CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

June 5 #2 Some Thoughts on "Niche" Workshop_334 wc

Introductory:





         This type of research is irrelevant to my purposes, but I'm going at it anyway for the purposes of this workshop. I did not research these topics in Frankie's January workshop for the reason of irrelevance.





Market: My niche is so sub-sub-sub-genre I can't even find it. I'm sure somewhere there are novels in my category; when I think of the nomenclature I've designed, “haunted historical,” I remember all those paperback, luridly spooky covered, “Gothic suspense” I devoured in childhood and adolescence. Victoria Holt and Phyllis A. Whitney were higher class examples, but believe me, they were many others. Similar to the romance tradition, there are authors who write well, and authors who just write.





         To be more specific, there are indeed individual novels and I suppose series that qualify for classification as “haunted historical.” One author example is the late Michael McDowell, whose Candles Burning, left unfinished at his death, was completed excellently by the immensely talented author Tabitha King, and whose Blackwater  Series definitely classifies as haunted-historical-horror. Mr. McDowell (and Ms. King, in her turn) craft intensely-delineated characterization with plots that have more twists than a boa constrictor, and unending horror, in historical settings.





         An author who has done immensely well with generational historical horror is Robert McCammon-Usher's Passing, Mystery Walk, and Boy's Life come to immediate mind. More recently he has penned historicals which have their own spooky twists:





         

Speaks the Nightbird


         The Queen of Bedlam


         Mister Slaughter

         Now, the McDowell Blackwater books were an immensely popular and critically well-received series. Mr. McCammon's early horror works qualified for immense popularity and critical acclaim, but were not series novels. The latter three listed above are part of his later to new “Matthew Corbett's World” Series.





         I would never presume to compare my work to these authors; but, like Mr. McDowell, I do write “haunted-historical-horror- in series,” and like Mr. McCammon, I do write “generational horror sagas.” (Sorry, I used the word “saga.” LOL)