provides lots of material for stories.
Photos taken on my 2011 holiday in New England
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