Beautiful Freaks

Firstly, apologies for having been neglectful of this blog. I think when I explain why, you might just forgive me.

About a month ago I finished the draft of 'Beautiful Freaks'. My Steampunk, Sherlock Holmes Style, Gothic, Paranormal Romance, fairytale! (So no genre confusion there then!) I'm so excited. I know it is the strongest work I have written and I have to confess to falling completely in love with the story and the world it takes place in.

Everything about 'Beautiful Freaks' is dark and delicious. It has been a complete indulgence in a time and place which I have always been fascinated by. There is no denying the wonderful rich influences of Oscar Wilde and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the work.

The characters are complex. There are no heroes - just anti-heroes to fall in love with. I know the cast will bewitch and entice many readers just have they their writer. You see, that's how I feel - as if I belong to them. Writing Beautiful Freaks was the most extraordinary experience I've had so far in my brief writing journey. It was more like a possession than a writing, and even now, as I revise, I am finding whole passages and conversations that have very little recollection of writing yet make me shiver.

The main protagonist of the novel is Kaspian Nethanial Blackthorne. He is a complex young man, one which it is hard to love but impossible not too. Sometimes he seems almost faint and at other times there is a cruelty to him that makes him almost irrisistible; it isn't a healthy relationship. The reader will struggle between their reason and their heart as to whether he is worthy of their love, maybe desire.

Kaspain Blackthorne has a decadent heart which longs for adventure. Like his very own Virgil guiding him through the circles of hell, Hugh Denvers provides every experience Kaspian's awakening tastes could hope for. It is this coming of age journey that leads them to the Garden of Eden, in the shape of an extraordinary gentleman's Club called Number 7; also known as 'Evangelines'.

As Kaspian's own story unveils, a series of mysterious, impossible, murders have take place across London. They are investigated by Steptree; a likeable fellow of the old school Victorian novel - a character for whom it is easy to grow a warm affection. His investigation sees Kaspian and his world collide and at the heart of each story is Eve; Owner of Number 7 and its infamous 'Palace of Beautiful Freaks.'

The structure of the novel is complex, full of stories within stories and multiple point of views. Each case has its own attached fairytale, causing Steptree to accept that there is more to life than his Victorian reason would like to admit. They are the stories of women and I suppose 'Beautiful Freaks' could easily be interpreted as a 'feminist' novel but I think it is much more about the complexities of power in any relationship.

I can't wait to share it with my readers. Next week it is going to my awesome team of Beta Readers and then after the Editor has run the revisions from that process, it should be out in the first week of January.