Welcome! Carole Gill - guest author.

Today I'm delighted to welcome author, Carole Gill, to the blog.
Carole has written several novels, and her latest release 'The House on Blackstone Moor' is set in 19th century England and is a dark tale of devil worship, madness, obsession and vampirism.
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/33847

Author, Carole Gill.

 Grace : So without further ado, tell me Carole, in what ways do you think working in a hospital that had been historically a workhouse and asylum in Victorian times has helped you add realism to The House on Blackstone Moor?

Carole: Well there are two madhouses depicted in the novel so it certainly helped to have worked in a place that was in the past an asylum. I found I could picture the people and situations there. The dining room for example had been the chapel and that led me to think of a chapel on the grounds of an insane asylum. The mind boggles, this was the 19^th Century and the madhouses depicted in my novel took in paupers—so one can picture all sorts of scenarios.

It certainly did help to work in such a place and I’m so happy I did.

Grace: What are some sources of inspiration that you used to help you create the setting and tone for your book?

Carole: Well I don’t live terribly far from the Bronte Parsonage or the moors that surround Haworth. As a matter of fact I became obsessed with Top Withens which is a ruined farmhouse that some say might have been Emily Bronte’s inspiration for Wuthering Heights.

The general setting of Yorkshire with its windswept moors and its howling winds—well that is very inspiring. I walk my dogs on moorland every day and find myself inspired all the time!

I think every writer finds inspiration wherever he/she lives. And when that comes through in the writing, the fiction becomes real and alive!

As for tone, I do a lot of reading and research and have read scores of books on governesses and madhouses, on Yorkshire and its history too. I don’t think one can be too prepared.

Grace: I have vivid recollections of visiting the Bronte parsonage, as a child. It was more museum than home, but even then, there was something magical, mystical even, about the place and surrounding moors that still give me shivers.

Excerpt from The House on Blackstone Moor

He waited until I was exhausted whereupon he began his tale. “Please, Rose, I must now tell you things I want you to understand. You deserve to have the truth and you shall have it. You see Rose; there are many worlds within worlds and even magical species that dwell within those worlds. There are things beyond what you know…”

He paused then to gaze at me, as if willing me to understand. I began to shake my head. It sounded insane. “It is a long story, but one you must hear, I’m afraid.” He moved closer to me. “Rose I want to speak to you to show you things which will answer all your concerns.”

“All of my concerns?”

He nodded.

I bit my lip. If I had longed for all the truth, I also feared it. My world was turning in a different direction now and I felt the movement. There were in these next moments an end and a beginning. I would not understand the profound significance of any of this for a quite while.

“The story I shall tell you is a story as old as time, my story. You will, I hope, understand all that I tell you, but first there are things you will see that will shock and horrify you. You see my dear; you are already becoming something different. It has been happening slowly and will continue to follow its slow but steady course until it is entirely accomplished.

Grace: Thank you so much for visiting today, Carole. I see that you are not afraid to touch on issues such as child abuse in 'The House on Blackstone Moor,' - truly a story of good versus evil.

If you have any questions or comments for Carole, I'm sure she'd love to chat.
Just leave a comment below.
Grace x